While we don’t have 2026 numbers yet, a large portion of agents hadn’t closed a single transaction in 2025, though there are some disputes about the exact percentage, which is widely cited as 71 percent. Given that market conditions have gotten tougher and fewer transactions have closed since then, I feel like I can safely assume that percentage has grown.
Some brokerages adopt the “sink or swim” model, which I’m not a fan of. They essentially treat agent support as an unnecessary expense and leave agents to figure it all out themselves. I prefer to build a system of support to help our agents become more successful. I see that as an investment rather than an expense.
As a result, my internal data shows that we tend to produce more revenue per agent and have less agent churn. That obviously means that many of our agents have experienced meaningful income growth, which has a lot to do with why we face less churn.
This approach, in my opinion, creates a work environment and results that benefit everyone involved, including you as the broker, your agents, and most importantly, their clients.
So in this article, I’m going to break down three valuable skills you can teach your agents that will help them close more transactions and earn more money, as well as help you generate more revenue and retain agents longer.
3 ways to help your agents be more productive
Build a powerful personal brand
I am extremely passionate about building a personal brand because I’ve seen the impact it has firsthand, as well as seeing its impact for hundreds of my agents.
A personal brand is critical because it gives home buyers and sellers a reason to be drawn to you. It separates you from the 1.5 million other agents out there who all sound exactly the same because they all are content to rely on their broker’s company brand.
But a personal brand is a lot more than a fancy logo and a website. At its foundation, it’s who you are and what you stand for. The next level is the content you create that demonstrates your expertise and educates prospects. And finally, the last level is the aesthetics of your brand.
I’ve covered this in depth in previous articles here and here at Inman.
Build a referral network
Your direct marketing efforts can only scale by investing more time and/or money, so there is a cap on how far you can move the needle here.
But your referral network, if nurtured effectively, can scale infinitely because, by proxy, it’s a one-to-many relationship. What I mean by that is each person in your network can put you in front of anyone in their network at any time, so by managing those relationships, you effectively gain access to their entire network.
This is how you turn a few useful contacts into a steady stream of referrals.
The key here is to consistently seek to provide value to the contacts in your network. This might include educating their audience on webinars or at in-person events, producing content together, and even sending them referrals.
When you’re valuable to people, they will want to reciprocate. But it’s important to mention that while this is simple, it’s not easy.
The process of being valuable is not complex — you’re looking for opportunities to help them achieve their goals, which you can usually do by simply promoting them or referring people to them. That’s pretty straightforward. But staying on top of it is not easy because it requires a commitment of time and energy, so most people start off strong but quickly fall off track.
So if you can stay on top of it, you’ll build a powerful advantage over competitors.
Leverage value-based marketing
Those TikTok dances and other silly content may be fun to make, and it may even get you a ton of friendly engagement, but it rarely leads to business.
That’s because it’s focused primarily on entertainment value.
Value-based marketing, on the other hand, is focused on educating your audience. This includes prospective home buyers and sellers, of course, but it also includes potential referral partners and even random people who may refer business to you.
You’ll make this type of content by explaining things about your industry in a way outsiders can understand. In the process, you’re demonstrating your expertise while training the social media algorithms to show your content to more people. It also plays a big role in your personal branding because your content will help your audience get a clear sense of your personality and principles.
I personally love video content for this purpose because it’s relatively easy to create, it makes you more relatable, and most importantly, it’s easy for your audience to consume. And you want to get in the habit of creating a few pieces each week at a minimum.
Derek Carlson runs Realty ONE Group in Naples, Florida.
