Archive for Presentations
Does Your Training Make the Grade?
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How effective is the training in your company and/or office? Is it doing the job you want it to do? What, exactly DO you want it to do? Some brokers say they want training for
1. Recruiting
2. Retention
3. Because the competition has it
4. Teach agents the technical aspects of real estate
But, brokers don’t usually pinpoint what I think training should do:
Directly affect the success of an agent who attends the training–and does the work during the training.
Too often, agents simply choose an office because it has ‘training’. They don’t differentiate between training programs. Yet, I know all training programs aren’t created equal. In fact, unfortunately, a great many of them don’t assure any type of success. How do I know? I look at what happens to the people after they ‘graduate’ from those training programs. So, I think, if you’re going to go to training, you have the right–and responsibility to yourself–to expect that training program would directly affect the success of your agents. Otherwise, what is it for?
What should you expect from your company/office training program as a manager?
What to Look For: Five Critical Points
1. The objective is fast productivity, not just knowledge. When an agent interviews, he/she should ask what the objectives of training are with that company. If it’s just knowledge, in my opinion, they should run the other way! They will know a lot, but they won’t be in business very long!
2. The training program has business-producing expectations and goals. For example, if the agents expect to make money fast, the training program needs to help them learn to set prospecting goals and attain them. That doesn’t mean lecturing in class. That means they get an activity plan and are working in the field during the class duration. That also means that they aren’t in class all day.
3. The training program is built around a business start-up plan. In the interview, show the company’s business start-up plan for the agent. If it isn’t sales-producing, it isn’t a real start-up plan.
4. Sales skills are practiced by the students in class. How can we expect agents to be competent with clients if they haven’t gained competency and confidence in the classroom? Clients are very discriminating these days. They expect agents to know what they’re doing! During the interview, show how students spend class time. This should not be lecture!
5. Expectations for achievement in sales developing and packaging are clear. Is this a college-level training? In college, students are expected to perform during the course. If agents are not expected to practice outside class, and get sales packages together (like listing and buyer presentations), then this isn’t a real training. It’s just a time-eating event. Wouldn’t your consumer expect agents to have a high level of competence, no matter their days/weeks/years in the business? Then, your training program must deliver.
Armed with these 5 critical expectations, you can evaluate your training program .
Question: How do you evaluate your training program? What’s working right? What’s not working? What do you think should have been in your training program?
Want to see that kind of program–and a sample of what it looks like? Check out Advantage 2.0.
Click here to see more.
The 10 Biggest Mistakes Real Estate Recruiters Make
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Isn’t it amazing the number of things a new manager is supposed to be able to do—from day one—even though he or she isn’t trained to do those tasks? Take recruiting, for example. As a new manager, I was expected to prospect, get appointments, ask great questions, and select agents who would be successful. But, did I have the skills to perform those tasks with competence? You can bet not!
Even though I was a top-producing agent, I didn’t take the time to think through, and didn’t know how to, apply the sales skills I had used to attain high sales volume to the recruiting tasks at hand. So, I, like thousands of other new managers, just did it ‘by ear’. Along the way, I had some ‘wins’ and lots of ‘losses’. Through my observations of myself and others, I’ve created a list of ten top mistakes, so that you can avoid the pitfalls I—and others without training—have fallen into.
In this blog, we’ll look at the first five. Also, I’ll add some advice I learned from all those mistakes!
1. Charge ahead to hire
It should occur to us that we need to sit in a quiet place and think about the kind of people we want to hire—before we dive in. But, we are so thrilled that someone is in front of us that it doesn’t occur to us that they bring with them their values and ethics. So, if we haven’t thought out our values, our beliefs, and our perspectives first, we run the risk of hiring people who will then dictate what the company values become. Before you start interviewing, decide what you will and what you won’t stand for. Write out your values and your beliefs. Then, when you interview, check to be sure that agent carries those same values and beliefs into your office. Someone’s got to be the leader, and it better be you!
