When a young Mickey Mouse was the sorcerer’s apprentice, he got tired of cleaning the floors. So he magically empowered his mop to do the work — but instead, he unleashed total chaos.
If trying to do all your brokerage work yourself is getting you down, but you’re afraid of creating chaos by adding a partner, then Rod Santomassimo’s new book, “Teams Built to Dominate,” may offer some guidance. Santomassimo, a commercial brokerage coach and the author of the earlier best seller, “Brokers Who Dominate,” has expanded his advice toolkit. In the new book, he interviews brokers from teams across the country who reveal their secrets and provide a variety of different roadmaps for others who want to add a partner or build a team.
While the book focuses on commercial brokerages, Santomassimo begins with the residential team of Ari Harkov and Warner Lewis of Halstead. This duo has learned how to integrate systems and culture to generate more business. Part of their daily routine includes tackling an unpleasant task the first thing each morning.
The chapter on the former Massey Knakal team led by James Nelson, now integrated into Cushman & Wakefield, provides much insight into the thinking that went into building a team and led to dividing the work by skill sets.
As a young broker, Nelson was the Real Estate Board of New York’s Most Promising Rookie Salesperson of the Year and took on a part-time associate soon after. But even as Nelson built a successful team, he admits it took him years to let them have more client interactions. Once he assigned a team member to become the point person on each deal, however, it enabled him to have more time for other tasks, take a well-earned vacation and know there was always someone else watching the deal and available to the client.
Now all team members have formal roles, and while they sit together and interact all the time, they also have meetings and sign a formal Team Operating Agreement. Teams in Atlanta, Las Vegas and other cities all have varying formats.
In the book, Santomassimo provides bonus online links to numerous operating documents and other materials.
