Every day, agency leaders allow incompetent people to represent their companies. John, however, was different to many leaders; he decided to do something about it. He tested the competence of his under-performing team members and discovered that incompetence was costing his company huge sums of money.

Using the Leaders Form Guide, a management tool he received at the Real Estate Agency Management Program, a five-day seminar for agency owners and managers presented by the Pittard Training Group, John measured his salespeople's activity and results.

What is it with salespeople and finding customers? Most do everything they can to avoid it. And most salespeople are mediocre. Could there be a connection?

In our three-day sales training program, Winning Ways – Brilliant with Basics , we outline the minimum level that must be performed each week if a salesperson wants to achieve acceptable results. One of those activities is to speak with 180 potential sellers every single week.

Sheila Murray Bethel said, "In the twenty-first century our leadership talents will be constantly tested and challenged. Whether you are leading at work, in the community or at home, the courage to explore your attitudes and aptitudes will be one of your most influential qualities."

She says that courage and change go hand-in-hand when it comes to increasing effectiveness as a leader. Bethel advises we examine ten statements to see where we need to change, to grow and stretch to reach our full capacity.

Everybody feels the pressure of work sometimes. But is pressure something to be avoided?

Not all pressure is bad for you. There are two kinds of pressure: positive and negative. Without doubt you should avoid negative pressure. This is the pressure that comes from lack of control, or through somebody pressuring you to do something you do not want to do. It's negative and not very nice.

Of all the salespeople who commence with and then leave our offices, have you ever known one who, in the beginning, said that they did NOT want to be successful? They all say that they want to succeed. So why don't they?

The simplistic answer is that they were not willing to pay the price. I think there is more to it than this; salespeople cannot shoulder all the blame. Surely the quality of the leader has something to do with a salesperson's chance of success?

The key to selling is not the price, it's the motive. Unless you understand why your clients are selling you won't get far with an appeal to reduce the price. What your client wants to do is far more important than the price. Motive is first, price is second. And yet what do poor negotiators most focus upon? The price!

One of the most frustrating challenges of leadership is to 'turn around' a salesperson whose results are low despite apparently large amounts of winning actions.

How many sales did you make last weekend? Were you happy with the result? If not, would you like to make next weekend a winner? The key is to set appointments with qualified buyers before the weekend commences, and then take those buyers through competitively-priced properties.

Selling real estate is a straightforward process, which is made so much simpler if you develop a few winning habits. One of the best habits you can develop is to set five appointments with qualified buyers for the coming weekend. If you are only working one day over the weekend set four appointments. Do this by the close of business on Friday.

There are three major steps to profit, but having said this, these steps apply to any worthwhile endeavour.

1. Study

Study must be a constant and ongoing process at all stages of our lives. Show me a profession where you can earn a six figure income while at the same time not knowing what you are doing. We all need to study our craft.

And when I say study, I mean study. The Macquarie Dictionary defines 'Study' as:

Question: Why do salespeople get into a slump?
Answer: Not enough business.

Salespeople run out of business because they do not speak to enough people. It follows, therefore, that finding customers must become a top priority for any salesperson who wants to survive in this business.

Some leaders spend so much time analysing figures – the scoreboard - that often they miss danger signals within their sales teams - the game. Such leaders fail to find out how their people are going personally. They know which people are struggling because the results aren't forthcoming, but these leaders don't know WHY their people are struggling and what can be done to fix the problem.

It doesn't matter whether you are a leader, a salesperson, or a support team member – we all fall victim to distractions at some time or another. Distractions are inevitable but if you make a habit of falling for them you will become ineffective at your job. The ability to deal appropriately with distractions is a skill we all need.

You don’t have to listen to the radio for long at this time of the year to hear somebody talking about New Year’s Resolutions. The Macquarie Dictionary defines resolution as, “a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.”

Have you ever wondered how many resolutions have been made and broken? I have, and I remain fascinated as to why a promise made at the beginning of the year is often broken a matter of days after it was made.

Frustration results when we fail to achieve the things we set out to do. If this is happening to you, then it could be that you are trying to achieve too much too quickly.

I once met a man who told me that he was going to start looking after himself. He was badly out of shape. It was time to give up booze, smokes, to start exercising, and go on a diet, he said. All at once!

Jim Rohn

It does not matter what your passion is, you’re going to find that sooner or later the trail will lead back to money. Without sufficient amounts of money you often find yourself forced into situations you do not want to be in.

W. Somerset Maugham.

You have to change – if you don't, you stagnate. Yet change does not come easily for most people.

Do you want to be better than you are today? Do you have too much income, too many sales, are you too happy? What do you want that you don't have now? How long have you wanted what you don't have? How long will it take to get what you want if you stay as you are now?

