Archive for Profitability
Three Strategies to Get Your Agents to Create Business Plans
Posted by: | CommentsIn November and December, I’m focusing on business planning, to help you and your agents get a great business plan for next year. Look for checklists, processes, and systems ready to use, too.
I know it’s a lot of work to get your agents to commit to paper on anything. And, from working with thousands of agents on business planning over the years, I know the challenges. But, for us managers, the huge pay-off comes not from what’s on paper, what, what’s in the head. When we use a good business planning process we literally teach agents how to think through their businesses.
Three Huge Stealth Strategies
1. Take Away Commitment Phobia
It’s estimated we are told ‘no’ 148,000 times prior to age eighteen. No wonder we don’t want to commit to try anything! I know from teaching adults to play the piano, that adults are conditioned not to try anything new for fear of not being perfect. To many, writing a business plan means planning to fail—and then getting punished for it.
So, the first time you introduce business planning, take away the old downside of goal setting (not reaching it and getting punished), and help your agents move in incremental steps forward—a step at a time, with lots of positive reinforcement along the way. You have to create a safe haven for first-time planners.
2. Eat the Elephant a Bite at a Time
One of the agents in an office where I just did a small group coaching series told me he put a picture of an elephant on the wall, and then literally divided the elephant into bite-sized pieces, with an action step listed on each bite. What a wonderful visual! For many of your agents, planning is just the most overwhelming process they could envision. So, simply start with one or two areas. Personally, I start with 2-3 areas in the Review. See my next blog for an example of this.
3. Make it Really Easy to Start
Have a great business planning system to provide your agents. (Never just ask them to make a business plan without a system to follow, because you’ll get all kinds of formats). Don’t overwhelm your agents with too many planning pages to start. Customize your package with each agent. If you can get each agent to look at 1-3 areas of his business, and plan change strategies for a better year in that area, you’ll have started the process—a process that will continue, grow, and reap big benefits by year three.
We Do What We See, Not What We are Told
Do you have a business plan? If not, why should your agents be interested ? Making your ‘stealth’ approach work means you must lead by example. Doing so creates a synergy between your plan and all the agents’ plans, and builds a strength that perseveres even in the toughest market.
What should be in an agent’s business planning system? Click here to see a ‘flow chart’.
Complimentary Webinar for Managers
If you’re stumped as to how to get your agents to create business plans, you need to attend this webinar. If you want more teamwork and loyalty, you need to tune in. I’ll show you how I got 100% of my agents to write good business plans, and how I used those plans to coach and consult all year, building my office to #1 in a 19 office company–the strongest company at that time in the Northwest.
Managers: Get Every Agent to Build a Business Plan–and Build a Great office Plan
When: Dec. 1
Time: 1-2 PM, Pacific Standard Time
Space is limited, so register now. Click here to register.
Are You Making These 5 Planning Mistakes?
Posted by: | CommentsDuring November and December, I’m writing business planning blogs to help you create great plans with your agents. Check these blogs, too, for checklists, processes, and systems ready to use. For your agents: Check out Up and Running in 30 Days, my blog for your associates.
As you make your business plan, avoid the common mistakes that many real estate professionals make. Here they are:
MISTAKE #1
Betting on a business plan that’s only about 1/4 of a plan. Many of us write down our goals. Yet, that’s not a business plan. That’s just one part of the business plan. There are six parts to a real business plan:
a. Your vision-what do you have as an “end in mind”?
b. Your review-what happened last year?
c. Your mission-what are you about?
d. Your goals-expressed in the best terms for profitability today
e. Your action plan in each of 6 areas.
f. A method to measure your results.
Which parts do you include? What would your outcomes be if you thought through your business, covering all the bases?
Click here to see the ‘flow chart’ of a manager’s business planning system (excerpted from The Business Planning System for the Owner, Manager, and Team Builder).
MISTAKE #2
Ignoring the importance of ‘revenue units’ (sales and listings sold). Unfortunately, when we write our goals, we like to use those great million dollar numbers and measurements like market share. Yet, setting goals for revenue units assures that you keep your eye “on the ball”-homes sold, which make you money. There’s another huge benefit to focusing on revenue units: You can then integrate your agents’ plans with your office plan.
MISTAKE #3
Not doing a thorough review (or not doing a review at all). Looking back on your last year is so important, because it gives you the “hints” you need to write your best action plan for the next year. I think it also solves the problem of the manager trying to figure out what to do next.
