Archive for Up and Running in Real Estate
Engagement: How to Drive It in a Screeching-Halt Market
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Engagement: Do you have a plan to drive engagement with your agents in this shifted market? Or, are you waiting for your company, your association, or …… to take over? Or, do you think you just don’t have to engage?
Sometimes it takes years! I don’t want you to lose your agents–or your business.
Concrete Methods to Re-Engage Your Agents
Every week, I’ll be giving you specific actions to take to re-vitalize the communication and the activity levels of the agents in your office. I’m not just drawing these out of a hat. This is what I have done for years to encourage, tell truth, and get agents into action in challenging markets. This will set you up for great profitability, retention, and a wonderful recruiting tool. How do I know? I’ve done it several times. It works.
First: Set Up Your Plan
Don’t wait for your company or some outside force to do this for you. All well and good, but you need to step right in and be the one who literally LEADS right now. That’s right–leads. Oh, boy, I just thought of what I don’t want to happen for you: DON’T just send them to some training guru site and hope all works out (that includes me!).
What Your Plan Should Look Like
First, when I say ‘meetings’, of course I mean via Zoom or Go to Webinar, or a similar program!
As a group (and groups):
- New agent training at least weekly with actionable items they are to complete–must be high accountability
- Advanced agent training at least weekly with guests sharing best practices for this market
- Mastermind groups of various experience and/or production levels
- Office meetings weekly with guests
In other words, your training calendar must
- Address the needs of the various levels of your agents
- Be consistent and well-thought out to serve your agents with actionable items–which you then can get permission to share
- Create a compelling reason why your agents should re-engage frequently
You DO have a training calendar, don’t you?
With individuals:
- Quartile your agents using any weighing variables you feel are important (4 points for production, 3 points for culture, etc.). See who you can help (probably not the bottom quartile, but you make that call. It’s your time and energy. You deserve a pay-off…..)
- Look at what you’ve been urging these agents to get done for the past 6 months (or more!): their website, their bios, their databases, their presentations, etc.
- Choose 5 action items you want to use with each agent, and let each agent prioritize and add to these actions, add dates–so it’s their plan; or, ask each agent to come up with 5 prioritized items
- Set up a schedule with each agent to review actions–I’ll be helping you apply great coaching techniques so they are motivated to keep going!
What I’ll be Providing You
Besides these overview and bigger picture items, I’m going to provide you specific action items (some with templates so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel) that you can drop in in several training/coaching areas
Who Will Survive and Thrive Through this Time
I know today, there are companies and/or managers who have a ‘hands off’ approach: It’s the agent’s business and that agent decides when, how, and how much to do–alone. When the market is going nuts, that works, because the market is driving the agents. But, when the market becomes challenging, the agents are looking for leadership, for guidance, for coaching. They get lost–more easily than they will admit. Those who provide positive, clear, supportive leadership now will come out with a much stronger profit picture, a synergistic team, and a recruiting tool.
Tell me: What are YOU doing to drive action in your office right now?
Let’s Partner to Drive your Success!
Why reinvent the wheel right now? Take advantage of my online training program, Up and Running in Real Estate, created from my smash hit, proven business start-up program Up and Running in 30 Days.
Not just a distance learning program!
No one wants to sit in front of a computer especially now!) and learn neat stuff….
Effective online training has to have 3 things:
- An easy, engaging process to draw the attendee in and keep him/her interested
- Interaction with a real human being once inawhile
- Interaction and idea exchange with others in the course
Ive integrated these 3 critical factors in Up and Running in Real Estate.
- Engaging--I created humor, introspection, and awards to motivate attendees to keep going through the program
- Coaching: I will be personally group coaching agents in the program, and you have a unique opportunity to coach in the program, too.
- Interaction: set up discussion groups so agents can interact and support each other
An Easy Way to Integrate Coaching Your Agents
Your support right now is critical. So, I waived the $99 fee for Coaches Corner (the coaching component of the program) for all who sign up prior to Sept. 1, 2020. To qualify, register at least 1 of your agents in the program. See more here.
Lets create success together!
