Two agents are giving notice in the same month and both are going to the same place. Your roster now has gaps in it. Is that a significant loss? It really depends.
Two out of twenty is a very different situation than four out of two hundred and brokers will quite regularly describe both as ‘losing a couple’. Across the brokerages we work with the thing that seems to move the room is the share of that office rather than the raw number. Note down the share percentage. Do it per office rather than company wide as a company wide average will mask what is actually happening in one office.
First off, don’t hide It
If it comes up with some of your agents then confirm the move and just wish them well. Don’t explain why they left, don’t go around speculating as to why they left and don’t in the same message go and counter pitch your own brokerage. You’re just closing a rumor and assuring them there’s no hard feelings or resentment.
Week 1: Book one-to-ones in the order that matters, and ask the right questions
Recruiting panic is the natural reaction. You’ll say “recruiting is the answer to all our problems”, but this looks like a broker who’s more interested in the agents that have gone than the agents that are still here. The office will be watching you very closely.
Instead, start booking one-on-one meetings. Not alphabetically and not by production. Order the roster by proximity to the people who have left: anyone who co-listed with them in the last year, anyone in the same office, anyone hired in the same period and anyone who joined in the last 12 months. The recent joiners go to the top. They have the least to lose and have already demonstrated their willingness to leave their old office.
Get through that list in ten days. Fifteen minutes each is enough.
One-On-One Topics
During the meetings, don’t ask what the office should be doing for them. Most agents have never actually thought about that at all so you end up with some made up answer and now you owe them something that you’ve just invented on the spot.
Instead ask these 2 questions:
1. What do you want to be different about your business in 12 months time?
2. What’s in the way right now?
Then just stop talking and take notes in their words.
The diagnosis is up to you. They know what’s in the way, the decision as to which bit the office takes is yours and that comes after the conversation not during it.
Week 2: Proactive Support
Sort what you’ve heard into three piles.
1. Things the office can already deal with (it’s typically just the agent not knowing about the resources or opportunity) and that’s just a matter of training.
2. Things which require a capability you don’t have, which is where new advantages are built when the same problem comes up from different agents.
3. Things which aren’t yours to solve and you just say them out loud so no-one waits on you for them.
Take the smallest item from the first two piles that you can get through this week and actually get it done. Not a plan to get it done, the actual fix. Tell the office what the change is and where it came from. Go back to each agent with a proposal rather than a question.
Here’s what I think is in your way, here’s what I’m doing about it. Tell me if I’ve got it wrong.
If you’re reading this because you just lost a major office contributor, this is your next two weeks. This week pull the roster for the office that lost people, flag everyone who worked directly with the agents that left and everyone that’s been hired in the past 12 months and get the first five of those on your calendar.
If you’re looking for a system to decrease agent turnover, let’s talk. LeadUp helps teams offer more proactive support and flags agents at risk of leaving before they give notice.