2. Recruiting to old-style management strategies
I know, I know. Just go make those calls and you will get some recruits. Yes, that’s true. But, wouldn’t it be better if you built a company that stood apart from the others because of its ‘attractors’? The greatest attractors today to a company are twofold:
a. Does the company have values and beliefs that the agent can live by—and agree with?
b. Does the company focus its energy on the success of the agent—or on itself/
If you are still trying to recruit to an old-style dictatorship, or, if you’ve given up leadership—get a clue. Find out what participative management is all about. Find out how to build a team. Figure out how to help each agent reach his/her goals. Now, you’re on the right track. Re-tool your business structure so you’re attractive to the entrepreneur of today and tomorrow.
3. Trying to recruit on the company features
“Our company is the largest around.” Well, guess what? If you’re a branch manager, and all your branch managers say the same thing, you’re not going to differentiate yourself that way! You must make yourself a magnet. What about your background provides a benefit to a new agent? To an experienced agent? For example, I was a musical performer and teacher. That taught me performance skills, and how to teach others performance skills. You can see the benefits to agents. I’m able to help an agent reach his goals through greater skills.
4. Not differentiating the feature from all the other companies that have the same thing
“We have a great training program.” So says every company out there. What’s so great about your program? You’d better be able to tell ‘em and show ‘em. “Our training program has a 90% rate in our agents making a sale in the first thirty days they’re with us.” No one else in the area has success figures like that. Here’s the brochure about our program. It spells out the comprehensive five-step program for new agents. Do you want a program that assures you make money fast?”
5. Trying to attract agents through ‘price wars’ 
We in the real estate industry just love to hire agents through the bidding wars. We either provide a lower desk fee, better commission splits, or more trinkets and trash. Guess what? That’s the chicken’s way out. In reality, price is never the best recruiter. But, if you don’t have a great company organization, if you don’t help agents meet their goals, you’re going to have to compete on price. It’s all you’ve got. Now, work hard to provide real value. After all, consumers pay 10% more for products and services they believe are of quality.
Recommendation: Read Drive–The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink. The motivators have changed, but no one has told real estate professionals!
So far, what have I left out?
Recruiting: What Do Candidates Want?
Posted by: | CommentsWe talked about the recruiting magnets that are the strongest. In order of weakest to strongest magnets, they are:
Company magnets
Office magnets
YOU
In the last blog, we investigated how to make your magnets, and how to reveal them to the candidate during the interview. The steps were:
Develop your ‘theme’
Who are you?
Relevant history (to those you are interviewing)
What you learned as a result of your life experiences
Why is that relevant?
Relate this to your candidate
The Other Side of the Coin
Now, we know the strongest category of magnets. We know how to develop our own magnets. But, we must also match those magnets to what candidates want. Even more than that, we must match them to what the candidates want that YOU want to hire!
First: Who are You Looking For? and Why?
Every situation is different. Before you finalize your magnets, you need to do a strong, critical description of the kind of agents you need for your specific situation.
Example: My Situation when I Took Over a Failing Office
Here was the situation in that failing office. Can you guess the kind of agents I needed to turn it around?
Here’s my description of the kind of agents I needed.
Make a list here of the traits, qualities, and skills you’re looking for in an agent.
What Gen X and Y are Looking For
This is a recent study of generation x and y candidates, and what they said they wanted:
How are you delivering to these needs? Do you have an agent leadership council? Do you have an open, participative leadership style? Have you ‘flattened the hierarchy?
In a future blog, we’ll discuss much more of the new environment we must create to attract our next best agent.
Note: My leadership subscription series, 365 Leadership, addresses these issues, plus many more. The next full series starts in September. Find out more at www.365leadership.net. I’ll help you put into the action the latest leadership strategies to propel your office into the future with much more profitability. Great for those with 2 agents and those with 200 agents!
Recruiting: Are Your Magnets Strong Enough?
Posted by: | CommentsDuring my 365 Leadership series, one of my members said she was having trouble creating reasons why people should join her company. Those reasons are your ‘magnets’. Think of a magnet as a powerful attractor to the agents you want. The more strength the magnet has, the easier it is to recruit.
Key: The Magnet Should Attract Those You Want
Now, that sounds obvious, but, too often, we use magnets that are easy for us, like,
“You’ll love it here. We’re a big family.”
Now, who does that appeal to? The agent who doesn’t intend to do much business, and wants to be in a secure environment! (Not always, but most of the time).
What magnets are you using now? Are they the magnets you need to attract the kind of people you want? In a later blog, we’ll create descriptions of the kind of agents you want. Then, it’s easy to draw conclusions about what will attract this type of agent.
