This article was originally published on inman.com

Only two metrics really matter to your brokerage: recruitment and retention.

It’s painful for brokerage leaders to watch top-producing agents defect to competing brokerages. When you can’t identify the reasons, the sting can be unbearable.

Why is retention so important, aside from the obvious that top producers continue to produce? Because it is an indisputable, impossible-to-fabricate metric that reflects your brokerage’s core values.

Retention measures the quality of a brokerage more accurately than the size of its agent base, the total number of homes it sells each year, or the average annual commission of its agents.

And here’s the kicker: Retention is, bar-none, the best recruitment tool.

While this is the case, firms consistently struggle to focus properly on retention, or simply overlook it. Over 90 percent of real estate executives cited onboarding top talent as a central business concern, according to a survey by real estate marketing firm Imprev. Retention was not listed as a chief concern, an indication that it simply isn’t a priority for many brokerage execs.

We’ll cut to the chase. If you have an agent retention problem, It’s not them, it’s you.

You may be falling short in a variety of areas, including the ones below. Review them to see how you stack up and where you could improve.

Culture and empowerment

Can you define your company culture? If you can’t sum it up in a few words, chances are your agents don’t relate to it, and therefore don’t feel close to your firm.

Do you have tools and resources that empower your agents with effective ways to generate leads and business? Do you provide tangible value to your agents in exchange for the brokerage fees you charge them?

If the answer is no, then it’s time to reevaluate your value proposition to agents.

Technology
Are your agents using disjointed, cookie-cutter solutions? Do you offer customizable web solutions for your team? How are your current systems helping agents close more deals? Is your team on the same page, or do agents have their own processes and tools?

Give your agents smart, effective platforms and websites to win and convert more business, and you’ll keep more of them happy and under your banner.

Training and Education
Technology improves your ability to deliver quality training and education which helps you track performance and identify ways to improve. Agents also want tools that will help them grow their business.

Do you have the systems in place to support agent and team performance across an entire sales cycle, that supports targeted training and improves results?

If your brokerage is strong in all these areas, you are a happy outlier. However, we bet that you’ve identified at least a few aspects of your business to improve through this post.

The brokerage industry has seen success recently even as individual brokerages struggle to keep top agents. Just imagine the impact of improving just a few of the areas we covered in this article on your business. Good luck and godspeed on your upped retention! Your agents and bottom line will thank you.