70% OF ALL AGENTS SELL LESS THAN $2,000,000 ANNUALLY. IMAGINE IF THAT SENTENCE READ "70% OF YOUR AGENTS SELL MORE THAN $2,000,000 ANNUALLY."

2. Driving Success: The Incredible Power of Agent Goal &
Activity Tracking for Increasing a Broker’s Bottom Line
By Jason Blackburn, CEO
Executive Summary
Traditional real estate brokers are facing challenges unlike any we have
seen in the history of the real estate industry. In wake of the economic
downtown experienced in the last six years, we have seen a contraction
in both the number of real estate offices and real estate agents, as well
as a declining average sales volume:
1. According to REALTOR® Magazine, the top 10 franchises in 2009
had closed 1,309 offices by the middle of 2011 (Comparison of
Real Estate Franchises, 2011), “To increase your
2. The number of active REALTORS® has dropped below one million brokerage’s bottom
members for the first time in 8 years with a net loss of over line – your brokerage
400,000 REALTORS® since 2006. must increase the
3. The average sales volume of real estate agents has declined from production of those
$1.2 million in 2008 to $1.1 million in 2010, AGENTS producing less
4. The number of agents that sell less than $1 million annually has than $2 million in sales
volume to MAXIMIZE
increased 11% since 2008, from 44% to 55% of all REALTORS®.
their commission
As you can see, it has become a “Survival of the Smartest” economy, contribution NOW.” –
Jason Blackburn, Founder,
where best efforts, explanations and good intentions are no longer
AgentSuccessTracker.com
acceptable. Without question, brokerages that fail to produce beyond
expectations face certain extinction.
A Look at Current Options to Increase a Broker’s Bottom
Line
To increase your bottom line you have 3 options:
1. Reduce Expenses
2. Increase Number of Agents to Increase Fees Collected
3. Increase Agent Sales Volume
Reducing Expenses: This is the most tempting option because it is also
the easiest. A broker can reduce office size to decrease rent, eliminate
office systems, such as phone systems, to reduce expenses, or become a
virtual brokerage and do both.
However, these options all require a tradeoff: by downsizing and
eliminating systems for agents to use, your brokerage will become less
attractive to a large percentage of agents and risk losing those agents to
brokers that are able to provide the space and systems that agents
expect.

3. While a smart decision to look at ways to reduce costs and overhead,
this is a defensive move. Each reduction of expenses, if at the expense
of needed tools or systems, might cost more in business than the
savings, sometimes creating a downward trend of no return.
Increase Number of Agents: Increasing the number of agents on your
roster is a valid way to increase your bottom line. After all, if you have
more agents, you can collect more fees and earn more commission
contributions from more agent sales.
However, with more agents leaving the industry than joining, the
opportunity to recruit newly licensed agents is dramatically more
difficult and competitive. It simply is not smart business to depend on
the idea of new agents to improve your bottom line.
“Not too long ago, if
The second option is to recruit top-producing agents that are currently you did 75% of the
with other brokerages. It makes sense that if you can bring on agents things you did right, it
that have established business, then they can have an immediate was okay. Now if you
impact on your bottom line. The danger with recruiting top agents is don’t do 98% of those
that they have more leverage than the broker. Simply put, you need things right, some
competitor will eat you
them more than they need you, so they are going to only accept a fee
for lunch.” – John
and commission schedule that benefits them more than you, and we Spoelhof, Former CEO of
have seen many brokers that have recruited top-agents that have IBM
actually lost money on these agents upon close examination.
Increase Agent Sales Volume: The most attractive way to increase your
bottom line is to increase the sales volume of those agents already on
your roster. Indeed, if you can get more from the agents on your roster
today, there is no need to reduce expenses for the sake of simply
reducing expenses, you become less dependent on new agent
recruitment, and you increase your leverage with top agents that you
wish to recruit.
To increase agents’ sales volume, most brokers today have turned to
increasing agent training and individual coaching.
But has training improved agent production and your bottom line?
The evidence says no. In this economic downturn, more agents have
sought professional training. In 2011, the percentage of agents that hold
at least one certification increased by 11% over 2010, and 16% over
2009; however, during that same time period median income for agents
declined 4.5% in 2010 after a 3% decline in 2009. So while designations
and certifications probably make agents better at their job and
providing value to their clients, current industry training has failed to
have a major effect on their sales volume and thus a broker’s bottom

4. line.
Why Training Fails To Increase Agent Sales Volume
Your team’s motivation: A common mistake we have observed is that
brokers assume their agents want to improve. That is not necessarily
true. Many agents are quite comfortable with the status quo. As a
result, training that focuses on helping agents to sell better, to sell
more effectively or to sell higher volumes, will produce substandard
results. This is a function of several factors.
First is your recruitment. If you recruit agents whom you like but who
do not have the proper belief system and/or DNA to seek constant
improvement, then they may view training as nothing more than an
irritating interruption, or simply as a way to spend their time instead of
actively working towards building a real business. To protect yourself
against this, make sure that your recruitment system brings highly
motivated people who have demonstrated throughout their life the
behaviors you desire.
Another common contributor to unsatisfactory results is brokers’
assumptions that their commission plan motivates agents to sell more.
You cannot make other adults want to earn more money than they
want to earn. Again, if your agents are satisfied with their current
income and production level, they will view training as an irritating
interruption or a welcome relief to not work their business.
Failure to change beliefs: Virtually all sales training offered today
focuses on changing the salesperson’s behaviors. This training
encourages them to make more calls, to make better calls, to listen
better, to close better, etc. Unfortunately, you cannot change an
adult’s behavior until he/she changes their belief set. People have a
difficult time seeing themselves as they actually are— and their
performance as it really is. In the blur of the day, people fail to see
the hidden forces holding them back from producing the results
expected.
The sales cycle: Assuming you have impacted the salesperson’s beliefs,
very few sales cycles are short enough to allow a company to see any
change in that salesperson ’s behaviors within a reasonable timeframe.
If the real estate sales cycle was just a few days long, you would see
some change in your team’s behavior during sales cycles immediately
following the training. However, since the real estate sales cycle is