The Weakest Magnets Are not What You Think
Historically, recruiters relied on company magnets to recruit. Today, those magnets have moved way past what the company offers, or even what your office offers. In fact, the weaker the recruiter, the more he/she relies on the company magnets to attract an agent. Example:
“Join us. We are larger than any other company. You have to be with us to succeed.”
The Strongest Magnet is YOU
I have been associated with two very large successful regional companies, and one very large international company. I’ve observed, from these experiences, that some of the offices in each of these situations had great agents, and some had not-so-good agents. What was the difference? Let’s take one company. There were 19 offices. Five of those offices were stand-outs, with strong agents and great recruiting. The others drifted down from so-so to pretty desperate. Yet, they were all the same company. If it were true that the company provided the strongest magnets, you would think that all the offices would be equal. What was the difference? The specific manager. In a later blog, we’ll investigate how to build your own magnets, based on your strengths, and create your story.
Capture and Analyze Your Magnets
Below is a worksheet for you to use to capture the magnets you’re using now. How many magnets can you name in each category—company, office, and YOU? Which do you count on the most? Who do your magnets attract? Are they attracting the kind of people you want, or repelling the people you want?
Tell me your best magnets. Let me know what you’ve changed in your recruiting strategy to deal with the challenges of the market today. Tell me the changes you’re making in your recruiting strategy as a result of analyzing your magnets.
Recruiting Systems: Your Post-Interview Package
Posted by: | CommentsRemember the Chinese water torture? Drip, drip, a drip at a time. That’s the key to recruiting successfully. Here’s another ‘drip’. You’ll want to provide your candidate after that first interview another package with the information you think the candidate will find useful. Here’s why:
We remember only 10% of what we heard three days later!
Unfortunately, candidates don’t remember much of what we discuss in the interview. Or, they remember it wrongly. It seems easy to us, but, it becomes a muddle to them when they interview five companies in as many days. So, take the time to assemble what I call the ‘after first-visit’ package or post-interview process. In it, you’ll reiterate important points, and again differentiate yourself and your company.
Systemize Like your Great Agents
Great agents assemble these packages for sellers and buyers. You are modeling the behaviors you want to teach the agent. You can explain the parallels in the interview process. This is a very strong recruiting strategy. The old adages
We believe what we see, not what we hear
and
Do as I do, not as I say
are true, as we know ‘in real life’.
In Your Post-First Visit (Post-Interview) Package
Here is a sample list of the materials you may include in an after-first visit recruiting package. Note that some of the material is duplicating your pre-first visit package. Also, sometimes you won’t have the opportunity to provide a pre-first visit package. Of course, you’ll always have the ability to customize each package. However, it’s much easier to do this from a prepared package than to start from scratch each time.
Letter from the manager explaining what’s in the package
- Training calendar (you do have one, don’t you?)
- Training brochure
- Company/office/manager story
- Attractive company/office/manager statistics
- Articles featuring company/manager
- Costs of affiliating with explanations
Bottom Line: You’re Proving your Competency to Each Candidate With Every Recruiting Process You Do
Well-assembled packages reflect clear thought processes. Merely putting these together will clarify your recruiting and selection story. It will help you figure out and communicate your culture and values. It will provide you differentiation and memorability. It says to the candidate, “I prepared for you. Your time is valuable. I am here to dedicate my skills and talents to help you develop your business.”
You will recruit more and better agents, you will save time, and you will be able to delegate or ‘clone’ yourself by hiring a manager or recruiter when the need arises.
For a checklist of recruiting processes and systems needed, click here.
Want to avoid re-inventing the wheel? Check out my recruiting resources here. 
Recruiting Systems: Your Candidate Folder
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve discussed the importance of systematizing your recruiting. I’ve given you information about the contents of a pre-first visit folder. Now, let’s take a look at the folder you need to create for that all-important interview process.
Note: Although we know recruits are the lifeblood of our offices, it’s amazing how we continue to try to ‘wing it’ during the interview process. Assembling these materials will assure that you never are flying by the seat of your pants–or look like it to the candidate!
