Hey welcome back to the podcast. I've got three rock stars in the room and we are talking sales, engineering and engineering growth and you might be saying, but wait a minute tom, the market's a little interesting right now. That's exactly why we need to be talking about engineering growth to help us do it. Mark patterson, give a little uh, give a little introduction tell them who you are where you're from give us the scoop.

Do i get an r in the last name? Sorry about yeah yeah patterson, so i've been looking up online for a referral exactly exactly porchlight, so my team is called porch no editing by the way in this show sorry yeah we're uh san, diego california, we've been around for five years and we're gon na do 750 million this year goal is maybe a billion, but i don't know if there's a billion dollars in homes to sell so we're gon na go out there and try to find more homes, but yeah i've got uh 74 agents on my team right now. Definitely looking to grow, adding some people to to make that happen and give people contacts in how many locations right now. My main focus is southern california, but we have a team in texas uh. We got a team in florida we have a team in nevada, uh.

Northern california, i think that's all yeah arizona as well, but those are kind of like my ancillary businesses that all feed into one correct yeah, but my main focus just my team - is going to do 750 million in san diego yeah love. It just want to give people contact so 74 sales agents in san, diego and san diego's, a big county right. So are they all across the county? Yes, yeah. We have two offices carlsbad, which is our furthest north yep, and then we have uh north park, which is about 10 minutes to the border, so yeah yeah, big county 3 million people, lots of coverage and you're exactly right.

I was talking to maxine, gellens and marty. Just a couple minutes ago and literally they're like if we just had a little more inventory, but that's like that's, why we're talking sales engineering here so lens wanted you for you and dj explain the business? How big is it today and then, let's get into like the sausage, making you're gon na you're gon na hit me later for adding the r i apologize. I was like, i think, something else there, okay, so by the way, if you're listening um, this is gon na, definitely be a fun show sausage making is the way uh casings and no well so so people will say to me like, let's get into the details And to me it's like some people are like no just give me the sausage, and somebody were like tell me exactly the elements and how you put it all, and this needs to be one of those like we're going to talk recruiting. How do you get sales agents to convert faster, isa's, kpis and standards, we're going to talk about lead flow, outbound and lead flow inbound right, and how do you do all that stuff? That's the sausage making in business right so tell about your business gosh! So uh probably have a team of about 80 asians now, maybe 140 in the whole brokerage, but just focusing on the team for right now, uh we'll do we did a billion dollars last year.

So uh, i don't know dj. What are we gon na do this year? Yeah we'll do um we'll do a billion again. Just over that we'll do about 3200 transactions and um yeah. We we we've been recruiting a ton and obviously with the market, the inventory that we were just talking about just kind of resetting some of those goals and and and realigning what what we're trying to do so um, but we're going to crush yeah ready for the New norm ready for the new, so it's interesting talking to all the ceos that i talked with, and you know you guys are all ceos of your your empires everybody's talking about the same stuff.

Okay, i need to get back to basics. I need to recruit more talented people. I need to possibly let go of some people that are just not willing to do the work. Is this a discussion? Okay, so we're already in this discussion? This is good.

Maybe the sausage metaphor was the wrong metaphor. For today. I'm just saying some hashtag sausage. Just do me a favor leave a comment right now, if you're watching or listening - and let me know if the sausage metaphor lands for you, the making of the sausage.

So let's talk recruiting first. So, what's working right now on a granular level for recruiting what's working, we focus on a lot of you know: hand-to-hand combat we. We make it very well known in our market that we are always hiring we're, always hiring the right people and we focus on doing that by you know aligning ourselves, and you know, in our ads campaign - do a lot of google, indeed yeah um a lot of Calls a lot of phone calls to the agents. Um.

Are you guys licensed and newly like yeah? Are you going like top of funnel with, like you know, you name all the different companies that provide top of the final people that just took their license? Of course right so after um, and so i mean, if you're a brand new agent right now, it is definitely harder than ever sure um. But i mean if you're a hustler and a go-getter like we will bring you on and you will be successful if you just like follow the sausage recipe right like so just follow the recipe and you'll be successful. So but you know we do have to kind of weed through a lot of people to make sure they are a really good fix this market is it's tough because there was a time a point in time. You know not so long ago and i think the the ability six months ago, the ability to pivot for where the market is now has greatly helped us and and because we have the right people going on the right appointments and because there's less homes to sell.

We need to make sure we're capitalizing on every appointment, so like matchmaking becomes super important in a market like this. I think so we're gon na get into that which is like the the sales engineering side. But what else is working on recruiting like? Are you guys doing anything different on your indeed ads? Are there any other companies out there that you're, maybe just being transparent with the market kind of like if you can, but i mean that works in all markets when you're shooting, but you just want to change your ads so that they can relate to it right. Like use where it's like, it's challenging it's hard right like part-time jobs, things like that, it's not you know if you can kind of express in writing, so their ads are like whoa.