Onboarding: Is It Causing Retention or Attrition in your Comany?
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Onboarding: Is it causing attrition or retention in your company? Do you know? Do you know how awesome (or not) your onboarding system is? Have you done a survey? (more about that in later blogs).
What Does Onboarding Include?
One study I used in Up and Running in 30 Days was the Inman Select Special Report: How to Fix New Agent Onboarding. The Inman report didn’t define what was included in Onboarding. From reading the study, however, Inman included initial training, coaching, and mentoring. I am going to add basic orientation and basic actions to the Onboarding process. Why? Because many real estate companies do not have adequate orientation processes. So, agents don’t get the basic direction needed to launch their businesses.
Question: What is your initial orientation like? Does it cover all the bases? If you want a template and suggestions of what should be included in your orientation, click here.
In this blog, I’ll address the results and its ramifications for real state companies–from the other survey published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Retention Starts in the Interview
From working with real estate companies over the past three + decades, I think that most brokers regard retention as something that we must do to keep those seasoned agents. However, according to the survey results in the SHRM study, retention decisions are made by those we hire within a very short period of time. In fact, both studies indicate retention starts prior to hiring!
Here is a major conclusion from this survey, and it what means to real estate companies.
Expectations of the job are different than what new hires heard in the interview. And, the Inman report said new agents fail because they are unprepared for the realities of working as an independent contractor. I’m sure you’ve experienced this. Your new agent is all excited about a career in real estate. But, he/she will not do the lead generating activities required to launch a career. You told the candidate he/she had to lead generate. What is wrong?
Question for you: How well do you explain the job expectations in your interview? Do you provide a prioritized job description for the new agent? (Click here to grab mine). How do you give the prospective agent a real idea of the job?
Three Tips:
- Prior to hiring: Have the agent shadow one of your agents who is modeling the behaviors you want.
- Provide the agent with the eBook What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School. This eBook tells the truth about real estate as a career! You’ll save lots of time in the interview process and winners will pick themselves.
- Ask the prospect agent to do an activity you feel is important: Like create a dialogue to talk to someone they know about buying/selling real estate.
- Prior to hiring: Give the prospective agent Up and Running in 30 Days. Ask them to review the book. In my experience, if they come back, excited to begin this specific start-up plan, they are a good match for a productivity-focused office. If they come back and reject your lead generating plan, not a good prospect!
In my next blog, I’ll discuss more of the study conclusions and what they mean to us as real estate owners. I’ll also offer tips to tighten your onboarding process. Isn’t it worth having great systems if you could increase your retention of first year agents to 75%?
Last question: What’s your retention rate now of first year agents? How much money do they make their first year in the business? Do you know?
How’s Your Quick-Start Program Working?
Both these onboarding studies prove that leaving the new agent’s orientation, training, and start to chance just doesn’t cut it. Take a look at what’s new in Up and Running in 30 Days: updates in 5th edition. This invaluable book is only $32.95 plus shipping, and has been used by thousands of new agents to launch successful careers. Order here.
The 5 Performance Principles I Learned from my Piano Teacher
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Here are the 5 great performance principles I learned from my piano teacher.
Why are these so important? Because, as trainers, we want to
change behavior,
not just impart information!
Big questions right now: Are you training with methods that actually change behavior, or are you just imparting information you think will help your students?
PS. If you want creative training techniques that really do change behavior, check out my unique course, Instructor Development Workshop. Or, see my distance learning version, Train the Trainer. Both qualify instructors to teach clock hour courses in Washington state.
Why Some Get Results–and Others Don’t
Recently, one of my coaching clients (an owner of a real estate company) asked me, “Why do some trainers and coaches get great results and others don’t–but seem to be working as hard?”
Great question, huh? In fact, if we trainer/coach types knew that answer, we could build our systems so that we assured great performance! So, I went back to my ‘former life’–that as a musician and piano/flute teacher, and thought, “Why do some piano teachers create great performers–and others don’t?”
Why Use Piano Teachers as the Analogy….
