Recruiting: What You Need in Your Pre-Interview Package
By · Comments
Recruiting: Here’s what you need in your pre-interview package. This month, I’m focusing on recruiting and selecting systems, to help you work faster and better and recruiter winners.
Remember the Chinese water torture? Drip, drip, a drip at a time. That’s the key to recruiting successfully. Herea��s another a�?dripa��. Youa��ll want to provide your candidate after that first interviewA�another package with the information you think the candidate will find useful. Herea��s why:
We remember only 10% of what we heard three days later!
Unfortunately, candidates dona��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 a�?after first-visita�� package or post-interview process. In it, youa��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
A�We believe what we see, not what we hear
and
A�Do as I do, not as I say
are true, as we know a�?in real lifea��.
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 wona��t have the opportunity to provide a pre-first visit package. Of course, youa��ll always have the ability to customize each package. However, ita��s much easier to do this from a prepared package than to start from scratch each time.
Letter from the manager explaining whata��s in the package
- A�A�A�A�A�A� Training calendar (you do have one, dona��t you?)
- A�A�A�A�A�A� Training brochure
- A�A�A�A�A�A� Company/office/manager story
- A�A�A�A�A� Attractive company/office/manager statistics
- A�A�A�A�A�A� Articles featuring company/manager
- A�A�A�A�A�A� Costs of affiliating A�with explanations
Bottom Line: Youa��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, a�?I prepared for you. Your time is valuable. I am here to dedicate my skills and talents to help you develop your business.a�?
You will recruit more and better agents, you will save time, and you will be able to delegate or a�?clonea�� 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.A�A�A�A� 
Recruiting: Do You Have Systems or do you ‘Wing It’?
By · Comments
Recruiting: Do you have systems, or do you ‘wing it?’ At the end of this blog, I’m providing you a checklist of the systems you need. See how prepared you are!
When you look at allA�the organization required to systematize your recruiting, it can be daunting. So, why not start with the packages?A� Here are the packages you need:A�
- A�Folders to hold all selection materials/processes for each agent interviewed
- Pre-first visit package (sent prior to the interview)
- Your interview process (application, your analysis forms, interview format, questions, etc.)
- Visual recruiting presentation
- A�After first visit recruiting package
Why are these packages important?A�It takes six to eight times of meeting someone before you remember that person. In some sense, recruiting is like what one of my old bosses called the Chinese water torture: You must just keep dripping, dripping, and dripping on the candidate so you are
- A�memorable
- A�perceived as more professional than others the candidate will be interviewing
Savvier Candidates Require Savvier Recruiting Organization
Assembling and using these packages shows your candidate that you are organized, interested, and dedicateda��both as a manager, and in helping that person create a viable career. A few months ago Charles Dahlheimer wrote an excellent article in The Real Estate Professional– an analysis of 2010. In it, he noted that more college-educated people are coming into real estate today. You can read the whole article here.A� Because these candidates are more educated than before, ita��s important to present yourself in the same light as other professionals in other fields the candidate may interview. And, ita��s important that you create polished, well-thought-out packages that appeal to these candidates.
Start the Process: Just Throw a�?Possibilitiesa�� in a Folder
The best way, Ia��ve found, to create packages, is to first simply create a folder (either hard copy or on your computer), and start throwing possible inclusions for that package into the folder. Dona��t judge them! Judging them prematurely will not get you anywhere. As a musician, I know creativity is messy. In fact, the most inhibiting action to creativity, I think, is that we energetically critique every possibility when we try to construct something. So, too many times, we end up with not starting! Instead, squelch your impulse to judge anything until you have all your possibilities. After that, you can prune and prioritize. In my view, ANY prepared package is better than none!
Note: Because most recruiters dona��t have systems, any organization and system you have created with stand out.
Communicating your a�?Memorability Factora��
In the next blogs, I’ll go more deeply into what can go into some of these packages. Ia��m going to give you my recommendations for three packages. More importantly, though, you decide the overall messages you want to convey through these packages. As the candidate reads the package, what do you want them to think about you? What values and culture do you want to communicate? What objections do you want to anticipate via each package? What misconceptions do you want to correct?