I always get a laugh at this time of year as agents 'wind down' for Christmas. In the next few weeks some agents will start telling sellers that the 'auction season' is coming to an end and that they should delay selling until early February. Many of these agents are so stupid that they refuse to take on listings over the Christmas period.

Are you happy with your 2007 results to date? If you are, you have a wonderful opportunity to compound those results before a well deserved Christmas break.

If you are not satisfied with your results, however, you are in danger of giving up on 2007 and of wasting the next couple of months hoping that next year will be better.

I had an enlightening chat with a real estate agency leader recently.

He told me that he used to work at an agency across the road. He said that most of his present team at some time or another also used to work at that agency, and these people are now producing great figures in his agency, and now his agency is his old agency’s biggest competitor.

What makes a salesperson great? It is not a complicated formula, and certainly is not beyond the realms of possibility for anybody who desires greatness and is willing to work toward it.

DECISION

My belief is that all success begins with a decision. It has been my experience that all great salespeople at some point in their careers reached a decision to part company with mediocrity – to be the best they can be.

In other words, they got serious. I believe this decision is a necessary part of greatness.

So often you see agencies with very few listings advertising heavily for buyers. While I have nothing against advertising, I do believe that you should advertise for what you want – if you want buyers, advertise for buyers; if you want listings, advertise for sellers.

The majority of salespeople suffer from fluctuating sales – up and down like a roller coaster.

Just because the majority performs this way, it doesn't mean that consistent sales are not achievable. Consistent sales can be achieved and it's not as difficult as you may think. It only requires a little thought and discipline.

The most effective tool leaders have at their disposal is also the most ignored.

What happened to talking with our team members, one-on-one, over coffee? I think we’ve become so busy that we no longer allow time to do this most important leadership function, but do we really save time by neglecting our one-on-ones?

Imagine a friend came up to you and said, "I want to be a great salesperson. What do I have to do?" What would you say?

Quite often, we are better at solving other people's problems than we are our own. Caught up as we are in the day-to-day business of being us, our own problems seem huge, while we can clearly see what others should be doing.

The most effective tool leaders have at their disposal is also the most ignored.

What happened to talking with our team members, one-on-one, over coffee? I think we’ve become so busy that we no longer allow time to do this most important leadership function, but do we really save time by neglecting our one-on-ones?

One of the biggest complaints agency leaders make is that they cannot get their people to do the right actions. The ‘right actions’ to which they refer are specifically prospecting actions – meeting with and talking to people.

Reward systems, we can prove, are essential components in building and keeping a winning team.

This means that how you reward your sales team impacts significantly on both the profit of the agency and on the earnings of the salespeople themselves.

The real estate industry is hooked on turnover. Astute business people know that turnover is NOT profit. When you pay salespeople, franchises – anybody – a percentage of your gross income, you sacrifice profit.

The best advice ever given to me as a fledgling salesperson was to strive for one result each working day. "Learn to start working on this result as soon as you get into the office" I was told. "Keep working on the result until it's achieved."

Although sometimes difficult to accomplish, I have found that those salespeople who keep their careers this simple out perform those who arrive at the office each day wondering what task they will tackle first.

I have just about finished "Everybody Wins" - the book about RE/MAX, which details how that company grew into the biggest real estate franchise in the world.

Again and again, the book talks about the concept of 100 percent commission – where agents basically pay a fixed monthly fee to their broker (or estate agent here in Australia) and get 100 percent of the commission they negotiate with clients.

You advocate paying salespeople salaries and bonuses.

My question is... who makes the best salespeople? Meaning those who truly satisfy their clients, achieve high client retention, plenty of referrals, and ultimately more ongoing sales, etc: people on 100 percent commission or people on salary plus bonus?

I - and no doubt all those who own or plan to own a real estate agency - would love to hear your views on this.

For anybody who desires prosperity, being too easy on ourselves too soon in life isn't going to achieve it. For many, it's too easy to say, "I'll try better tomorrow" or "I'm tired – result or not, I'm going home!" Most people need to be tougher on themselves, to expect more from themselves. Most people need to give themselves regular, and tough, self-talk.

Have a tough talk with yourself. Refuse to accept excuses from yourself, or to allow yourself to be convinced by someone else that you cannot do what you want to do in life. When somebody says, "It's tough", you say, "Of course it's tough. That's why losers don't do it!" How much better will you feel?

See where this is heading: each salesperson you train brings into the agency $480,000 per year. Therefore:

One residential sale you make yourself earns you $10,000. One 'Winner Sale' earns you $480,000.

I do hope this thought encourages you to develop a new focus on finding and developing a Winning Team. And if you would like some assistance, we'd be pleased to be of service.

Everybody loves a shortcut. I know I do. But some shortcuts turn out to be not so short – client contact, for example.

