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Becoming a leader DEVELOPING YOUR TEAM |
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 Developing Leadership Skills Communicating Like a Leader Leading Others Making Time to Lead Handling Difficult Employees Developing Your Team Dealing with Stress More Resources |
8 Sure-Fire Tips for Better Meetings Team meetings are an integral part of operating your company. Make them more meaningful with these useful techniques. 1. Create an agenda that is relevant to most of the people most of the time. List the key topics and the length of time to be devoted to each. 2. Circulate the agenda in advance, and invite participants to submit additions prior to the meeting 3. Limit the length of the meeting to 45 or 60 minutes. If it begins to run long, hold some items for a future meeting. 4. Put housekeeping items into a handout for salespeople to take with them. This will help keep the meeting to a reasonable length. 5. Vary what you cover, devoting each meeting to a different area--e.g. selling skills, attitude improvement, marketing properties. Paul Lingle, Lingle Real Estate, Inc., Richmond, Ind. 6. Get everyone involved. If you're going to discuss prospecting techniques, ask sales reps to bring four ways they prospect and generate leads to the meeting. Ask a sales associate who’s particularly skilled in the area to run the meeting. 7. Divide the group into teams and present a challenge, such as responding to the three most difficult objections to listing a property. Have each group brainstorm the objections, and come up with creative ways to overcome the objections. Appoint three judges and reward the cleverest group with a free lunch. Paul Lingle, Lingle Real Estate, Inc., Richmond, Ind. 8. At the end of the meeting, ask each person to tell one thing he or she plans to do differently as a result of the meeting. This will help ensure that participants apply what they’ve learned. TIP: For more on running successful meetings, visit the facilitator resources in the prepackaged sales meeting section of the site. 5 Ways to Improve Meeting Participation 1. Schedule meetings for times when people are most likely to be available. Avoid conflicts with area property tours, regularly scheduled real estate board or MLS events, or times salespeople may be out of the office, such as Monday mornings or Friday afternoons. 2. Ask salespeople what skills they want to sharpen or what speaker they would like to hear. People learn faster what they want to learn rather than what their manager wants them to learn, even if it is exactly the same thing. Joe Klock, The KlockWorks Inc., Key Largo, Fla., from Real Estate Business,July/August 1995. 3. Solicit feedback from salespeople regarding what speakers and presentations they’ve found provided the most long-term benefit. Do they prefer expert speakers, interactive training sessions, or brainstorming? Use their responses to tailor your presentations to the personalities and needs of your staff. 4. Add positive incentives. Occasionally offer small rewards for attendance. Have meetings sponsored by service providers, builders, or vendors who will provide breakfast. Chris Heagerty, owner, Heagerty Company, REALTORS, Austin, Texas, from “Meet with approval: How to plan a sales meeting your salespeople will attend,” Texas REALTOR, December 1995. 5. Change meeting locations to spur interest. Hold your meeting at another office building, then tour the facility after the meeting; rent a conference room to remove salespeople from telephones and other distractions; conduct a meeting outdoors in a local park--the atmosphere will stimulate discussion. Rick DeLuca,”Sales Meetings with Pizzazz,” Real Estate Today, April 1982. TIP: Remember that the most important goal of meetings is to communicate. Provide a written summary of important points to all sales associates—even those who didn’t attend. Chris Heagerty, Heagerty Company, REALTORS, in Texas REALTOR, December 1995. Make Meetings Work for You Joe Meyer of Joe Meyer Presentations Inc., Lake Grove, N.Y., tells how to make the most of sales meetings. RMO: How can a manager make sales meetings more productive? Meyer: I've found that the best way to keep a meeting moving is to have an agenda. I send out the agenda ahead of time, and ask sales associates to be prepared with specific ideas on the stated topic. That way the focus will stay on the topic rather than wandering off the subject. RMO: You say it's important to start and end meetings on time. How do you get people to come promptly? Meyer: Probably the biggest way is to actually start the meeting when you say you will--9:00 a.m., not 9:15. Even if you have a staff of 20 people and only two are there at 9:00, start the meeting. The next week people get the idea. Another tactic I used is to make everybody who's there at 9:00 a.m. eligible for a drawing. It can be for a car wash or a sales tape; anything that will keep them coming on time. But you have to be there at 9:00 to have your name in the hat. RMO: Once you’ve started on time, how do you keep the meeting on schedule? Meyer: There are always people who want to dominate and show off, and you have to somehow keep them in control. I try to speak to these dominant personalities ahead of time one on one and get a commitment from them about things I would like to see done. Once they give their approval, I find a lot of the other people will follow that lead. That helps me to keep on track with what I'm trying to do. RMO: What results should come out of a sales meeting? Meyer: It's important that when you finish the meeting, you have a plan on what you're going to do. If we come to a conclusion or consensus that this is something we should follow up on, I will ask for volunteers or select people to follow through. Then midway through the week, I get this group to give me a briefing on their progress. Otherwise, the next thing you know, it’s sales meeting time again and you’re not prepared. I hold people accountable, including myself, and that way there's continuity. RMO: Any final thoughts? Meyer: For your sales staff to respect you and your meeting, you in turn have to respect them. I start and end promptly, and I don't let the topic wander. I try to make it about things that will affect their income--not what houses should we advertise this week, not about where we should have our Christmas party. 6 Things Salespeople Hate about Meetings 1. Meetings that drag on. If the agenda says 10 to 11:30 a.m., it should end at 11:30, not noon. 2. Meetings announced at the last minute. Give them a week’s notice so they can plan their schedules. 3. Meetings held just for the sake of having a meeting. 4. Meetings in which they already know everything being said. 5. Guest speakers who are there only to sell something. 6. Meetings about blame, not solutions. 7 Good Topic Ideas for Meetings 1. New developments in town, with presentations by the developers. 2. Current legislative and regulatory changes. 3. New company policies. 4. Economic trends in the marketplace. 5. Changes in building codes or zoning. 6. History of the town to give background to buyers 7. Architectural style s TIP: Save time by using REALTOR Magazine Online’s prepackaged sales meetings. Dealing with Stress > |
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