For a checklist of recruiting processes and systems needed, click here.
Want to avoid re-inventing the wheel? Check out my recruiting resources here.A�A�A�A�
Start Here with Creating a true Recruiting ‘System’ (and save over $100)
If you don’t have the systems you need, here’s your chance to get them–at a terrific price. The Complete Recruiter is a self-training and resource manual on recruiting. Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners is the only step-by-step interviewing resource available for real estate interviewers today. And, another bonus, Objection Busters for Recruiters. This package is regularly $220. Now, it’s only $129.95–the price regularly of just The Complete Recruiter. A�Why not save thousands of hours of time and build your systems with confidence–and recruit more winners? Click here to get the special offer.
Recruiting and selecting: Are you systematized or scattered? I”m focusing on selecting and interviewing in this series of blogs. Why? Because most managers just ‘wing it’!
Most managers are surprised, when they start managing–with the demands of their new job. Many times, they didna��t
know they would be expected to recruit! One manager I was coaching in a group, told me his owner assured him he wouldna��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 situationa��.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 managera��s job description.
A�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 youa��re a new manager and have no clue how to recruit!
How Managers Cope
In fact, many managers push it further a�?down the daya��, until exhausted and beaten down by the demands of their job, they say they just dona��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, Ia��m going to divide recruiting systems into external and internal.
A�External Recruiting Systems
Perhaps youa��ve used recruiting lead generating companies in the past. Those companies either supply you leads, or supply you cards to send to your recruits. Thata��s great. Those are systems. But, Ia��m not talking about those a�?externala�� systems. Ia��m talking about a whole other group of systemsa��internal systemsa��those systems you develop to a�?runa�� your recruiting plan.
A�A Day in the Life
Youa��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. Youa��re constantly telling them to prepare, systematize, and package their presentations so theya��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�A Successful Recruitera��s Tools and Systems
A�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 montha��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, Ia��ll break down what goes into each package and system.
Question: What percent of managers interviewing do you think have these systems?
Start Here with Creating a true Recruiting ‘System’ (and save over $100)
If you don’t have the systems you need, here’s your chance to get them–at a terrific price. The Complete Recruiter is a self-training and resource manual on recruiting. Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners is the only step-by-step interviewing resource available for real estate interviewers today. And, another bonus, Objection Busters for Recruiters. This package is regularly $220. Now, it’s only $129.95–the price regularly of just The Complete Recruiter. A�Why not save thousands of hours of time and build your systems with confidence–and recruit more winners? Click here to get the special offer.
Are You Talking Too Much in the Interview?
By · Comments
Are you talking too much in your interviews? This month, I’m focusing on great selection practices.
Instead of muscling a sale or a ‘yes’ from a recruita��.ask questions. Lots of questions. Probe to find out more. Keep finding out more until youa��re really sure you know what they mean. Let me give you an example:
The recruitA�says, a�?I want a a�?deala��.a�?
Do you jump to a conclusion because you know what a�?deala�� means? Dona��t. You may be surprised. Instead, ask questions at what a�?deala�� means to that recruit. When you know exactly what the recruit means, you can proceed to find what theA�really wants–instead of what someone else told him he should ask for!
A Pre-Screening Process for New Agent Candidates to Save you Time
Ask these questions before you spend time and money chasing candidates who dona��t meet your standards.A� Click hereA�to get the complete process.
Use In-Depth Questionnaires to Discover Real Needs
Besides using these preliminary questions, always use written in-depth questionnaires so youa��ll know
- The benefits to the features/needs stated
- Hidden objections you may not discover until too late
- Motivations to buy that not even the a�?buyersa�� realizeA�they have
**Ever heard the term a�?buyers are liarsa��? I think thata��s not really the case. I think that we dona��t ask the right questions to help buyers (our recruits)A�clarify what they really want. Most a�?buyersa�� of services dona��t know what they really want. They think they want a better commission split. But, what theya��re really looking for is the motivation provided by secrity. That means different things to different people.A�Find outA�what’s really motivating your candidate, not just what he says to your basic questions.
