So, you have a team and you have team members. Now what?
Well, you need to have a system for creating a cadence of major activity—activities that bring about showing and listing appointments. Creating an energy of success as the team leader means you have to literally lead these people to their own success. As the team leader, it is up to you to create weekly and daily schedules that will create results for your team members. Salespeople need direction, goals, motivation, competition, recognition and accountability. Use this plan to create weekly and monthly success for your team. They will achieve their personal goals and contribute to your team’s goals.
- Communicate 7×7 different ways. You have to communicate your team goals and expectations, and reinforce them multiple times. It is not enough to say things once over a month ago, and think the agents on your team a.) remember it, and b.) understood it then and remember it now. So, you have to repeat things and present them both verbally and in writing. Overcommunicate all the time—for example, after a meeting, send a follow-up email about the tool or marketing piece you want them to use, and include how to use it effectively to win more business.
- Create a video library. Create a training library of your listing and buyer presentations that you can use to train your agents to learn the scripts that will convert more leads into sales. You can also create a video for your team to watch about what to expect when you join your team, and how to start their individual business plan.
- Create an online learning center of your materials. Use Drobox, Microsoft SharePoint or GoogleDocs to share all the documents for selling, marketing, learning, training and coaching. Also, you can have the agents track their calls this way to communicate their daily activity reports to you. You can load your listing presentations and buyer presentations on this, and everyone will have access to this when they need it for a new client.
- Implement a CRM to track all activities, sales calls and pipelines. Ask your agents specifically which leads they have an appointment with, and which ones they are having a difficult time securing an appointment with (and may need your help learning a new strategy to approach that lead to secure an appointment). Have them update each lead after they call them, and as they convert them through the sales process, so you know exactly what they are working on and how you can best help them. Ask them for weekly updates for all leads in the pipeline, and if they don’t have enough appointments or enough leads, you can assist them in developing both.
- Hold weekly training and coaching sessions. This is key to ramping up the success of the activities your agents do each week. Use this time as a way for your team to share successes and challenges, and for you to show them how to overcome objections and increase their negotiation and closing skills. Weekly attendance is expected so they can create more success for themselves. Don’t cancel it; keep it and lead them to successful results.
- Create a private team Facebook page to communicate, challenge, motivate and inspire your team. This is a great way to get information to your agents that is helpful to them for success-building. Great articles, accolades to team members, general market information, as well as sharing new listings to premarket what each team member needs for their buyer inventory, are all excellent ways to maximize using a private Facebook group. It also creates a bond and great comradery with the team. Don’t use it to communicate negatively, or everyone will mirror you, and it will become a place to vent—and that is counterproductive. We want positive focus on creating success and sharing great ideas and best practices.
- Recognize achievements and success and create healthy competition. Make sure you really recognize everyone all the time. It is easy to think you have recognized team members achievements; however, you may have told them “great job” when no one was around. Telling them how awesome of a month they had in front of their peers will make them feel like a total rock star, and shows your appreciation and makes them feel really good about their accomplishments—and, that you value them so much. Have monthly or weekly contests for cold-calling, warm-calling, FSBOs and expired prospecting, most open house conversions, number of appointments for the week and even number of listings and sales. Salespeople love competition, and when done fairly, you will create the best team around.
- Create social functions for your team and their families. Having fun with a work hard/play hard philosophy is great. Celebrate successes and include the families of the agents who are on your team. They are the great people behind these agents who deal with their unpredictable schedules, and they will really appreciate being included. A happy hour, dinner, night out at a live show, a get-together at your house or even an incentive trip that agents have to qualify for makes for a great way to get to know each other on a personal level, while showing appreciation for the 110 percent commitment they show you.
If you adopt these leadership principles to communicate your goals for your team, as well as inspire, challenge and motivate them, you will see amazing results. Everyone will be feeding off each other and success will continue to happen. Your leadership will literally create the cadence of energy that moves people to perform at the highest level, and you will be meeting and exceeding your annual goals and growing your thriving team.
For a free copy of my exclusive Questionnaire Template for Starting a Team and a Weekly Accountability Worksheet, click here.
Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 20 years of experience in real estate, Johnson offers coaching, consulting and keynotes, and is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour and the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. For more information, please contact coaching@sherrijohnson.com or 844-989-2600 (toll-free) or visit www.sherrijohnson.com.