I use the analogy of the piano teacher, because it’s easy to hear differences in sloppy and great performance. I’m sure you’ve heard 2 people play the same piece of music. One plays it accurately and one just kind of slops through it. Or, some piano teachers’ students drop out, unmotivated to practice, while others stay motivated, challenged, and achieve high performance–even if they don’t seem to have great talent.
Five Proven Components for Great Performance
From having taken piano lessons since age six, gaining a degree in piano performance, and having taught piano at the grade, high school, and college level, I’ve had an opportunity to see the great and the not-so-great–both teachers and performers. Here are the five components I’ve discovered make the biggest difference in great performance (which is what you want to shoot for when you teach!).
1. Great piano teachers screen in and screen out.
They don’t let just anybody take lessons from them.
Trainers and coaches: What’s your ‘screen in’ process? Do you have one? Do you have a list of questions you ask? In our coaching company, we have a prescribed list of questions we ask potential clients (and we unfortunately have to turn down some). I even have a Coachability Assessment I provide potential clients. Click here to request your copy.
2. Great piano teachers set expected standards (minimums) during the screening process–not after the lessons start!
Those standards include: Amount of practice each day, recitals attended and played in, going to lessons, etc.
Trainers and coaches: What do you expect of your clients? Make a list of at least 5 standards now–and get the ‘mutual expectations’ agreement in writing prior to letting them into your program.
3. Great piano teachers figure out the ‘competency levels’ they want their students to attain–and when they expect them. They won’t let the students perform in front of others if the student has not reached compentency levels.
Trainers and coaches: How good do you expect your students to get in that one-month training program you’ve been doing? Do you even measure skill levels? Which skill levels to you measure? How? Do you have your students practice their listing presentations until they reach the level of competency you believe the real client expects? What an eye-opener! Make a list now of 5 skills and the level of competency you want your students to attain in your training program. You’ll see your outcomes go way up just by doing this.
4. Great piano teachers get better performance because their excellent students motivate other good students to excellence.
Trainers and coaches: Have you ever gotten yourself into the situation where you felt like you were way above the other people in your group? This isn’t an ego thing–it’s just a ‘I don’t belong here’ thing. Likes attract. Good performers motivate other good performers. Excellent performers stay. Are you creating a self-motivating group–or, are you creating a situation where your good performers will leave for a team that is ‘more like them’? This goes back to those ‘screen in’ and setting competency principles. I know we all feel challenged when people don’t appear motivated. Here’s one of the secrets to fire them up!
5. Great piano teachers provide lavish praise–when deserved.
Behavior that’s rewarded is repeated.
If you have competency levels, you have a way and a reason to praise. Your students/clients know when they have reached those levels–and can expect praise, too! In fact, strong students/clients will ask you for praise. Write down the 5-10 methods you use to appreciate and praise good performance. If you can’t get to 10, figure them out.
But, what about the method? The specific coaching, the training? Yes, the method is important, but the coaching/training techniques above are much more important. I’ve heard some great performers and some poor performers all playing the same kind of music from the same method. At the same time, great methods should have some ‘built-in’ features that assure the trainer/coach is achieving these 5 principles.
Principles, System, Coaching–Putting it All Together
From talking with prominent trainers, managers, and coaches, we’ve pinpointed a need for all those training and coaching today to get the coaching they need to turn out great performers. So, each one of these 5 principles is in my initial online training program for newer agents: Up and Running in Real Estate. Check it out. Your agents will be performing better and faster with this program and principles.
Is Your Initial Training Program Getting the Results you Want?
Or, a better question: Do you know what the results are? With my online training program, Up and Running in Real Estate, you see the progress your agent is making each week. You measure the results in concrete terms. Check it out. It will save you time, and money, and give you much greater retention!
What Do You Do If Someone Won’t Get into Action?
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What do you do if someone won’t get into action?
This month, I’m featuring tips to get your agents–and you into action better–and faster. Why? Because real estate is a ‘performance art’, not a knowledge pursuit!
(Note: Watch for my new little book, it’s literally a ‘little book’, with the quotes I’ve coined (or copied, I’m sure), over the years. The quote above is from the book, too). Oh, the name of the book: Big Ideas (in a little book). By the way, the book is a great gift to your agents–and will give you 80+ quotes for meeting discussions, too.