Keeping Track of Candidates is Tougher than it Seems When You’re in the Recruit Mode 
How are you going to keep track of each candidate? If you’re interviewing five to ten candidates per week (the number necessary to build your office at a rate of 4-5 people per month), you will need a method to keep these candidates in mind. (It’s really embarrassing to wrong recall something about a candidate in an interview—and find out you have the wrong ‘Barry’….)
Here’s what should go in the candidate selection folder:
Phone interview questions and candidate notes from phone interview
Candidate needs assessment questions
Candidate’s application (be sure your attorney reviews this for legalities)
Candidate behavioral predicting questions See The Complete Recruiter and Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners–information on these resources is below)
Post-interview checklist
Of course, prior to the interview, you’ll want to gather your presentation and a notepad to keep notes.
Armed with these tools, you’ll not only appear to be organized, you WILL be organized. Your good candidates will appreciate your professionalism, and will be drawn to you. The poor candidates probably won’t care (and neither should you…).
For a checklist of recruiting processes and systems needed, click here.
Want to avoid re-inventing the wheel? Check out my recruiting resources here.
Recruiting Systems: Your Pre-First Visit Package
Posted by: | CommentsYou know the value of systematizing your recruiting. You’re going to save time and get much better results for your efforts. You also will be able to delegate your recruiting when you’re ready to hire a recruiter or sales malager to do this job. But, to delegate, you have to have your systems in place. In this blog, I’ll show you what goes in a pre-first visit package.
Why a Pre-First Visit Package for your Recruit?
The objective of this package is to give background on your company, office, and you—to differentiate yourselves, to provoke interest in the interviewee, and to educate the candidate to save time in the interview. You can set the stage for expectations for that first interview, too.
Here are some materials you can include:
- Your pre-first visit letter
- An audio from your office featuring your agents
- A video about your company or office (shows you can assist the agent with video, too)
- Lists of your web sites for the candidate to review
- A book on selling real estate successfully (this will save you many hours when you’re interviewing would-be agents)
- A company/office/manager brochure
- Your company folder
- Qualities of the agents you’re looking for
- Your prioritized job description
- Your training calendar or brochure
No Worries about the Competition
One of the great things about doing this is that the competition won’t be doing it! So, you don’t have to worry about having the very best pre-first visit package! You will prove to your recruiti that you care about his well-being, that you are prepared, and that you are looking forward to your appointment.
For a checklist of recruiting processes and systems needed, click here.
Want to avoid re-inventing the wheel? Check out my recruiting resources here.
Recruiting: Are You Systematized?
Posted by: | CommentsMost managers are surprised, when they start managing–with the demands of their new job. Many times, they didn’t 
know they would be expected to recruit! One manager I was coaching in a group, told me his owner assured him he wouldn’t have to recruit. Then, a couple of years into the job, the owner hired me to teach the managers recruiting skills. Boy, that was an interesting situation….As you can imagine, the manager felt betrayed. At least he learned to trust me enough to confide in his quandary.
In fact, managers typically thought they could stop lead generating when they became managers. Not so fast. Recruiting is job # 1 in a manager’s job description.
Where are the Recruiting Systems?
Some managers expect to walk right into an office and put those recruiting systems in place to work. You can imagine how surprised they are when they find out there are no systems to aid in recruiting. And, without systems, recruiting becomes way too daunting a task. Especially, too, if you’re a new manager and have no clue how to recruit!
How Managers Cope
In fact, many managers push it further ‘down the day’, until exhausted and beaten down by the demands of their job, they say they just don’t have time to recruit.
Systems Solve All Those Problems
You know that systems gain us time. They allow us to prepare prior to a crisis situation. Systems are also teaching tools. We follow systems to learn how to do something. Systems create great habits. For our discussion today, I’m going to divide recruiting systems into external and internal.
External Recruting Systems
Perhaps you’ve used recruiting lead generating companies in the past. Those companies either supply you leads, or supply you cards to send to your recruits. That’s great. Those are systems. But, I’m not talking about those ‘external’ systems. I’m talking about a whole other group of systems—internal systems—those systems you develop to ‘run’ your recruiting plan.
A Day in the Life
You’ve seen agents in constant upheaval without systems. They get a listing appointment, and they run around attempting to put together a package or presentation. You’re constantly telling them to prepare, systematize, and package their presentations so they’re ready at the drop of a hat.
