There is a big difference between training and coaching, but they also go hand in hand. As a broker/owner or manager of your sales team you have the most important job of personally adding value to their business by not only supporting their goals and helping deal transactions but having an even greater impact on their businesses by pushing them to reach their full potential and beyond.
Building your sales associates is so much more than being responsive and helping them with contract questions. It includes on-purpose coaching and training to help them increase sales skill effectiveness as well as hands-on coaching and training to understand how to use your tech stack and marketing to compete at a higher level and win. Yet most managers don’t coach and barely train anyone.
The extra value you add makes all the difference in the world. It’s the biggest way to retain and offer value to create raving fans in your company. As a manager, you have to know how to show the value your marketing and technology tools bring to help them increase their sales and ultimately their income. If you want to really add value, provide them with individual coaching and one-on-one meetings where you can help them meet and exceed their goals. Developing your sales associates brings about a partnership that you will create and have with each agent, which creates amazing real estate agents that are producing and adding revenue to your team as well as building loyalty to you.
We coach managers just like you to use these 8 proven strategies to build people and loyalty. Try them out today!
- Add value immediately right from the start. Right from the beginning of your relationship, tell your agents how much you want to help them succeed. That you are there for them to be their personal coach, trainer and mentor. That you are going to increase their success and add so much value as their business partner and coach. That they should share with you their pipeline of leads, their activity and even share their challenges and successes. This is creating the invaluable relationship right from the word go. Get this right and then build on it every day.
- Recognize everything. You have to recognize every success and big win that your agents have (even as little as they may seem). These little micro recognitions create positive energy and positive reinforcement to your team members. It builds them up and makes them feel awesome every time they see or talk to you. This includes praise at sales meetings or having a gamification leaderboard. All your salespeople love and crave recognition, even the ones who say they don’t.
- Thank and appreciate. Take the time to say “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” These expressions of gratitude go a long way. When an agent uses the in-house title or mortgage provider, or they had a contribution to the monthly listing or sales goal for the team, thank them. Show your appreciation. This will strengthen your relationship.
- Know them personally. Know your agents’ interests, family members, significant others, kids and hobbies. When you know them on a personal level you build a better relationship. It’s not just all about the sales they bring in, but rather you care about their health, family, friends and know them as a person.
- Ask about their pipeline. Get in the habit of asking all your agents, “What’s in your pipeline for listings and buyers?” or say “What are you working on?” or, “How many listing appointments are in your calendar?” All of these create a cadence of positive accountability, and your agents will start telling you before you ask. You are their partner, and are engaged and know what they are working on and helping them build consistency. It shows them you care whether they have business or not and you are quietly reminding them of their goals and how much needs to be on the pipeline to hit their income goals.
- Always ask how you can help them be more successful. I always ended every conversation, email, letter, or text with “How else can I assist you today to be more successful?” or “Please let me know how I can help your success.” Or “Your biggest fan” or “Is there any you need from us to help you reach your goals for the day or week?” All of these continue to reinforce that you are their biggest fan. That you are engaged and interested in helping them achieve wildly successful results. I always tell my agents, “My number one job is to help you be in a position to succeed.” This shows that you value them and that you add value to them.
- Hold workshops on your tools—don’t just tell them; show them how to use them to make more sales and income. Unfortunately, most companies spend a lot of financial resources on marketing tools and technology tools and have horrible adoption of these tools and programs. Most of this is because managers will tell their agents to go to their online portal or intranet to use a certain new tool but they never actually show the agents how to use these tools to help them make more sales and income. Hold a Wednesday Workshop where agents bring in their laptops and show them how to send out marketing emails or video in the moment. Two things will happen: they will learn how to use it and when they get results, they will continue to use the tool. And secondly, they will be carving out the time to do this activity which they didn’t have on their calendars, but they do now because you made the workshop happen. You will be getting them to do the things they know they should be doing and don’t schedule into their day. You will also be showing them literally how to use your company’s exclusive tools and marketing to win more listings and make more money. They will thank you when they get listings, sales and income from these workshops and your other team members will want to attend the next one when they see and hear about all the success and results agents are achieving.
- Conduct results-driven coaching in the office and market effectively. Be intentional about a sales coaching and training schedule of sessions and offerings every week. It should be more than your weekly sales meeting. Hold a session on how to present your marketing listing presentation and show them how to communicate their value on listing appointments and win. Hold a class on how to convert more leads into listing appointments or hold a role-playing session with scripting and learning and teaching new strategies so they can be more effective and get better results. Teach them how to use my exclusive GoldMine Pipeline™ System to build a $10, 20 or 50+ million pipeline of buyer and seller leads and double their production and income regardless of their current production or years of experience.
Additionally, when you are scheduling and promoting your coaching and training sessions use impactful communication and words to get your agent’s attention. Instead of the subject line saying Thursday Training, I suggest saying “Learn How to Make $100k in Income from Your Sphere of Influence.” When they can envision they are going to get results from the class you are offering and coaching, they will see it as invaluable and one not to miss. They will attend and implement your action items and generate great results and from this they will never miss any of your coaching or training sessions because they are so valuable.
Start leading your team to greatness one agent at a time and watch them thrive. Each relationship is like a client/customer relationship that you have with each of them. You want to strengthen the relationship and build it. Continue to make it a mutually beneficial relationship where your agents feel like their success is in part because of you and your brand and where you know that your success comes from having the agent in your company.
These few powerful strategies will have you building your people up and building their loyalty to you, their leader. See how you can create in-office coaching, training, accountability groups and call events to get more people doing more to reach their highest potential. Your agents will thank you and you will love the amazing results. You will be gaining loyalty, developing rock-star agents and ultimately able to recruit to your winning team.
Download Johnson’s Exclusive GoldMine Pipeline™ Strategy to get your agents closing more leads into listings, sales and ultimately income. This system can double their production, fast. Go to www.goldminepipeline.com for Johnson’s Free eBook and the Worksheet. These are just a few of Johnson’s proven and exclusive leadership and development strategies that produce amazing results quickly.
For more information about Johnson’s exclusive turnkey, broker, manager, and team solutions to dramatically grow your revenue, contact Sherri Johnson at www.sherrijohnson.com/onetoone for coaching plans.
Visit www.sherrijohnson.com for more information.
With 25 years of experience in real estate as a top agent, broker, and executive responsible for over 750 agents and over $1.7 billion in annual sales volume, Sherri Johnson offers her exclusive and proven methods through custom, one-to-one coaching and tailored consulting services. Sherri is a highly sought-after keynote speaker delivering high energy and real solutions audiences love. Sherri has been named a RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker in 2020 and 2021 as an Industry Influencer and Thought Leader. She is the author of the Sherri Johnson Academy, an on-demand learning platform as well as the 90-Boot Camp. Sherri is a preferred coach, consultant and speaker for top 10 international brands and brokerages and can dramatically increase your company’s revenue and profits.
