Prospecting For Listings with Greg Harrelson | Ep 037

Prospecting to generate listing appointments. That's exactly how Greg Harrelson got his start in real estate about 30 years ago. Today he leads an organization operating in five markets with nine offices doing nearly 4,000 transactions per year. And there's one truth that hasn't changed in that time. The key to doing more business is simply talking to more people. And something that hasn't changed in his daily habits. He prospects alongside his agents every day from 8 to 11am so some things to watch or listen for include the three characteristics to look for in your next real estate team member. The four things that every brokerage or team needs to provide agents. What's been lost in the real estate industry and how you and your team can recover it. His 1080:10 approach to leading and managing an organization. How to find the right coach and how to become more coachable yourself. Why teams emerged, how they accelerated and what their future is. His approach to driving per agent productivity after an acquisition and why he's coaching religiously right now on pricing presentations, price reduction presentations and listing extension presentations. I know you'll enjoy this conversation. Into philosophy, into fundamentals, into connecting and talking with people. Into prospecting to generate more listings with Greg Harrelson.

No matter where your business is today or where you want to take it, you'll get there faster and more profitably with an operating system. Welcome to Team os, your guide to starting, growing and optimizing real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan Butte.

Greg, I first learned about you and met you at a Maverick Mastermind event. I loved what you brought to the stage. We'll bring a little bit of that conversation, but we'll do a lot more than that. So thank you so much for joining me.

Yeah, thank you. I'm excited to be here with you. I really am.

Cool. Well, the standard opener on real estate team OS is this. What is a must have characteristic. Characteristic of a high performing team?

Desire. So, you know, really there's three things that I focus on. Desire, will they follow structure and are they coachable? But the first one is desire.

None of those are things you can, I mean you can try to enhance those a little bit, but I feel like those are somewhat inherent to the person. Is that about right?

Yeah. So desire, so I can inspire, but I usually can't create desire. Right. And so desire, it's important that desire that that person possess, desire that they have, that, that desire to win, desire to succeed. It's, it's really hard to coach desire. You, you can inspire. But to coach desire is difficult Talk.

About the importance of coaching in your career, becoming coachable yourself, identifying coachability in others, and I'm sure continued coaching that you deliver and receive.

I mean, to me, and like, you know, that's kind of my, my business model is more like a coaching model. So, you know, I'm going to be biased on coaching. I think that everyone should have a coach. I think that you should never not have a coach. I've had coaches, you know, for many, many, many years. I don't think you should bounce around a lot with coaches. I think you should stay with one for a long time when you find a good one. So to me, coaching's a critical component because, you know, we're either as real estate professionals, let's just. I will call ourselves participants. But the participant. Participant cannot see what the observer can see. So every participant needs somebody to be an observer so they can see things differently. They can see it from a higher level. They can see, you know, miles ahead. So most agents that do not have coaches, they're basically the participant that. So they only get to see it from a participant's view. And that's what I think the role of a coach is, to be the observer and then to guide from there. So to me, that's critical. I've had a coach for 25 straight years. I've never not had a coach probably for 25 years. I don't think there's been a month that I haven't had a coach.

I mean, you mentioned when you find a good coach, stick with them. How do you, as you're reviewing your opportunities to be coached by someone, whether that's by the brokerage or the team that you join, or whether it's by going out to the market. There are certainly plenty of people who will coach you in a real estate business. What are some of the pre work that needs to be done so that you are seeking a coach that is going to be good for you and then how do you know you have one that you should stick with?

Yeah, well, so, so you need to figure out kind of what you're, you know, there's, there's so many different business models that you can run as a real estate professional. Right. You know, I, I've always been a prospector.

Right.

That's kind of how I cut my teeth in the business. I was a generator and a prospector. Then there's some people out there that are just great from marketing. They want to do YouTube videos and they want to do like lifestyle marketing and things like that, which can be effective or really focus on social media. Like, if that's what you were looking for, I'd be like the worst coach for you right now. But if you wanted to learn how to prospect and generate listings, I'd be a great coach for you. But if you wanted to learn how to do PPC and build out websites and convert buyer leads, then that might be a certain coach. So I'd be thinking about what kind of business model are you running or do you want to run and then go ahead and find somebody that specializes in that business model? Because I believe all coaches have their sweet spot. They have their passion for this is how they think it should be. Right? And I think it should be this way. But that doesn't mean the person that thinks it should be the opposite of the way. I think that doesn't mean they're a bad coach. That just works for them. And so if they go deep on their way and they go deep instead of wide, they really go to master it. They're going to do really well. So I think step number one is find somebody that's consistent with the business model that you want to build. What you don't want to do is always think, you know, it's like, don't find one that you like. Okay? It has nothing to do with likability. I mean, again, I'll go with myself. I never claim to be the one that you're going to like the most. I will claim to be the one that's going to be the most effective. But at times you're going to hate me. But that's not my job. My job is to impact and get a result. No matter how it feels, I've got to get the result. That's what I feel my fiduciary is to an agent. So don't forget about the likability. I do believe now I'm biased on this because I feel like I have it. I do believe it's good to find somebody also that has street credibility that didn't just read from a book and regurgitate everything that they read. Some other producers do. So I think street credibility is good. But if we look in professional sports, you know, there's NBA coaches that are fantastic, that didn't necessarily win championships. So it's not like a do or die type of scenario to choose somebody. That's walk the walk. But I think, number one, figure out who specializes in your model. And that's the first. That's the first thing.

