What are the key things you should be doing to find and retain the very best sales people for your agency? Here are some ideas from Peter Gilchrist to make sure you find and retain the best new sales people for your office, every time.
What are the key things you should be doing to find and retain the very best sales people for your agency? Here are some ideas to make sure you find and retain the best new sales people for your office, every time.
Stage 1 – RECRUITMENT
1. Design and plan your campaign
Design a proper recruitment campaign, and be prepared to spend some money! Think about it this way – you ask for $4000 from a vendor to sell their house. Does $50 really seem that much to recruit a salesperson that over 5 years could bring millions into the company? Look at the various portals, such as www.seek.com.au or www.jobs.sold.com.au. Newspaper advertising and letterbox drops are also great options to find new recruits. Consider advertising a “recruitment week” in your office and perhaps put some large posters in your windows to draw some attention. Don’t forget your website – include the fact that you are growing your business and are looking for new team members.
2. Monitor the results of your campaign.
Your sales staff can represent 25% or more of your total employees. Track the results of your recruitment campaign carefully, and take note of which channels have been the most successful in providing good candidates.
3. Consider recruitment a continual process
You need to keep a constant eye out for good candidates. Part of your weekly routine should be about reviewing your resource levels and ensuring that you are aware of any potential changes to the team. In most companies, especially small ones, when a salesperson says they are leaving, panic sets in. “We are going to be one person short! We need to find a replacement.” Someone in the organization says “I know someone”. “Great. Are they nice?” ” Oh yes you’ll really like them”.
So you interview them. They seem capable enough so you start them on Monday. Tuesday you walk past the cubicle and hear them on the phone and know straight away you’ve made a mistake. What happens next?
In my role as a coach there are times when I see managers avoid taking any action for up to 5 months. This may seem like a hard line, however, even after 2 months if they have not performed, they now owe you $7000 plus your time. You may be at the point where you are thinking you should “part company” with them, when they come bursting through the door with “I have a really good listing coming in.” So you give them the benefit of the doubt in the hope of recouping some of the wages that you have already paid.
Unfortunately, the “magical listing” rarely ever materialises. Unless you take action, before you know your business is out of pocket for up to four months wages. For more information, see www.Rtiaustralia.com.au to get some idea of the costs of keeping an underperforming salesperson in your business.
or the benefit of the industry we need to be looking for better sales people. As a coach it seems to me we take people on that we want to “build” into top sales people. We don’t have time. Our job is to have great systems and put the best we can find through those systems.
I attended an interview evening in Sydney where an ad had been placed with the heading “So you’re earning $100 000 a year and think your cool.” At the back of the session a young lady came up to me and said “so you think I can earn more than $100K here.” “Yes of course you can, if you have what it takes.” She went on to explain she was earning a salary of $80 000 p.a. working in a law firm and was promised a partnership in about 20 years if she went for it.
You may be asking the wrong people into real estate. Any one you know who makes 100k plus now will make serious money in this business. Re-think the people you are asking to come and work for you.
5. Leave the seat empty!
If you can’t find the right person DON’T TAKE ANYONE ON! If there is doubt, there is no doubt. Re-advertise.
6. Follow the breadcrumbs backwards.
Obtain references and ask your candidates to provide factual evidence of what they have done in the past. This will give you a good indication of how they are likely to perform for you and what they are capable of delivering.
7. Role Play
Send an email to support@realtraining.com.au and we will send you a paper on how to interview 20 people in an hour. It details how you can get all applicants together and have them role play. It becomes very easy to choose the winners out of a room when they are working through an exercise that gets them out of the normal interview situation.
Stage 2 – INDUCTION TRAINING
1. The first month
Own their time for at least the first month. Tell them they will be requested do exactly as they are instructed for that period. Structure training over the first month. At least 3 hours a day should be spent on Quickstart (see page 19) or something similar.
2. Orientation
Don’t let your new hires take too long to get to know an area. I have sales people say to me that they are still getting to know their way around even after 3 months! It should take 3 days to get to know the area. Have them look at past sales before they look at your existing stock. Then a visit to the council to see the district plan, and they should be ready to go. Any longer on “the area” is just avoidance of what they need to be doing.
3. Busy may not be productive!
Don’t let your new recruits get busy doing “stuff”. “Stuff” includes showing homes for other agents. Going out to look at houses is just avoidance. They are learning or prospecting, period.
Stage 3 – MANAGING
1. Keep regular 1:1’s short
Don’t be tempted to get distracted from your day by succumbing to unstructured “catchups.” Meet with your staff member for 30 minutes each morning. Stick with an agenda of what happened yesterday, what is needed for today and what the plan is for the day. Once you have finished this meeting then you should minimise the dialogue for the rest of the day. Training should be in blocks, not ad hoc as they ask you for info.
2. Practice Skills
Don’t let your new sales staff make a presentation to a potential client until they have role played with you first and you are totally confident they can present and win the listing. With commissions of 10 -20k at stake in some cases there is a lot at risk.
3. Watch the GA/TA principle.
Be clear with them the difference between GROWTH ACTIVITY and TRANSACTION ACTIVITY. When they are new they do plenty of growth activity (prospecting). Then as they get even as little as 1-2 listings the transaction activity starts to grow. At this point they drop their prospecting fast. Keep them on growth and never let them stop it, no matter how many listings they have.