Real Estate Sales IS Challenging!
I’ll bet your agents didn’t know how challenging real estate sales were until now. To cope with those challenges, our creative subconscious may be coming up with ways to convince us to avoid getting into action. We might even start believing your subconscious! One of the most common reasons is the old “I can’t do that because I don’t know enough.” Or, maybe your subconscious has convinced you that you’re not organized enough to get into action, or that you’re not perfect enough.
Getting Ready to Get Ready
Ned, an agent in my office, acted in a way that is an example of creative avoidance. In the business eight months, Ned had made only one sale. However, he was in the office regularly and appeared busy with paperwork. He attended law courses and was well-informed on financing. One day I saw Ned collating maps. I asked him what he was doing. He explained that he was putting together a series of maps for a buyer’s tour. I thought that was exceptional; buyers would really want to know the whereabouts of the homes they were seeing. (Today, Ned would be using apps for that–and spending lots of time getting the right apps and exactly the right ‘maps’……..)
Unfortunately, Ned had used his strategy with only six buyers—all the buyers he had put in his car in the past eight months! He had spent his time on this nifty map system, but had not talked to enough people to get them into the car—or have the opportunity to appreciate the map system! Which is more important to your goal attainment—talking to people, qualifying them, and showing them homes, or working diligently on a map system in case you find someone who wants you to show them homes?
How People Get into Action
How do you “get into action”? How do your agents get into action? In a wonderful book, The Conative Connection, Kathy Kolbe explores the ways different personalities get into action—not how we learn, but how we get into action. Some people barge ahead and worry about the details later. We start badly, but, because we’re tenacious, we surprise people by how good we finally get. Unfortunately, our supervisors often remember only how bad we were when we started. We must be tough-minded and keep at it; we must retain an image of ourselves as “finished products,” because others will not see us that way. Other people observe the action for a long time. Finally, when we feel ready to perform well, we get into action. We start slowly but well.
Slow Starters May be Deceptively Competent!
Because of our slow start, we don’t get much positive reinforcement from our supervisors (or coach or manager), who note our lack of progress compared with others in the office. If slow starters are tenacious and believe in themselves, they become very good because they practice perfectly. Kolbe points out several “get into action” styles. This book will help you pinpoint your “get into action” style as well as the barriers and challenges various types of ‘action starters’ face as they start their real estate careers.
Help Your Agents Embrace Embarrassment
Go ahead—be embarrassed. There is no way to be experienced until you get experience. No agents like to take risks, be embarrassed, or have buyers and sellers guess that they are new in the business. But face it—everyone has been new in the business. Just go ahead and get those first few months over with. You will be embarrassed every day—many times. As a new agent, my most common statement to buyers or sellers was “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” In music, little could stump me—but in real estate anything could stump me! Still, I muddled through it, and you will, too.
* Big Idea: Your ability to get into action and risk being embarrassed is one of the attributes of a successful new agent (or manager!).
Why not take your time? I’ve interviewed prospective agents who told me they really didn’t want to sell real estate right away. They wanted to learn everything they could. Then, after six or eight months, they would feel ready to sell real estate. It doesn’t work that way! I wish I could tell you that agents can successfully launch real estate careers by taking lots of time to “get ready.” However, if you take all the time in the world, you will fail. Why? Because lack of success is a great de-motivator!
. To remember and emulate good performance, we need to perform right after we have heard, seen, and practiced that performance. Learning something in a class and letting that skill lie dormant for months just guarantees poor skill—and high stress.* Big Idea: 99 percent of what we learn we learn by doing.
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being “I jump right into action”, how would you rate yourself in getting into action?
Let Me Help Your Agents Get Into Action with More Confidence
It can seem like every day in real estate is a new challenge! I know–I remember those days well! Why not get the best start (or re-start) possible? Take a look at my innovative online, training/accountability program, Up and Running in Real Estate. There’s a coaching component, too, so you can track your agents’ successes and coach them along the way. Check it out here.
What We Can Learn from Mr. Rogers
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What can we learn from Mr. Rogers?
