Peer-to-Peer Guidance
Explore the alternatives of cost effective coaching

By Dr. Martin Oliver

In the world of real estate learning from ones peers has exploded as the best method to learn the tricks of the trade. Broken down, guidance from your peers come in three distinct categories namely Shadowing, Coaching and Mentoring.

All methods have their uniqueness, all have their place and benefits, but all are not created equal in value and effect. In the article below we investigate how these phenomena’s stack up against each other and what the costs of each are should you go and seek to commercially make use of such services.

Shadowing

Shadowing is at its essence, the modeling or imitation of someone's behavior. It can be a powerful teaching tool if the model is a winner and if the student correctly learns to imitate the winning traits and not just any trait or activity.

By it very nature shadowing is not designed to be an on-going or long-term relationship. Most frequently shadowing lasts for a few hours or a few days. During this time the person being shadowed also agrees to talk with the shadow about daily routines, skills needed, objectives sought, goals achieved. The shadowing experience is designed to give new real estate agents an up-close look at the world of a successful real estate producers.

At this time there is no organized and marketed network available to advertise the shadowee. Most shadowing arrangements are made personally as new agents seek out top producers and arrange to pay them for 1 to 8 hrs of shadowing.

Coaching

Coaching is not as condensed as Shadowing and usually stretched over a longer period of time. Therefore coaching is more an activity that creates ongoing accountability towards continuous improvement of performance.

Coaching frequently focuses on teamwork, i.e. the football coach, the baseball coach, the basketball coach, and the swim coach. Most real estate coaches however coach individually although they might have many different agents they usually coach many different agents the same day.

This type of coaching usually is a 1-3 personal telephone calls of 30 minutes calls per month and one 30-minute group phone call per month. The Coach's tool is communication and he usually acts as an accountability manager, a think-tank colleague, and a resource of specific ideas and tasks that could drive the agent to enhanced performance. Although success is not guaranteed, the number of those succeeding are usually high.

Mentoring

The Mentor is the experienced and successful person who takes someone, usually a new recruit, under their wing and teaches them all about the business. Similar to Shadowing, Mentoring is an educational process where the mentor serves as a role model, trusted counselor or teacher who provides opportunities for professional development, growth and support.
In real estate the Mentor is a source of first-hand information and practical experience that an agent can quickly glean from and use to prevent from wasting time or effort in achieving a certain success.

Industry Examples of Shadowing

One of the most well known examples of shadowing is offered through Ralph R. Roberts Real Estate, Warren, MI. Ralph has consistently ranked among the top real estate agents in the country and has during the last five years sold more than 500 single-family homes each year.
In an interview with Realty Time Ralph says that he asks the shadower to gather: All their marketing material used in the last two years to list and sell houses; a list of ten goals; a few key areas they wish to focus upon; and a list of what they feel are their strengths and weaknesses.
Among the questions Roberts asks in the shadowing questionnaire are:

• What was your commission goal for this year?
• What was your unit sales goal for this year?
• How many listings did you take last year?
• How many listings did you sell last year?
• Do you charge a processing fee for buyers?
• Do you charge a processing fee for sellers?
• What areas of real estate do you work? Listings? Foreclosures? Buyers? Property management? Cash buys? Rentals? Land Contracts? Private Investment? Mortgages? Closings? New Construction? Bank REO's? Title?
• What is your average sales price?
• What is the average sales price in your market?
  Shadowing a successful person, if you are able to get approval to tag along, can costs about $2,000 - $4,000 per day. Ralph Roberts shadowing fee is a $3,000 per day.

Industry Examples of Coaching

From Google internet searches to the yellow pages, one notice there are a large group of coaches available that offer a large variety of programs commercially. Finding the right coach is of course a tricky and requires researching the credentials and track record of the coaching companies.
As most coaching companies were built around the personality of one individual and therefore one of the key ingredients is to ensure that you know who will actually in the end be your coach and whether he or she has the experience in the specific area you need.
Also as coaching is based on a very one-on-one relationship it is important that you feel that there is a high level of trust and respect between you and you coach. Some of the most well known organizations that have a reputable and good track record include personalities such as:

• Advanced Real Estate Sales Coaching – Jim Gillespie
• Allen Hainge Seminars – Allen Hainge
• By Referral Only – Joe Stump
• Carla Cross Coaching – Carla Cross
• Providence Systems – Brain Buffini
• Real Estate Champions – Dirk Zeller
• Real Estate Coach – Bernice Ross
• The Mike Ferry Organization – Mike Ferry
• Walter Sanford Systems and Strategies – Walter Sanford

Cost ranges vary significantly from Coach to coach, on the number of calls, the length of the call and the “brand name” of the coach. The range is between $400 to $2,000 per month.

Industry Examples of Mentoring

Mentors can either be in a group setting or work on a one-to-one basis In real estate mentoring usually takes place between a successful agent that is desirous to share his or her experiences with those that feel they can benefit and learn from previous experiences and successes.
The type of items that experienced agent frequently share include:

• expertise gained with experiences
• acquired skills and business strategies that work
• tips to save time and maximize short cuts
• personal insights on where and how to find solutions
• money-making secrets

To gain the appropriate information and insights would however therefore require than you need access to not one mentor, but a large pool of mentors and successful agents, each willing to provide their own vast base of experience and knowledge.

The real estate industry is very fortunate to have an online mentoring service iSucceed has been able to pool together such a large group comprising of many the nation’s top-producing agents have that offer their advice and guidance. They have an impressive cadre of 200 mentors including well known names such as:

• Diane Armitage
• Terry Murphy
• Dianna Kokoszka
• Terry Paranych
• Michael Ardolino
• Roddy McCaskill
• Terry Moerler

Mentoring varies whether it is on an one-to-one basis or a group basis, but ranges somewhere between $50 - $500 per month. Because iSucceed has been able to effective offer mentoring online they have been able to reduce the pricing to a very low $30 per month

iSucceed

The iSucceed (www.iSccceed.com) mentoring service includes the following services:

• Weekly live counseling by a top producing agent/mentor about an important industry or business concept
• Step-by-step money making success strategies that everyone can implement
• Downloadable marketing tools, prelist packs, scripts, flyers etc. from these top producing agents
• Answers to tough industry questions
• Self paced online learning content covering topics such as:
  
  • New agent training
  • Broker management
  • Office staff and personal assistant
  • Business planning
  • Life balancing classes
  • Technology

The hidden secret of iSucceed mentoring success however, is not the occasional help, but the daily interaction with the source of information. 24 x 7 access therefore is very important. Without that regular interaction, agents particularly new agents, will remain on a roller coaster of emotions, discouragements, depressions, fears, and anxieties.

Conclusion

The creative use of individual personality, the development of new habits, more efficient skills, and streamlined work and social procedures is the most difficult and most strategic activity in the real estate training/education process.

When individual decisions are dissected, each person's choice of mentor, coach, or shadow is directly related to the agent's personality, comfort zone, education level, income stream, time commitment, personality type, insecurities, urgency for success, and magnetic attraction towards certain advertised products or services.

But all that said, in the end, whether you use shadowing, coaching or mentoring as a method to improve yourself, there is no question that it will be wise move and should directly lead to improved production and higher income.

Author:
The article has been written by Dr. Martin Oliver, an Organizational Development Consultant with RealSure, Inc. He can be reached at Oliver@RealSure.com or (949) 349-9394 x 107