5. longer, then the effect of the training will fade before you can realize a
change in your team’s behavior.
Some training done today requires agents to perform lead generation
during the training and can result in a measurable increase in such
actions as appointments, listings taken, etc. While the intent is to
change behaviors, the results for the majority of agents are temporary,
as they forget to take these actions on a consistent basis after the
training ends.
People have a difficult time remembering to take the right actions
at the right time. In the heat of battle, agents fail to make the right
Choices— and take the right Actions— that will produce the results
expected.
Understanding the Problem to Discover the Solution
Brokerages can only be their most successful if their agents produce
above average sales volume. It’s not the office location. It’s not brand.
It’s not training. It’s not technology. It’s not cool gadgets.
To improve your bottom-line, your agents must immediately increase
their lead generation activity. There is no other “Other” way. Before
you can implement a smarter strategy— you have to increase their lead
generation activity. Before you can implement smarter tactics—you
have to increase their lead generation activity. Before you can grow
sales and your bottom line—you have to increase their lead generation
activity.
Our Solution
Agent Success Tracker is a simple, powerful online activity tracker that
provides your real estate agents with clear numbers for clear direction.
Our dashboard puts all their vital numbers and activities in a central
location where they can quickly evaluate where they stand in relation
to their monthly goals and see what they need to do each day to meet
them. It’s fast, easy, and inspiring.
Agent Success Tracker helps your agents too:
1. Focus on the income goal they wish to achieve
2. Define the actions necessary to achieve their income goals.
3. Stay Accountable to themselves for taking the necessary actions
to earn their income goal
4. Identify what they are doing right, what they need to do better,
and what they need to do better.

6. Agent Success Tracker is technology to help your agents SEE precisely
what’s holding them back from the results they want—at any point in
Time.
Agent Success Tracker is technology to help your agents REMEMBER to
make Smarter Choices and take Smarter Actions—every single day.
How Agent Success Tracker Works
Agents take four simple steps and spend five minutes a day to stay on
focused on lead generation activities and increasing their Sales.
1. Step 1: Enter Income Goal – Agents simply enter in a few details,
such as their net income goal, commission split, average sales
price, and few other details, and Agent Success Tracker
automatically calculates how many homes they need to close,
appointments to set, and contacts needed to achieve their
income goal.
2. Step 2: Choose Lead Generation Activities – Agents are given
over 25 twenty lead generation activities to choose from to track
and set daily activity goals based on the results of Step 1. They
can track one or all, it is up to them.
3. Step 3: Record Daily Activities & Successes – Agents record lead
generation activities as they do them, or at the end of each day,
as well as any appointments, agreements, contracts, or closings
they had for that day, and Agent Success Tracker updates their
progress automatically.
4. Step 4: Making the Numbers Work – Agents and their managers
can use these hard numbers to guide their activities. They will
always know if they are on the right path to reach their goals,
and see what area of their performance is holding them back so
they can fix it.
Agent Success Tracker’s focus on simplicity, clarity, and ease of use
make it truly unique and make it easier for you to implement in your
brokerage.
How Agent Success Tracker Can Improve Your Bottom Line
The average broker has 35 agents on their roster. If the production of
the broker follows agent sales volume trends, then the roster
production breaks down as follows:
 Sales above $2 million – 8 agents
 Sales between $500K and $2million – 12 agents
o Sales between $1.5 and $2million – 3 agents
o Sales between $1 and $1.5million – 3 agents

7. o Sales between $500K and $1million – 6 agents
 Sales under $500K – 15 agents
It is not realistic to expect every agent to adopt Agent Success Tracker
right away. 100% adoption rarely happens with any technology except
MLS, but you should aim for a 25% adoption rate among all your agents
in your first year, targeting that 60% that sells less than $1million.
If you do, than in your first year, if you have 8 agents use Agent Success
Tracker that due to increased activity increase their sales by 50%, than
you have an increase of $4 million in sales production, which at an
average agent contribution of 30%, would mean an additional $36,000
to your bottom line and a whopping 2,900% return on your
investment.
What other investment could you make today that could give you
that type of return for so little money?
What could you do with that additional income to further invest in
your business?
The Choice Is Yours
If you are serious about helping your agents achieve the success they
desire and thereby increasing your bottom line, then Agent Success
Tracker is the only tool that can help you do that without a major
investment in time or money.
After all, you cannot improve what you cannot measure, and neither
can your agents. Call us today and let’s get you office set up today,
because Success Doesn’t Just Happen.
About Jason Blackburn, CEO
Jason Blackburn is a respected and accomplished real estate trainer and
speaker who sold his first house at the age of nineteen. After going from selling
homes in college to becoming the Vice-President for a national real estate
company before the age of thirty, Jason founded Laser Focus Training, a real
estate training and education company based in Texas. As licensed real estate
instructor in Texas, Jason has trained thousands of real estate professionals on
sales and success for independent franchises from Keller Williams Realty,
Prudential, Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX, and many others. He has also provided
training for companies such as KB Home, DR Horton, and Wells Fargo. Jason has
an extensive business and consulting background in sales management, sales
training, entrepreneurship, success coaching and motivational speaking.
E-mail: jason@agentsuccesstracker.com
Twitter: @laserfocuscoach
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonblackburn