Dear Mr. Internet,

As a broker/officer, how do I motivate my sales associates to take full advantage of this wealth of new customers available through the Internet?

Ginny Hughes
Coldwell Banker Premier
St. Louis, Missouri
http://www.coldwellbankerpremier.com

Dear Ginny,

The issue of how to turn real estate sales associates into effective, Internet-savvy practitioners has been plaguing brokerage owners and managers since the first days of the Web. Until recently, it has been an exercise in frustration, with some managers convinced they’ll never get most associates past using e-mail. But today, 70 percent or more consumers use the Internet as part of their real estate buying/selling process, according to a recent California Association of REALTORS® study, “Internet vs. Traditional Buyers".  So not having your sales associates fully up to speed on the Net is no longer an option.

There is an answer to this dilemma, however, and it has a lot more to do with human nature than technology.

Just Like Herding Cats

As you well know, real estate people are very independent and getting them to do or learn new things (as a group) is a lot like, well... herding cats. (In case you need a reminder of just how difficult that is, CLICK HERE to view a hilarious video on the subject.)

But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The first step to successfully transitioning your entire sales force to being excited and effective on the Internet is to identify who the three types of "cats" that are in your organization.  They are:

• Cool Cats - love and embrace change. They are hungry to learn everything they can—including new technologies--to further their career. This is the group that you work with first;

• Tom Cats - are the "fence sitters," the ones waiting to see how it works for someone else before they will commit to anything new. Sales associates in this group will eventually come around (curiosity always kills the cat...). But until they do, just leave them be; don’t force them to take any kind of Internet training;

• Fat Cats - are the top producers who know the score and are often quite comfortable with the hard-won methods they’ve used to generate large amounts of business. Once again, just leave this group alone; they’ll either eventually adjust or retire.

The key to getting everyone in your company to embrace the Internet as a powerful way to do business is to train your "cool cats" and ignore the rest. As counterintuitive as that might seem, it has been shown to work time and time again for brokers who have embraced this approach. It works because these “cool cats” become the Internet leaders. And just like in real herding, if you get the leaders going in the right direction, most of the rest of the pack will follow.

Your Elite Core Group Of Internet-Savvy Agents

But to get the leaders going in the direction of sophisticated Internet use, you have to structure your program to reinforce the idea that being tech savvy is cool. In addition to providing comprehensive Internet training, you want to find ways to set these cool cats apart, to make them feel like the technology elite of your company both to themselves and to your other, less high-tech associates.

Think in terms of creating your own "Navy Seals" of Internet-savvy associates. Make this elite group hard to get in and easy to get kicked out of if you don’t keep up.

• Screen individuals for entry into your elite group. Look for people who embrace change and are high energy;

• Get a written agreement from each group member outlining their commitment to complete the training and share their knowledge within the group. The agreement should have accountability requirements along with consequences if they fail to meet their responsibilities;

• Provide regular, in-depth training on the Internet and other technologies that can enhance customer service and productivity;

• Set specific standards for online interaction competence —such responding appropriately and in a timely fashion to e-mail queries and having a personal Web site.

The elevated status of our cool cats should come with certain privileges and responsibilities. For example, this group has the best skills for handling online leads generated by your company’s Web site, so one of the "perks" could be exclusive access to this source of new business. However, to be part of the group, they must also respond to these leads within a certain time period. Otherwise they lose their privileges.

Soon you’ll have everyone clamoring to join and ready to acquire the online skills to be part of the process. The first group will probably be about 5 or 10 percent of the company. And each time you add another 5 or 10 percent of your sales force. Eventually you may even have to set up several elite groups of Internet-savvy associates focusing on different aspects of technology. And the best part is, you did it without begging, cajoling, or threatening your sales associates in any way—effectively removing all frustration from the process.

While the above is a good overview of how this works, the devil is always in the details.  Fortunately a structured approach already exists to help you create your own Internet-savvy groups without having to reinvent the wheel.

ePOWER! Groups

While this basic approach to elite Internet groups may get your company where it needs to go technologically, the devil is always in the details. I first wrote about the idea of using elite core groups of Internet-savvy real estate associates as a means of introducing technology to brokerage in 1998. (To view a PDF version of “white paper” written for Intel on the impact of technology on the real estate industry, CLICK HERE).

However, I soon realized that most real estate companies needed more than a conceptual framework to set up a group of Internet-savvy practitioners. So in 2001, I created a program for real estate brokerages called "ePOWER! Groups". This plan essentially handles all the details of starting, running, and leveraging the power of elite core groups. It also includes a comprehensive 18-month Internet training curriculum.  (CLICK HERE to read more about this program)

Broker/owners who implement the idea of elite groups of Internet users have realized just how easy it can be to get sales associates eagerly using the Internet to do business. And when Internet use increases, satisfied customers and a more profitable business are almost certainly the byproducts.

Published: June 18, 2003

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Michael J. Russer (a.k.a. Mr. Internet®) is an internationally acclaimed speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry and small business. He is also the exclusive Internet columnist for REALTOR® Magazine, the architect of the revolutionary e-ProductivityTM system and leading voice for the use of Virtual Assistants in small business. You can subscribe to his free monthly leading-edge newsletter ePOWER NEWS by going to ePowerNews.com.