During the boom, I saw a lot of salespeople taking shortcuts with seller communication. The argument was that they were so busy with buyers, and with finding listings to replace the properties they were selling, that there was no time left to spend with sellers.

In Part One we examined how so many people resort to all sorts of costly 'tricks' to make sales instead of attending to the pressing issue of asking prices. I promised you a tool to help you and your team get the bulk of your office's listings priced to sell. Here it is: a Focus Parade.

Have you set five confirmed buyer appointments for the coming weekend?

If not, why not? If you set your weekend buyer appointments before the close of business Friday night, you will greatly increase your chance of making a sale, perhaps two this weekend.

People who are serious about their success don't wait for buyers to walk into the office. Selling real estate is a straightforward process, which is made so much simpler if you develop a few winning habits – five weekend appointments being one of them. To win in real estate, all you need is properties to sell, twenty or so sellers who trust you, and a handful of well-qualified buyers who want to buy now.

Typical real estate agents blame the market for poor sales. And they resort to all sorts of expensive, and quite useless, tools to make sales.

In early November, 2006 I saw a news item on Channel 10 about an American real estate agent who hired actors to be in attendance during inspections of one of his/her properties. The actors played 'happy families', singing Happy Birthday to a 'family' member, played games, demonstrated the appliances; etc. The idea, we are told, was to show buyers that this property was the ideal family home. That little exercise cost the hapless seller about $40,000.

Any activity where you are face-to-face, voice-to-voice, belly-to-belly with potential sellers, listed sellers (Vendors) and with buyers are activities that lead to results. These are important activities.

There are some other important activities such as goal setting, planning, attending sales meetings, etc., but with the exception of attending sales meetings, most other important activities don't have to be done in broad daylight. But spending as much time with customers who want to buy or sell are 'daylight' tasks. The golden rule is to never perform a 'nighttime' task during daylight hours.

Now that you are back you may notice people trickling back into the office after their Christmas/New Year breaks. You may also notice that, while their bodies are back in the office, their heads are not. Perhaps you feel the same way – a need to 'warm up', to get back into work.

It is quite normal to feel this way, but it is also very costly in lost profit. I am not suggesting that people not be allowed to talk about their holidays, but for how long will you continue to allow your people to work at quarter pace while they ease themselves back into routine?

Welcome to the first Sales Bulletin for 2007. And what better way to start your year can there be than evaluating how you use your time?

You often hear industry pundits talking about how much money is lost to industry through such problems as alcoholism or stress. I have no doubt that this is true, but a far more common reason for loss, to real estate agencies at least, is through salespeople not knowing what to do next.

Would you pay somebody $9,400 to 'hold the fort' while you had a day off? If this sounds like an expensive day off to you prepare to be shocked: there are many leaders who pay this kind of money to non-performing salespeople for little more than the luxury of having somebody in the office while the leader rests.

In any professional sport, whether it is AFL, Rugby League or Union, swimming, you name it, teams and individuals compete firstly with themselves.

Athletes know their Personal Best (PB). When athletes beat their PB, this new PB becomes the one to beat. Athletes measure their performances in relation to their PBs - as either falling short of PB, equal to PB, or a new PB.

The most common complaint of real estate agents is that they don't have enough listings. But it's impossible to be short of listings when you have good prospecting systems in place.

In our Real Estate Agency Management Program, we show attendees how to implement Permanent Listing Enquiry, which is one of the Six Essential Elements that are necessary to make a highly profitable real estate agency. Permanent Listing Enquiry requires total team commitment.

While visiting a real estate office in Perth recently, a salesperson told me that 'all' the sellers he met wanted too much for their properties. He said, "Nobody is realistic – they all want too much and if they can't get what they want, they won't sell."

Now I could have argued that thinking in absolutes was the cause of his poor results – 'all' the sellers he met? 'Nobody' is realistic – what, he hadn't met so much as one realistic person? But I knew he wasn't going to be convinced because this would have meant that he had to take personal responsibility for his poor results, and he wasn't about to do that.

MBWA – management by walking around – is a good thing for leaders to do on occasions. It gives you an opportunity to listen to what your salespeople are saying to their clients. You may be unpleasantly surprised by what you hear.

Are you doing your best? A good way to determine this is to look at your TARGETS and your progress toward achieving them.

Your targets should stretch you and they should be based on reality, not fanciful thinking about what you hope to get. Not only should you know how many listings, sales and asking price adjustments you will achieve in the month, you should also have a plan showing where your results will come from. As the result of this plan you will reach, or exceed, your targets.

This search for instant results at the expense of the long-term is a real handicap. Leaders need to think like leaders, not salespeople. As onerous as some management tasks may be, applying ourselves to making permanent those tasks which lead to long-term success is a worthwhile pursuit of anybody serious about creating a very profitable real estate agency.