What can someone do to become more coachable themselves? You know, what is a mindset shift? Is there an exercise or is there a reflection? Like how can someone be a little bit more self aware about how coachable they are and what they can do to become more receptive to this guidance and input. And you know, as you described, I love what you said there earlier about you know, creating some distance from the participant. Like how can I receive the words and the input and the questions of the observer in a non defensive way. These kinds of things.

Yeah, it's really. I've never been asked this and probably haven't had this kind of dialogue within an interview process. Great question and very, very important question because I do believe we can learn to be coachable. It really starts with this. A lot of people that are maybe in the beginning are not coachable. They're a little bit more of control freaks. They want to control it and they think somebody that they can do it better. So not only does that same person have delegation issues, but they also those same type of delegation issues that also shows up in coaching issues. And it shows up because they're like, well maybe I could do it better. Their mind is just processed to constantly immediately think I can do it better. Maybe they don't say it like that. Consciously, subconsciously I can do it better. They're constantly looking for proof that it works. You have to surrender. I think how you become more coachable is surrendering and surrender that you're going to have to go ahead and accept what this person is sharing and do not, do not say it doesn't work until after you followed it to the table for six months and then declare it doesn't work. But to me, what is the thing? Surrender. You got to surrender. And if you find yourself when the coach. There's a difference in asking a question to gain clarity of your coach and questioning your coach. Big difference. So when you're talking to your coach, ask your observe yourself. You know, we can be the observer of ourselves too. Observe yourself and how you start asking questions. Are you questioning because there's doubt or are you questioning for clarity? And when you find yourself questioning for doubt, step back, surrender and just go for it. Prove them wrong through massive execution, not just by debating with the coach.

Yeah, those are expensive debates as well. It's non productive in a variety of different ways. I want to get. You've built a really incredible organization. Organization. I want to get into the details of it. But before we do, I'd like to start high level. I don't know that we can peel these two things. Apart. But as someone who's been in the industry for a couple few decades, I would love your perspective on kind of the history and maybe a projection toward the future of the team model in particular. Like when did it come onto your radar, how has it evolved in your, you know, observation? And where do you think the future of teams is in terms of its impact on the industry?

Yeah, great. Yeah. Because I can recall, you know, where teams were not that significant. And so this can be interesting. I don't. Who knows what everyone else's answers are going to be, but I know what my answers are going to be and it's probably not the normal ones, most common ones. So why in the world are team. How did teams get started? Like, how did this become significant? Well, there's a few things. Number one, I would say that one thing that really informs influenced is teams is brokerages started getting squeezed on commission conversations with their individual agents. And so as the brokerages started getting squeezed because agents started negotiating heavily with them and there wasn't a lot of profit left over for the company, then the company, the brokerages themselves had to actually stay afloat. A lot of people think these brokerages are making all this money. Very few brokerages are making any money. So in order for brokerage to stay afloat, they had to cut out expenses, which was really services. They had to cut out the value. So you got an agent saying to a brokerage, hey, I want all this, I want all this, but I'm only going to pay this. And the broker is just like, well, if you want this, then I can't give you this. And then all of a sudden the agent says, starts to find out, you know what, I actually need that. And so then all of a sudden teams bubble up and start providing the value that brokerage no longer provided. And you start to think, well, how could a broker, how could a team provide it and still make a profit if a brokerage can't provide it and make a profit? Well, the answer to that is, is that the team falls under the brokerage and actually takes and is able to push expenses like lease expense, liability insurance expense and all these things no one thinks about from the brokerage standpoint. The brokerage maintains those expenses and the team kind of gets all that for free. And then they can give a commission split and still make a profit so they could add the value and whatnot. So there's this financial thing that's going on with brokerages that really bubbles up these teams. Now let's take it to another level. Because that just is. That to me is kind of where it kind of started. Well, then it really accelerated. Where did it accelerate? It started accelerating in my opinion. More so when online buyer leads became a thing. And when online buyer leads became a thing, here's what stopped becoming a thing. Old school lead generation for listings. Like people like Mike Ferry that coached it. That's old school. And believe me, I think everything about Mike Ferris, I think he's amazing because he taught that old school stuff. The grind, right? Well, when online lead generation came along, we actually start to see that there was less grind. Well, if you're going to rely on online lead generation, you've got to have money to actually be able to fund the leads. And they don't. The individual agents didn't have the money, but they saw all these people making money off of online leads. So they're like, I want online leads, I gotta have online leads. Could the brokerage provide online leads? Nope, because you squeeze them with your commission split. Agents negotiated too good of a deal with their brokerages, so now their brokerage can't provide anything and. But they need it and they don't have the money to afford it. So what do they do? They go work for a team under the same brokerage and now they've got a worse commission split with their team than they would have had with the brokerage. The hell's going on here? This is the chaos that's going on now. Where is it going? In the future it may continue down this path because now the teams. Well, what's interesting is we see a lot of teams going back and now getting their own brick and mortar brokerages. We're starting to see that a lot more, especially when there's these virtual franchises coming on. We're starting to see. It was like everyone rushed to virtual. We don't need offices. And all of a sudden you start to slowly see them. Well, gosh, now I see an office that used to be a virtual company. Now it's. There's an office. What's going on? Now it's coming back around. Teams are going almost acting like brokerages. But I think the team concept with somebody being a leader and having other people come in and offering service, I think that's here for a long time. I don't see that phasing out, but I do think that bigger teams really are brokerages. It's just that no one wants to call themselves a brokerage because that seems like that's kind of like old school. Oh, no, we're a team it's all, it's just all word vomit.

