A Floyd Wickman blog by Mike Pallin “Build from the bottom.” -Floyd

From the beginning, from the very first experimental Floyd Wickman Program in 1980 through today, Floyd has kept us true to his mission – to help those agents in the bottom half of production. And by extension, help our clients build their organizations from the bottom up.

From the beginning, and still today, 82% of our students begin the program in the bottom half of production. (Our follow-up surveys show that 66% graduate into the top half within a year!)

WHY does Floyd specialize in helping the bottom half?

Because that’s who Floyd has empathy with, since he struggled to close only three sides his first full year in real estate, until he got some training and became a success.

Because the bottom half needs help the most, the bottom half takes the most management time, and the bottom half can increase a company’s market share the most dramatically.

Because it is much easier to retain good people and get them producing than it is to recruit and train good producers.

And because most of the people who leave real estate, leave because they can’t afford to stay in it.

WHO is in the bottom half of production?

Look at a roster of the agents in your company in rank order, high to low, by # closings in the last 12 months. Let’s say Bob is my #1 agent and he closed 42 sides. Theresa is #2 and she closed 39 sides. Between my #1 and #2, they have 81 closed sides. My #3 agent, Michelle, closed 38. Cumulatively, we’re now at 119 closed sides for just the top 3 agents.  Continue to add up the closings until you reach half of the total closings. How far down the roster are you?

Here’s an example from Lopsided Realty in Whodathunkit, Idaho.

Lopsided has approximately 100 agents. In the past 12 months, they have closed 700 sides, for an average of 7 per person. But their top 7 agents closed 350 of them, or half the company production. The top half closed an average of 50 sides each. The bottom half of production at Lopsided Realty represents 93% of the agents. The remaining 93 agents divvy up 350 closings among them. They averaged less than 4 each.

What would happen to Lopsided Realty if the top 7 agents left? According to the “next man up” philosophy in the NFL, when you lose a valuable player, the next man up has to step up and fill the void. What if they’re not ready? Or able?

Example #2. Pareto Realty in Saniflush, Indiana. Pareto has 300 agents, and they closed a total of 2100 sides. That is an average of 7 per person. But the average doesn’t tell the whole story, does it?

Their top 60 agents (20%) closed 1050 of them. The top half closed an average of 17.5 transactions per person. The bottom half at Pareto Realty is 80% of the agents. That’s 240 agents producing 1050 closed sides, for an average of 4.4 each.

Pareto is in better shape than Lopsided, but eventually everybody leaves real estate and has to be replaced, especially the top producers.

Production is almost always distributed unevenly, because there are always new people getting started in the business, people in slumps, people who don’t need to produce much and usually don’t, and veterans on their way out of the business. There are also teams with the production of all the agents on the team attributed to one lead agent.

WHO is the Floyd Wickman Program for?

Well, it’s not for everybody, even if they are in the bottom half of production. But every client company that we have worked for since 1980 had plenty of agents who needed to get started or restarted; plenty of agents who used to be good and needed to be good again; plenty of agents who wanted to do more but didn’t seem to be able to find more time; and plenty of agents who wanted to develop their listing skills and build a listing inventory.

That’s why Floyd’s programs have been so popular for so long, and are the most emulated in the real estate industry. Production from the agents in the bottom half always goes up when they take a Floyd Wickman Program. Every single time. It always has, and always will.

By the way, top producers take our program too. 18% of our students are from the top half of production. That’s how they stay top producers.

Floyd’s philosophy is to build an organization from the bottom up. As he says, “You can’t pull them up, but you can build them up.” And it sure beats the alternatives.