AREC2017 EA StudioElite AgentElite Agent TVFEATURE INTERVIEWS

Feature Interview: Michael Coombs with Claudio Encina

In our latest feature interview from the AREC2017 Elite Agent Studio, Claudio Encina talks to Michael Coombs about building a real estate super-team and sustainable business model.

Transcript:

Claudio Encina: Here we are at Elite Agent Magazine stand celebrating 20 years of AREC, and we had Michael Coombs talk with Tom Panos about super teams. Michael, thanks for joining us on the couch today.

Michael Cooms: Thanks for having me.

Claudio: How many is in your team now?

Michael: It’s myself plus three others, so a team of four.

Claudio: Team of four. Could you just maybe give me their roles in your team?

Michael: So I’ve got Angela Koulouris, who is my client service manager. She manages all the vendors, does all the marketing, and looks after myself and my diary and manages the team a little bit.

Then I have John Melville, Tim Moltzen below me, and they’re your junior agents. They manage the players. They support me on all my listings.

When I started off 15 years ago, I didn’t really have much money. I was on a debit/credit living off three and a half thousand dollars a week. Then, after my first year, I got a few sales and then when, I think I had about 220. Then I put a PA on.

If you’re a good prospector and that too and you’ve added admin, then you need an admin person. If you’re an agent that doesn’t really prospect, but you’re happy to do some back end, then you need a prospector. So I guess it depends on the agent. When I hit over 500 I did a second, and then over a million dollars, I put on a third person.

Probably the key thing on that, too, was, if you’re taking someone else on or putting on a team member, it’s to do more business. A lot of people go, “Okay, I’ve got a prospector now, I don’t prospect as much.” The way we did it, I put a prospector on, I still do the same thing. I still need to prospect 200 calls a week, but they’ve gotta do 200. That’s how you go to the next level.

Claudio: And does everyone in your team have certain KPIs they need to meet?

Michael: We catch up every morning just to keep each other on track, and I sit down with them once a week, one on one, and just work out if they’re on with their KPIs or not. I find if I address it weekly, or fortnightly at the latest, then if they’re off track I can get them back on track quickly.

Claudio: You go out there and play hard. You play level ten. But then you also got to play level ten when are you going to have a break and rest and recharge the batteries?

Michael: Yeah, definitely. I usually take the time off in periods when I’m quieter. And I obviously encourage my team off at those times as well. So, in my area the market is sort of around the school holidays, which is quite lucky, because that’s when it drops off. So that’s when we have breaks as well.

But I find that, when I’m doing the job, if I give it 100 percent, then I can tell that I can take off time. After here I’ve got a health retreat for a couple of days with my wife, just recharging, then I’ll go back.

Claudio: Michael, thanks for your time. Thanks for joining us on the couch.

Michael: I appreciate it. Cheers.

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