Yeah, there's a lot of, I mean, you used the word chaos at some point in that passage and there's definitely a lot of that. It's just people trying to figure out what is the next iteration of this and trying to figure out how do I stay ahead of the margin. And there are a lot of different things in play there. When you talk about agent value, a couple of things that are obvious are training and coaching, which, let's just include accountability in there too. Some degree of like, you know, if I'm solo and I'm not accountable to anyone and I don't have a coach who knows what's going to happen, it's probably not going to be as amazing as if I do have some level of kind of so training, coaching, accountability, certainly technology and me not having to think about or implement any of that stuff. I just plug right in, sit down, get my logins, get some training and I'm off and running. So I don't even need to worry about that. So let's say I'm not a tech person. Obviously you have specialists supporting and providing some leverage at a variety of positions, whether that's an ISA team or a really rich transaction coordination function or whatever. But like, what are some of the, what are the key buckets of value when you think about a team that's delivering value in a way that a brokerage can't afford to? Is it those things and more?

I think it's four things. Okay. And great question again. And so I think the question. I'm gonna reframe the question in, in my, in my version of your question, what do agents value?

Great.

Okay. Okay. What do agents value? Well, there, that's been a long standing argument amongst brokerages. It's like, well, what's our value? What is value? And I'm like, well, who cares what our value is? What do agents value? I don't know. How do we know? Well, why don't we just follow their money? Okay, what do they spend a lot of money on? Coaching? Well, they must value that they spend a lot of money on leads. They must value that they spend a lot of money trying to figure out how to hire assistants, transaction managers, processors. VAs. So they love. They spend a lot of money on transaction management and they spend a lot of money on marketing. So if we look at marketing, transaction management, leads and coaching, that's where a significant portion of their money goes. They don't really value technology because everyone has it doesn't matter what brand you go to. So because everyone has it, then you know they don't have to go spend it. So that's why I say follow their money. If they're at a brokerage, they have to actually go and spend that outside of their brokerage because their brokerage doesn't have enough profit to provide it. That's what takes them to a team. So it really comes down to leads, coaching, transaction management and marketing. And so whether you're a brokerage or whether you're a team, because most of the teams are, no matter what their value proposition is, you're going to see every team has those four things as a value proposition. They make candy, they may add a bunch of. It's the same four things that it is for a team. It's just you got to figure out how to make money and make profit to be able to provide it.

Measure no one pays for it specifically or explicitly. It'd be very difficult to assign any ROI to it, no matter what the investment is. But what do you think about that? Is, is it, is it, is it equal in a team versus a brokerage? Like, is that, I mean, I know why, I know why it doesn't fall in your four categories, but something I hear a lot is like, why would a highly experienced agent come into a team at these splits because they're doing almost everything out of their own set of relationships, SOI, database, whatever, you know, why would they go 85, 15 or 8020 with the team when they could get something like a 955 with a brokerage? And what I hear a lot is culture, camaraderie, the sense of belonging. How do you think about that aspect of it?

Yeah, first of all, first of all, there's very rarely will you go on a team and be at 85, 15. You're usually going to be at 50, 50, 60, 40.

Oh, for sure. I just melt that and like self, Jen, I'm not taking company leads, etc.

Understood? Understood. Okay, good. So here's so. Well, first of all, you know, if I, if I really isolate your question is what's the value of culture, man? It's so, so valuable. So valuable. The challenge is, is this, you don't know the value of the culture until you've already made a commitment to that team. So that's why I still go back to the people really gravitate to these teams or companies that can provide those four things. The value of that culture comes in with the, the stickiness or let's call it the retention so that's where the team that can provide a great culture, a brokerage that can provide a great culture, then they're going to see higher, more retention, higher percentages of retention, their team, and their team's not bouncing around and leaving all the time. And that's very profitable for everybody, whether it's the team leader, the brokerage owner, or the agent themselves, everybody wins if we can stick together long enough and coexist together. So it's a lot of value. I personally am not one that's going to say, I think people are gravitating to teams because of culture. I think teams would like to say that that's their value, but secretly, when somebody's thinking about gravitating to your team, they're actually thinking, I need to make a little bit more money and I need what you provide.

Yeah. And I'm evaluating my options going forward. The culture might be a key component in me saying, well, yeah, I actually do like it around here.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I love that assessment. I'm going to ask a really, really big question. We'll probably do it in a variety of parts, but, like, you know, you've been in this. You've been in real estate for three decades. Commercial, residential, multiple markets, multiple states, resorts, land, construction. You've done. I feel like in reading about you online, you've kind of done a little bit of everything over that time. You've seen a lot of change in the industry. Already did a fantastic job of breaking down the history of teams from your perspective. I'd love for you to kind of walk through, how did you get into the business? What were some of the key turning points points for you, and what was the dawn of the Harrelson Group? And then we'll kind of get into where that is today and how it's shaped up and how you're doing thousands of transactions every year.