I’ll bet we would all agree that today the world is more divisive than ever—in every way! So, we can’t move forward. We’re spending all our energy defending our thinking…..even when we should be looking at it critically—and honestly looking at other points of view.
What does that mean for us, as businesspeople (and us people in general)? That perhaps the energy we’re expending in one direction isn’t giving us the kind of pay-off that we ultimately will find most rewarding (and not just monetarily). Although I have some general conclusions here, I also have some exercises for managers to use with their associates to help them reach their potentials.
Mr. Rogers to the Rescue
The solution to our divisive world may be with a person who had a long-running children’s show—Fred Rogers. First, who was “Mr. Rogers”? Best known from his children’s show, which ran from 1968 to 2000, Fred Rogers was so much more—a minister, a musician with a degree in music composition, and chief puppeteer of his show. I’ve been thinking about his legacy, because there’s a new movie about his philosophies: “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Mr. Rogers’s Big Lessons for Us
Morgan Neville, Academy Award winning filmmaker, is the creator of the Mr. Rogers’s film mentioned above. From studying Rogers’s lessons, Neville boiled it down to one thing: radical kindness. “He talked about grace all the time … As a minister himself, he saw the idea of grace is the undeserved goodness bestowed on you by God. In other words, being good to someone whether or not they deserve it, and whether or not you’re going to get anything back. You just do good to other people, for the sake of doing good. And that is essentially what Fred was preaching all along.”
Question:
Big Lesson from Mr. Rogers about Attaining Mastery
As a coach, first in music, then in business, I see potential in people that they sometimes don’t see in themselves. What I can’t tell, though, is their ability to stick with it from beginner to mastery. As a musician, I know that only practice makes perfect. (And perfect practice makes your performance truly perfect—getting to mastery). You just don’t sit down at the piano the first time and play a Beethoven sonata well!). Yet, too many times, I see people settling for ‘first time performance’ as their standard.
What Mr. Rogers Says about Learning and Practice
For years, I’ve given a little book as a gift to clients, referrals, etc. This book is The World According to Mister Rogers. I love it because, as a musician, it has quotes that I know to be true. Here’s one that’s so appropriate because it reminds me of what new real estate agents (and new managers) sometimes think:
When I was young (about eight or ten years old), I was trying to learn so many things all at once, things like the piano and organ and algebra and cooking and typing, and I even started to take clarinet lessons. But, I just didn’t practice the clarinet, so I didn’t learn. I think I wanted to learn by magic. ….But magic doesn’t work with learning, not with anything really worthwhile.
Note to managers: Lead a discussion on the difference between ‘first tries’ and mastery. Brainstorm some methods to attain mastery. Brainstorm the stumbling blocks to getting better. Create some ‘next steps’ for those who want to get to mastery (get a coach, become a mentor, take a ‘how to train program, become a trainer, become a coach)
Help to Practice Perfectly and Get Farther Faster
There are several unique ‘learning strategies’ imbedded in my online training/coaching/accountability start-up program for agents under 2 years in the business. I didn’t learn these ‘learning strategies’ in real estate–I learned them as a practicing classical/jazz musician. They work to get better performance faster–and motivate us to go right back and do it again! Check out my unique program, Up and Running in Real Estate. There’s even a coaching component so you can be involved with your agents–without spending thousands of hours at it! Check it out here.
What Your Agents Need to Do Their Second Week in the Business
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Here’s what your new agents need to do their second week in the business.
These 2 blogs (my previous one and this one) are excerpted from my eBook, What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
Compare this advice to how you start your new agents into their second weeks in the business.
Here’s what to do your second week in the business.
Business start-up plan: You should start your lead generating now, devoting two hours a day, five days a week. Why? Because you want to generate lots of potential clients so you can choose the best ones. If you dona��t start now, you are just putting off your success another month!
Your coach: Meet with your coach at least 3 times this week to assure youa��re starting your business to production fast.
