A manager has to have a lot of tact when it comes to telling their agents that they need additional training-especially since they think they "walk on water." Top producing agents know that continuing education is important, but they wonder where they will get the time. The manager has to make it easy to learn and fun, too.
Technology Training
The most important training a manager can provide today is technology training. And yet, they are reluctant themselves to learn it. That's the first step. A manager needs to start using his/her computer and make it a friend. It is amazing how fast you adapt to all its wonderful uses.
Talk technology to your agents as you get more proficient. Talk about the emails that you are sending. Send your agents the agenda for the sales meeting by email, ask how many read it. Show agents while in your office how easy it is to use the computer. Pretty soon, they are actually going to want to use their computers. The key is to keep the balance. You don't want your agents so busy on their computers that they are not prospecting and getting more business. And, the computer can be addictive!
One way to get your agents trained is to have someone come in every week at the same time who knows how to use your systems and can show them database management, mail merge, and other programs that are so helpful today for Realtors. The best source for this person can be the local high school or college. These kids know the computer and love working with others to show what they know. It takes them a few minutes to figure out our systems. Don't use one of your agents! Other agents won't want to show their ignorance to a fellow agent. Many times, the young person that you hire will get other jobs from the agents to help them install and upgrade their computers. There are many firms that do this, but the cost is usually prohibitive for the office. Hiring young people is a real win/win for the manager and the agents.
Once a month, have one of your agents who is computer literate tell how he used his computer to prospect and what the results were. Hearing this over and over, the agents start realizing how important it is that they don't miss the boat.
Basics Training
Every agent needs to be reminded right now that it is still the basics of this business that will make you money. A manager cannot ignore this. Agents forget to go back to the basics when their sales are not going the way they think they should be. So make it a fun time. I like the brown bag training program.
What the brown bag training program entails is picking a topic and once a month at lunch time, have any agent who wishes to participate bring their lunch and either watch a training video and then discuss or have a round table discussion about the topic. It is casual, the manager needs to eat lunch anyway, and the agents seem to share more in the relaxed environment. The topics could be, 1)what to send past clients and how often, 2)how to hold an effective open house, 3)what to say in a warm call to your farm, 4)ideas on what to send to a farm, 5)how to present an offer, 6)an effective listing presentation, 7)script practice, and so on. You should try to get an idea of how many are going to be there by asking at your sales meeting the week before who plan to attend (tell them that you will provide the beverages). Also, make sure that anyone struggling be there.
Career Development Training
Many managers offer special programs for agents who seem to be floundering; who just can't seem to put a sale together. Since agents who are non-productive cost the manager money, it makes sense to offer special training for these agents or career adjust them right out of your office.
Career development should be in the form of one-on-ones weekly with these agents. Half hour sessions with accountability is imperative. You will be their counselors and hear lots of reasons for not "making it." The key to this training is to give them an assignment each week and make sure it is carried out. Within a short period of time they will start having results and the excuses stop. Anyone who doesn't handle the assignment week after week is let go.
These sessions should be at the same time each week so that the agent has no reason not to be there. They can schedule appointments, etc. around 30 minutes of time.
Sales Meeting Training
Every week managers should have five minutes of training at their sales meetings. Make it easy. Write the information out so the agents have a copy of whatever you are going to discuss for their files. Have some of your agents participate to make it timely. For example, you might discuss how to handle multiple offer situations. The key here is to keep it to five minutes.
You will have agents make mistakes during their careers and the manager, of course, is supposed to be supervising them. Having this type of training shows that you are doing just that. You constantly keep them abreast of trends, changes in contracts, equal opportunity situations, advertising ideas, basic prospecting ideas, etc.
New Agent Training
This is the hardest to do because it takes the most time. The smart manager will put a program together week-by-week of different topics. The agents must be prepared to move ahead to the next topic by doing all the homework from the week before. Use different agents from your office to handle part of the training. However, all accountability should be funneled through you. You need to know where these agents are in their training.
The schedule should start with an orientation of the office, then how to write contracts (sales and listings), forms required by the office and how to fill them out, how to create a CMA on a property, then on to prospecting.
This training is the most lacking in our industry right now. I have written an online book because of numerous requests for this. I wrote it from a manager's standpoint taking an agent week-by-week through the first six months of his/her career. This is what managers should be doing for these agents to get them started on the right track.
Results
When you have an organized and on-going training program in your office for every level of agent, you can sit back and watch your office sales grow, your recruiting take on more momentum, and your agents become your best PR in the community. It is interesting to watch how they learn even when they "know it all!"