Yeah. So it really started back in the mid-90s when I was failing out of college. You know, I just wasn't really doing anything. I was going to. Well, I wasn't really going to classes either. I was in college, but just not really doing anything. And what ended up happening is I had this turning point where I needed to get serious at some point. My dad was already in real estate for maybe five years previous, something like that. So one summer I decided I would work for my dad. Instead of working, like in restaurants and bars and things like that in my local market, I decided I worked for my dad. And what I did for my dad was I actually Prospected. So I would show up in the morning, I would prospect for my dad and then I would leave in the middle of the day and I'd come back in the evening from 6 to 8 and I'd prospect more. I started with like cold calling. Then I went to expireds and FSBOs and rent bows and you name it, anything that I could call, I was calling, setting up my dad on listing appointments. And what ended up happening, my dad was probably, I think my dad was doing like 50 transactions a year. So back then that's good production. There wasn't a lot of 100 deal producers back then. 50 deals was a top producer in most markets. So he was doing pretty good. But like that, that 160month period put him on path. And then he did like maybe 89 or 90 transactions. So there was a very big little leap there, going from 50 to almost 100. And we can contribute that to a lot of the prospecting that I was doing because that's not necessarily what he was doing. And so it was somehow I decide I actually enjoyed that. And maybe it was, I enjoyed that I was finally doing something that I could see, see was producing a positive result. And I decided I'm going all in. And I got into real estate, you know, and then I always maintain that prospecting mentality. I ended up hiring Mike Ferry as a coach and was with Mike Ferry for 20 plus years in his coaching program. Always focusing on prospecting, prospecting. Eventually I built a team with my dad. We got up to, to maybe, you know, me and him, one other listing agent and then a buyer's agent, few assistants and we're doing maybe 550, 600 transactions. And then I kind of like at some point I said, you know, what is this? What is this what my life's going to be like? At least my, my professional life is it just going to be every year I'm going to wake up and say I need to do another hundred deals was my goal. And I was going to do this and that and that was it. And for some reason I didn't, I didn't feel like that was the, the path that I was supposed to be on. And so I disbanded the team in 1999. I. Well actually it was around 2004, I disbanded the team. And my assistant at that time who was closing transactions like a closing coordinator and amongst a listing coordinator, amongst this and that, my closing coordinator, I just made her the closing coordinator for the entire company. My listing coordinator, I made the listing coordinator for. I disbanded all the members of my team and I just made them, that became the infrastructure of my company. So when people like, well, Greg owns a brokerage, he doesn't understand. My brokerage is more like a team bridge. And if you go back to how it was formed, it was my team broken up to become servicers of the next agent that I was going to bring in my brokerage. If I didn't do that, it would have just been the next agent I would have brought on my team. So still today the company functions like that. When an agent comes in, they've got, listen, coordinators, graphic design, everything's there and it's part of the package. It's not a la carte paying for this. It's all there just like it would be for a team. That's how my brokerage is run. And so, you know, eventually we just, we got up to, I mean now we're, you know, I've done acquisitions and then I turned them into my business models in five different markets, nine offices and we're just shy of 4,000 transactions, you know, but that's how it really came. And I probably don't change that. I probably just keep building out the team bridge because it works.

Fantastic job summarizing a lot of things in one concise package there in the growth to. I think you said nine markets or nine offices?

Nine offices, five markets. Yep.

What has the balance been say over the past three to five years in terms of actively recruiting agents into the brokerage into the team ridge versus acquiring agents into the team Ridge?

I focus on both. But I'm not like in any market that I'm in. I'm not going to be if I ever come to somebody's market, don't worry, I'm probably not going to be calling all your agents. Okay. Not that I wouldn't, but probably not because I don't want them. I really focus on bringing new people into the business and developing talent. So when people say, Greg, what is kind of, what's your thing? I develop talent and amplify wealth. That's my thing. And so it's easier for me to take somebody brand new out of, out of the real estate school that's never done a transaction and get them to 35, 40 transactions in their first year than it is to take somebody that does 15 deals a year and get them to 40 transactions. The person that's doing 15 deals a year that I recruit, they're going to always tell me, well, that's not how we did it over at xyz. Company. We did it like this. And I'm gonna be like, look, my average production at this office is 30 deal per person. I mean, like, we don't. You did 15. You're not even average at this company. I don't want to know. Like, okay, so if we do what you did over there, then we're gonna get your results. I don't want your results. And so how do you have that conversation? In other words, you have to break them down. Not, like, not confrontationally, but I think of a pot of clay. I think a clay pot. I have a choice. I can take raw clay, put it on my pottery wheel and shape it, spin it, and shape it in this beautiful vase, or I can take that vase and I can break it with a hammer and get it down to its raw state and rework it into clay and then build it back up. Why don't I just take the raw clay and build it up right from the scratch? So when I say, yes, we do a lot of recruiting, but we do more attracting of newer agents and then develop them, and that's the majority of what we do. The acquisitions, you know, they. They come and go. When they come and go. You know, when the right thing comes along. And typically an acquisition is going to come from somebody that has some familiarity with my business model, and they think that, gosh, if we could just align together, then maybe that. That would take it to another new level, or they want to sell, but they know that my business model is the right one to sell to, then it's kind of unpredictable when that's going to happen. So I'm always focusing on recruiting, but I also do focus on developing new talent versus taking other talent from other offices. Not that I won't. If it's the right fit, it's the right fit. But that's. That's our plan.

Yeah. In your acquisition experience and probably talking with other friends and colleagues who are acquiring offices or have historically, if someone.

Was to acquire, acquisition is going to come from somebody that has some familiarity with my business model, and they think.

That, gosh, if business, for any of the variety of reasons that it seems to make sense to both parties, if.

We could just align together, then maybe that. That would take it to a new level, or they want to sell, but they know that my business model is the right one to sell to, then it's kind of unpredictable when that's going to happen. So I'm always focusing on recruiting, but I also do focus on developing new talent versus retention.

Are we looking at There, you know, let's just say you're acquiring an office of, you know, 35 agents. Do you expect, you know, a year from now that there'll be 15 of them productive in the way that you're. You're coaching and training in the. In the way that you've set the business up, or is it going to be 25 if that varies? What are some of the factors that make it vary?

Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to knock on wood on this one, but I would say that I expect I'll retain 80% taking other talent from other offices. Not that I won't. If it's the right fit, it's the right fit, but that's our plan.

Yeah. In your acquisition experience and probably talking with other friends and colleagues who are acquiring offices or have. Historically, if someone was to acquire a business for any of the variety of reasons that it seems to make sense to both parties. Yeah.

What kind of. Now there's a real reason, though. There's a very significant. I have a philosophy on when I acquire. Okay. So what a lot of people do is when they acquire what the acquiring business person goes in and, like, they turn off the lights on Friday and then they open it up on Monday and it's a whole new company. Got business models. Then change this.

And retention are we looking at there? You know, let's just say you're acquiring an office of, you know, 35 agents. Do you expect, you know, a year from now that there'll be 15 of them productive in the way that you're. You're coaching and training in the, in the way that you've set the business up, or is it going to be 25 if it. If that varies, what are some of the factors that make it vary?

Yeah, yeah. So I'll change that. Change that. I have a rule. I don't make any change for six months that any real estate agent will notice. So I don't believe in, like, acquiring a company and turning that tribe into my tribe. I actually believe that I'm going to enter into their tribe, become one with them, understand it. And then after I've gained trust and rapport and confidence, then I'll slowly start introducing new techniques, and then eventually we will then create our own tribe. And so that's how you can prevent it. So what ends up happening is somebody I might acquire, and maybe I'm going to knock on wood on this one, but I would say that I expect I'll retain 80%. Now, there's a real reason, though. There's a very significant. I have a philosophy on when I acquire. Okay. So what a lot of people do is when they acquire what the acquiring business person goes in and they turn off the lights. The original business owner decides that they want to go along and be a partner of mine at some level and kind of grow this with me. They usually get frustrated with me after a couple months. Like, well, why don't you bring them? Why don't you add this to the company? I'm like, no, remember six months, I'm not changing a thing that they can see. Now what am I changing in while I'm in the six months I'm working on the P and L statement. So in this first six months I'm looking at the P and L statement and seeing what I can do. Make internal changes that do not impact perceptually or do not. The real estate agent won't feel. So I will go and build and improve profitability but the agents won't actually fill it. Then I'll start working on the external things where the agents can see it. So my experience, if you go that path and on Friday and then they open it up on Monday and it's a whole new company, got business models, then change this and change that and change that. I have a rule, I don't make any change for six months that any real estate agent will notice. So I don't believe in like acquiring a company and turning that tribe. You take your time, be patient, be committed to that, don't shortcut that. You can have very high retention.

Yeah, it's really smart this idea of learning, observing, understanding what's going on, of course via the P and L. But also, you know that six month period of like, who are these people, how are they operating, what are they doing and where can we meet in the middle? What value can I add to these folks? That's consistent with our approach and our philosophy. That's going to continue some and probably improve the operating efficiency of the acquired operation. It seems like a smart and patient approach. Can you sketch for me at a high level what is your organizational structure? I mean to run and power an organization like this, how is it structured into my tribe?

I actually believe that I'm going to enter into their tribe, become one with them, understand it. And then after I've gained trust and rapport and confidence, then I'll slowly start introducing new techniques and then eventually we will then create our own tribe.

Sure. Like what does your core leadership team look like? How do you manage out to the different Offices and markets. And then maybe after that we'll get into like what is your day to day, week to week, month to month look like? Like what? Because I assume you've put yourself in a situation where you're doing what you really want to do, that you're playing to your strengths, you have enough scale.

At this point and so that's how you can prevent it. Most people, so what ends up happening is somebody I might acquire and maybe the original business owner decides that they want to, they want to go along and be a partner of mine at some level and kind of grow this with me. They usually get frustrated with me after a couple months, like well why don't.

You really don't have to do anything you don't want to. But what have you built around you? And like how does an organization operating efficiently at this scale with that incredible per agent productivity? Like what are some of the keys to that from a structural standpoint?

I have a CEO and a CFO and a CEO. You bring them. Why don't you add this to the company? I'm like, no. Remember six months, I'm not changing a thing that they can see. I'm not a CEO, a CO and a cfo. Okay. And so from that stamp and an executive assistant. So if I was to look at an org chart, okay, that level right there is my executive assistant, my CFO and my operating officer. I'm going to spend most of my time with those three people. And then under that right there, we're going to have a whole level of service of managers, right, that are really going to be. Now what am I changing in while I'm in the six months I'm working on the P and L statement. So in this first six months I'm looking at the P and L statement and seeing what I can do to make internal changes that do not impact perceptually or do not. The real estate agent won't feel so I will go and build and improve profitability but the agents won't actually fill it. Then I'll start working on the external things where the under, under really the coo. But then I have some leadership under the COO that at that point they're dealing with all the office managers. From that point on, like I don't really, I will speak to any office manager, I love them all, speak to them all. But I don't have any direct rep. Agents can see it. So my experience, if you go that path and you take your time, be patient, be committed to that, don't Shortcut that you can have very high retention.

Yeah, it's really smart this idea of learning, observing, understanding what's going on, of course via the P and L. But also, you know, that six month period.

With an office manager, it's all going to come up through my senior leadership to me. So that's what's really, really important. And I've got a trust that I've got the right senior leadership making decisions that I would be making if I was the one really doing it. And I think I have the right team from that. I mean I've got people with me. My broker in charge of five of my offices right now, she's been with.

