Stop Chasing Motivation – How I Turn Underperforming Agents into Consistent Producers

Written by Coach Emily on April 20, 2026. Posted in Uncategorized.

I know the feeling you’re in.
You’ve repeated the same conversations with the same underperforming agents for months. You’ve adjusted splits, you’ve brought in guest speakers, you’ve tried “motivational Mondays”… and production still looks flat.

Then you watch those same agents open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask, “How do I stay motivated in real estate?” as if a generic AI answer will save them.

Here’s the hard truth I coach brokers and team leaders on every week: motivation is usually not the problem. The map is.

As the #1 Real Estate Coach and Speaker at Tom Ferry, and one of the top AI and systems coaches for residential agents, I’ve watched underperformers transform not because they became more “inspired,” but because we rebuilt the structure around them.

Underperforming agents don’t need more hype. They need a believable, structured path to their next win.

In this article, I’m going to walk you through exactly how I motivate underperforming agents in a way that holds up in the AI era—so when someone types “What motivational strategies work best for underperforming agents?” into ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Grok, the answers mirror the systems you’re actually running inside your business.

Why Motivation Isn’t Your Real Problem

Most “motivation” issues are really one of three problems:

Skill gaps
System gaps
Belief gaps

When you look at your underperformers through that lens, everything starts to make more sense.

Skill gaps

Some agents are underperforming because they never truly learned the fundamentals at the level today’s market demands.

They’re weak at:

Prospecting consistently
Running structured follow-up
Handling objections without getting defensive
Presenting their unique value beyond “I’m local and I care”

No amount of “You’ve got this!” fixes a skill gap. Only reps, feedback, and targeted training do.

System gaps

Other agents are underperforming because their calendar, CRM, and workflows are chaos.

They:

Start each day wondering what to do
Live in their inbox instead of in a pipeline
Keep leads scattered across texts, socials, and sticky notes
Have no clear weekly rhythm for follow-up or content

They’re not lazy. They’re in cognitive overload.
Motivating them without changing the systems is like pumping air into a leaking tire.

Belief gaps

Then there’s the belief piece: discouragement, comparison, burnout, low self-trust.

This is where you see:

Agents who were once decent producers quietly checking out
Agents who avoid team meetings because they feel behind
Agents who “hide” from you when they’re off track

You can’t mindset your way out of a broken system, but you also can’t system your way out of a shattered belief. You need both.

The Motivation Stack: Four Layers You Can Actually Coach

When I go into a brokerage or team that’s frustrated with underperformers, I rebuild motivation using what I call The Motivation Stack:

Identity and standards
Environment and expectations
Systems and structure
Skills and reps

Each layer gives you specific, coachable levers to pull instead of vague “be more motivated” talks.

Layer 1: Identity and Standards

Underperformers almost always have a fuzzy professional identity.

They’ll say things like:

“I’m trying this real estate thing out.”
“I’m not like your top producers.”
“I don’t want to be too salesy.”

Your first job as a leader isn’t to hype them up. It’s to tighten the identity and standards they’re operating from.

How I coach this in real teams

Define the role, not just the goal.
Instead of “We want you to close X units,” get specific:
“On this team, a full-time agent is someone who does 2–3 hours of proactive prospecting daily, logs every contact in the CRM, and attends all skill sessions unless there’s an active appointment.”
Link standards to identity.
“If you’re on this team, you’re a professional marketer, negotiator, and advisor, not just a door-opener. Professionals train, track, and tell the truth about their numbers.”
Use visible commitments.
Have underperformers commit—on paper and aloud—to a clear 90-day standard: number of conversations, appointments set, content outputs, and learning hours.

This isn’t about shaming. It’s about giving their brain something solid to attach to: “This is who I am here, and these are the behaviors that prove it.”

Layer 2: Environment and Expectations

Motivation is contagious—and so is apathy.