For example: It’s amazing that brokers don’t know one of their most important numbers for profitability: percent of listings taken to listings sold. You may be wasting many dollars in marketing homes that won’t sell-no matter what you do. Also, your agents become unmotivated and depressed when their listings don’t sell. Knowing this ratio gives you direction for your training and coaching for the coming year. Create a higher ratio and you’ll be able to use it to recruit, too.
MISTAKE #4
Writing the plan ‘in a vacuum.’ Almost always, brokers sit down to torture themselves by writing a business plan in a room with the doors shut and no windows. But, they don’t know yet what their agents want to accomplish for the next year. The right way to plan is this: First, help each of your agents create a business plan. The sum of your agents’ goals should form the foundation for your goals. After all, your agents’ efforts should be reflected in your revenue unit goals, shouldn’t they? Yet, very few brokers even help their agents write business plans. So, they can’t really get good projections of what they think their agents will produce in the next year.
If you do assist your agents in their planning processes, you will have a much better foundation for a realistic business plan of your own. (That also means you should be consulting your agents on their business plans in November, so you’ll have all their plans together as you start creating your office plan).
MISTAKE #5
Not creating specific action plans in each of the action plan areas. Michael Gerber, a spectacular “guru” for small businesses, says “the integration of your systems is your business plan.”
In other words, if you have a real business plan, I should be able to read it, come into your office on any day, and see how you’re carrying out your business plan in recruiting, selecting, training, coaching, and marketing. You would be able to delegate many of your duties, too, because you had specific action plans for each of these areas. You would be able to measure your progress at any given point. Further, if you have created action plans that are systems, someone would be willing to buy your company from you, giving you a very attractive price! (That’s what Gerber terms “franchising.”)
Get Ahead of the Curve
If you don’t have a business plan, there’s still time to get one done. Just by thinking through your business, you’ll be ahead of 95% of your competing brokers! If you want to make more money, gain time, delegate more to others, open another office, or create an office that’s saleable, it all starts with thinking through your business, getting it down on paper, and attaching systems to each of your action plan areas. Now, you’ve got something you can run, you can delegate, and you can sell.
FREE Managers’ Business Planning Webinar
If you’re stumped as to how to get your agents to create business plans, you need to attend this webinar. If you want more teamwork and loyalty, you need to tune in. I’ll show you how I got 100% of my agents to write good business plans, and how I used those plans to coach and consult all year, building my office to #1 in a 19 office company–the strongest company at that time in the Northwest.
Complimentary Webinar
Managers: Get Every Agent to Build a Business Plan–and Build a Great office Plan
When: Dec. 1
Time: 1-2 PM, Pacific Standard Time
Space is limited, so register now. Click here to register.
Free webinar for your agents: I’ve got a free webinar, too, for your agents: On Nov. 29, I’ll show your agents how to create a great plan, and how to put the three major trends of next year into their plans. Register your agents now. Space is limited.
What’s your ‘bottom line’ for an ideal start-up plan for a new agent? Many managers tell me they don’t want to hire new agents because they’re too much work–and, too many of them fail. True. Yet, on the other hand, managers find it difficult to recruit seasoned agents who fit their profile, culture, and standards. One answer to this dilemma is to develop a start-up program for new agents that avoids the pitfalls associated with hiring new agents.
The Ideal Porgram Should Assure…
1. The new agent will succeed–fast (not this normal 50% failure rate!)
2. The new agent is directed by the start-up program–not a situation where the manager has to re-invent the wheel with every new agent
3. The manager doesn’t have to invest hundreds of hours in a new agent–only to find that agent fails
4. There’s direction from a ‘trusted advisor’–an outside coach, to save the manager’s time
5. There’s coordination and interaction between the ‘trusted advisor coach’ and the manager, so the manager isn’t left out of the loop
6. The new agent is challenged by meaningful activities leading to a sale, not just unprioritized busy work
What other goals should your ideal program provide you?
Re-Inventing My Start-Up Plan
I’m doing the fourth edition of my best-selling start-up plan for new agents, Up and Running in 30 Days. I want to assure that it fulfills all the goals above–and the goals you have for me. Here are some methods I am using to ‘take the load off’ managers, and still assure the program is effective:
1. I’ll be doing short instructional and motivational videos to teach the agents the best planning strategies AND motivate them. This saves managers so much time, because they won’t have to teach the program. I will.
