Level 6 of Tom Ferry’s 8 Levels of Performance is all about maximizing production from your team. You’ve already built a high-performing team, established systems, delegated responsibilities, and created a productive environment where your team can thrive. But now, you’re ready to take an even bigger step: transforming your business into a self-sustaining entity that grows independently of you.
This is the stage where things really get fun. It’s where you transition from a hands-on team leader to a visionary in business development. The focus is on scalability and operational independence, empowering leaders within your team, and setting the stage for market expansion. This blog covers the strategies you need to maximize productivity by scaling up your business model, automating key processes, and building high-level relationships that drive long-term growth.
Scaling and replication are two distinct concepts in a business development plan that are critical at Level 6.
A coach who helps oversee your business from a high level will help you to understand each aspect and balance the two while scaling up your business.
Scaling a business at Level 6 involves creating a foundation that can support growth without constant input from the leader. You want your business running like a machine instead of a puppet that constantly requires you to move it. The key steps in how to scale a business include:
Empower Leaders for Operational Independence
To scale up effectively, you need to build a team that doesn’t just work for you but operates alongside you. That means empowering leaders for operational independence. Operational independence starts with recruiting and developing leaders who can take over essential functions. These leaders allow you to focus on business growth rather than day-to-day business management.
At this stage, your goal is to create a business model that can be replicated across different locations or additional teams. Systematizing processes is the key to making your process more scalable and replicable. Think of it like Level 3 but on an entirely new scale.
The focus here is to ensure that each process is documented and automated as much as possible. This way, even if you step away temporarily, your team will have the guidelines and tools to operate seamlessly. On our video and resource library platform (Tom Ferry Learning), we have a ton of prewritten S.O.P.s from top agents that you can download and put straight onto your team’s Google Drive or whatever file management system you use.
You may have noticed here that scaling up is all about maximizing productivity by making things run on their own without the need for you to crank the lever. That means automation is key.
Automation is different from systemization in that you’re not just creating a streamlined workflow but introducing tools that will actually get the work done automatically for you. When you’re not bogged down in the details, you can put energy toward strategic business development and high-impact activities.
Having a coach to help guide you through the process of automating your business operations is crucial because they’ll be able to help you better manage and train your team during this time. They’ll help you train your people to embrace this technology in order to multiply the amount they can achieve every single day.
With your operations in good hands, you’re now free to cultivate high-level relationships. Networking, partnerships, and community involvement will help you build a business that’s recognized and respected. Think about connecting with real estate associations, local businesses, and influential clients. These relationships are invaluable for business growth and open doors for new opportunities, referrals, and market expansion.
Of all the benefits of Tom Ferry coaching, one of the most powerful for agents at this level is the supportive, hyper-connected ecosystem of top-performing agents around the world. The best way to become an industry leader is to surround yourself with industry leaders, and the connections you’ll form within these circles will help you open doors you may not have even known existed.
When your team, systems, and leadership are in place, it’s time to talk business planning for expansion. Level 6 is the stage for scaling up into new markets.
Each new market is a chance to start a business within your business. You’re not just growing—you’re scaling with vision and purpose.
Level 6 of the 8 Levels of Performance is where the real breakthrough happens in your life and business. Once you set your business up to continually scale itself without your daily involvement, you’ll find yourself with a greater level of wealth, freedom, and creative agency than ever before.
But this is also a tricky stage to navigate because you’re rapidly being thrust into new territory where the stakes are higher than ever. Having an experienced coach will help you stay organized and informed, know the next moves to make, and allow you to avoid the common pitfalls that even brilliant business leaders make at this stage.
If you’re ready to maximize productivity, expand strategically, and secure long-term success, schedule a business growth consultation with a member of our team. We’ll help you implement strategies tailored to your unique business goals and vision, so you can take your business development to new heights.