One of the most important aspects of being a REALTOR® is keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of laws, regulations, and technology related to real estate. This means that every year, agents must partake in continuing education. A good agent is always learning and taking the necessary steps to stay knowledgeable for their clients. 

If knowledge is so important as a REALTOR®, why does it seem like most agents loathe continuing education or training? I have led many training sessions for real estate agents to help educate them on leveraging tools and technology in their business to increase productivity. I've also demonstrated leveraging technology platforms to solve their daily problems. Despite these training sessions being highly valuable for the agents in the room, I could tell they would rather be doing anything except sitting in the classroom and hearing me speak.

At Delta Media Group®, we understand the importance of training and education for real estate agents, especially regarding the always-evolving technology landscape. That's why two years ago, we launched DeltaNET Academy. DeltaNET Academy (DNA) is a Learning Management System (LMS) seamlessly integrated into our DeltaNET® all-in-one platform. It represents our commitment to helping change how agents think about training related to our technology tools by making the process simpler and more engaging.

Technology Training That Isn't Overwhelming

DeltaNET Academy allows brokerages to leverage dozens of out-of-the-box training courses we developed to help explain to agents how different tools in our CRM work. It delivers training guides on common processes, such as how to leverage these tools best to run an open house more effectively or use your CRM to prospect and farm new business from your already existing sphere of contacts. 

We understand that introducing new technology to agents can be extremely overwhelming for them. Often, they'll ask for the new shiny tool to help them expand their business. But when the brokerage delivers them an all-in-one platform containing every tool they could ever want, they ultimately don't use any of them due to feeling overwhelmed.

With DeltaNET Academy, we aimed to solve this problem. Instead of the firehose of information that a new tech platform often brings, we were able to leverage DeltaNET Academy to slowly drip-feed content to agents. It essentially works like this: When an agent first logs into their CRM, they may only have a few widgets or features available for them to use. Brokerages can then direct the agent to DeltaNET Academy, where they will find training courses on specific widgets or features that may be interesting to them. The agent can then take that training course and upon completing the course, unlock that new feature.

Think of the workflow like this: We know that 90% of agents will never use the blog feature in our system. So why have that feature shown to agents who would never use it? Instead, we keep the blog feature hidden, thus making the system look more approachable to non-tech-savvy agents. However, we can also direct agents who want to use that feature to go into DeltaNET Academy to take the blog course, and then that feature is unlocked just for that user who knows how to use that tool. 

It's a little bit of gamification. The courses are broken down into small modules that contain video walkthroughs of how to use the tools. With a library of dozens of widgets and training courses, it can be fun for agents to expand their tool kit slowly while learning about each system's features step by step. Rather than overwhelming them with everything all at once, it becomes a slow drip of information they can take in at their own pace. 

Building a Healthy Culture Around Technology

Our belief has always been that there is a negative connotation when it comes to real estate agents and technology. Given this connotation, the most successful brokerages are the ones that foster a healthy culture around it. Look at EXP or Compass; technology is a core part of their brokerage story and foundation. We advise our brokerage partners to take a similar approach, where they are telling a story to their agents about the importance of the technology that they are paying to provide.

DeltaNET Academy or any other Learning Management System allows brokerages to interweave their technology story into training on a weekly or monthly cadence. They can instruct agents to log in weekly or monthly to take the next training course and continue to expand what tools are available to them. Brokerages can even build their own training courses directly into DNA, so as new laws and regulations change, new content can be uploaded and assigned to agents for course completion.  

Increasing CRM Adoption Among Agents

We have found a direct correlation between DeltaNET Academy usage and overall CRM adoption within our tools. In 2022, our data showed us that roughly 34% of agents logged into their CRM/marketing platform weekly. Following the launch of DeltaNET Academy and the integration of new training courses in the platform, we saw that more than 69% of users were logging into their CRM/marketing platform every week. 

We discovered that when enabling DeltaNET Academy, agents log into their systems more regularly for training. And since they are frequently in the system anyway, it becomes more seamless for them to jump into their CRM, set up an email campaign, or connect their social media for automated content. 

Cultivate Success for Your Agents and Brokerage With an LMS

I highly recommend any brokerage looking to increase agent adoption of their technology look for a system like DeltaNET, which offers an integrated LMS to make tools more digestible and less overwhelming for agents. This will result in happier agents and greater efficiency for your brokerage.