Benefits of ShadowingA�
Shadowing: This literally means following a seasoned agent as he/she does his/her business. Typically, you would shadow an agent doing a listing presentation, a buyer presentation, or presenting an offer. Is it a good thing to do? It depends on the abilities of the agent. If you decide you want to shadow, find out:
What format the agent is going to use; is it a format that you will or have been trained to do (like an approved listing presentation)?
Whata��s the point of the shadowing?
Will you get coaching on your own presentations as part of the shadowing process?
What are you expected to provide in return?
Shadowing provides a a�?modela�� for you. Be sure ita��s a model you want to emulate!
What Your Training Priorities Should BeA�
Most companies have company training programs, or programs they recommend. You should attend.
These are:
- Lead generation communication skills: You need to learn, and practice the skills of lead generation so you can begin to generate leads (which lead to appointments which lead to clients which lead to SALES!)
- Buyer and seller presentations: You should be given these presentations and should practice them. This includes qualifying buyers and sellers.
- Business planning skills, including a business start-up plana��you should have a course that teaches you the basics of how the numbers work, and gives you a method to set your goals and keep score
- A�Principles of Agency and how to explain agency to a seller or buyer
- How to complete a listing agreement and explain it to a seller
- How to write a purchase and sale agreement and explain it to buyers and sellers
Why these priorities? Because these either put you right on the sales path, or provide the technical information you need to support those sales activities.
What About Everything Else?A�
What about all the rest of the knowledge you dona��t have and are afraid someone will find out you dona��t have? Dona��t worry. You will be able to learn as you go. But, if you avoid getting into the field and meeting potential clients, you wona��t need to worry about learning more. Youa��ll be out of the businessa��..
See more: For detailed weekly schedules and activity plans for your first two months in the business, see my online business start-up program,A�Up and Running in Real Estate.
What Should You Expect Your First Week in the Business?
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What should you expect your first week in the business?
The next few blogs are excerpted from my ebook, What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School (the facts about real estate as a career!).
Herea��s Your Desk, Herea��s Your Phone, Got Any Questionsa��..
Thata��s what my first boss told me as I was hired. So, I went to the desk I was assigned anda��..waited for something to happen. I was so naA?ve I didna��t even know the questions to ask! You may be laughing now, but, that still occurs in real estate offices today. What would you do if that happened to you? Probably sit and wait for someone to
Invite you to have a cup of coffee or lunch
Invite you to go see homes for sale
And, those were both things that happened to me. You may even conclude thata��s how real estate was sold. Wrong. Unfortunately, neither of these activities makes you any money. So, I quickly figured out I couldna��t do things like the agents in the office did them, or I would produce the same amount they produceda��3-4 sales a year. (There were two others in the office, but I never saw them, because they were out sellinga��.).
What Your First Week Should Look Like
Orientation: Get everything done on the orientation checklist your manager provided. Work with the secretary or assistant to complete all the tasks, so youa��re ready to sell real estate.
Schedule an appointment with your manager to get your business start-up plan and a coaching schedule with him/her or someone designated as your accountability coach.
Start-up checklist: Your manager may provide a start-up checklist, which has things on it such as a�?create a databasea��; call potential clientsa��; a�?meet with a mortgage repa��. These lists can include business developing and business-supporting activities. Just be sure they are targeted to start your business successfullya��not just give you busywork.
Schedule your initial training: Your company should have an initial training program that occurs at least every two months. Schedule attendance at it. Chapter 9 has a comprehensive new agent training calendar you can use to compare to what youa��ve requested in the interview.
Property inspection: Every new agent wants to feel comfortable with inventory. So, schedule inspection of listings for 3-5 hours this week, and during your first month. As you become comfortable with inventory, dona��t a�?previewa�� any more than you need toA� feel comfortable working with buyers and sellers.
Top-producing agents preview with a reason: To do research on a potential listing, or to preview with a specific buyer in mind. They dona��t have time just to preview pretty properties because they are on the marketa��but non-producing agents have plenty of time to become a�?property expertsa��.
See my business start-up plan, A�for a good prototype schedule for yourself, so you’ll get great time management habits from day 1.
