The Critical Role Of Your Sales Meeting

Take A Look At Your Sales Meeting

There are three silos in your role as a leader that are most critical. Your training, your recruiting, and your sales meeting. What I want to talk to you about today is your sales meeting. I’ll  just throw some things right out there to you. “Oh, agents don’t like sales meetings, sales meetings aren’t that important, or sales meetings are really important because what I do for an hour is I give them so much information and I bring guest speakers in.” And the question that I always pose is, tell me about the attendance? “Well attendance again isn’t good because agents don’t like sales meetings.” And I come back with this; what I know is people spend time, commit their time, to things that give them value. One of the paths I constantly take leaders down is that one of self and/or personal responsibility, owning your outcomes. If we’re going to sit back and just stick in that space of, “agents just don’t like sales meetings,” you’re right it will continue to be that way. Or if your going to be a leader that is constantly growing, committed to delivering value to your agents, you’re going to change that up.

So here is what I’d like you to do, take a look at:

1. What does your attendance look like right now at your sales meeting?
2. Rate your sales meeting on a scale of 1-10?
3. Are you bringing guest speakers in? How’s that one working out?
4. Tell me what an agent takes from each one of your meetings? Does every time they attend your sales meeting are they able to take something from that meeting and go out and immediately implement it?

Food for thought! Stay tuned as I take you inside a sales meeting that will increase your attendance dramatically, will help you with retention, and will actually help you with recruiting.

Improving Your Sales Meeting Today! 

Training Fails Without Accountability

Training In Our Industry Fails!

Here’s what it comes down to, a lack of accountability! Take a look at our industry, take a look at your experience as a leader. I think our industry is the most trained industry on Earth, yet take a look at our fallout or for lack of better words our failure rates that takes place in the industry. And it’s a lack of accountability, now there’s many reason for that. Agents are independent contractors and leaders much of the time are afraid to hold agents accountable because they’re independent contractors and if “I’m not liked” an agents will leave. But here is what is interesting; survey after survey has been done and the number one thing agents want from a leader is accountability. We all want a level of accountability, sure we’ll resist, that’s normal, but accountability facilitates change.

So here’s what I want to suggest that you do with your training. Have a great class title, have great content, nothing longer than one hour (I think you go beyond an hour you get to these points of diminishing returns), share the content for about 45 mins.

And at the end of that training session what we need to do is this:

“Ladies and gentlemen based on what you’ve learned today, here is what I want you to recognize, the training didn’t take place in these 45 minutes in the classroom, the training takes place when you leave the classroom. So as a trainer, as a leader that’s here to facilitate productivity, what we need to do is to go around the room and each one of you publicly declare, based on what you’ve learned today, what action steps you’re going to take over the next two weeks. What commitments you’re going to make. I’ll write them down as you declare each and everyone of those commitments and then it’s my responsibility as a leader to check in and measure, hold you accountable. Keep in mind, I want to remind you, accountability is observing or noticing without judgement. We’re going to check in, we’re going to measure, and what’s going to take place is you are going to self-discover. What worked, what didn’t work, want you would do differently. As we constantly do this we create a higher awareness for you, you start to discover some things, you find out what’s getting in the way. Certainly the skill-sets are important but if we don’t couple the skill-sets that we transfer to you with accountability, nothing changes.”

And so you use those dialogues with those agents in the class, have them stand up and declare, “Here’s what I’m going to do over the next two weeks”. Then what you do, is you do your job as a leader and you check back with them in two weeks and measure.

• Here’s what you committed to, did you do it or didn’t you?
• What got in the way?
• In the realm of all that is possible, could you have kept that commitment?
• What did you learn?
• What are you going to do different?
• Acknowledge them for what they did do!

Get some accountability into your training and watch productivity change.

Training is just training without accountability.

Improving your training today! 

Training That Works

99% Of Training Fails!

Here is my strong opinion, and I’ve never been too shy about sharing that opinion, I call it the truth serum. My experience and belief is this, 99% of all training in our industry fails. Here’s what we see; great title, great content, and the leader leaves the class and says a prayer that people go out and are productive. Some are and some aren’t.

