Realty Times - Brokers: Increase Profits, No Experience Necessary

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Brokers: Increase Profits, No Experience Necessary

by Floyd Wickman

Good News! Your sales associates can know virtually nothing about real estate, yet still succeed as long as he or she knows how to sell.

On the opposite hand, an associate who knows everything about real estate, but nothing about sales will most certainly fail. Use this training outline to guide your long term office success.

The secret to success is that there is no secret. Start with the basics. The basics act as a foundation for your organization and gives everyone on your team a common language. If you don't speak the same language as a team or as an agent, you stand to lose many a sale.

Make your associates independent of you -- not dependent on you. Teach them to stand on their own two feet and not only will you save time but they will become confident and more efficient.

Set a good example for your team. Your sales associates will do as you do, not as you say. If you don't practice what you preach, you'll fail as a teacher. The sales manager who adopts principles before teaching them serves as a great example and will be most effective.

Stretch their comfort zone. Sales people are most successful when they go out of their way to meet and greet new people. Show them that this is necessary. Not only will they increase the number of prospects in their book of business, they will also create new friendships and alliances.

Don't let them fail. When given the option to fail, sales people will choose failure 70 percent of the time. Why? Because it is easier. Your sales people will only be as good or bad as you train or allow them to be. If you have low producers the fault may be in the training technique. Make your sales people role play common selling situations to strengthen the basics and give them confidence in the right way to do things.

Pretend they don't know the correct technique and willingly demonstrate it. You can take someone aside and show them the right way to do something without sounding condescending. When your sales people are slow to remember, make them role play the situation until they feel comfortable.

Take small bites. Teach your sales people a little at a time over time. Teach too much too soon and failure is bound to occur.

Teach in the classroom, but also teach in a live situation. Pair up your inexperienced sales associates with a mentor. However long or short the relationship, nothing can replace the amount of learning that will occur by being part of a real situation.

Make training part of your success equation. Begin by telling your sales people what you intend to teach them. After this, have them role play the situation until not only they are comfortable with it, but you are comfortable with it as well.

Listen to the hits. Zig Ziglar told me that anyone can get a college education while driving around in their car. As Realtors we may spend more time in a car than anyone. Use this to your advantage. Keep a good supply of training cassettes and CDs available for your sales team. Encourage your sales agents to acquire their own audio training library as well.

A well trained sales team will generate more sales, more profit, and less agent turnover.

Experience is the best teacher. There are two ways to learn from experience. Either learn from your own experience, which takes a long time, or learn from someone else's experience. It is my hope that by sharing my experience with you, you will be saved years of heartache.

On a side note. In the past I shared with you the "Focus Organizer," a free four page fill in the blank document that helps you to map out individual success. Several people called in asking for help to set it up. So, this month I've recorded a free fifteen minute audio message that teaches you, step by step, how to use the "Focus Organizer." Just go to StarmakerTeam.com and click on Resources at the top of the page.

Published: June 2, 2006

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

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