Me like who are these people, how are they operating, what are they doing and where can we meet in the middle? What value can I add to these folks? That's consistent with our approach and our philosophy. That's going to continue some and probably improve the operating efficiency, efficiency of the acquired operation. It seems like a smart, impatient approach. Can you sketch for me at a high level what is your organization for 26 years.

So she was one of the original team members in that, you know, when I disbanded and now she's still the person that's running a lot of my offices. So that, that's how I can actually, you know, get a lot done without having my hands in every single position. Now what is my position? My position is I'm the coach. Okay? So you, you need to know anything about a copier, do not come to me. You want to know how to get a listing, I'm your man. So I'm your coach, right? So technically I actually spend most of my time at the ground. At the ground level of my business. I spend my day when I at my, my routine is I get into the office around 7:30 to 7:45. If it dependent on what structure I.

Mean to run and power an organization like this, how is it structured? Like what is your core leadership team look like? How do you manage out to the different offices and markets and then maybe after that we'll get into like what is your day to day, week to week, month to month look like? Like what? Because I assume you've put yourself in a situation where you're doing it is.

Three days a week, it's at 7:30. At 7:30 that's my first coaching session for 30 minutes with agents. After that coaching session at 8 o' clock I'm actually standing up in a prospecting station in the same room all my agents are in at 11 o' clock. I leave that prospecting station and I go do whatever's in my schedule and they leave that there because that's the goal is 8 to 11 is prospecting time. Time, right? So if you think about it, every day I'm doing the same exact thing that I did when I first started building my business in the late 90s. I haven't changed because that's what I love to do. That's my passion. I develop talent and amplify wealth. Why Greg? Well, why do you still show up.

And do what you really want to do, that you're playing to your strengths, you have enough scale at this point that you really don't have to do anything you don't want to. But what have you built around you? And like how does an organization operating efficiently at this scale with that incredible per agent productivity, like what are prospecting?

Because I believe by leading, by example, people don't do what you say, they do what you do.

Some of the keys to that from a structural standpoint, I have a CEO.

And a cfo and a CEO can tell your child to not smoke cigarettes all you want, but if you smoke in front of them, them, they're smoking cigarettes. But if I'm going to tell my child don't smoke cigarettes, I shouldn't be smoking them either. And so I believe in that philosophy. So I stay at the ground level. I have an executive team at the top level. But I meet with my executive team and I have to, yes, I'm guiding, I'm the visionary. And you know, and they're doing all the integration and implementation and everything else. That's kind of how I run the operation. And I, and I let them do their job. I let them do their job. My job is, I have this rule called a 1080, 10. If you think about a hundred yard a football field, that's 100 yards. And let's say we're, I'm not a CEO, a COO and a CFO. Okay. And so from that stamp and an executive assistant. So if I was to look at an org chart, okay, that level right there, about one side of the football field, my job is, is to spend 10% with my team is my executive assistant, my CFO and my operating officer. I'm going to spend most of my time with those three people and then under that right there, we're going to cad in my vision. Then they take that vision and for, they take it for 80 more yards and then they call me when they get 10 yards away from the end zone and they Say, Greg, all right, we've got it here. We're about ready to take it into the end zone. We just want to make sure that you look at it and approve it before we, before we take it all the way in. I look at it, say, can you make this one change? Boom. They take it into the end zone. So I'm involved in the first 10 yards, they take it 80 yards, I'm involved in the last 10 yards. And I'm very committed and they love it because I'm not in their way and getting involved in their creative, you know, in their, their creativity.

Really good. So this, the surrender theme comes back again. I mean you could get involved in the day to day the CFO or the coo, but you've hired them for particular reasons and you're letting them do their thing.

They're better than me at that stuff. I'm coo.

That's why you hired them. Or else you'd be the coo.

Yeah, I would have been. If I would went to corporate America in some sort of manager role, I would have been fired so quick. There's no way. Yeah, it wasn't me.

Yeah, for the same reason that school wasn't really clicking with you, you know, and you wound up in, in your dad's real estate office. So one of the things you shared from a stage in a room that I was privileged to be in was this concept of core fundamentals versus enhancements. And you don't need to deliver all of it again. But I would love for you just to share that philosophy a little bit. Because what I wanted to do was ask for guidance for folks watching and listening on per agent productivity. But I feel like this is a more interesting one that feeds the same purpose.

Yeah, yeah, there's, there's, there the, this real estate business and building production is not difficult. We've made it difficult. What we've done is the difference in like the core components and the enhanced is what most people have done right now is that they, their core components are just what I would call enhancements. Now what's a core component? Look, there's never been a transaction that's closed that didn't originate with a contact. Like no matter how you did it, how, whatever, whatever the source was, it started with a contact. So if we just take that basic thought then a contact just talking to somebody. So it's. But making contacts consistently every day is something that's lost in our industry. We work more on a description on a open house flyer than we ever work on just Spending time talking to people, new people looking for new business, that's just a core fundamental. So it doesn't matter what market it is, doesn't matter what year it is. If you talk to more people, you'll get more contracts, period. So that's a core component. Let's talk to more people. If it's a core component, then let's make sure that we have it's, then we have a goal. We can, and it's measurable, it's specific and it's measurable. Okay, I got a goal. I'm going to talk to 40 people today. That's specific. Talk to 40 people and it's measurable. 40, that's it, simple. Now let's move on. Okay, now it comes down to follow up. So an enhancement is, let's just put them in a CRM and then we'll let the CRM be the converter. See, you've got one of the best CRMs there is in the industry. I don't think that's, I don't even think anybody argues about that. I don't even think your copy even argues that. Okay, but the challenge is, is getting people to log into the dang thing, you know, getting people to actually upload their database to the thing when you first onboard them. I don't think CRMs are fall under the category of conversion systems. They fall under the category lead identification systems. Put it in your CRM and see all this engagement and activity and it tells me these are probably the people I need to talk to today. But what people are doing now is they're saying I'm going to put it all in the CRM, kick off this five year workflow and think that that's going to convert them. That's an enhancement. That's like, so the enhancement is your follow up system. No, set off that workflow. I believe in that. But that's not core. That's an enhancement to a great core which is get them in our CRM. Identify engagement. That really identifies your priority list of who you need to spend time with because it identifies your low hanging fruit and go talk to them. So that's what I mean by core components. It's lead generation. How many hours you're going to do a day, do it five days a week. It's when you generate a lead, you're going to put it here and this is going to be your follow up structure. So if you know you could have leads. I have, I have this system where we call when we have our leads in our CRM in our office we talk about, you know, leads being in one of three phases, the dreaming phase, the exploratory phase and the buying phase or selling phase. So this is what we do when they're in the dreaming phase. This is what we do in if they're in the other additional phase phases. So follow that system. That's core components. And if you just did those two things right there every single day, call new people and call the old people that are engaging, you will out produce yourself and you could get rid of all this other stuff and complicating your life.

