When Amie Crouse took a pre-license class in 2015 at john greene Realtor in Naperville, her instructor imparted valuable advice to help the former bookkeeper not only focus on her specific skill set but balance work and family.
“The instructor said, ‘We will figure it out, and you’re going to be great,’” Crouse said.
Fast forward six years and the mother of three young children has earned a reputation as a sales coach for agents, and, as a top performer, she has a say in business planning.
“I was able to elevate my career through john greene because of the training and expertise,” Crouse explained. “They really highlight the fact that it is a full-time effort, but as long as you’re working hard, you are able to put together a strong foundation and therefore a business.”
With many agents employed as independent contractors, john greene Realtor’s culture of collaboration and innovation directly contributes to the success the company has enjoyed.
“The culture and environment has really been beneficial because we do encourage everyone to be their own Realtor and run their own business, but we need to lean on each other,” Crouse said.
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John greene Realtor is ranked No. 1 among small employers on the Chicago Tribune’s 2021 list of Top Workplaces, as measured by consultancy Energage in Exton, Pennsylvania.
Scott Parker, sales manager and vice president of sales and marketing, said collaboration is vital for agents to meet their goals. Monthly sales meetings encourage open and transparent communication.
“We want our team out there and productive, so we really try to minimize in-person meeting time,” Parker said. “We put a lot of onus and emphasis on ourselves as a management and leadership team to make sure that those meetings are not only productive but encouraging and motivational. And people actually want to show up.”
While some industries suffered economically amid coronavirus lockdown orders, real estate was deemed an essential business, and technology investments over the years left john greene Realtor well prepared for challenges related to coronavirus fears.
“We are a company that is very proactive in our investment in the resources and tools that we give to our agents to provide an elevated client experience,” Parker said. “And so a lot of that technology was already on the shelf. It was just simply a matter of adoption and coaching and training our agents to pivot quickly in a virtual world.”
Tigi Tasso, director of training, said there were a few weeks early on in the pandemic when the agency was unsure of what direction to take. “That gave us time as agents to really regroup and to say, OK, let’s make sure our skill sets are good,” she said. “So we took a lot of time in that downtime to improve skills. And as soon as they said we are an essential business, we had such high demand at that point because so many people, when they stayed at home in their homes, they looked around and were like, well, now that I’m spending so much time here, it doesn’t really work for me.”
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John greene Realtor has 206 Chicago-area employees. The company’s strong culture of celebration, especially when agents meet their goals, builds momentum and ingrains the idea that success leads to more success.
“Everybody has a different milestone,” explained Tasso. “We never want to forget the small stepping stones that get you there. It might be celebrating an agent’s first or last transaction. We have people who are retiring out of the business as well. It might be maybe you weren’t a top producer, but this is the first time you listed a home over $500,000 or whatever that milestone is.
We try to look at all the milestones and not just from top producers.”
Team-building activities help foster workplace ties. Even in its naming conventions, Parker said, “We don’t call our staff staff; we call our staff agent support. And that is because that is a very intentional decision that everybody who works for our company is here to support our agents and our mission to create an elevated real estate experience.”
Monthly gatherings celebrate agents’ success in achieving productivity goals. “We’re a culture that really celebrates success,” Parker said. “We have monthly get-togethers when we achieve our goals that all agents are welcomed and encouraged to attend.”
Company founder John Greene is an avid horseman and polo player, so every year the agency invites current and past clients out to a professional polo match.
After a year of staying at home and social distancing, the company declared August 2021 its reconnect month.
“The fundamental part of our culture is being together,” said Tasso. “We’re a team. We help each other.”
During reconnect month, agents participated in company walks where they met at local park districts or forest preserves. Other activities included fireside chats around a campfire, zip lining, happy hours, meeting at local coffee shops and showing appreciation with food truck catering.
Working Lunch
“We try to support small businesses as well as bring our team together to be able to enjoy a space,” Tasso said.
Fresh ideas often come out of the company’s social gatherings. “What’s really fun about it is people who have been in the industry for 15 years and people who have been in the industry for one year both have something to give,” Crouse said. “And I’m seeing the experienced agents love hearing what new cool things the new agents are doing. And of course, new agents love hearing how the veterans are making it through, too.”
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In addition to a savings investment plan and paid vacation and sick time, the company has an innovation fund for employees. In a format similar to the TV show “Shark Tank,” if agents pitch an idea that they think will help improve their personal business or the company’s business, john greene Realtor will take the proposal under consideration and vote to fund it. All the company asks is that employees who make pitches track the progress of their ideas and report back on their findings, positive or negative, and then if the idea is successful, share their knowledge with others in the organization.
The agency believes in keeping customers as clients for life. “The mentality wasn’t sales, sales, sales,” Crouse explained. “It was how do you become valuable to your friends and family? And that mentality really did well for me.”
The sheer expertise at the agency is what Crouse said keeps the job interesting.
“What I love about john greene Realtor is the wide variety of professionalism that is in those four walls,” she said. “We have multiple aspects of real estate in the office — residential, commercial, land and industrial. And all of it really works well together. But what I love even more is the individuality of all the agents. If you specialize in investment, you’ve got a place, and now you’re known as a john greene Realtor with a specialty there. I really enjoy seeing so many of my colleagues grow their business based on what is important to them.”
Brenda Richardson is a freelance writer.