This is exactly what i've been thinking. What i've been feeling, and yes, they get it that kind of helps. That sounds like ads for experience to agents right, somebody's one or three years in the business who's, maybe struggling yeah. Well, we've always like we've, always for a one to three year agent they've come on our team and they've had such massive success.

Yes, and when the market's good, you don't get as many. You know, they're comfortable, they have some deal flow um. The sense of abundance is there now that it's starting to trend back a little bit, some of the conversations that we're having with some really good agents it's starting to change because look we have you know, i know we'll talk about it later. We have a massive lead flow that comes in yeah and because of that they're able to to to actually have a what's the worst stable like consistent, consistent income stability in their you know, so we're starting to see a lot of that.

So we have re, really started targeting more of the experienced agents at this point, because you know those people know how to get the deals done. Maybe they just see the opportunities we just need to be more at bats. Yes, do you have? Do you have a model match for who you're looking to hire like? Would you like a like archetype or whatever it may be yeah? We definitely have a uh like we go and look and say this is our you know our avatar of who we want to hire the problem. What we did was we were hiring because we were thinking growth was the answer.

Growth is not the answer. Getting the right people is the answer right and through it i mean we find that for every 10 that apply one will maybe higher and from that one 50 percent now we're showing as rock stars and then maybe like 20 of them, even just drop off our Team sure so it's it's natural to realize, like i mean, and it kind of hurts like that's what lindsey and i were talking about at lunch - is like the emotional side of us like it hurts because we give so much to our agents and then they leave Or we fire them and we're just like man, we pour into these people over and over again, and i don't think they realize how much like what we've provided them. They don't realize how good it is. Did any of you read the netflix article that just came out uh last week in bloomberg? No so so we spoke about this.

Yet we talked about it on the golf course so so check this out. Um netflix, which is has always been a very um family, oriented with the way they would describe it right. Like many of us like we hey, we love you. We want you to see company.

We want you to be a part of this right, so so they just came out and they basically said. Look if you don't like the content that we're putting out, because some comedians say something you don't like. You should leave and they're like and oh by the way, we're switching our culture from this is not a family business right. We are a massive global enterprise and we now see our business a little more like an mba team.

So if you perform you're gon na start and if you don't you're gon na be on the bench and when you come off the bench and you don't perform you're, probably gon na get cut right like that was in i mean i was like i'm reading it And i'm going netflix or like popcorn yeah right, i was like wow, maybe the pit and the pendulum is swinging the other direction. But i i say that because we've all been there, people leave yeah and we get emotionally attached. But you can't stop recruiting right and you got ta look at the math and say you know: uh steve, uh, roe, v, holmes right, see bro. This is, i can never say his last name.

Yes, thank you. Thank you right, steve and i were just doing a show and he's like three out of ten make it yeah right. That's right! Three out of ten it's hard and you need to know and like nine out of ten or ten out of ten interview really really well and you're, like oh you're, gon na crush it and then they're, like oh man, you're lying to yourself. But office is not about the cool chairs anymore.

You still got to have these cool office chairs right to recruit the talent, but it's no longer the google office center. It's like hey, the ones that are going to perform are going to stay in the ones that aren't we're going to either kick off or you're going to leave, but through that too, you also now get your your agents that are rock stars. They love surrounding themselves with really great people. So now i just want to be around april yeah iron, sharpens iron and now they're getting better they're.

Actually, like oh wait, i just that was a great. You know objection that you just did on the phone in there and like i'm, going to steal that when you hear like people that are doing 50, 75 deals and they're, saying that. That's when, like you just sure the culture just automatically lifts up. So it's on a zoom role play or an in-office role play so then the question is so: let's, let's all be hyper tactical.

You mentioned all these ads, but it wasn't clear like so what ad is performing? What is performing to get those 10 or 15 or 20 opportunities, so i can hire two or three. Our biggest thing has been for us social media, we're finding the people that are on our team that are knowing that they're recruiting to get people onto our team. So if you can give an incentive to your agents or, however, to get their friends, whoever is getting licensed - that's been our number one, because the people that are recruiting from our team are recruiting people like them right and that's our culture. So it's so it's team social is that is that a controlled page? No, it's like say you're on my team, okay, which we do have opportunities.

So if you want to be an agent uh, you can always be recruiting uh, but like that right there is the the people that are on our team are recruiting, so the people that are applying to our team are are, from most of them come from our Agents we have wise higher ads. Indeed, all that uh we find that that's not necessarily always right. Yeah, you get a couple, but nowhere near what we get from just organic from our team right. That means everywhere.

You're posting, hey, we're hiring and post about. I mean if you look at my real estate site for my team, it's portrait realty on on uh instagram, it's all about the people, it's not about the houses, because for me my client is my agent right. My agent to me is worth x right, getting a real estate sale from that. I don't need more real estate sales, the real estate sales i've got through my partnerships.