The first thing I want to talk to you about it is identifying who the best trainer is. You may have someone in your organization because you are a big company and they are the company trainer, or maybe it’s you. You should constantly be training and coaching your agents. It’s a big piece of what agents are looking for, they are not looking for an administrative person, you have that on your staff. They’re looking for a true leader, and a true leader transfers value to people.

But with that said, let’s take a look at this. Think about this for a minute, if you as the leader were going to do a listing presentation class this week, you’re going to invite people. Next week your top listing agent is going to do a listing presentation class. Who is going to have the best attendance? Naturally the person that’s doing it on a day-to-day basis.

So here is what I want to share with you, identify the best trainers. Take a look at your roster, go down each and every agent and take a look at and think about what is this person’s best skill-set. This is the open house king or queen. This is the top listing agent. This is the social medial maven. This is the person that handles incoming buyer calls. This is the person that handles objections well, whatever it may be. Take a look at all the skill-sets that are required to be successful in our industry and map them to an agent in your office.

Then what you do is this, it’s the highest form of acknowledgement, go to those specific agents, acknowledge them for their demonstration for a high level of skills in that specific silo, and ask them if they would be willing to contribute back to the organization on a quarterly basis. If you can do it on a monthly basis, go for it. At a minimum on a quarterly basis, if they would be willing to deliver a class in that area that they are so skilled.

Watch what takes place in your training!

1. Your attendance is going to go up dramatically.
2. That agent, what a great retention action you have now taken. You have told them; you are skilled, I’ve noticed, I respect you for that, and I’d like you to give back.
   

Give it a try!

Who’s your best trainer? Start improving your training today! 

Recruiting Agents In Groups

Identify other leaders to start recruiting agents in groups?

I’ve recently shared few videos that build upon this concept of recruiting agents in groups.

1. How To Grow Your Organization
2. Your Two Rosters
3. The Informal and Formal Leaders

I’ve covered these other areas, now lets go over to recruiting agents, the attraction process. Identifying on that second roster those informal and formal leaders. Now that we have identified them, what’s the purpose? The purpose is recruiting agents in groups; certainly you are making your calls, and your doing your follow-ups, and your interviews, and the one-on-one day-to-day recruiting process but it’s kind of nice when you bring a big group of agents over. The way that we do this is of course having that relationship with that formal leader, that informal leader, so that if something changes you are the destination broker.

So now we come to that space where they have expressed a trust in you, a desire to be a part of your organization. So we put a business transaction together, and here’s what it looks like. It goes a little bit against what I talk to in my philosophy of keeping money out of the recruiting process, yes it’s there but we don’t want to lead with it. In this case it becomes a little bit more evident because what’s going to happen is they are going to bring over a group of agents they’re going to have a huge impact on your organization. Instant inventory, instant energy, you are going to raise the IQ of your organization immediately by bringing quality human resource over.

So what we do is take that informal or formal leader and create a business transaction that looks like this, I call it the 10-8-6. So in year one all the agents that walk over with that leader; as they close transactions, that leader get’s 10% of the retained dollars you experience from those agents. Now the agents that walked over stay with our organization; year two, your going to pay that leader 8% of the dollars and year three 6% of the dollars.

By recruiting agents in a group here is what’s going to happen. It gives you a built in assistant manager that you are not paying a salary. They don’t want those people to leave because they get compensated based on the closings. They are going to contribute, they are going to be a team player.

Here is what’s taken place, you have moved a huge group of people over to your office, you’ve had a great impact on the market from a perception. Keep in mind this perception is a reality. The rest of those agents that are on that list from other companies, you know that second roster that are eventually going to join you. You’re going to have incredible credibility.

So not only are you moving this group of people over, and you’re basically paying nothing, you’re using dollars that you didn’t have. You’re using dollars that are coming in as revenue and you’re paying a percentage back out. It’s a very simple equation. 

By recruiting agents we’ve built credibility with our own agents too because they see we are prospecting and are growing the organization. You know we have the same theme; as a leader the theme is growth, as an agent the theme of their business I hope is growth.

Now we take it a step further and we go out to the agents that we’ve been recruiting, that we have been in contact with that we are looking to join us eventually and we follow-up with them, and they know what’s going on. What’s going to take place is impact and our responsibility as a leader is to continually have an impact in the market. If you have impact you will continue to experience growth.