Want proven guidance to start your career? Check out
What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License SchoolA� -A�everything each prospective agent should know about careers in real estate
Up and Running in 30 DaysA�–A�the new agent’s business start-up plan, with dozens of training tips, checklists, and sales guidance to start your career right
UP and Running in Real Estate — the comprehensive online version; a detailed start-up plan, with 25 training videos, dozens of documents to save you thousands of hours, and coaching plus motivation to keep your momentum to success
Carla’s advice: No matter how you start, start with a proven plan!
Managers: You Motivate Others–Who Gets YOU Up When You’re Down?
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Managers: You motivate others. Who gets you up when you’re down? That’s a really important question for us managers. Why? Because we’re expected to be the ‘cheerleaders’ for our associates. So, if we’re down, we can bring everyone down.
Have you ever gotten poison oak? In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where I grew up, poison ivy seemed to be waiting in the woods ready to attack me each time I ventured out of my yard. Getting poison ivy meant itchy skin, at the least, and, at its worst, it meant a face swollen to the point where my eyes were just slits. That will get you down. In fact, I’d look in the mirror and wonder if I’d ever look like meA� again.
During one particularly horrible bout with my enemy, poison oakA� (you can tell I really hated this stuff), I remember riding in the car with my mother to pick up my sister at school. (I couldn’t go to school with the poison oak raging, but I was probably driving my mother so crazy that she let me take this little trip). We got near the school, and I forgot I had this grotesquely swollen face for a moment. I waved at a friend. I got a stare back. Turning to my mom, I asked, “Will I ever get over this?” Of course, as good moms do, she replied, “Of course, sweetie. It’s just temporary. You’ll look like your cheery little self real soon again.” And, of course, after a couple of weeks, I did resemble me. (But I still hated poison oak…)
What do you do when your mom’s not there?
We managers have many varieties of poison oak waiting to attack us as we venture into the ‘woods of management’ each day. An agent leaves us, a call from an unhappy seller, a letter from a new homeowner, saying, “What is your company going to do about our pest infestation problem?” I’ll bet you can think of 25 others! Sometimes you wish your mom could just sit with you in your office each day and say, over and over, “It’s okay, honey. They don’t dislike you, they just have a problem.” Sounds far fetched, but, the real question is, “Who gets you up when you’re down?”
An Industry-wide Problem
It’s not just us brokers who seem to be fighting more ‘poison oak’ every day. It’s all of us in the industry. As agents capture more of the commission dollars, they’re more ‘on their own’. They’re fighting more of their own battles, with less management help. There’s less ‘broker supervision’. Now, to independent people like you and me, that sounds great. We don’t need someone standing over our shoulder telling us what to do. But, there’s a downside to no supervision. When we do something right, there’s no one to congratulate us! And, since most of us in this industry thrive on recognition, we’ve given up a chance to get it from an ‘authority’.
The biggest desire of a human being is simply recognition.A�
On the other hand, when things go wrong, with less interest and guidance in how we’re doing, we’ve given up the chance to let someone who cares about us ‘pump us up’ when we’re down.
How do you respond to barriers? How quickly can you bounce back? Tell me your strategies and share them with our readers.
Let Me Motivate Your Agents While I Train Them
As a manager, do you have a lot on your plate? I know. I managed for over 2 decades! Why not let me train and coach your agents, while I motivate them to high goals? Check out my online training/coaching/accountability program, Up and Running in Real Estate. Along with 25+ training webinars and dozens of checklists/documents to guide your agents, I’ve also built in lots of motivation and accountability. Check this unique program out here.A�
Motivation: Does it Come from the Inside or Outside?
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Motivation: Does it come from the inside or outside?
There are two ways to get that motivation, that appreciation, that support you need. We already discussed a�?going outsidea�� (see the earlier blog). But, therea��s another method. Thata��s the method so few of us use: Going inside. We shy away from acknowledging our own efforts. Why? Perhaps your mom (as mine did) told us not to brag. It was unseemly to be immodest.
Not about Bragging
Acknowledging yourself is not bragging. It is not only positive, it is absolutely critical to do if we are to be effective leaders. We must use all the methods as our disposal to keep ourselves a�?upa��, so we can be models for those who follow us.