I need more agents right, so my my social media is to get more agents yeah and just to be, you know, tactic you know, yeah very specific. We have five recruiters that again they're held to kpis they're making you know calls every day. Appointments are set. Everything's tracked, but the ads are kind of like that.

You know you know me, i'm all about branding yeah. So if you have the social media, that's always talking about we're hiring our emails. You know that go out through the market, not just that we're hiring, but we're hiring and our agents are successful. Here right, i was like i was posting that about that make this much money.

Yeah sell this many homes success that i see over and over again on your instagram pages right. That's right! We're sharing this success of our agents right, so we do a lot of those ads too, where it's like hi. You know like here's, this agent and they've already sold 19 houses this year, yeah somebody's 60 60 days in 15 pending. Like that's, that's incredible, so i think what for the person listening right now, you know if you've got a small team or you're a manager and you're recruiting.

I think one of the big mistakes that we see is - and we all got this a couple years ago - that, like i'm, going to run ads and i'm going to make sure i've got a catch card to make sure every lead gets talked to that. There's a process that there's a script there's a program we run them through. I think most traditional recruiters. What happens is they're, like hey put the word out like hey, we've got room in the office and then there is no process behind it.

Clearly, the three of you there's a lot of process well, there's process, but i think you brought up something earlier that, like they can't figure out why these, how these teams are recruiting and do what we're doing uh and you know, obviously, no no digs to anybody. But you you have to be able to offer something different. True and true. I think a lot of people that are recruiting they're they're, like i'm gon na get your spear going.

I'm gon na do this this and that, but then you have people like us and mark that have all of these great partnerships that are able to now say i'm going to give you literally every tech stack every lead everything that you need, that you don't where Customers are calling in because they want to work with our team to help them, sell their house or buy a house so be different, and you know with that. Obviously you know brokerages and other insane value yeah that we just offered more value than anyone yeah. So now we're able to pick up the phone call you and say tom, i'm gon na give you all the marketing you need all the leads. You need all the tech you need.

All i need you to do is commit to me that you're willing to to do the work and, if you're willing to do that, we're gon na have a great few years, ten years whatever it is, yeah okay, so check on recruiting. Let's talk about how to help salespeople sell homes faster right, whether they're coming in as a veteran, a veteran three five ten years, whatever it may be, or someone brand new. So talk to me about the the sausage making like what? What program do you put new agents on for the first 90 days to ensure that they succeed? So we do everything through teachable and kajabi, so just online portal, because you never want to have those questions? Do you have a minute? No, i i don't have a minute right um. I have negative 30 300 hours uh.

He almost said no to this podcast, ladies and gentlemen, didn't even know i was going to be on here two seconds ago: uh yeah, the uh biggest thing. Is this making sure that you have everything anything that you ever get a question for document it yep? You don't have to pay for you don't have to pay for something. If you are starting your team out, you don't have to have all these systems. No because more expenses does not equal more money, yeah, it's an awful thing so make sure you just document it put it into google drive whatever um, but any question how to write an offer: how to cancel a contract, how to do a request for repairs document.

Everything put it into a university and then from there you're going to put those people so for our team, we put them in first 30 days. They have to go through the university there's 190 modules. They have to get through everything you have to write five sample offers. They have to do five.

Buyer consults via video with the sales manager on my team, and they have to pass a 150 question quiz. That's going to be everything real estate, i don't even know if i could pass it so i googled i have the answers yeah, it's actually on google. Now, i'm passing by i'm doing my continuing education right now, um but uh, and then from there then they're introduced to a mentor. We don't want to give our new agents a mentor right away, because we don't want our mentors to be bogged down.

Our mentors are our best agents on our team right. They don't want to get bogged down with simple questions. The university should be their go-to resource, so we do that. Everything is documented, people say well.

How long did it take you to build out when, were you done with it? It's never done so you're always building, because it's calculating the contracts and then exactly it goes from 190 to 198 back down to 173.. Yes, so there's all these modules constantly, it's never their first 30 days, that's their first 30 days, but it's also a university that they can go back to so we call it undergrad right and then masters is like getting your listing certificate and uh becoming a 1031 Specialist and becoming this right: that's when you get your master's in different degrees, so we called it porch light university. That's awesome! It's all about the education! If you think about the top brands think about how long they make people to even step on a sales floor or go out like disney louis vuitton, like you, can joke about louis vuitton, but they're charging five thousand dollars for a handbag and you have to go Through x, amount of training before you can even go and they have a 17 step sales process and copy them and professionals - and i have a very different opinion about that - which is, i think, is great for the consumer, because my my thought we have the trade We have tranul yeah. Can you are you good with that? Now shocker, i'm totally good, but we do all of that we bring them on.

