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How to Wake Up a Sleeping Office
by Drexanne Evers, CRB
First published online on April 19, 2006.
Foreword: MOTIVATING SALES ASSOCIATES FOR HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY
How to spur sales associates on to more listings and sales is one of the biggest challenges that faces real estate brokerage managers. What motivates and inspires sales associates often depends on the individual, and it is difficult to find a surefire formula that will work across companies or sales associates. Here are techniques to turn around a recently acquired office by instilling more excitement among sales associates.
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Drexanne.com: Article
There are many reasons why an office is sleeping. It can be too
complacent–although everyone could produce more, there does not
seem to be energy to do so. There is also the office where nothing
is new, everyone is bored and burned out. In the case of the Montgomery
office I was asked to manage, the problem seemed to be the “stepchild
syndrome.” Recently acquired, the office felt it couldn’t compete
with the Kenwood office, the powerhouse office of the new owner.
Turning the office around was a challenge, but by the end of one
year, the office had gone from 18 to 53 sales associates, and
from an average gross volume of sales of $400,000 per month to
$3,000,000 per month!
How did this dramatic change take place? One of the keys to waking
up this “sleeping office” was excitement which I helped create
through building hope, ideas, activity, and enthusiasm.
Building the Hope Factor
Everyone must have hope in order to have incentive. Sales associates
who feel there is hope for a listing or a sale will actively pursue
the goal. Just think of the new sales associate–oh, what enthusiasm!
There is so much hope for the future! Then you see this same sales
associate several months later, and you witness less excitement.
The hope factor has diminished since the sales associate has not
reached the expected achievement level.
Fortunately, hope can be regenerated. Start by setting realistic
office goals that are easily attainable. When the goal is reached,
award the office with a microwave oven or another piece of equipment.
The reward will have actually been earned and everyone will feel
proud to have contributed. This will give sales associates hope
that they can do even more.
Be optimistic, and have a “We can do it!” philosophy. Take time
to point out good things about the office. For example, suppose
someone in the office listed a property of the highest dollar
amount in the company. In the next sales meeting mention that
“our office” had the highest dollar amount listing in the company
last week. Then tell them whose listing it is. Put the emphasis
on the office and what the office has accomplished as opposed
to the individual. The main thing is to reinforce that there is
hope.
Creating Ideas
Helping sales associates gain new insights also leads to excitement.
Here are some ways I was able to help sales associates gain new
ideas:
Sales Meetings. Enhance your sales meetings. Make the sessions so good that
if not attended, sales associates will feel as if they have missed
something. Occasionally, bring in an expert who will help educate
your sales associates and re-energize them with new ideas.
Training/Focus Sessions. Identify a number of different segments within your office and
form training or focus sessions with them. For example, I invited
good listers to talk with poor listers, and give them new ideas.
These meetings did not help everyone in the group, but one person
in this group made it into the Million Dollar Club that year.
Education. Urge sales associates to take courses, and give them guidance
in the selection of courses based on their individual needs. Many
sales associates avoid challenging courses, and prefer to take
only what they are already good at and like.
Networking. Encourage networking of any kind. Remember, get sales associates
involved with other people. Get them to participate in the local
board, and to attend the NAR convention (talk about excitement!).
Highlight the sessions they should attend. Board activities, classes,
conventions, and conferences all create ideas for those in attendance.
Activity Development
Activity brings about more activity. Start by making some small
changes. Too many changes or too large of a change can cause a
shake up. Just change the seating arrangement a little, or change
the way you have been scheduling phone time. The significance
of the changes themselves is small, but those “sleeping” sales
associates will now wonder what’s happening and will wait to see
what’s going to happen next.
New Recruits. To get new recruits into the swing of things quickly, invite
them to sales meetings right away even if they are not licensed.
You might put them on a committee such as the referral committee.
One of our new recruits once chaired the referral committee for
our month-long contest and the Montgomery office sent out more
than 100 referrals that month. This number was the most that one
office had ever sent in one month's time.
Assign a “buddy” to the new recruit immediately. Develop a 90-day
buddy-recruit training program so that the seasoned sales associate
knows what aspects of the real estate business you want the recruit
to learn each week.
President Involvement. I frequently asked the president of the company to speak at
our office. I also phoned the president when my sales associates
accomplished anything noteworthy, and asked him to call or write
a letter to the sales associates and congratulate them. This created
excitement and motivation for the sales associates who were honored
to receive communication from the company president.
Have Enthusiasm
A manager should take every opportunity to create enthusiasm.
You might put on a pep rally to help excite and motivate sales
associates. Invite outsiders to your rallies: builders, listers,
community political leaders. Also, loosen up and be childlike
sometimes. Although we must be professional, I think we often
tend to be too serious. It’s great therapy and it’s fun!
Conclusion
Over several months the Montgomery office boosted its confidence,
increased its number of sales associates, paid attention to training,
built a solid team, increased its hope factor, and doggone it,
even beat the Kenwood office as well as all of the other offices
in a month-long sales contest. That was the end of the syndrome.
Montgomery made giant leaps in production and it is today one
of the leading real estate offices in the Cincinnati area.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this story may be reproduced or
transmitted, in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any informational storage
or retrieval system without express written permission from the
author.
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