Leverage Your 80 Percent – Hire an Assistant

“Having an assistant changed my life and it can change yours too.”

Monica Reynolds, GM/Partner of Heller Real Estate Group, says the secret to leveraging your 80 percent is simple – hire an assistant! 

How an Assistant Benefits You

Take a minute to think about all daily tasks. Between the meetings, emails and phone calls, there seems to never be enough time. Imagine that you had four extra hours for lead generation and other activities that would benefit your bottom line.

By hiring an assistant, you can easily gain four extra hours (or more) in a day – allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your business and dream up an endless amount of possibilities.

Skeptic?

Reynolds acknowledges that there are several reasons agents do not hire assistants. Some struggle with delegation; others are reluctant to let go of important projects and initiatives they’re managing. If this is you,  she urges you not to be deterred. You will be less likely to experience these issues if you take the time to hire the right person for the job.

What the Ideal Assistant Looks Like

Below is a profile for the perfect assistant you’re about to hire.

• Has a background in administration
• Works an administrative center
• Shiny eyes – they are excited and eager for the job!
• Their profile it a fit with the KPA job profile
• On-time, consistent

Making the Right Hire

In the Millionaire Real Estate Agent, Gary Keller outlines how you’ll know that you’ve hired the right talent:  

• Your assistant pushes to get answers.
• He/she shares your goals and fulfills your needs as a natural by-product of fulfilling their own. 
• Talent knows what it wants or is actively searching to know. 
• They push you consistently. 
• Your new hire is continually rainsing the bar and wants to be associated with other talented individuals. 

Unfortunately, many agents will not experience the benefits of a new hire because they move too fast, don’t go through the KPA process, hastily hire family and friends, and simply don’t have the models and systems in place. So as a result, they improvise and end up making a bad hire.  

A bad hire will cost you, warns Gary Keller. “It will not only cost you money, it will cost you opportunities.” So putting in the work to make the right hire is paramount. 

After the Hire

The work doesn’t stop when the offer letter is signed. Once you hire your assistant, there are important things you must do to make sure they stay. The first 90 days are crucial.

Reynolds says, be committed to training him/her and reccomends putting together a training checklist (or job description) for the assistant to ensure success. Stand by this list and the job description you provided to him/her so you can keep yourself accountable. It is important you train your assistant on everything. Go through scripts on the phone, data entry, closings, listings and everything else that you do.

According to Reynolds, the number one reason assistants fail is because of a lack of training. If you invest time and training into your assistant, both of you will reap the benefits.

Imagine the Possibilities 

Think about all of the things you could pursue with the help of an assistant – marketing, having a sharper focus on your top 25 clients, lead generation, increasing the number of closings … the list is endless!

If you’re not sold, try hiring a part-time assistant to test the waters. You will quickly see an increase in your return on investment, and if you decide you want to go all in, you will likely find a full-time assistant in no time.

We’re Here to Help

At Keller Williams, we recognize that talent is an important investment for your business. This is why we developed the Leverage Series – a curriculum of powerful courses designed to help you bring the best talent on board and retain them. By following the courses in the Leverage Series, finding the right assistant and keeping them is made easy!