Ask the Right Questions in the Right Order and You Wona��t Have to a�?Closea��
Finding the motivators of your a�?buyersa�� is key to helping them make the right buying decisions for themselves. All you have to do to a�?closea�� is to remind them that this a�?producta�� fulfills their needs. And, how do you get there? By creating and using the right questions in the right order.
Dona��t forget to grab your pre-screening process:A� click here.
Want to streamline your selection process and recruit more winners? Check out Your Blueprint to Selecting Winners. I’ve provided you the complete process for a professional selection process. Do you have one right now, or are you ‘winging it’?
The BEST Question You Can Ask a Candidate
By · Comments
Do you know the best question you can ask a candidate? I know. You have your favorite questions. And, this month, I’m going to focus on the selection process. Why? Because we managers have the least training in it, yet more hinges on our skill in this process than any other–maybe except lead generating for recruiting.
What’s your favorite interview question? In the next few blogs, we’ll discuss types of interview questions. Some are great, some are okay–but some are misleading or worthless.
The Category of Question You Should Always Include
Are your favorite questions present or future-based? If so, beware. You’re being misled. I’ll explain more in a future blog. But, for now, I just want to focus on the category of question that assures you get the truth about the candidate: the past-based question. A� That question begins with “In the past, was there a time when you…………………” Why is that type of question so powerful? Because candidates seldom lie about their past when they are posed a question like that. Also, even though this is the best type of question you can ask, few managers are trained to ask a majority of this type of question. In a later blog, I’ll show you more about creating this type of question to find out the quality you’re looking for.
The Question You Want to Ask
Here it is: “When did you get your first job?”
Why is that so powerful? Because it demonstrates the qualities you’re looking for. According to my surveys of thousands of real estate pros, the vast majority of successful real estate pros started working as kids! This shows their ingenuity, belief in themselves, and determination that they alone are in charge of their destinies. Imagine some of the answers you’ll get, and what those answers will tell you:
“I got my first job at age thirteen.”
or
“I just started looking for a job. I’ve been living with my parents. They support me, and I really want to find the right job for me (I’m 27 years old).
What do these answers tell me about the candidate’s likely success in a business that requires self-confidence, ingenuity, tenacity, and ability to do it themselves?
Keep Probing about that Answer
One of the big mistakes we interviewers make is that we jump from question to question before we find out what’s really going on. So, don’t do that! Stay on that same question/answer and probe. Imagine some of the probing questions you can ask about that first answer: “How did you happen to get the job?” “Why did you want a job?” How long did you keep the job?” What did having a job at age 13 teach you?” What will the answers tell you?
Sometimes Our First Job Tells us what We DON”T Want to Do the Rest of our Lives
The reason that I wrote this blog is that I just read an article about Fred Hassan, CEO of Warbug Pincus, a private-equity firm. He said his first job was a produce picker and cannery worker. He said he learned about getting up early and working hard. And, he said it convinced him that he was very lucky to get to go to college and escape manual labor. I had a similar experience. As a 6th grader, I started picking strawberries and beans in our little town of Lebanon, Oregon. It was back-breaking, hard, sweaty work, and I vowed I’d use my brains and my talent to make a living–instead of doing manual labor!
Let me know the answers and insights you get from asking the question, “When did you get your first job?” (Remember to stay on that question and probe, probe, probe!)
Is Your Selection Process really Professional?
Quick. Write down the 9 steps you take through your selection process. Difficult, isn’t it? Most interviewers just wing it, spending most of their time selling the company. Wrong! Find out the 9 steps Carla shows you that keep you in control of the interview–and help you stand out as the exceptional manager that desired candidate wants to work with.
Your A�Blueprint for Selecting Winners is only $79,95, and it’s immediately downloadable. This resource will save you thousands of dollars of hiring mistakes!
Click here for a detailed description.
If You Thought You Knew Motivation, Surprising Truths
By · Comments
If you manage someone: Are your motivating methods working? If you’re using the methods most managers use, they aren’t working like they used to. Why? Because today’s agents just aren’t motivated by the things ‘workers’ used to respond to. Today, it’s very important that we motivate effectively, because we have to get our agents into the market.