Improve your leadership skills to start recruiting agents in groups! 

Informal and Formal Leaders

Have you identified your Informal and Formal Leaders?

I’ve recently shared a couple of videos that build upon this concept of informal and formal leaders.

1. How To Grow Your Organization
2. Your Two Rosters

Now both internally and externally you need to take a look at the informal and formal leaders.

Now obviously you are the “Formal Leader” of your organization but you also have an informal leader and quite frankly, that’s the person that if they left tomorrow, you’d be worried because others would leave. It’s critical that you have a high level of what we call business intimacy with this individual, we have connectivity, that you have this exchange where they can give you feedback. Because what can happen is they are really a conduit between you and the rest of the agents. If they are not happy, you’re not going to have a great experience.

Now let’s move out of the internal and go to the external. One of  the things that I did that helped grow organizations when I was in your role and now I transfer this strategy over to other leaders, and they’ve had great results around it.  On that second roster that I’ve talked about, identifying the informal and formal leaders. We know of course who the formal leader is, it’s the branch manager or the broker/owner. It’s critical to be in a relationship with this person in case anything changes. Imagine if something changes in an organization and you have that primary relationship with that formal leader. Whether they have decided they don’t want to lead anymore, or they want to close their doors, or they want to sell. Be that person that they had that comfort level with that they come and approach you, and you know you could have a great moment. Twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty agents walk over with them or there is a way to do a roll up.

The other opportunity is with that informal leader, so take a look at that second roster and the different organizations that each one of the agents are from. And then discern and dig a little bit deeper, get underneath and find out in each one of those offices is that person that informal leader in the office. And if they are not find out who the informal leader is. One of the things I know is that this recruiting thing is a process, it takes 14 contacts on average in some way shape or form before an experienced agent makes a move. How about with all that work you have a great relationship with the informal leader and they are unhappy one day and they come to you and walk over about ten agents.

How about that formal leader who says, you know what, I’m tired of selling real estate and paying the bills and leading these people, I need to move on. Instead of allowing that office to close down it’s doors and let the agents to just disperse everywhere. What if your the person that’s in relationship with that leader and they bring their agents over?

Go out identify the informal and formal leaders in each organizations that you are trying to attract people from, build that relationship with them. Don’t try to manipulate and sell them on coming over, create the experience,  build the trust and when the time is right you will have a windfall of agents. I’ve seen it happen time and time again and I’ve done it myself. On the flip side internally, be sure that you have a great relationship with your informal and formal leaders too.

Improve your leadership skills to help you identify the informal and formal leaders! 

Your Two Rosters

As a Leader you must have Two Rosters!

You must create an experience for the people that you are looking to have join your company. You also have that responsibility internally with your current agents. But you want to continue to grow the organization so you have this second group of agents. Some call it their leads, or their hit list…..I call it the second roster.

With that second roster you treat those people the same as you treat people on your primary roster, treat them just like you do with your current agents. You can have the same conversations about your “Stuff” that all other leaders are having but the true differentiator is how they experience you as a leader, what that exchange and dialogue looks like when you talk to them about their specific business.

The only difference between the two rosters is that they are the agents that are eventually going to join you. Think about this, to get them to join you, you want to create an experience as close to what it’s like when they join you, before they join you.

Manage your two rosters, lead your two rosters, recruit and re-recruit your two rosters in the same fashion and you will experience continued growth.

Start recruiting with two rosters Today!

How To Grow Your Organization

How Do You Grow Your Organization? You Have To Take A Look At Your Approach!

The approach I have seen for years is antiquated it’s all about content, we continue to throw stuff at people, we continue to show people that we are so much better and we are so much smarter. It’s this big marketing process, this big sales experience that is not inspiring for the person you are trying to recruit or for the leader, it’s a grind. Here is what I have learned over the years, we build trust by creating an experience for the people we are looking to attract to our organization. People don’t join or leave a company, they join or leave the competency and relevancy of the leader. So with that in mind, what’s my responsibility? Is it to tell them how great we are, or is it to allow them to have an experience as close to what it’s going to be like for them when they join my company?

Remember this, to grow your organization, agent’s don’t join or leave a company they join or leave the competency and relevancy of the leader!