2. I’ll be providing Internet-based forms that the agent will complete, (both in business-producing and busienss-supporting work), and those forms will always be available to the manager. These forms will tell the agent, too, how he’s doing in comparison with the standards and goals of the program. In other words, using programmed ‘feedback’ on progress, I’ll help the agent stay on track and congratulate him/her on accomplishments.
3. I’ll provide guidance to the manager on how to coach the agent during the good and the rough times, with short videos and forms provided.
What else would you like to see as I update the program?
Thank you for making this program the best-known and most successful program internationally to start new agents on the path to success.
P. S. This program is not meant to be a full-blown training program. It is a business start-up plan–meant to be an immediate start to the business, so the agent doesn’t have ‘down time’ between his hiring/orientation and training. Just think of what the agent could accomplish if he started lead generating on purpose in his week 2, rather than waiting until after that formal training program (about 4-6 weeks!)…….
Managers: What’s Your Ideal Training for New Agents?
Posted by: | CommentsManagers: What’s your ideal training–get started NOW program for new agents? What do you want your new agents to be able to do by the end of their first month in the business? How competent do you want them to be?
I’m working on the fourth edition of Up and Running in 30 Days, the new agent’s start-up plan. The program is designed to get an agent a sale in 30 days. It has a bit of training in it, so the agent gets the ‘how’ along with the ‘what’. In addition to that book, I’ll be doing a ‘version’ of it that will be very interactive, with me as coach. So, I want to know from you, both manages and agents, what you’d like to see in your ideal program for the new agent?
Here are questions I’d love to get feedback on so I can create the program that would work best for you:
1. What’s the major concern you have right now about the program you’re using?
2. Is the program you’re using designed to get the agent a sale in 30 days? If not, what is it designed to do?
3. What’s the best thing about your present training/coaching program?
4. What would you like to see in a start-up/training and coaching program for the new agent?
5. For agents under a year in the business (if you’re reading this as a manager, please ask your agents this question): What do you wish would have been in your training program? How could it have helped you get a sale sooner?
6. Coaching: What do you want that enables you to coach to the agent’s success better?
Please let me know by commenting on this blog. I want to make this program stunningly successful for both new agents and managers.
In my next blog, I’ll tell you some of my ideas about how I can ‘take the load off’ managers, and provide much of the coaching and accountability myself in this new version of this very successful program. Thanks in advance for your comments!\
Are You Sure That Agent is Really your Best Producer?
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Are you sure he (or she) is really your best producer?
We managers are frequently asked to ‘quartile’ our team, or evaluate our team members–to somehow rate the salespeople with us. Usually, we just start with the highest producer and work downward. But, is your highest producer your best producer?
‘Weigh’ Your Team Members Using your Values
When I was teaching CRB (Council of Real Estate Brokerage Management) courses nationally, I frequently heard the comment, “My top agent is not a team player.” Brokers complained their top agent didn’t represent the best in the company. So, the question is, “Is that really your top agent? Maybe not.
Your mission should define your rating system. Bring out your vision or your mission statement. What values do you hold dear? Do you say that your salespeople are ‘team players’? Do they provide exceptional customer service? Have they committed to a long-term career? Is one of your values that each member is contributive?
Develop a Weighing System for Accurate Evaluation
Let’s say that your five top values are:
Production
Team player
Customer Service
Longevity
Company contribution
Assign a range of 1 to 4 points to each value (4 is the highest score). Finally, score each agent in each of the five areas. Now, list your agents, starting with the highest cumulative score.
Why Values-Based Ratings are Important
Your values define you and your company, both within and with your clients. When you tout the ‘highest producer’ you are inadvertently endorsing that set of values as the values most important to you. Unfortunately, what we wish for we frequently get! In this day in age where the consumer is wary of ‘salespeople’, it’s time to define, rate, and reward your salespeople with the values you treasure. You’ll change the culture of your company for the better, and start hiring to the profile you really want.
Question: What do you think are the reasons managers ‘elevate’ someone as a top producer, even though he/she doesn’t represent the stated vision and values of the company?
Do you know what your prioritized vision and values really are? It’s a very important component of your business plan. Find out more in Business Planning for the Owner, Manager, and Team Builder. This program is endorsed and recommended by the Council of Real Estate Brokers (CRB). Click here to find out more.
Coaching your New Agent: Conquering the ‘Focus’ Challenge
Posted by: | CommentsRecently, I did the first of a series of complimentary coaching calls for those managers who are using the Up and Running in 30 Days start-up plan for their new agents. This is a very aggressive program, to get the agents a sale in 30 days (rather than the 3-6 months it takes most new agents.) The coaches have received their coaching resource guide, so they already have some guidance in implementing the program. We had a great discussion on the recent call. I want to share some of the discussion we had on the call, to help you as you coach your new agents to much faster success.