Motivational Methods Must Change
In his revealing book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink lays out a persuasive case, backed by extensive scientific studies, about why the traditional a�?carrot and sticka�� motivational methods just dona��t work for us today. Ita��s especially true with real estate professionals. Why? Because we in effect work for ourselves. We have to be self-starters, initiators, and tenacious in our pursuit of our goals. That means we have to be motivated by things other than promises of material things.
Why Money Doesna��t Work as a Motivator
First, as Pink points out, money and/or material things are good short-term motivators. (Read Herzberga��s studies on short and long-term motivation). In fact, just take a look at the number of real estate agents who are motivated to visit an open house when therea��s food! But, as Herzberg and others have pointed out, money is a lousy long-term motivator. You know that if youa��ve tried motivating your kids with moneya��or threats (the carrot and stick).
I know. The agents all say they need to make more sales. But, what have you noticed they are willing to do to make those sales? Lead generate more regularly? Make more sales calls? We all know that lead generating is the answer to that money problem. Yet, the vast majority of agents avoid lead generating as if it gave us some chronic disease! So, money is just not an effective long-term motivator.
Best Motivators to Motivate Others
Pink shows, via extensive studies, that there are three driving motivators which we should put to work today to fire ourselves up, keep those fires lit, and achieve what we want to achieve. They are:
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose
Questions to Ask Your Agents to Get Them Excited Again
AboutA� Autonomy
Are you in charge of your own business, or are you waiting for someone else to tell you what to do?
Do you expect your manager to make you go to work, or are you self-directed and self-starting?
Are you disciplined in your business, so you can enjoy that autonomy?
Seth Godin, author of Tribes,A� says about autonomy: The art of the art {of autonomy} is picking your limits. Thata��s the autonomy I must cherish. The freedom to pick my boundaries.
My question to you: Do you have agents that you believe will never operate in autonomy? Don’t you need to invite them to another profession?
AboutA� Mastery
Are you working just to get by, or are you consistently working to get better? What do you want to excel at? How does that translate into your business?
About Purpose
What excites you so much you cana��t sleep at night?
Is there a way to translate that to your real estate business?
The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether ita��s in the arts, sciences, or business.
Teresa Amabile, Professor, Harvard University
What changes have you seen in what motivates people? The signs are all around you!
Our Coaching Helps You Motivate
Carla Cross’s extensive background and study into effective motivation is an extra benefit to you in her Leadership Mastery coaching program. Click here for a complimentary consultation.
Have You ‘Made Someone’s Day’ Today? Do It!
By · Comments
Have you made someone’s day today? Many times, we’re so caught up in our challenges and putting out fires we forget to give a little time to appreciating the positive actions others take. Yesterday, I got a very touching card in the mail from my friends at the Northwest Chapter of the National Speakers’ Association. I’ve been a member of National Speakers’ Association for over 2 decades, and have been very active in our chapter, although I’m not now. Even though I know only a few board members, they all took the time to write me a note for a challenge my family is experiencing. It not only made my day, it made me feel as though I had made a positive impression on their lives at some point!
So, if you want to lift yourself up, take the time to lift someone else up! It not only will make that person feel wonderful, it will make you feel wonderful.
Motivation and Appreciation
As managers and trainers, we know the need to motivate. Yet, most of us aren’t students of motivation. No need to memorize psychologists’ names or read thousands of pages on motivational theory. To motivate best, you just need to apply this key principle:
The best positive motivator is appreciation
What do you appreciate? I don’t mean necessarily trophies in front of thousands! (Some people hate that one!) I mean those little things. Why appreciate to motivate?
Behavior that’s rewarded is repeated.
How often do you appreciate? Much more than you think! (When is the last time you heard someone grumble because they were appreciated? Not!)
One minute action for the day: Make a list of the different ways you motivate by appreciating. Now, tally the number of times you have motivated someone using one of your appreciation motivators this week. How high can you go? The more you appreciate, the better behavior you get.