They have to do. You know a role-playing call to make sure they know the script that we that we provide um. So all of our mentors are actually not in production anymore, so we, you know, we we definitely throw them in and they're they're going through all of the training in the universe, like sales managers, sales managers right, yes, but i mean our training. It's the same thing.

We have the same university, but they pretty much get through that in the first four days. Four days you have mark, you have mark on video repeatedly saying let me explain to 10 31 exchange, yes, but r d, because here's my thought they need to know the script. They need to know how to work. The system you have to go on showings with three.

You know, there's a whole different listing team, so they're not getting they're not eligible for listings for until they're through mentorship - and you know um, but because real estate is commission based only. I would argue that i don't know that a lot of agents have the time the 30 60 90 days to not go without income, so my my theory is is like all right: how can i get them up and going really quick? So we push them in and hold their hands, but i'm also very protective of the brand because hey we have the most reviews in the market. I want to keep our partnerships. You know.

A review to me is just is more important than a commission, so we make sure that every every contract that comes they have to you know do um. You know sample contracts to get through, but then when they actually meet, you know you at a house and they write the contract. It goes through our sales managers. Yes, our mentors and our mentors right now we will sell 3 200 homes.

They'll probably have to review. Eight nine thousand contracts this year right just that knowledge of what they see and how to win offers they're, seeing so many. They know how to win so they're, actually making sure the maths right making sure everything's right making sure that the company is before it goes out to their customer for signature. That is perfect.

How can they role play with them? How we're going to pitch this offer? So we're very methodically, methodical about making sure and again, if you're, a small team out there you're like how do i get there? It's just one building block at a time. You are the mentor yeah we were. You know it was me and then it was me building, that's it. It was britney and then we added brett, and so it just it just quickly elevates.

But so so let me so training. First, you know 30 days, 190 modules. You guys are like training. Three days, but let's get you on the phone, our agents are showing houses.

Our agents are calling right away, so our agents are because they weren't sitting around just watching 190 videos. They have to do 2, 000 dials their first month if they don't complete. The 190 modules or the 2 000 that shows me how dedicated they are to my team. So then see you later, so that's they are dialing and they are getting.

There are people, but it's it's rare in california, that you get something under contract that soon right, yeah yeah, that's the only thing is it usually takes about two months three months well like if you look at like the typical lag time on like a zillow or Rdc, it's 72 days right! It's in that range. Are you finding anything different? I mean. We've got california and florida here um, we have. You know, typically our our it's hard, because a lot of our marketing is like really geared towards receiving a lot of phone calls too.

So that's always a better lead when someone's calling us saying yes, i want to buy this property. I want to sell my home. So yeah we're seeing that shortly the majority of our agents, i would say 85 percent - of the agents that actually come in. Do the training listen to the mentors they're writing a contract within their first two weeks.

That's pretty bananas. Yeah ours would be like first 45 days, so those will go back to our recruiting ads. It would be like so boom. So do you think i'm like really fixated on the word perspective and and it's funny, like you think about perspective like the way i heard it recently that really resonated with me the guy said you know you walk by somebody, you look at their laptop and they're On like windows, 95 you'd be like what what right you'd be like, and yet he said, and yet people still walk around today.

Yes, with a perspective that was created in 1995, that they've been unwilling to to say: what's the new perspective like how does it work today, so we say the california perspective is it takes two months and they're like the florida perspective? Is it takes two weeks yeah? I don't think there's a right or wrong. No, so it's like the four minute mile or whatever exactly same thing like you, just right, where's, your glass feeling we shattered it for you yeah! No, no exactly! Well! That's what happened with ours. You're welcome. My team was the first team to sell 500 houses in san diego county in one year, yeah so and we did almost 800.

So that is there, but it is like an aspect of one. We don't have enough houses right, no doubt no. Nowhere is there enough houses right yeah, so so, let's talk about that. Staying on this sort of how do we help our sales people be more effective.

One of the obvious trends we see amongst these mega teams - all of you included - is that most of the people that are on the teams are under three years in the business. Yes, so they they, they know the challenging market, not enough inventory they've got enough lead flow coming in, so it's writing offers that get accepted all like it's all that stuff, but now all of a sudden rates are at five and a quarter, and they were like You know rates are going to go up at 2.65 and at three they said and rates are going to go up and and rates went like this. 3.25 5.. We just missed the fours.

What are you teaching and holding people to or encouraging people differently today? On? The financial engineering side of buying a house we have financial fridays so every friday, friday, 8 30 a.m, 8, 30 to 9. So, every day of the week we do a huddle but 8 30 to 9 on fridays. We do financial fridays and whether our lender's, coming on or myself, we're talking to our new agents, because if they are one to three years in the business right, they don't know what an arm loan is right. They don't know what adjustable rate even means uh so and it's us educating them so that we can then educate our clients, because there are options out there for our clients, an adjustable rate mortgage isn't necessarily a bad thing if you're putting them in the right program.