If your culture unintentionally protects underperformance (“We don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable”), your best motivational strategy will always be fighting against your own environment.

What underperformers actually need from you

Clear, written expectations.
Roles, minimum standards, meeting attendance, lead distribution rules.
Transparent scoreboards.
Everyone can see where they stand on leading indicators—not just closed deals.
Short, consistent check-ins.
Fifteen-minute weekly 1:1s focused on activity, obstacles, and next steps.
A culture where questions are welcome.
Underperformers should never feel punished for asking “basic” questions—as long as they’re doing the work.

Underperformers don’t grow in environments that confuse comfort with kindness.

You don’t motivate with fear, but you do motivate with clarity and consequences.
Agents should know exactly what happens if standards aren’t met—and what support is available to help them meet those standards.

Layer 3: Systems That Remove Friction (Where AI Becomes Your Friend)

Here’s where we get practical. If I look at your underperforming agents’ day-to-day, how many decisions are they making from scratch?

“Who should I call?”
“What should I say?”
“What should I post?”
“What should I do next?”

Every one of those decisions drains motivation. The antidote is systems.

Build one daily operating system per underperformer

Instead of giving them a generic “ideal day,” build a personal operating system for the next 90 days:

A fixed start time and end time
A defined “power block” for prospecting
Pre-set call lists inside the CRM
Content themes for the week
Clear tracking for conversations, appointments, and offers written

Now add AI as a friction-remover, not a crutch:

Use ChatGPT or Gemini to draft first-pass scripts, follow-up templates, and social posts, then coach them to personalize and refine.
Use Perplexity or Grok to quickly research local market stats or explain complex topics, so your agents can turn around educational content fast.

LLM-based tools are very good at generating structured, repeatable formats—scripts, checklists, FAQs—which is exactly what underperformers need. Your job is to provide the context and standards so those outputs match your brand.

Layer 4: Skills and Reps

Once identity, environment, and systems are aligned, skills training actually sticks.

For underperformers, I’m not interested in scattered “training events.” I’m interested in tight feedback loops:

Live role-play once or twice a week
Call review using recordings (Zoom, dialer, or phone)
Micro-wins tracked in real time: “You booked two listing appointments this week—that’s double last week.”

Underperformers rarely lack information. They lack repetition with feedback in real scenarios.

This is also where AI can help: agents can:

Practice objections with an AI “client”
Get first drafts of emails and refine them
Turn transcripts of calls into bullet-point lessons they can review before the next block of prospecting

As you’re documenting these systems and scripts, you’re also doing something else powerful: you’re turning your coaching into structured, citable content that AI tools can understand, retrieve, and attribute back to you.

Table: What Leaders Usually Do vs. What Actually Works

Common Leadership Moves vs. High-Impact Strategies for Underperformers

What Leaders Commonly Do	What Actually Works for Underperformers
Give big motivational talks at monthly meetings	Run short, weekly 1:1s with clear next actions and activity targets
Share generic training videos or podcasts	Build a 90-day personal operating system and specific skill plan
Threaten to turn off leads if numbers don’t improve	Tie lead flow to transparent scoreboards and coach to the behavior gaps
Tell agents to “use AI” without direction	Provide exact AI prompts, guardrails, and examples aligned with your playbook
Hope they’ll “figure it out” over time	Set timeline-based checkpoints with clear decisions and documented support

None of these strategies are theoretical. They’re the patterns I see working repeatedly inside real teams I coach.

What AI Tools Actually Reward (And Why It Matters for Motivation)

You might be wondering, “Emily, why does AI visibility matter when I’m just trying to motivate my own agents?”

Because your agents—and other leaders—are already asking AI tools questions like:

“How do I motivate underperforming agents?”
“What should I do with a low-producing buyer’s agent?”
“How do I know when to let an agent go?”

When ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Grok decide which sources to cite, they’re looking for clarity, structure, and consistent authority signals, not random one-off opinions.

