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The Cost of Turnover
Orientation
Motivation
Coaching and Mentoring
Training
Goal Setting
Performance Assessment
Resignation and Termination
More Resources: Retaining Top Personnel
Code of Ethics: Retaining Top Personnel | | Organize Your Training
The more focused and coordinated your company’s training program, the more it will benefit you and your salespeople.
- Create a training budget. Consider dividing your budget into training for new associates and for experienced personnel. According to the 2001 NATIONAL ASSOCIATON OF REALTORS® Member Profile, the average real estate salesperson spent $500 in personal development.
TIP: If your training budget is small, consider partnering with another brokerage company to share the cost of training.
- Prioritize subjects. Choose topics based on your needs analysis; popular topics might include listing practices, buying practices, prospecting, closing techniques, fair housing, personal career planning, and time management. Also ask your associates what they’d like to learn.
TIP: Develop a six-month training calendar showing the topics you will cover. This helps associates plan their time to attend. Leave one or two gaps for hot topics or new laws that should be covered.
- Determine the materials—visual aids, reading, films, tapes, computer-based lessons—that should be used. Try to provide a variety of learning experiences, such as role playing, readings, lectures, and overheads that allow different types of learners to absorb the material.
- Plan. Determine the amount of time needed to cover each topic and break up the training sessions into manageable pieces.
TIP: If possible, hold longer training sessions on consecutive days rather than once a week to aid retention. If possible, avoid evening classes. —David Knox, David Knox Productions, Minneapolis
- Recruit. Solicit outside expert speakers on topics that are beyond your expertise, such as mortgage lending. You might also ask—but not require—individual salespeople to present a particular training session.
- Promote. Send several reminders to associates encouraging them to participate in the training. Add prizes or drawings—limited to those who attend—to help build interest.
- Location. Select a comfortable environment free from distractions—a conference room, conference facility, or hotel ballroom.
Portions adapted from Real Estate Office Management 3rd edition, Real Estate Brokerage Management Council and Real Estate Education Co.
TIP: If you don’t think you have the time or facilities to do training in house, help your salespeople by developing a list of high-quality outside real estate courses.
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10 Training Topics for New Associates
1. Listing presentations—components of listing presentations—pre-listing packages, price analysis, building rapport, property marketing plans, personal promotion
2. Agency—various types of agency relationships—seller, buyer, dual, single
3. Prospecting techniques—spheres of influence, FSBOs, cold-calling, telephone skills
4. Personal marketing—personal promotional plans, direct mail and advertising techniques, tracking the impact of promotions
5. Closing skills—different closing techniques, when and how to ask for the offer. Plan for responding to “nos” and strategies for overcoming objections to price.
6. Comparable market analysis—basics of analyzing the value of homes and incorporating the information into listing presentations
7. REALTOR® Code of Ethics
8. Fair housing—protected classes under that statute, discrimination, how to answer prospects’ inappropriate questions about the make-up of a building or neighborhood, advertising guidelines
9. Disclosure—agency disclosure requirements, lead-paint disclosure, property condition disclosure
10. Time management—how much time should be allotted for various activities, setting up a scheduling system for real estate activities, how to avoid time wasters
TIP: Rather than always sitting down in a formal way at a designated hour for coaching and training, look for “teachable moments.” If a new salesperson returns discouraged after not getting a listing, spend time helping to analyze the experience and offer advice. —Karel Murray, CRB, Lockard Realty, Waterloo, Iowa
Training for Experienced Salespeople > | |
Keep It Ethical
Avoid the concealment or misrepresentation of pertinent facts relating to the property or the transaction.
(Article 2)
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