WAV Group is the leading provider of Association and MLS customer satisfaction surveys measuring feedback from over 500,000 practitioners annually. In that breadth of research, there is a direct correlation between training engagement and overall member satisfaction. The more a user engages with training, the more they learn how to fully leverage MLS tools and Association programs. 

Education and training consistently rank as top value drivers, yet most organizations struggle with disappointing course enrollment and attendance.

Most organizations offer one size fits all training, targeted more to newer and less experienced agents. It’s no wonder that someone that has been in the business for 10+ years does not engage. They do not believe the content is “for them”

Organizations need to stop sending one-size-fits-all training announcements to your entire membership. When you do that, you’re asking a new agent with six months of experience and a 20-year veteran broker to care about the same educational content at the same time. It simply doesn’t work and importantly, it can lead to minimal engagement with a very important customer segment – those securing new listings and creating business opportunities for the entire market. 

 

WHAT EFFECTIVE TRAINING SEGMENTATION LOOKS LIKE

You need to deliver the right training and the right message to the right agent or broker at the right time. That requires proper segmentation based on:

Start by Identifying Customer Segments

Education beyond CE is a great place to start to drive home the value of the Association. With effective, targeted communications, the Association can position itself as a partner in success, segmenting the type of education available by customer segment. For example, a new agent needs to know how to get to their first deal quickly so they can afford to stay in the business. A part-time agent may need to learn how to do enough business to be able to leave their other job and work in real estate full-time. A moderately successful agent needs to figure out how to refine their sales processes to sell 2 to 4 properties a month. And the top producer doesn’t necessarily need help with the sales process, but may need to learn more about how to become engaged in advocacy or how to scale their business into a team. Every one of those segments can be easily identified by looking at tenure and productivity, as an example. Associations and MLSs need to build segmented databases based on factors like tenure, education participation and productivity as a starting place before they can begin delivering targeted communications. 

 

Experience level and license status

Newer agents 

Newer agents need onboarding and nurturing to get them beyond what they learned in licensing school. They need to learn the basics of the sale process and how to effectively nurture and support clients and to become a responsive business professional. They need to learn their role in an effective real estate transaction. The ultimate job is to keep them in the business longer by helping them learn how to become an effective real estate sales professional.  

Experienced Agents

There is a different communications challenge you need to meet with more experienced agents. Many of them do not believe they need training any more. The first communications challenge is to prove to them there are ways you can help them be better if they engage in training built JUST for them. Then you need to build training that is truly built for more advanced users and more successful practitioners. 

Once you have built a series of more advanced training then you need to tap into WHY each of these classes is going to help them be better, even though they are already well-established. You also need to convince more experienced agents why the education will be worth their time. The classes need to be tied directly to business success. If they are too generic and purely information, attendance will be disappointing. 

Brokers

Brokers and brokerage staff are critical to Association and MLS engagement. If they are not aware of the education available and if they do not believe it will help their agents, they will not recommend participation. Effective communications identify broker managers and owners as their own segment and build a distinct communications channel to be sure brokers are aware of the ways you can help them help their agents succeed. 

 

Create, Promote and Reward Training Tracks – Members who completed the first in a series of three courses, for example, should automatically receive recommendations for the next level, creating a natural learning path. Some have created incentives and celebrations when agents complete a series too, gamifying the process. 

Continuing Education – The best associations today are tracking CE course participation for their members and then proactively reminding agents and their broker about how many hours they still need to fulfill their obligations. The more targeted and specific these communications are, the better. 

Licensing Renewal – Agents approaching license renewal need timely, relevant reminders, not generic announcements

This isn’t about sending more emails. It’s about sending smarter ones. When your training communications match member needs and timing, engagement improves dramatically.

 

THE TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION FOR SEGMENTATION

Here’s where we see many associations hit a roadblock. Your current communication tools weren’t built for this level of sophistication. Generic email platforms require manual list exports, spreadsheet manipulation, and extensive staff time to achieve even basic segmentation.

The associations WAV Group works with who are seeing success have moved to platforms that integrate directly with their member databases. This allows automated segmentation based on real-time member data. When a new member joins, training communications begin automatically. When someone completes a course, the system triggers relevant next-step recommendations. When compliance deadlines approach, targeted reminders go out without staff intervention.

This level of automation doesn’t just improve training engagement. It transforms the member experience and demonstrates tangible association value. When members receive relevant training recommendations at the right time in their career journey, they attribute their professional development success to your association’s support. That’s the satisfaction connection we see in every survey.

SEEING IT IN ACTION

Greater Los Angeles REALTORS® (GLAR) recently transformed their member communication strategy, including how they approach training and education outreach. Their approach centered on connecting communications directly to member data, automating workflows based on member status and behavior, and delivering personalized content at scale without increasing staff workload.

RE Technology just released a detailed case study examining GLAR’s implementation of targeting communications by customer segment. The study highlights the methods they built to identify and address the unique needs of several customer segments. The results they achieved are measurable and significant. For association leaders evaluating their own communication and training engagement strategies, it’s worth a closer look.