So I feel like per agent productivity, two things I've heard from you that would dramatically enhance that in almost any organization, almost any market, regardless of any other factor, are the two things you just said blended with the idea of having a dedicated prospecting window, a three hour window and you coming alongside the people doing it to model the behavior. I feel like if no one takes anything else away, those three components model the behavior you want to see and focus on those two core activities. I think any business would be enhanced. Can you imagine an exception? I agree.

No, and even if you didn't, because there'll be some leaders that are going to listen to this that maybe they don't have the background that I have in prospecting and personal prospecting and that's perfect. So they may be the ones that's going to be a little bit more intimidated to go in to their team or their brokerage and actually prospect in front of them. Right. That would be intimidating because they don't want to look bad. Again, that's just. We just have different backgrounds. Right, but that doesn't. So even if you left that component out, if you can just get your team or get any group of people to show up and generate, have prospecting activities for three hours a day, that in itself is going to dramatically increase the productivity. Now somebody will say, well yeah, but what are you going to coach them on? I didn't mention coaching. That would be an enhancement. Because what I can tell you right now, if I can get an agent to go out there and make prospecting calls for three hours, that is coaching. Every single time they screw it up, they'll subconsciously adjust on the next call they self correct. If you do enough reps, you'll self correct. And so just right there we can move the needle on any company. You know, I'm getting a little off here, but I think it's relevant. One of the things that I do when I acquire a company and I Just recently did it. It was just so funny. How it always works is in one thing I left out in the six month window when I don't really make all those changes. One of the things that I'm looking for is I'm looking for a guinea pig. And so what ends up happening is I'll end up finding somebody in that company as I start to establish relationships that kind of like knows maybe they looked me up and started watching a bunch of my videos. And so they're like, man, hey look, when are you going to tell us about this prospecting stuff? I really want to generate a lot of listings. That's it'll happen, right? And so I acquired this company. It's about 100 agents and I had this one, this one person say that to me. And I started, I looked at their business and they were doing their, their business was around maybe 40 transactions and they, and about 90% of it was buyers and 10% of it was, was listings. And I said, hey look, since you're asking, I mean are you if you're really committed, I mean I could set some time side and do some one on one coaching with you. But I tell you right now, you better be serious because if I'm going to invest my time, I'm going to be expecting a result and I don't care what your skill level is. If you just give me your time, I'll give you the result. They made the commitment and I said look, don't tell anybody in the company that I'm coaching. You don't want to talk about this. I started coaching them 30 minutes a week and in their second 30 days of coaching, they took six listings in that 30 days. Now they're taking, now we're a year later and they're taking around 10 listings per month. They don't work buyers anymore and they're on track to do this year. They're going to do right at 90 transactions. That's what they're tracking, let's say. And so then guess what happens now? Instead of me trying to go to everybody in the company and say, hey you guys should follow me, they're going to these people and saying what in the world are you doing? Oh, I just do whatever Greg says. Then I got, then all of a sudden now the other agents in the new acquisition are now open to listening to me.

I love it. And that person is also much better prepared because of the time you invested to teach that to other people in addition. Right? So your philosophy spreads not just through your own one on one time, but throughout the organization in that way. Greg, this has been awesome. Your time is obviously super valuable, so I want to honor it. And you also covered kind of a zone I wanted to touch on there with regard to fundamentals, which is essentially an effort versus skill question. And it really is. You obviously have a bias toward the effort, like do the activity, the skill will happen, you can also coach it. But the most important thing is the effort, the activity and the consistency of it.

Yeah, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't add this. So if you asked me this question. Is there a fundamental that you haven't had to do in a while that you think you're going to have to do again, what would that be? Because there are some fundamentals that come and go depending on markets.

Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Okay. And that fundamental that everybody listening to me right now, you better go back to the drawing board and master this one fundamental. Price reductions. Price reductions. Because inventory is growing, average days on the markets growing. So that means as you're going to get more listings, you're also going to have more listings failing to sell. And when we do not want to do that. We want to make sure when we get listings, they sell. And you can sit here and say, yeah, I'll just price them. Right. Yeah, okay, whatever. If the market was to decline, then your price right today is not priced right in 30 days because the market actually could go below where you, where it was in a 30 day period of time. I'm not predicting that the market's going down, but the data is already there that 30, 35% of properties in the MLS is right now have been reduced and they're still sitting. So they're going to need more reductions. So I would be going back to the drawing board. All teams, all brokerages, all agents study how to communicate and earn the right to ask for price reductions so you can lose less of your inventory. One more fundamental we have. We didn't have to use that during the pandemic. Right. So we didn't coach it. But I am coaching religiously right now on pricing presentation and price reduction presentation and listing extension, enlisting extensions, presentations.