For a list of 25 ways to appreciate, plus basic principles of motivation, click here.
Upping your appreciation motivation gets you something we managers yearn for: Appreciation for our hard work…..
Let Me Help Motivate your Agents to Greatness!
Managers have huge responsibilities. I know–I did that job for almost 2 decades! Let me help you. Up and Running in Real Estate has lots of positive motivation and encouragement built right in. It also has a coaching component, to make it easy for you to track your agents’ progress. Take a look. I’ll help you guide your agents, train your agents, and motivate your agents.
How to Create a Retention Rate from ? to 75%+
By · Comments
This month, I’m focusing on helping you retain your new people.
Managers: What’s your retention rate for new agents under 6 months in the business? Do you know? Do you have a goal for it? Now, I don’t mean how many agents you hire who stay in the business no matter what they do! That’s not profitable to you! If you don’t know your retention rate now, figure it out. But, drop out those who are staying in your office without production–just because you don’t ask them to leave!
How Much Money Is Low Retention Costing You?
Do you know how much money it’s costing you if you have too low a rate? What rate do you think is reasonable to expect? In another blog, we’ll discuss the line items that you should use to figure your retention rates.
I’ll bet 90% of managers can’t answer all the questions above. Although no manager would ever tell me he/she hires just to see what sticks to the wall, in reality, that’s what much of the hiring still looks like today.
One View: Hiring Everyone Is Just OK
If you think that’s true, then, what’s it costing you in management and training time? Management and training turnover? It doesn’t take too many agent failures to make a manager give up. I know. I’ve coached many of them. Managers need to feel that the agents they hire are going to work, so that the manager’s time and expertise is respected and rewarded. Is your hiring expectation supporting your manager, or not?
What’s it costing you in your ability to recruit winners? Agents know the ‘aura’ and culture of an office. Don’t kid yourself. If you load your office with non-producers, you’ll get to be known, as an office was known when I started managing there–as the office that ‘you go to if you don’t want to work’. What are agents saying about your office? What do you want to do about it?
Three Things You Have to Have in Place to Get your Good Hires a Sale Fast
Obviously, you have to have a great screening/interview process. But, for now, I’m going to assume you have just that. So, here are the three things you have to have in place to get those agents a sale NOW:*
(My study, that I show in my ebook for would-be agents, What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School, revealed that over half the new agents (under 3 months in the business), expected a sale in their first 30 (yes, 30!) days in the business!). So, your 3-step system has to have that as a goal. Why? Because your agents, whether you know it or not, are mentally out of the business in 3 months if they haven’t gotten a sale.
1. A thorough on-boarding system
Take a look at your first 3 weeks in the business for your new agent. What is that agent doing every day? Do you have checklists? Processes? Someone dedicated to coaching them through those first 3 weeks? In my next blog, I’m focus in on that on-boarding system you need. Studies show that ‘workers’ success and loyalty, plus their retention, is cemented–or not–in the first few weeks they’re in your office. Is your on-boarding system a ‘loyalty-glue’ maker?
2. Someone completely dedicated to guiding them through the onboarding and business-start up systems
Do you have a coach specifically dedicated to assuring your new agents get on track and stay on track? That coach may be you–but someone has to do it. You’d be amazed the number of times I hear newer agents tell me that there’s no one dedicated to coaching them to a start-up plan? Why? Isn’t each new agent hired worthy of that dedication? Or, if not, why were they hired? (remember that ‘throw them up against the wall’ approach?)
3. A specific, accountability-anchored business-start-up plan supported with training modules
Imagine your new agent sitting at her desk. How does she know what to do each day to get that sale quickly? Does she have a specific business start-up plan supported with training so she knows how to do the work? If not, she is just floundering, trying to pick up ideas from those agents who stay in the office–because they’re not working with clients! How would you rate your start-up plan?
How did you rate yourself on the 3 systems above? What do you want to work on first?