Okay. How systematized are you in your recruiting? It’s just like the agents’ lead generating, right? Are you always ready when that recruit shows up? Do you have the packages in place to show that recruit that you are really professional. Or, like the agent, do you run around trying at the last minute to get your act together?
A Successful Recruiter’s Tools and Systems
Successful recruiters organize their recruiting and selecting processes just like successful agents do. You need:
1. A database and contact management software
2. Folders for each candidate (enough pre-set up files for one month’s interviewing)
3. A system to pre-screen, interview, and choose the right candidates
4. The recruiting packages to support your efforts
You can delegate the packaging and systematization to an assistant, so you can do the important activities to build your company: Recruiting, face to face interviewing and selection!
In my next few blogs, I’ll break down what goes into each package and system.
Trainers and Presenters: How to Promote that Webinar
Posted by: | CommentsYou’re worked hard to present that webinar. Now, how can you optimize it? How can you give it staying power? There are 10 ways.
1. Record it. Many webinar platforms today allow you to record your webinar. Then, you can put it on your website, distribute it through email, or even post it to UTube! Why? Because it’s now a video. (By the way, be sure to check your recording format, to assure it is easily playable)
2. Post it on your website. To post it to my website, I use www.Cincopa.com. I can save it in Cincopa, and post any audios or videos to my website.
3. Post it to www.SlideShare.com or www.SlideRocket.com, and edit it, then distribute it to many or few.
4. Do a promotion using your webinar recording service (less than 1 minute) or SlideShare or SlideRocket. Now, you can promote your webinar with a very short webinar.
5. Make a PDF of your slides (I save them 2 to a page, in color), add links, and distribute, either on your website, blog, or via email.
6. Create handouts, and provide a form so your audience can request 
the handouts. I use www.gravityforms.com to capture all those who request a handout.
7. Promote your next webinar on your present webinar. Be sure, at the end of your webinar, to promote what comes next.
8. Create a slide at the beginning of your webinar that explains who you 
are and what you do, and where the attendee can go to get more information. ‘Play’ this slide while the audience is logging in to the webinar. I alternate between my ‘home page’ slide and my bio slide. Then, when it’s time to start my webinar, I just place the ‘home’ page there again and start.
9. Afterwards, contact each attendee to get feedback.
10. Have a great offer to attendees to buy a resource, get coaching—whatever you think that next step will be.
You’ll see me practice what I preach when I do a webinar with my friend Verl Workman, scheduled for the first week in June. Watch this blog for more information.
Webinars: How to Optimize your Impact
Posted by: | CommentsYou’ve written your webinar. You’ve practiced. You’ve involved others. Now, let’s talk about extending the effectiveness of your webinar by optimizing your impact. Here are three tips that will greatly increase the ‘memorability’ of your webinar.
- Make the slides available prior to the webinar
I’ve learned from doing webinars, that attendees love to have the PDF of the webinar prior to the event. To do this, you must have some type of PDF maker on your computer. You can get one at www.adobe.com. Or, google PDF and you’ll get several programs to make PDFs—and many of them are free.
How to make the PDF. After you’ve installed the program on your computer, have your PowerPoint presentation open. Now, go to file/print. (I know it’s weird, but, although you’re making a different form of your slides, you must tell your computer to ‘print’). Choose your PDF maker. Toward the bottom of your screen, choose Handouts. I make them in color, 2 to a page. That way, it’s easy for attendees to see what’s on that particular slide, and to make notes. Preview what you’re going to print, to assure it’s what you want to print and share.
How to make the slides available. If you can, link them on your website or blog, and make the link available. Or, you can use one of the Cloud storage services available today, like Air Set. DropBox, or Box.net.
You can either email your attendees prior to the event with the link to your slides, or you can tell them the link early in your presentation. Be sure to print the link on your slide.
2. Create handouts to distribute before or after the webinar.
I like to refer to detailed handouts during my webinar, and show an 
example, if it’s a document. As you can see, at the bottom of each page that refers to a handout, I put Handout. Then, at the end of the webinar, I refer again to the handouts I’ll make available, and how.
3. Provide an action plan at the end of your webinar.
Darlene Lyons, owner of Broker/Agent Speakers’ Bureau, gave me this tip when I started doing webinars. At the end of each webinar, I provide a 8-10 point action plan. I also make this action plan part of my handouts.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about how to promote your webinar—and you.