Katy Robinson is director of events, learning and development with RE/MAX Integra New England, the Massachusetts-based offices for Integra Enterprises Corp. of Toronto, which represents almost one-third of the RE/MAX agents worldwide, including in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Robinson discusses a new company program, Take Flight, aimed at providing coaching to new agents.
PBN: What is Take Flight?
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ROBINSON: Take Flight is a two-day, intensive boot camp and four-week continued coaching program designed to teach the specific skills a new agent needs in order to operate a successful real estate business. By the end of the program, these agents will have developed a business plan, a marketing plan and an economic plan.
PBN: What was the purpose of creating the program?
ROBINSON: RE/MAX has always been a place where experienced agents and top producers would join the network knowing how to succeed and grow in this industry. We didn’t have to teach them how to run their business and focused on helping them continue to grow. However, in these last few years we have seen a shift in real estate and the agents we are attracting. We are getting fresh and young agents who are not as experienced but just as eager. We found at the brokerage level, they didn’t have systems or onboarding processes in place to support them, so [we’re] developing a course designed to help our new agents. … Take Flight is designed to help and support agents that have [three years or fewer] in the business, making $50,000 or less, and doing seven or less transactions.
PBN: How will this help RE/MAX?
ROBINSON: It’s going to help green our network. We have young and new agents coming onboard and experienced agents can only be so young. This shift that we are seeing is a good opportunity for us to head in the right direction to help our brokers cater to their agent’s needs. It’s essentially a recruiting tool that allows brokers to go out there and tell agents that we will take care of them and provide them with training that’s affordable.
PBN: How does a course like this impact or shape the industry?
ROBINSON: The industry and our own network is changing, and we are seeing more newer and younger agents coming to us and as brands, we need to come up with innovative ways to take care of them and learn the field.
PBN: How is this different than other training programs?
ROBINSON: Our Take Flight trainers are industry specialists and experts in adult education, whose focus is to provide attention and the right knowledge to our agents.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