Biggest Challenges for the Coaches
The coaches on the call told me their biggest challenges were
Keeping the agent focused on the important activities
Getting the time to coach the agents frequently and regularly
So, in this blog, I’ll tackle that first concern—keeping your new agents focused.
Up and Running Gives you Two Keys to Keeping your Agents Focused
1, The Daily and Weekly Schedule. Have your new agent analyze his/her daily schedule at the end of the week. There is an exercise in Up and Running to reveal to the agent the priorities he/she needs to arrange in order to create a successful business. Unfortunately, most agents arrange their priorities to protect themselves from starting the business! Teaching your agent how to ‘self-manage’ by analyzing that past week is huge to set them on the road to successful sales.
Tip: Use this scheduling strategy with your experienced agents. Most agents have never created a weekly schedule, and don’t analyze their past week with the priorities explained in Up and Running.
2. Business-Producing vs. Business-Supporting Activities. Keep reiterating to your agents the difference between business producing and business-supporting activities. Up and Running teaches agents to put all their business activities into one of these groups. It’s one of the most important concepts an agent can grasp—and few agents have ever been taught this fundamental and very important concept.
Tip: You know your agent has struggles with time management. Help them analyze their activities and schedule their activities to do more business-producing activities. Their time management challenges will shrink, and their incomes will sky-rocket.
Invitation: If you’re using Up and Running in 30 Days with your new agents, and didn’t receive an invitation to be on our tele-conference calls, email me at Carla@carlacross.com and I’ll add you to the invitation list.
Next blog: I’ll discuss when to start Up and Running, and how to assure your new agent has a complete track to run on—so he/she gets that sale fast, which is yours and his/her goal! I’ll also discuss how frequently and consistently you must coach that new agent to assure he/she adheres to the Up and Running activities and goals.
This is the resource package I’m referring to. It will greatly shorten your timeframe in hiring and getting that agent started. It will increase your production and profits, which makes it much easier for you to recruiting successfully. Check it out: The Manager’s Up and Running Coaching System.
Free bonus: When you order it, you will receive 2 customizable flyers to promote the program inside your office, and promote it to recruits. Training is the name of the recruiting game in this decade! Get onboard.
How to Organize that Clutter for more Profits
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Envision your real estate office. If I walked into it, could I see processes and systems your agents use in providing top quality customer service? Could I see your checklists, posted, so that I knew you followed a regular, proven procedure for each group of activities? Could I see pre-made, ready to use, presentations for buyers and sellers? Could I see binders labeled with each subject (like ‘listing process’), and filled with ‘how-tos’ for assistants (or you) inside? Or, would I see stacks of disorganized papers?
There are two reasons to organize. The first is that it provides much better customer service. If I’m the consumer today, I want to know that you are trustworthy—that you’re good for your word. If I can see that you have systems, I know that you will have a much better chance of keeping your word to me. I’m using the word “see”, because we believe what we see, not what we hear.
The second reason is that it provides you much better time management. The agent’s biggest challenge is to find a way to make the same amount of money and quit working 24/7. Creating systems will take a long way toward that goal.
Take system inventory now. Click here for a list of the systems managers need.
How to begin. Real estate professionals are doers. We talk our way through processes. We dread organizing things, and frankly, we’re not good at it. So, how do we begin? First, find your organizational resources. Here are three: Other managers who already have systems and who are willing to share, great assistants who are good at organizing, and professionals who sell these packages. You’ll probably want a combination of all three. I know it’s wonderful to think that you can hire an assistant and expect that assistant to organize from the ground up.
But, my experience is that you will have to be involved in the process, and you will have to buy ready-made systems to help that assistant get a clue about what you want.
Start with one at a time. Make a list and prioritize it for the systems you need first. Put a date to start, and a date for completion (I know, there’s that organization again!). You’ll find that the first is the hardest, and then, it starts to actually get easy! It’s a skill like anything else. Bottom line: Systematization allows you to actually run a business, not just run after buyers and sellers.
Leadership already systemized! Want leadership actions you can put immediately into practice with confidence? Take a look at my subscription series for anyone who wants to step further into leadership: 365 Leadership. You’ll get one leadership action per month that you can put to work in your real estate office. Read what attendees are saying about the program at 365 Leadership. Join us. It’s profitable and it’s fun–and it’s very affordable!