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: The Start-up Plan, Training, Coaching, and Accountability is Here
It literally took me years to put together this unique online program, Up and Running in Real Estate. Why not let me take a huge burden off your shoulders and provide you 2 of the three things you need to jump-start your agents? Take a look at Up and Running in Real Estate and the companion Coaches’ Corner. You’ll reap many more rewards for a small investment, and find it easier to recruit winners.
Managers: Are you systemized–or, is your office piles of papers–that you can’t find when you need them? Are your systems up to speed? On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being high, how would you rate your organization and your systems? Do you seem to be grabbing at papers right before your recruiting appointment? Do you find yourself sketching a training outline five minutes prior to the training start time? If so, youa��ll want to take some time to a�?systematizea�? yourself. Why?
Save time
Get more done
Lower your stress levels
Enjoy your job more
(See the end of this blog for a link to systems you need in place).
Why do Managers Need Systems?
Good agents today have systems for each process they manage. For example, an agent has a listing process system, which includes the materials, packages, and checklists to manage the process. With those systems, agents can not only the manage the process, they can delegate the right activities to their assistants. (See my blog link at the end of this blog for systems agents need).
Managers Dona��t Have Nearly the Systems Agents Have
Think about the systems, processes, and checklists you, as manager, recommend that your agent create to accomplish the critical tasks, or activities, in his business. Now, compare that with the tasks you, as manager, have to accomplish in your position as “people” manager. Work from the tasks to systems to manage these tasks. To prioritize the systems you want to develop, first:
1. List the tasks you do as manager. Now, list the parallel the tasks agents do.
An example: A critical task an agent does is to prospect. Good agents have systematized that process into a marketing plan, complete with specific tactics, dates, and budget. Managers must prospect, too. They prospect for agents.
Does your prospecting (recruiting) plan for agents resemble that of your best agent’s marketing plan? Is it as systematized? Does it have the materials, time frames, budgets, and delegations that good agents have in their plans?
2. Prioritize your tasks as they relate to accomplishing your main objectives. What are the most important tasks you do as manager to assure your office makes a profit?
An example: If recruiting is very important to reaching your objective, how complete is your recruiting system? How organized is it? Who is involved with you in your recruiting plan? How well are you delegating the systems?
Your Job Description Comes First
Developing systems first requires that you’ve prioritized your job description. (Wait: Do you have a job description?) Then, you must either create or purchase systems to manage these processes. One reason managers haven’t systematized their work is that managers have few resources for systems organization. To actually systematize their work, they must create these systems from scratch. Given the myriad of activities managers must accomplish, that’s a daunting assignment. Instead, many managers stay in “crisis” management, which admittedly takes up a lot of the day, but doesn’t allow the manager to move ahead as a leader.
In contrast, agents have many resources for systems organization, both purchased and exchanged with other agents. First, there are many more agents than managers, and agents coming into the business each day. So, there is a larger market, and need, for agents’ systems. In addition, agents have led the way in organizing their businesses to delegate to assistants. It’s become ‘the thing’ to do.
Resource List of Needed Systems
Click onA�Managers Package and SystematizeA�for a list of systems and process you need to manage your business with grace and lower your stress level.
Want to know what systems your agents need? Read my blog on systems for agents.
Let Me Help you Get your Systems in Place–and How to Use Them
It would take you years to create the systems I’ve already created–and are available in my one-on-one leadership coaching program, Leadership Mastery Coaching. If you’re tired of working too hard for too little pay-off, why not do a complimentary consultation and see how Leadership Mastery can benefit you? Click here to schedule your 1/2 hour appointment.
What does my piano teacher have to do with real estate coaching–or training? Everything. Here’s what I learned about coaching great performance–not from a business coach, but from my great piano teacher (in fact, I’ve had many of them.)
As you know, some pianists become great, while most others just become good enough to play the notes. It’s the same with trainers’ outcomes. Last week, 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. As you read this, ask yourself, “How am I, as a trainer and/or coach, applying these principles?” “What outcomes am I getting?”
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 Coach ability 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. 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.
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.
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. A�In my online coaching program for new agents, 
Up and Running in Real Estate, I’ve put these components into the program as a integral way to assure great performance.