So, having a lender that you're partner with it's all about education in my aspect, like educate, educate, educate to your agents, so that we can provide our clients the best service right and that's, what's going to get our our clients to get these homes. How fast and i'm assuming the same thing - and so i want to you, know, balance between all three of you. How fast between? Let me explain this arm product to agent, then presenting it and having a buyer say. Oh, my goodness, that's a good idea.

I mean it's just options, especially right now, because the interest rates did change so quickly, saying hey at this rate here this is the home you can afford. There are no homes at that price point right. So therefore, here's another option - and actually my team leader, is doing this - you know use examples of what you had. The best thing, i think, is uh selling through storytelling.

Yes, so all of our agents on the huddles. They share stories of situations that they've gone through. So then we can, because new agents may not have that story. They can borrow a story exactly so.

A lot of our stories are shared. We have stories of like the guy who bought the motorcycle and the guy or the time when i walked in these are all my stories. These are six years old, yes, but they still work. Yes, so you know metaphors exactly like to be able to explain because people listen to stories and it's more relatable and then you've got their back to the client, which we do so it's it's helping them understand.

How can we help you get to that next step through the arm loan through whatever financing, because people may hear that and then they talk to their parents and their parents were like? Oh no, do not do that yeah, but i think that's i mean that's probably the most classic example today, with a millennial buyer like you know like i know your parents are telling you this right, whether it's an arm loan or i like son, make sure you Negotiate the deal uh mom, dad you haven't, bought a house in 30 years. Yeah, don't pay full price yeah. There is no negotiation right. I definitely would never pay full price, i'm paying 150 over us right right, but so i think, they're also a little bit more realistic to this generation in a way that you know they are financially savvy.

Yeah like more really reading more too they're reading articles, and so they get it faster rather than oh, okay. Well - and you know if they search somewhere they're getting retargeted on everything, so they're gon na it's gon na keep popping up, and this is what i'm telling my agents, i'm like. Look if they're getting cookied and they're gon na see every every article that comes out about interest rates. You better know as well everything that's going on, but i also think that they're, okay with stepping you know, maybe stepping down 50 75 100 000..

I've been seeing that a ton - and you know just maybe realigning their vision of what they thought they were going to buy and actually what they're actually going to buy um, because it's better than renting sure and we're fortunate in our market to have a lot of New construction, so um they're working well with you know, buy downs of rates and and different things for for to incentivize sure. So before we started the show we were talking about writing offers and i think one of the easy ways not easy. I don't think anything is easy. One of the ways to help engineer sales is to get getting your agents to write better offers, which means you need a backstop.

Yes, some guard rails versus just the free-for-all yeah. So, what's working now from leading a sales team like this to write more effective offers from from a guard rail, you know make sure that the experience is i mean the mentor is involved immediately. Basically, you know like the agent, the newer agent, especially and even some agents that have been in the business one two three years or ten years right i mean they could use like a new perspective. Sometimes right uh, we get those offers on our listings.

Yeah you're, like the mentors yeah nice, offer yeah they're, really stepping in immediately. You know, like my agent saying hey, you know, mr and mrs smith really want to buy this house. Mentors immediately involved right, let's analyze, everything. What's it listed out, how many you know days, is there multiple offers? Are we competing like what can we do to make the offer more attractive? You know like, let's put together a whole beautiful package.

Let's make sure the agent on the other side knows it's going to be the easiest most beautiful process ever to work with us like, let's make sure we win, and so they are like surgeons of you know, contracts i mean they are. You know our mentors are, like i said, they're seeing so many like i've been in the business almost 17 years. It's like i mean because we deal with so many buyers right. We know how to structure a winning deal.

100. Our mentors have an edge on the market. So what do you say to the small team that that maybe the agent? It's not a knockout but they're they're hustling right now, they're busy like crushing as many deals as they can, which is great because it's driving revenue for them and then they're frustrated, because maybe their agents don't really know how to write offers and then they're, just they're. Losing too often well anytime, you're frustrated if you're pointing a finger at someone you're pointing three fingers back yourself.

Yes, so it all comes back to you. So if you hired the wrong person, you hired the wrong person. It's you right. Uh biggest thing is that templates make sure, everything's a template and make sure everything's a video right.

You don't have that. That's your fault! It takes 10 minutes to make a video right. That'll, save you how many hours so just do the damn. Video because record your screen - yes like right now, record stuff, especially if you're going to lead a huddle or something in the morning.

Maybe you don't record all 30 minutes record. The five minutes that you talk about x, topic, save that topic in there have a virtual assistant upload it to your drive and then it's done. Okay go ahead. I know - and i would love the opinion of this, but i definitely think the the smaller team with the agents in production they're, going to stay in production a because the team leader has to stand they're going to stay in production.