Going inside. Someone you can always count on. When I was in college, I remember going sailing with a group of people. It was a gorgeous day. We sailed around the large lake, enjoying moderate winds. Then, about 6 o’clock, we decided to sail back to the dock. Problem. No wind. We had no choice but to wait for that wind to bring us back. (or use the little outboard motor, which the purest a�?captaina�� was loathe to use.)
Frequently, we count on others to ‘sail us back to the dock of positive attitude’ when we’re down. Like the wind, though, they may not be there when we need them!
Draw a Different Conclusion
Actually, though, we have our own outboard motor on board–our own minds. We have the ability to change our minds about things (especially we women, men say…). We have the ability inside us to re-draw a conclusion about an event. For instance, we managers get ‘down’ when the agent we thought we were going to hire went to another agency. We can look at it as a loss, or as an opportunity to learn from the experience. If we’re good at managing our attitude, we’ll call that agent to find out what attracted that agent to the other company–and learn from the experience.
What’s your best way to get motivated? How do you you ‘tap’ those inner fires of motivation?
A Training/Coaching Program Online with Motivation Built In
As a manager, you have a million things to do. You’re expected to be ‘up’ all the time. It’s challenging to provide the motivation — the attitude–needed to keep those agents keeping on. So, I’ve built in motivation in my unique online training/coaching/accountability program, Up and Running in Real Estate.
Take a look. Let me help you train and motivate your agents to great success fast! Click here to learn more.
Here’s How to Get More Success–Even Before They’re Licensed!
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Here’s how to get more success with your new agents–starting with before licensing.
Managers: Use this as you’re interviewing to help those best candidates get ready to be successful.
Managers: your new agents wait to start training until AFTER they join an office. Why? Think how much faster they could go if they had lots of the organization and training under your belt prior to their first day in the business?A� Okay. I know. Until they are licensed, they can’t do the things licensed agents can do. But, they can do many things. And all those things get them ready to hit the ground running. At the end of this blog, I’m providing you my great checklist,A�30 Things to Do Right (In Pre-License School) Now to Hit the Ground Running. (from my new eBook,A�What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School).
New Agents Lose Lots of Time Because They are Not Prepared to Start the Business
New agents generally spend the first 1-2 weeks getting ‘orientated’. Brokers have checklists to assure they get their keys, join the Realtor association, etc., etc., etc. How long do you estimate it takes the new agent just to get those orientation checklists finished? 2-4 weeks? In some cases, they never finish them!!!!! Not only that, they probably think that finishing those checklists assures they are going to be successful agents.A� Ha!
When Do New Agents Plan to Start Lead Generating?
My studies show that new agents want to make a sale their first month in the business. That means you need to start lead generating your first WEEK in the business! From hiring and training hundreds of new agents, I’ve observed they put off the inevitable as long as possible, hoping ‘there’s another way!’ In fact, the more ‘get ready to get ready’ work new agents doing, the worse their habits become and the less money they make!
A Better Method to GetA� a Check Fast
Instead of waiting until new agents areA�are licensed, why not get them prepared to sell real estate while they are in pre-license school? These eager beavers can do things like
- Decide on the database/CRMA�they want to use and learn how to use it–with your guidance
- Populate their databases with 100-300 potential clients
- Prepare an email/hard copy note/letter to all those in their databases saying they’ve joined_____________ real estate company
30 Things to Do While in Pre-License School
In fact, as I was writing myA� eBook,A�What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School, I started thinking about how we could really prepare agents to sell real estate–lots of real estate. That’s how I came up with this checklist.A�Click hereA�to get it.
Let me know how theA�checklistA�worked for you. I’ve used this with pre-licensees and seen them sell much faster and with much more confidence.
You Need This! Prepare to Sell Real Estate Fast and Well
This 280+ page eBook is packed with questionnaires, advice, processes, and systems to prepare pre-licensees (and new agents!) for the real world of real estate.A� SeeA�What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School.A�Only $14.95, and immediately downloadable. Now, a Kindle version, too.
Managers: Use this to help your great candidates assure they make it in the business!