Broker of the Month

Maria Mull
Director of Career Development
Coldwell Banker
Howard, Perry and Walston
Raleigh, North Carolina

Interview

1. How many agents do you currently have working on your team? What are your short and long term recruiting goals?

Coldwell Banker Howard, Perry and Walston (CBHPW) currently has 550 agents in 12 offices. Our goal is to bring on an additional 250 new and experienced agents combined by the end of 2004.

2. What is the key differentiator about your company that you present to candidates you are interested in recruiting?

There really are so many aspects in which our company excels, but our technology and training are number one in the marketplace. In fact, our training is so good that our competitors have been known to suggest to new recruits that they come here first for training and then come back to them.

We spend thousands on training new agents to become the best they can be. Our comprehensive program includes what we call “Springboard” which covers a multitude of tasks that new associates complete prior to being accepted into our FAST START program. Fast Start is a week long training program for both new and experienced associates covering everything from prospecting, setting up their listing and selling presentations and role playing. They learn the value of the company they choose to affiliate with. Daily assignments are real life activities that help them quickly build their book of business and develop good real estate habits from the start of their career.

The next stage is Fast Track which involves an eight-week commitment of more intensive training. But we don’t stop there. We are committed to ongoing training and development to keep our sales agents in the know. We have 52 scheduled “skills” classes a year. Topics include everything from Advanced contract issues, Measuring, Presentation of Offers, Negotiating skills, Risk Reduction and Personal Promotions to Technology training. We also have guest speakers a couple times a year and quarterly sales rallies. The best part is all of this training is free to our agents. It is our way of saying we value you and your decision to pursue this career path and to join our team.

3. What is your primary selection criteria when looking to recruit an new agent?

Our company’s philosophy has been “Open doors to opportunity” which means everyone deserves an opportunity to see if this business is for them. However, as the real estate business continues to evolve and as the liabilities and responsibilities increase for both the agent and company we need to understand more clearly what our new associates long term goals are as well as clearly define to them what our expectations are.

Specific skills and attributes we look for include building rapport, sociability, drive and motivation. We also look for people who understand that they are independent contractors who need to build their businesses. They need to really understand that this is a business where each day that you do not have a buyer or seller you are essentially unemployed.

What we are not looking for are people who want to just come in and wait around for the business to fall in their laps. Or people that just want to “try” this out for awhile. We have dedicated associates who are committed to this career choice and that is what we expect from new associates joining our team as well. We look for people who work well in a team environment as well as work well independently.

4.. How has the Real Estate Simulator changed the way you recruit and train new agents?

We initially started using the Real Estate Simulator to help drive traffic to our website. We have the number one real estate website in North Carolina so we only advertised once. We also let people know about the simulator during our Career Nights and Career Days and through our real estate school. We have had people all over the country – and all over the world – take the assessment.

We were very excited with the results after implementing the simulator so we decided to ask some of our existing associates to take the assessment to see how accurately it pinpointed their strengths and weaknesses. The response was phenomenal! We had agents saying, “This is what it said, and this is what I did, and I got a listing right away. I can’t believe it really showed my true self”.

We are embracing this great tool and are as quickly as possible trying to use it in every which way we possibly can for training and development.

We are currently implementing a new policy where all new associates will take the assessment during Springboard training. Our real estate coach will then work with our managers and the new associate to pinpoint areas in need of development. We are also going to train all of our managers to use the real estate simulator with any new leads.

5. What would you recommend to a broker or manager who is interested in recruiting, selecting and training stronger agents?

The generation of new agents we see today have very definite demands. They are computer savvy, and while they are career-oriented, they want more out of life and want to know “What’s in it for me?” The Real Estate Simulator appeals to this generation and gives brokers an opportunity to evaluate their skills at the outset and to communicate clearly and accurately in an interview if this is in fact a career path the candidate should choose.

I recommend that broker managers go over the assessment with candidates as opposed to just giving them the results. Based on the assessment, there will be some people who you will want to get in immediately and there will be some you will want to call to get a better sense of their potential. The key is to act quickly.

Finally, I believe you have to have a commitment to your agents’ success and with our technology, training and on-going coaching programs I believe CBHPW offers more than any other company in our area and perhaps even around the country. Don Walston, the owner of CBHPW, is a true visionary. He is always looking for the best ways to give our associates an advantage over competitors. We are always excited to welcome a new associate to our team because they almost always bring additional strengths and energy to the business. It is a great combination to have new and experienced associates because we all grow by learning from each other.