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REALTOR® Emeritus
Architecture Guide
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Young Professionals
REALTOR® Emeritus | Hiring Personnel Advanced: Tips for Recruiting the Seasoned Professional | | |||
|  Assessing Personnel Needs Advanced-Beyond Job Descriptions: Job Matching for Real Estate Sales Recruitment Planning Advanced: What Top Performers Want from You Recruiting Salespeople Advanced: Tips for Recruiting the Seasoned Professional Recruiting Support Personnel Advanced: The Family and Medical Leave Act The Interviewing Process Advanced: Behavioral Interviewing Tips for Selecting a Psychological Test Structuring Compensation Advanced: Compensation Tips for Management Personnel | Advanced: Do Good Salespeople Make Good Managers? Carole Johnson, president of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Recruiting Network, an online recruiting network, shares her views about whether or not you should promote your salespeople into management. Q: Are there skills that make a good salesperson that might be a hindrance to being a good broker or sales manager? Johnson: It's a myth that if you're a good salesperson, you can't be a good manager. I've seen some top salespeople go into management and do a phenomenal job. Managers make this mistake because they think management is about doing paperwork. They forget that salespeople need a manager who can help them sell better and get to the next level in their careers. A manager who's been a top performer knows how to do that; they know the techniques, the scripts, the marketing approaches, and they find a way to get that knowledge in the salespeople's heads. Q: What are the advantages of promoting someone from the ranks to sales manager? Johnson: If companies keep going outside for new managers, those aspiring to management will think there's no potential to be hired from within. Managers ought to ask what associates' management aspirations are and figure out how to provide the skills they need to achieve them. Someone may say, "I don't want to take a top salesperson out of sales and lose production." but if they're highly productive and have the management skills, why would they not then be able to take their sales skills and duplicate that in the people they lead? Instead of having less, you'll have even more. Hiring a manager from inside the company also helps ensure that the candidate has a management style that's compatible with yours. You want an office with different, complementary types—not an office of clones, but you need to share a basic philosophy with your manager on how a business should operate and what priorities and goals should be. Q: How do you minimize resentment among salespeople when someone is promoted from the ranks? Johnson: If a manager knows there are jealousies or certain people are vying for a job, they have to use their management skills to diffuse any possible conflict. Some friction divides an office, and some friction is healthy competition. If you've built an office around team spirit, camaraderie, and have everyone encouraging everyone else, your other associates should be happy for the person being promoted, not resentful. 10 Items for a Sales Manager's Job Description Just as with a sales associate, writing a job description is an essential prehiring step.
Portions adapted from Real Estate Brokerage Management, 4th edition, Bruce Lindeman, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1998 TIP: Remember that as an employee, job descriptions also include the company's terminations policies. Recruiting Service Personnel > | |