And i what i'm? What? I think is going to happen, is i think, more smaller teams, maybe fold into bigger teams because of you know they're, like hey, i really like selling right. I need the support. We have the training like trained up my agents for me because i'm out you know, i don't know what you guys think, but i definitely think that might be you know coming in the next several months years, because it is getting harder, there's going to be less Transit, don't be shocked by whoever controls the lead flow and who has the core services, and then, who has the best setup training? Optimization people have figured out like it used to only be about splits and for a percentage of the agents. It'll always just be about splits, but a lot of that is changing right now, yeah right i mean there's so many people that love this industry and they love sales.

They love helping buyers and sellers, and if you truly love that go somewhere where you can do that, a lot right, because then you can build more relationships. Your soi instantly grows when you can sell 50 houses your first year, right, like your second year, is going to be bananas right. But if you're, you know hashtag if you're only. But you know if you're struggling in this market - and you only have like one closing so far this year, like that's gon na - be really hard to build this crazy.

You know soi for the next couple years. If you only have one two three closings a year right go somewhere and skyrocket, it that's the cheat code, yeah yeah. I agree we're seeing that that's good. I was gon na, say it's kind of like department stores.

If you think about it, it's like you can go in and put in, like your your little boutique in the mall or you could just like pop into a department store and have your you know. Maybe if your new brand or something and you want to, have it there and then you have access to all those clients, we've got the clients, it's an arbitrage yeah and we've got everything there. It's like a one-stop shop science. On top of all these beautiful.

You know different departments that are working together to make the process for the consumer ultimately to be flawless well, and how easy is it when i mean you've got your answer is, and you have people saying, hey so-and-so is checking out hombot just so you know your Your clients, coming back to there to look for to buy, you, know, check out rates on their house yeah and what the value is and we send our our customer base. We send them coming soon, videos before they hit the market, because you know it's: it's allowed. Yeah and we have somebody that does that for them imagine being able to scale your business just through a team like that, you know like somebody's sending that out on your behalf, somebody is coordinating your transaction. It's somebody's marketing, it's crazy! To think that you were mentioning like on most of these big huge mega teams that it's mostly newer agents and i'm like gosh.

If i was an experienced agent like right now like i would love to work for like a dj or lindsay or a mark right. I'm like, if i had some experience like gosh, you could make so much money joining a team. It's uh, they don't realize it usually comes down to ego, pride control and and for some of them economics right, because they figured out like there's a lot of good agents out there that sell 26 36 46 houses a year and they do it and they love That lifestyle and they have no assistant yeah yep, but but they are like, if, if all of you like, when you two were just this, just the two of you selling 65 homes a year you're like you, you take this side i'll. Take that side.

Let's go right same thing in your first year right, then you realize okay, wait, there's there's another way: okay, let's let's segue, though um isas, increasing standards or not in a changing market right. I just i decided with george we're talking about okay, so each isa is basically accountable to four closings a month and then, as we do, the math we're like. We probably need that to be eight now i think mine's like 10 closed and pending, okay. Okay, i love that.

I love that so so the question is, if so, for the person that doesn't have an isa or doesn't understand the eyes, just give your concept of what isas do and then same thing and then we'll talk about how do we engineer more yeah? So for us our, i was kind of anti-isa because i was never a heavy prospector, so it was hard for me to teach people how to prospect when i never had to right. It's like, i would answer a lead and i would convert them because i would just win them on round one yeah uh risa really goes in and i don't have to follow up. Yes, i don't pull up, they call me. That's like i don't.

10 leads come in, i have 10 closings. What does it say when she was like? I don't give them. I just get them like it's like. I just get leads.

They just call me yeah uh. No, that was the biggest thing was like. I could convert people so well, it was hard to and that's that's like eq, that's like understanding people, and you can't teach that no, so i had to find people, especially in isa that could follow up and be more meticulous and actually go through all the details. Uh so we've been able to do this and i found that having one or two was hard.

So now we have four right makes it a little bit easier because then they can monitor each other. Have some competitions within each other kpis for us right now is really is uh. They should call at least 400 to 500 deal or leads a day, and then we have four appointments to five appointments per agent or per isa. I'm sorry um per day yeah per day, and that's what we're monitoring we're, not necessarily monitoring the closings um we we do for bonus, but we're we're more focused on that got it and we're still in the model of you know, our agents are still doing the Prospects so well, we kind of like we segment the leads a little bit right, so the agents are still kind of following up mostly on their own customers, right that they're, maybe a little further out three months out six months out, gon na buy at the end Of the year right, we let them keep them nice, you know, like probably, 10 000 leads.

You know that are on automation and then our isas are kind of working that automation and sending appointments to our agents. So it's kind of a combination. So so how are you monitoring, then? If each agent has 50 to 75, leads um and - and we all know the game like we're all human, so you have a couple off days. You don't look at your crm.

