RISMEDIA, September 20, 2010—Real estate professionals across the board understand the importance of training—whether we are experiencing a difficult market like today’s or one in which everything is moving along smoothly. John Boe, nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational speaker offers the following tips to help you train your agents.
Temperament testing is a must. Before you invest your time and energy into training, make sure you check for temperament suitability. Temperament testing allows you to identify those agents who by nature lack the discipline, desire or self-motivation to consistently achieve peak performance. Sales managers who lack the benefit of temperament understanding are inclined to place too much emphasize on their gut-level feeling during the hiring process. If you hire someone that is not suited for the position, you will experience low morale, high turnover and find yourself constantly in the training mode. On the other hand, when you recruit the right agent, you will find that they are self-motivated and eager to train.
Look for “hot buttons.” Traditionally, sales managers have relied primarily on commission to motivate their sales force. Unfortunately, a compensation structure based solely on commission does not address individual motivational factors and therefore, money alone will not motivate your sales force. A successful incentive program is a mixture of awards, recognition and peer pressure. There is tremendous power behind a timely word of praise or a handwritten note acknowledging achievement. While money is certainly an important ingredient in any incentive program, it should by no means be the only tool in a manager’s motivational toolbox. If money by itself were a sufficient motivation, commission-based agents would simply sell more without additional enticement.
Make the training fun and positive. In order to get the most effect out of your training, be sure to keep lessons short, interesting and always try to end on a positive note.
You must be patient. It’s important to respect individual abilities and preferences. Make allowances for personality, and don’t get frustrated if the training schedule doesn’t go exactly as expected. Remember that people have off days and on days.
Take time for rest and relaxation. All work and no play will keep your agents from being focused which will result in training that isn’t as successful as it could be. By successfully balancing play and work, your agents will be recharged, refreshed and ready to accomplish more.
By incorporating these five powerful tips into your training program, you will create an award-winning agent team and achieve unbelievable results.
John Boe presents a wide variety of motivational and sales-oriented keynotes and seminar programs for sales meetings and conventions. John is a nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry.
For more information, visit www.johnboe.com.
