RISMEDIA, November 17, 2010—While many things have changed in the real estate industry the past few years, one thing that seems to have remained constant is the Weekly Sales Meeting. For better or worse, sales meetings are still taking place at brokerages around the country. My guess is that there was a time in your career when preparing for sales meetings was one of the highlights of your week; hopefully, it is still that today. However, if the luster of the meetings has been lost in the emotions, and agonies, of the market, here are some tips to help rejuvenate them.
Start on time, end on time. Rule number one for running an effective meeting of any kind is to be timely. I know you have heard this before and I know that real estate agents are predominantly late. Don’t give in to the temptation to start your meetings ten to fifteen minutes after the posted start time. Find a way to make it worthwhile for people to be there on time. Tell the group you expect them to be at the meeting when it starts. If needed, occasionally offer a small token of appreciation to those who are there on time. It is difficult to start a meeting with just a few in attendance—you have important information to share and you don’t want to repeat yourself and at the same time, you don’t want to punish those who are there by asking them to wait. It’s sometimes difficult to know what to do. Don’t set a precedent—by starting late and running late—that you don’t want to have set. If the meeting is going to last one hour, don’t make a habit of it running over. Respect your agent’s time by following through on timeliness and ask them to do the same for you.
Have good content. If a meeting is good, people will stick around; if it’s not, they won’t. Utilize the resources around you to help create good content for each of your sales meetings. Put some thought into the agenda and take the time to ensure that your guest presenters are good and that you have something of value to share with your agents. It can be a challenge to find the time to do that each week and yet, you must. We have available to you our Knox First Tuesday (KFT) video trainings to help. We put a weeks’ worth of work into every KFT. If you are not already a member of our training site, www.realestatetrainingbydavidknox.com and want to receive the public version of KFT, send an e-mail to info@davidknox.com and we’ll sign you up. If you want the full version and want to join our site, give us a call at the number below. They are 5-15 minute videos that you can use at your sales meetings. Their sole purpose is to support you with good content and learning opportunities with your agents.
Change it up. If you are in a rut by doing the same meeting, at the same time on the same day for the past 25 years in your office, maybe it is time to change things up a bit. Maybe you change the day of the week you meet, the time the meeting is held or how often you get together. Some offices have successfully moved to offering a sales meeting twice-a-month versus weekly, and their attendance has sky-rocketed. Maybe you get a top agent to lead your meeting on an occasional basis. Maybe you implement role playing and group discussion in a way you never have before. Stirring things up, in a positive way, with sales meetings is healthy. What can you do to change your meetings up a bit?
Sales meetings offer the one time during the week that you can get your agents together as a group. Use that time wisely. Have some laughs. Create enthusiasm. Build your team. Inspire your agents to continue fighting the good fight. Help them learn new skills. Educate them. Continue to gain their loyalty and trust. Make your sales meetings effective; it’s worth the effort.
To find out more about the David Knox online video library, visit, www.realestatetrainingbydavidknox.com or call 1-800-822-4221.