That day, you didn't go inside the office. The lead won't be in your system like because it has to kind of follow certain parameters, and so i think, that's monitored all right. We have three people that monitor leads to make sure that a if somebody raises their hand they're getting responded to if that person's busy, we have checks and balances. We have somebody else, that's kind of checking that i always check that brittany always checks that it's kind of like a constant thing, there's nothing there's an agent would never be able to get away with.

I had a few off days, and so i didn't work. My system that the lead is now with someone else, so you have, you have lead coordinators. Yes, we have a lead manager for us hannah on our team she's, a virtual assistant. Her job is just to manage, leads yeah like just like.

They have hand raisers yeah. That's so funny, everyone will spend like 50 000 a month on leads or 10 grand a month, whatever it is, but they won't spend two grand for a lead manager or whatever to make sure to make sure that your investment is so where does your va? Live? Uh she is in the philippines uh, we have philippines and we have nicaragua, okay and then yours are in households, okay, all right and there's. Is there a right or wrong? No! No! No, i don't know, i think. What's wrong is buying leads and not following us.

I know but not managing your database. Our strategy was we just like having them in-house, because it's people that are there with energy making calls and the agents get to also kind of hear that, and you know it's just kind of like a cultural thing for us. So we feel like we get more bang for our buck yeah if our employees are standing up walking around making calls doing those things, and then the agency i agree and like energy begets energy right yeah. So obviously, it's significantly more expensive sure, but i feel like we're getting more yeah right right, okay, so, let's, let's close out on the last topic which is um, you know you've all heard me talk about like i.

I believe every great business needs to have a business coming in from their brand from demand and then referrals right ufo. That is a ufo. Ladies and gentlemen. Yes, you heard it here.

First to me, yes, brand referrals and some form of demand, gen and demand. Jan is inbound and outbound right and it's funny how many ceos i talk to that are like in tech, services, fintech, prop tech and they all say man. We figured out how to get. You know the phone to ring people to click on the facebook ads.

You know zillow whatever everything else right, they got that, but when they finally get their sales people making phone calls that's when the real growth kicks in right, you got a call. What what say all of you. Well, i mean not just call the lease, but like just call like the phone works, both ways yeah just call well, it goes back to the consumer, is so educated right now that you know automation and different things, it's it's great to get them to the hand, Raise but once they raise their hand, they want to talk to somebody because they've deemed it now is the time that they need to talk to somebody. So if you have the sales people that meets them at that spot and knows what they're talking about that's when just this crazy, just yeah growth happens, yeah getting us for us, it's really making sure that the we're having any agent that's below.

So we labeled all of our agents at different levels, because at different levels you have to treat agents differently. In my opinion, we have mastery, we have elite, we have core. That sounds familiar any legacy. No, i have legacy it's my legacy.

Every coaching class is like. Oh, yes, yes and then we have foundation. I used to call them basic, but i was like that's horrible. Oh no, no! So, foundation exactly the same, where's, all my basic bees.

I build their business. As i say: hey i'm building your foundation for your house. I like it, which is my leads referrals, are the walls and then the roof is the past clients etc. So i say the same thing but um on core and foundation.

They have to do a certain amount of dials and if they don't and if they get deals - and they close deals, they're no longer in corn foundation, so we don't have to monitor them right. So it's like set up things and it's as you can tell from us, and what we're talking about is. We have answers to everything: it's like there, there's a solution and we follow procedures and, if you're building a team, whether you're, three agents or 100 agents start your procedures now and make sure they're set in place and please just stick. You know all teams out there.

Just stick to your core values of what that is. Our core value is always the consumer, and you know we unfortunately sometimes have to let go of agents because they didn't meet that demand or what they wanted. Or you know they they would get upset because their leads would go away, but i'm just like look. This lead actually responded to us to go, see a house on saturday.

You didn't respond for three days. That's the br! Now that's hurting the brand. It's not right! You're not meeting the consumer where they are, and i think, as that kind of intensifies and you're gon na see if your culture is always based on the consumer's needs right you'll. You should always win right and you're gon na win with the right people, because they're also saying that's all i'm focused on right, so it's never a.

He said she said you guys are mean or something like that. It's just this isn't. This is what the consumer wanted and you either did it or you didn't. The consumer doesn't care what your split is, so they just want you to show they don't care and they don't care about your feelings, no yeah right like it's.

It's the hero's journey and the only hero in this is the consumer, the buyer, the seller, right. You build your business around that you win thoughts. No, i mean i'm, maybe redoing my core values. My core values are great, but i love the core value.

Being the consumer that should be the consumer, the main right right, because if the consumer is happy right, then you can start having all these other core values like about team. You know all those things and now i meet and now it's and then you have to keep the customer happy by you know you get rock stars like how do i align them? How do i support them at a higher level? So they can do more. You know and that's that's the greatest thing: how can i scale now? A 50 you know producer to 75 75 to 100 and it's definitely doable and then look now 100. Consumers are getting a five-star experience from from a rockstar agent and so and then so it is just like.

