After successfully running her own small manufacturing business in Chicago for many years, Lynn Cohen fell in love with a Brookline native and ran away from the Windy City to nearly-as-chilly New England. It was a change not only in locales, but also careers – she entered real estate soon thereafter.
Cohen spent many years with William Raveis in Newton before joining Keller Williams. She spent the past year recruiting 50 agents to Keller Williams’ Worcester office, and will assume a new role in February as CEO and team leader of Keller Williams’ Realty Market Center in Newton.
Lynn Cohen
Title: CEO and Team Leader at Keller Williams; Newton
Age: 60
Experience: 14 years
Q: You spent many years with William Raveis in Newton. Switching to Keller Williams meant switching to Worcester, a completely new market. What made you take the leap?
A: As a recruiter you need to really understand and love your story and be able to tell it very, very well. And as soon as I realized there was a better mousetrap than the one that I had, I couldn’t believe in my story anymore and I needed to make the jump. As a manager in a traditional company, you really are the definition of middle-level manager, and your job is to take the message from corporate and homogenize it so your agents don’t hate you. That is your job. In a tough climate, that gets harder. They start cutting expenses, taking perks away, changing royalty structures, so that they’re really biting more and more into what the agent takes home.
Q: How do you find good agents to recruit in this climate?
A: If you look at the MLS, top agents are thriving. Brand-new agents to the business, if they’re being properly managed, are growing. It’s that middle tier who are dropping off or doing with less. And so my energies obviously go to the two end points…. I’m a student of the market. I have learned to pull every report known to mankind out of MLS. So I know who’s doing the business… It’s actually very similar to going out and getting listings, the process. Developing relationships… Getting out and shaking hands. You’ll find me going out and doing an agent’s open house, so that I can meet and greet the agents walking in the door.
Q: When you find that person, how do you approach them to determine if they’re a good fit?
A: I use an investigative reporter’s approach, to tell you the truth. I have a series of questions that I like to ask people. About what their vision for the future is, and what it is that they’re willing to do to make that vision a reality… I think knowing yourself – are you a Type-A sales driver? Are you more like an engineer, analytic? – knowing how you respond helps you, because you attract people more like yourself. I think in real estate, it’s very interesting – the quiet engineer-types do business with a lot of other quiet engineer-types who appreciate them. So there’s room in this business for all personality types. I don’t believe in part-time real estate. That’s kind of heretical, I know, but I don’t. I don’t usually hire part-time people. In this climate, some of my best people have taken part-time positions to supplement their real estate. That’s different. But it isn’t a business for weekenders. I’m looking for someone who in the first year has the financial wherewithal to sustain themselves while I teach them. And I’m looking for a burning desire to succeed. So when I see those things, and they mesh with this agency’s philosophical position on how agents should be in partnership with their company, then we have a good match. And I do believe there has to be that match.
Q: Was there a particular moment you felt was gratifying, in that sense?
A: My single top producer in Worcester was a $6 million dollar producer when I met her. And we brought her up to $12 million this year, because I coached her weekly. That’s big growth in a very tough climate, in a very tough market. And we did it by counseling on price points and counseling on time management. She had all the rest of the skills, she was just wasting a lot of her time on things that didn’t make her money. She was just sort of taking a machine-gun approach, and taking anything that came her way, and we developed the discipline to have her refer out anything that came in under $250,000 – which was very nerve-wracking for her. But it opened up the time for her to spend time on profitable business instead of not-profitable business. So to me, to see an agent’s personal growth, and feel that I had any part in contributing to that, is really gratifying. Amazingly gratifying.
Lynn Cohen’s Top 5 Keys to Becoming a Successful Agent
- Establish a Stellar Reputation – Education and ethical practices matter.
- Lead Generation – Know how to be a networking pro.
- Master the Basics – Working with buyers, working with sellers, negotiation.
- Leverage – Spend 80 percent of your time on the 20 percent of most important tasks, and delegate the rest.
- Give Back – Support the community that supports you.