Moving from Crisis Management: How to Grow your Business
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Real estate owners and managers; Do you feel like you have climbed to the top of the management mountain each day, or are you struggling in the mud flats?
If you’re trying to grow your real estate office, you’re most likely struggling to step to the next level. You want to get loose of some of the day-to-day concerns you handle. You want to delegate more, so you can do the pro-active things you know will give you that ‘quantum leap’.
Is Selling Real Estate Holding You Back?
For example, one of my Leadership Mastery coaching clients sells real estate. He sells a lot of real estate, and he’s really good at it. He also owns a real estate office with 20 people. To move his company to the next level, he knows he needs to step into the arena of “pro-active people development” (recruit, select, train, coach). He has to stop focusing his management time on reactive crisis management. To change his focus, though, he has to sell less—and delegate more. I need to provide him the tools, guidance, and support he needs to have confidence in his ‘next level’ business plan.
The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Leap to the Next Higher Level
There’s one concept that will do more than any other to take you out of ‘crisis management’ and into business management. It will enable you to create a business that’s truly saleable. It will solve your problem of being really good at what you do, and your fear, that, if you stop doing it, everything will fall apart!
Systematize Your Business
This concept is systemization. To move to that next level, you must have systems, operations, and checklists in place. Why? So you can delegate many of those present level responsibilities to someone else. But, you say, you’ll just hire someone and have that person create the systems. Oh, sure. McDonald’s does it that way. They just hire someone from out of the blue, and say, ‘create me a system to be more McDonald-like’. No, they don’t, and you can’t either. You must create a system for what you want done. Then, you hire the talent, and then you teach and coach them to the system! Now, you have delegated the job the way you want it done.
A Stunning Concept: Your Systems Make Up Your Business Plan
For years, my business planning resources for agents and managers have taken them past the numbers to help them create the related, systematic actions they need to take each day to reach their goals. (See The Business Planning System for the Real Estate Professional and Business Planning for the Owner, Manager, and Team Leader). Then, I read a concept that sums up my approach.
Gerber: A Management Consultant Master
This concept is from Michael Gerber, the small business guru and author of the famous books, The E-Myth and The E-Myth Revisited. (I highly recommend you read both of these). He says,
the integration of your systems is your business plan
What he means by that statement: As you think through how you’re going to act each day, you’re going to create systems and processes, including your operational checklists—so you can follow the plan.
People Development Systems is Key to Attaining Next Level Goals
You may have systems in the financial/technical arena. You may have systems in the operational area. But, do you have systems in the most important area for your growth? You need “people development Sytems.” These systems put down in black and white how you’ll recruit, how you’ll select, how you orientate, how you’ll train, how you’ll coach.
Want a list of systems you need? Click here.
Creating Systems: The First Step in Growing Your Business to Sell
In our coaching programs, we help agents and leadership analyze the systems they have in place, and prioritize the systems they want to get up and running. We integrate this concept of systematization into their business plans. There’s a huge bonus in creating a business plan based on the integration of your systems. One of our biggest concerns in our industry is time management. Creating systems that are delegatable takes us out of the ‘crisis management’ realm and put us into the pro-active, business-building arena. Why not make your business plan systematized and executable?
The easy way to get leadership systems: Want leadership actions you can put immediately into practice with confidence? Take a look at my subscription series for anyone who wants to step further into leadership: 365 Leadership. You’ll get one leadership action per month that you can put to work in your real estate office. Read what attendees are saying about the program at 365 Leadership. Join us. It’s profitable and it’s fun–and it’s very affordable!
Four Strategies to Build Leadership on your Real Estate Team
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In my last blog, I talked about the importance of building teamwork in a real estate company. It’s back! But, how do we do it? One of the important ways to build teamwork is to build leadership in the team. Why? Because, a great team is more than the sum of its parts. It consists of leaders in practice.
For Owners, Managers, Trainers, and Agents
If you’re an owner, manager, trainer, or agent who wants to build a team, you need these strategies. Otherwise, you’ll only be supervising workers. Here are the truisms about how people work, and the strategies to developing leadership with the people who work with you:
Truism #1: People don’t know what’s expected of them. Just because people accept a position doesn’t mean they know how to proceed with the job.
Strategy: They need to have clear direction, a job description and a firm understanding of the responsibilities–prioritized. Do you have a job description for each of your team positions? Do you provide it prior to hiring? Do you coach to it? Do you help your team members get so good at it that they can start training new team members (move into leadership)?