It’s your job on a daily basis to demonstrate to these people that you are the most competent and relevant leader. Telling them you are better than every other company won’t get it done. Talking to them about the only thing that matters; their business, their strategies, their tactics, and how you are going to partner with them in their growth is the differentiator to grow your organization.

Change your approach and grow your organization!

My Experience Of Modeling

The Experience Of “Modeling” In My Business!

One of the things that was taught to me a long time ago by my mentor was a term and an experience of “Modeling”. I’m sharing a little bit with you today about my path and the process of what I do, as I’ve evolved in the business and in life, primarily in the business space. I think that there is an idea, no matter what industry you are in there is this idea of striving to become more confident, striving to become better, to grow our business, to get better numbers…..etc…..etc. A lot of that has to do with marketing and I quite personally have never been too fond of marketing, I’ve found it to be very manipulative. I’ve fond that manipulation just doesn’t work, it’s just not that enduring. Here’s what I know does work; I found it’s about building trust and creating an experience. No matter what industry you are in, our responsibility is to create an experience or who we are, what we do and what we stand for. Not hide it give people a little bit to suck them in or draw them in, but put it out there.

For lack of a better term it’s the “give it away”, but here’s what I want to express to you, stop trying to manipulate people into thinking you or your product is better, give them an experience of it.

My wish today is to create an experience of what I do, what I believe in, what I teach, how I lead and to give you a practical experience of it so you can discern.

Leaders Start “Modeling” To Recruit More Agents!

INTERRUPT THE PATTERN

Interrupt the pattern…..are you ready?

Strategies, Tactics, and Skills are a must. Without an interpersonal journey of discovery to gain consciousness around what is holding you back from taking action, all the acquired knowledge is for not.

A pattern of choices and behavior where we repeat history over and over again in a fashion that does not serve us. We stay in these patterns because our programming and unconscious belief is “at least we know what the outcome will be” even though it may not feel good.

We will actually avoid change and possibilities of a better outcome, by “playing it safe” as we have learned to cope with repeating that painful history over and over.

Change requires an interruption… Pain is always referenced as the game changer. Unfortunately we all have different levels of “pain tolerance”, for those with a high “pain tolerance”, many times things never change.

Consciousness is the solution…a willingness to be held accountable, to look at those parts of ourselves we want no one else to see…When we recognize we have been held hostage, imprisoned and held the key in our hands the whole time.

Time to interrupt the pattern? Get Started today!

Part 3: Leaders – It’s Not About Imposing Ourselves Upon Others

Leaders is it your time to transform and evolve?

In my previous posts, Leaders – It’s Not About Imposing Ourselves Upon Others and Part 2: Leaders – It’s Not About Imposing Ourselves Upon Others I shared with you the following principles:

“If you push yourself upon someone who hasn’t asked for your help you prevent them from sorting out their own situation for themselves, hindering their own learning process.  Also when you force your help or advice on to someone, you bear the karma if it goes wrong.”

Now I want to dig a little deeper and take you through the action steps to transform from a dinosaur leader to an ever evolving leader.

1. Determine both personally and professionally what the wants and needs are of those you lead.  Dig a little deeper and find out what experience that will create for them.  It’s all about serving, leading and inspiring at the highest level, to do so we must seek to understand the individual.
2. You have facilitated a condition of consciousness and awareness around what really makes a person tick.  You have allowed self-discovery to take place by asking thought provoking questions, not telling someone what to do or giving them the answers. They are now clear and both parties have come to a mutual understanding.
3. Now the time for commitment has arrived.  A commitment inspired by, and owned by that person you are leading.  You have alignment and agreement as a foundation to move forward.  The best part is ownership and buy-in = the likelihood of them taking action will go up dramatically.

As leaders, we have, and continue to do things backwards. We train people on how to do things, arm them with tools, etc. before we even know what is important to them, what space and environments they are most inspired by, and finally, their vision personally and professionally.  They didn’t join your company to live your vision; they joined to experience your vision contributing to the overall picture you hold. This is the artistic science of creating independence within interdependence.  This is great leadership!

Leaders your responsibility is to bring the parts together to serve and contribute to the whole, serve each person individually in a manner where they will be inspired to contribute to the whole with their greatest potential.

Leaders are you ready to transform and evolve? Start here!