RISMEDIA, September 11, 2010—Keeping real estate agents focused on a regular basis is one of the biggest challenges leaders face. It is crucial, especially in today’s market that company leaders continually share their vision for their organization as well as inspire everyone to bring the vision to reality. Here, Darryl Davis, president of Darryl Davis Seminars discusses how he helps companies stay ahead in today’s market.
Darryl Davis
President
Darryl Davis Seminars
www.darryldavisseminars.com
As everyone knows, the role of a leader is to be a visionary for the organization. The leader needs to continually be sharing the vision and keeping the company excited about it. They must keep it alive by continuing to share it and sell it. They need to inspire people to bring the vision to reality.
Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, understands this concept. He states: “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Welch believes, like I do, that in order to drive home the vision, leaders need to create it, communicate it, and take action on it.
This is why a vision is so important in our industry; a company having a vision and sharing it consistently with their agents is so important. As most real estate companies know, keeping agents focused on a regular basis is one of our biggest challenges as a leader. One of the techniques I used when I managed the number one office in our market, which helped keep our company vision alive and to keep agents focused, was our monthly vision meetings.
What I now suggest to companies in today’s market is not necessarily monthly meetings, but to have quarterly skill-building events. These should be half-day special events, preferably offsite, designed to accomplish three things: to give agents an update on the progress of your vision; to tell them what their focus should be over the next 90 days; and to bring in national speakers/trainers to give them skill-building techniques.
Additionally, it should be a time for the “keeper of the vision” to talk about market share, and to tell the team what specific skill they should focus on that will increase market share. For example, one area to focus on in the last quarter of the year could be buyers. Any buyer that comes in when things are getting hectic with the holidays is likely a dedicated buyer and ready to purchase. Meanwhile, during this time of year, many agents are starting to think about vacation, so you’ll have less competition.
Once you pick an area to focus on, it’s important for the leader to explain why this is the focus. Agents will need to be emotionally involved with the skill-building assignment and leaders can get them to that place by explaining the rationale in a logical way.
At these skill-building events, companies should look to bring in qualified speakers; their job should be to give the agents specific techniques on how to increase their production during those next 90 days. If agents are focusing on bringing in more buyers in the last quarter, the seminar should teach specific skills on how to motivate buyers to buy, write more contracts and negotiate more offers. The leader keeps the vision alive, and gets the agents excited about a 90-day business plan, while the speaker gives them the tools to successfully accomplish that plan.