Truism #2: People don’t know WHAT to do to get the job done. Even if you hire someone who has real estate experience, it doesn’t work to leave it to them to figure what exactly needs to be done—from your point of view. They don’t know your priorities. They don’t know how you work.
Strategy: Provide them the processes and systems they need to succeed. Do you have processes and systems in place to teach them exactly what needs to be done?
Truism #3: Most people will struggle with the ‘how’.
Strategy: It’s your job to teach them HOW. Some people think “leaders” are the “idea people” and aren’t supposed to get into implementation. But if you want your team to excel, you must show them how.
Having worked with assistants for over 15 years, I have found that assistants and team members need help in systemizing any process that you want done. They need help in developing dialogues to deal with affiliates and consumer in the way you expect. They are good at systemizing their own processes–but not good at all at systemizing ours! Help them.
Do you have foundational systems in place from which to improvise? Do you have a solid training program to bring a new team member on board? Do you a method to ‘clone’ yourself to develop someone who can take over your job?
Truism #4: When accountability factors aren’t built in, things don’t get done. There’s a great difference between “do it the way you want” and expecting results and “do it the way you want and let’s check how it’s going regularly”.
Strategy: Hold your team members accountable for each step along the way to completion of a task as well as the end result.
The pay-off for developing competency and leadership skills in all of your team members is a business that is ‘owned’ by all those involved, with empowerment assured.
Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest football coaches of all time, said of teamwork, “Teamwork is the primary ingredient of success.”
Your goals is to develop processes, systems, and training for your team members to bring them into a leadership mentality with you, so you can delegate more responsibilities and finally replace yourself!
Want leadership actions you can put immediately into practice with confidence? Take a look at my subscription series for anyone who wants to step further into leadership: 365 Leadership. You’ll get one leadership action per month that you can put to work in your real estate office. Read what attendees are saying about the program at 365 Leadership. Join us. It’s profitable and it’s fun–and it’s very affordable!
Five Reasons Why Your Training Isn’t Working
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How well is your training working? Do you know? What are your goals for training? To recruit? Or, do you have more specific goals for your training? Unfortunately, most brokers don’t have training goals. They just know they ”need training’.
Here are the major mistakes trainers make, and why their training isn’t getting results. I’ve also provided recommendations for you to make your training pay off.
1. Talking and calling it training just won’t cut it when you have low production. Remember, people today have a 30-second attention span. You’d better use other delivery methods to teach, so they really learn. (Task force, case study, role play, action plan, for example).
Broker recommendation: Becoming an effective trainer requires mastering several specific training skills. Take a Train the Trainer course. Or, to cut your learning and preparation time, purchase a training program with a facilitator guide to tell you the effective training method for what you’re teaching in that module.
2. Using your old materials and old information just isn’t believable today. I see training programs cobbled together with five different trainers’ scripts. I hear information shared that hasn’t been current since hula hoops.
Broker recommendation: Update your training materials and training methods to deal with today’s practices and consumer demands.
3. Being a ‘nice’, supportive trainer just isn’t enough today. The market isn’t nice; the consumers aren’t easy; the challenges are much greater than ever before. You’d better get as tough with your students as the market and consumers demand.
Broker recommendation: Don’t do any training without accountability built in. You need to see that the student takes action. Make the student do something to get into your class, do meaningful actions to stay in your class, and complete meaningful actions to get out of your class.
4. Training as though the consumer is dumb. No wonder the agents don’t like most training. It’s boring. It’s not ‘real life’. It’s simplistic. It doesn’t teach them to work with the demanding consumers of today.
Broker recommendation: Your training should teach your agents to think. It should provide the foundations for systems and processes. It should be built with basic skills leading to more complex skills, processes, and systems.
5. On demand video will not solve your production problems. Many large franchises are providing video on demand training. Brokers may be relieved that this is going to take training off their plates. I wish. Unfortunately, video training can provide very limited production results. Why? Because people don’t learn much by watching video. Yes, they learn a little. They observe someone else doing something; they get information. But, they don’t have to take action.
Broker recommendation: Use video as a support to the kind of training that gets results. Results-based training is face-to-face, uses a skilled facilitator, has high accountability, high interaction, and includes action plans in the field.
I have a resource to help you. I’ve built a training program that covers those 5 bases above. It’s a high accountability, results-based training program: Advantage 2.0. Check out out.