You said, which i couldn't agree more. Our agents are, you know, they're everything and so are the consumers. So if you have both of those and they're just so symbiotic that they're, just like consumer first right, that goes away right. None of this matters yeah for sure it doesn't matter how many tasty snacks we have at the office, one thousand percent uh.

I was actually thinking about paul rushforth right who has kevin on his team. Who's been there 11 years, kevin guy closes like 100 transactions a year, but the way he's set it up is all he does is work with clients, yeah and then the back end of the business takes care of everything else. So, whether he's in his rv, you know cruising from you know, ontario down to florida and he's still closing deals and having clients said hey. Can somebody show this guy a house real fast and but i'll write it up right right? I think that's so cool that that to me is, is where i just you know.

I mean we've been talking about teams since 2014.. It's a good life, it is, it is providing, i think, the the smart agent with that opportunity. Yes, my agent sold the most amount of homes he's ever sold. He's been an agent for four years, yeah, all four years on my team, the most homes he ever sold was two months while in australia you're like that's.

Why why'd you come back, yeah he's running like facebook, yeah and i'm i mean he sold. I think 20 houses in two months, while in australia yeah it's amazing. But again this goes back to we've been talking about this. You know since, like the first early days of team plus the system will produce what a system will produce nothing more, nothing less right, yeah, don't like it's.

The system, yeah but put the right plays in place and people can perform well yeah. It doesn't matter market down market right, it's great, okay, close closing thoughts as we wrap this up. What do you want to share with the world about teams the future where's it all going wish them? Well, how do they reach you if they want to connect with you you're going to hit me later for the r i'm still that's still biting? Oh, no and poor steve, i'm like patterson tell us. Yes, my spouse thought.

My last name was pat tinsen like i was married to robert are like yeah. The new batman twilight, yeah twilight there. We go he's batman. Now right, he's twilight forever.

I know, but it's pattison uh. Yes, uh portrait realty in san diego uh final thoughts. Are i mean if you're feeling that this is like way beyond your scope? It's not. I mean we met four or five years ago at a mastermind where we felt out of place.

I just post about it. The other day i was like, i cannot believe we were in that room and we were like selling 70-something homes like. Why are we here yeah? Why are we here, if you're not in a room where you don't feel like you're out of place, then you're in the wrong room, so always surround yourself with better people, and if the people aren't willing to help you then you're, surrounded by wrong people? We constantly want to provide and help so, if reach out, if you have questions, i'm more than happy to help hire a freaking coach if you're not in coaching all right, yes, yeah call this guy tom he's pretty cool all right. He can say your name wrong.

Yeah he has a text number. You can text him. Yes, you can text me. Yes, yes, he uh, you know, but follow, follow through and just make sure he's it's not going to happen overnight, yeah and that that's the journey that the three of you have been on.

It's just been extraordinary to watch so closing closing thoughts. I don't know what were your thoughts. My thoughts are like if you're, if you're in the business, if you're a single agent out there right now and you're struggling, don't be scared to talk to you're the largest team in your market, because there's probably they're, probably doing it right and hire a coach. A lot of us that are that have mega teams have always had coaches, not only that if you're a team leader out there and you're struggling you can find you know you can always reach out to us on.

You know dj and lindsey on instagram uh facebook we're always out there we're always trying to get value. We do a lot of value ads on our um. You know instagram facebook, social channels, like social channels, to you know for team leaders and different things. You know different people out there, but because it's a small posse of people that really want to do well, so you know you want to be friends with everybody.

Yes, yeah, smart and just know that you know as if it does get harder. You know the it'll feel like the walls come in quicker, so don't be don't be afraid to reach out to to somebody in your market quicker than that when you guys are talking about like hiring a coach like sometimes when you you know, are on a team Or mentored by a team whatever it is like it's okay to hire a coach right. I mean wealthy people right once they make all their millions. That's like one of the first things they all go out and hire right, a health coach.

You know mental coach like all relationships, life, coaches, business, coaches, they hire all these coaches and it's like when you have that opportunity right now, when you're starting your real estate, career or whatever it is, you can go out and hire a coach hire a mentor for Free like go and work for them right like take all that knowledge, like you, have that capability to do it. So don't wait, you know, don't wait until things are like like really hard. That's why people get golf lessons. That's why people get surplus and those golf lessons helped yesterday, didn't they so sometimes the team right like that accountability.

Thank you guys so much for being on the show today. I really appreciate it make sure you give us a like a subscribe. Make some comments. Let us know, and obviously reach out to these guys, because they're they're all willing to help they're all willing to answer questions and make it because someone did that for them and some still continue to like reach hey mark.

You might want to think about this hit tom ferry the next time he says your name wrong, just saying all right, guys, hey! Thank you so much for watching. We love you always and we'll see you on the next show. Thank you. You.