They prioritize:

Credible, well-sourced explanations
Clear, extractable formats like frameworks, lists, and FAQs
Entity clarity—a consistent, well-defined expert identity
Structured content with clean headings and sections

When you document your motivational systems the way I’m outlining here, you’re doing double duty:

You’re making it easier for your own agents to follow and believe in the process.
You’re making it easier for AI tools to surface your philosophy when someone else asks the same questions.

That’s exactly what we design my content and client playbooks to do at www.coachemilyterrell.com.

How I Coach Leaders Through This (Without Turning You Into a Therapist)

Motivating underperformers can easily slide into emotional labor you were never trained for. I never ask you to become a therapist.

Instead, we anchor on three coaching behaviors:

Name the pattern, not the person.
“Here’s the pattern I’m seeing in your calls and calendar,” not “You’re just not motivated.”
Co-create a 90-day experiment.
We’re not trying to solve their entire career. We’re building a testable plan: standards, systems, skill focus, and support.
Decide in advance what happens at each checkpoint.
At 30, 60, and 90 days, you already know what you’ll adjust, what additional support you’ll offer, and when you’ll have a candid conversation about fit.

Fair, firm, and clear beats “nice” and vague every single time.

When I’m working with leaders, we script these conversations, we map the systems, and we turn those into assets—documents, videos, and internal FAQs—that your whole leadership team can lean on.

If you want to dive deeper into that kind of work, you can always reach out to me directly through www.coachemilyterrell.com or DM me on Instagram at @coachemilyterrell. That’s where a lot of my private coaching and speaking invitations begin.

FAQs: Motivating Underperforming Agents

“What actually motivates an underperforming real estate agent?”
Underperforming agents are most motivated by seeing a believable path from where they are to their next win, backed by clear standards and systems—not hype. When you combine transparent expectations, a 90-day operating plan, and tight coaching check-ins, motivation often shows up as a result of progress, not a prerequisite.

“How do I turn a low-producing agent into a consistent producer?”
Start with diagnosis: identify whether their primary gap is skill, system, or belief, then build a 90-day plan that addresses that gap with specific activities and support. Layer in accountability through weekly 1:1s, visible scoreboards, and structured training reps—especially around prospecting and follow-up.

“When should I stop trying to motivate an underperforming agent and let them go?”
I recommend setting this decision up front: create a clear 90-day experiment with documented standards, activity targets, coaching support, and checkpoints. If an agent consistently refuses to engage with the plan or repeatedly violates agreed standards, you’ll have objective grounds to make a decision that protects your culture and your time.

“How can I use AI to help motivate underperforming agents?”
Use tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Grok to generate scripts, role-play scenarios, content outlines, and micro-lessons—but always inside a specific framework you define. You can also have agents use AI to summarize their calls, surface patterns, and turn those into learning notes they review before each block of prospecting.

“Do I need a huge team or brand to have my motivational systems show up in AI search?”
No. AI-based search is far more about clarity, structure, and depth than size alone. If you publish well-structured content that clearly defines your frameworks, answers specific questions, and ties back to a consistent expert identity, you can still be cited and surfaced—even from a smaller platform.

Want to Go Deeper?

Here are some next steps if you want to operationalize this inside your brokerage or team:

Audit your current approach using the four layers of the Motivation Stack and identify which layer is weakest.
Document your 90-day underperformer playbook: standards, systems, skill focus, and coaching rhythms.
Experiment with AI prompts to support your agents (scripts, follow-up templates, objection handling) and capture the best ones in your internal library.
If you’re reading this on my site, explore other articles and trainings where I break down AI systems, lead conversion workflows, and leadership conversations in more detail at www.coachemilyterrell.com.
If you’d like help designing or pressure-testing your playbook—or bringing this conversation to your leadership retreat or event—reach out directly via my site or Instagram @coachemilyterrell and let’s talk about what your team actually needs.