The difference between popular team leaders and profitable solo agents.

What type of agent do you want to be: profitable or popular? I see these huge teams that bring in millions of dollars, but the team leader makes very little money. It begs the question: Do you want to be the popular agent everybody knows and loves or the profitable agent who’s doing a lot of business and keeping most of the money?

I’m a believer in the profitable agent. At the end of the day, our goal is to work hard and have an income that enables a better lifestyle for our families and us. We often look at all these big teams and talk about how successful they are, but their bottom lines tell a different story. Many of them are popular, not profitable.

How do you become a profitable agent, then? Engage in lead generation where you talk to people. Put aside all the lead-generation spending that the industry wants you to do. Some people do it, and they’re very popular. What you need to do is make a game plan to get 25 to 100 transactions by talking to people every day. You can start from nothing and develop a very profitable real estate business this way.

“Do you want to be profitable or popular?”

I’ve spent tons of time thinking about this while coaching other agents and reviewing other teams. Unless you’re willing to build a team with hundreds of agents, it will be hard to be profitable unless you commit to having communication-based lead generation. 

You should have conversations every day. That might mean combing through communities, talking to people over the phone, or having face-to-face conversations. You want to work with methods where you’re not spending massive amounts of money to get results.

Every year, I look at the chart of top agents in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and break it down. Often, the team leader isn’t very profitable. Then, I’ll see solo agents who do 80 to 130 deals and are hugely profitable. They’re doing tons of business and keeping more of their money. 

Who do you want to be? It’s okay to be a popular agent if that is the route you want to go, but you can’t forget the bottom line. That’s what we focus on in my company.

If you have any questions about being a profitable agent or the industry in general, feel free to call or email me. I would love to hear from you.