Are you teaching that@realestatesalesolutions.com I do, yeah.

I have a program called Agent Success Academy. It's under the umbrella of Real Estate Sales Solutions and that's what I coach them. So what I do is I coach my agents, all this stuff and then I have an Agent Success Academy where I coach agents outside of my, my companies.

Cool. I'm sure you lit a bunch of people up, but I, you know, I, I have a bunch of. Because you, you spoke a bit to some very specific tactics under this strategy. But I'm not going to ask you to restate that here again for the sake of time. But I want to make sure that anyone who's interested knows where to go to find it. I found it super, super compelling and it's a way to get listings moved sooner than later through, like a regular cadence of calls with particular messaging. Greg, is there any, just as a parting, parting question, any advice you would give to someone who's very, very early stage, let's say they have three to five people in their organization. They're trying to figure out, you know, where do I want to take this thing if I do want to grow and, you know, try to, you know, triple my organization size, you know, by headcount, and ideally, you know, more than that by production? What kind of questions would you ask them or what kind of guidance would you give them or what kind of encouragement or caution might you provide them?

You know, one of the mistakes that I see newer teams making, people that have the aspiration to build out, you know, a big team or, you know, a profitable team, however they would describe it is, you know, you said something about earlier about, you know, Greg, you probably do what you want to do, what you feel passionate about, what you feel like you're good at, right? Well, a lot of times what ends up happening is somebody wants to build a team and then they think they have to be something other than who they were. So maybe they, they were really good at converting buyers, an online lead, buyer lead, you know, conversion, maybe that was their thing. But then they develop a team team, and they say, okay, I'm going to develop a team. Now I need to be the CEO and I need to have, you know, these people do all these things, which is part of that is correct. But what I've always said, don't delegate the ground, the core components, stay in, stay involved with the core component that made you successful, and then delegate the management. So because a lot of teams, their team leaders were good producers, then they became team leaders, no longer a producer, and they wish they didn't have their team because they could make more profit if they just went to producing. Well, so here's to me how it works. How about you create a team, keep producing, delegate the management. Now you're leading by example, and you will be so profitable, it'll be extraordinary how much profit you can make. Because not only do you have the profit from your own whatever you're going to make from your stuff, but that's where your per production is going to come. Per person production is going to come from. It's going to come from. Now you have, you're leading by example. I think everybody in my company and this is not anything negative and I hope they don't feel intimidated by this. I mean I say it to them so it's not that they haven't heard this. None of them would ever challenge me on a listing presentation. Zero chance. I am just as current and relevant on a listen presentation today than I was 25 years ago. I'm better today. Most team leaders are not better today. They couldn't go out. I could get off here in five minutes. I'll nail a listen presentation right now. And so I say that with this message. My team knows that too. And therefore I'm relevant to them because they've got something that they can learn from me. And so when you remove yourself from the core and just become team manager, team leader, then one of the things, one of the main things that was attracted and attracting them and inspiring them to go with you, they don't actually ever see you demonstrate. That would be my message to people that are building out these teams.

I love that. And just a quick. I tend not to do this too often, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point anyone watching and listening at this point. If you go to realestateteamos.com subscribe One of the things you get straight away is two subscriber only episodes. One of them is about how to leave sales production successfully and the other one is why to stay in sales production. And what I did was I took different people's perspectives, some of whom had left sales production and some of whom are still in it. And the most common theme is one you just echoed there in terms of staying in production is if I am to coach and be relevant to my agents, I need to do it. Some of it also to is the financials, some of it is just being in touch with the market in a way that you are one step removed. If your impression of the market is based on your conversations with people who are out in the market versus you being out in the market yourself. And the people who leave sales production, what they really prefer to do is the leadership and management specifically and they just happen to be real estate agents in advance of that. And so they're pursuing their own kind of core fundamentals or their interests or their path passions. So much good advice here. I appreciate you spending almost an hour with me, Greg. I wish you continued success. For anyone who's got here, I already mentioned we already talked about the academy inside realestatesalessolutions.com but if someone wanted to learn more about you, connect with you, continue learning from you, where would you send them?

You know, I tell them go find real estate sales solutions on Facebook because I'm always producing content, free content and videos and dumping it on there. And it's a great little community. It's one of those Facebook pages that I pay attention to. So if I if there's drama that's brewing and people are yelling at each other about commissions and NAR settlements, I just delete them. And I and I'm proud of it. So call it what you want to call it. So if you want to really go and get some just real raw, this is how we can make more money in real estate and enjoy the business a lot greater than then check that out.

Right.

Real estate sales solutions. You can direct message me from there.

Cool. Wherever you are watching or listening, whether it's down below in YouTube, whether it's down below in Apple podcasts or Spotify, or whether it's on the website where we publish all these episodes, you can watch or listen@realestateteamos.com I will have a link to that as well as Real estate sales solutions. Greg, I appreciate you so much. Thanks for doing this and I hope you have a great rest of your afternoon.

Thank you. Let me tell you, you asked some wonderful questions. Great questions. I really appreciate the interview.

Thanks for checking out this episode of Team OS. For email exclusive insights every week, sign up at realestateteamos.com.