Is Sales Training Important for Your Company?

Without sales there is no revenue, no profit and even the best marketing program in the world will not prevent you from failing; therefore sales are the single most important part of any business. Granted, all aspects of business are important, but without sales you have no business. So unless you want to go out of business, you need to have a very well trained sales staff. Sales training programs where your agents learn, internalize and practice with real customers while in class is one of the best ways to make sure that your sales staff masters the techniques and methods that will increase sales.

There are many ways to get your sales force trained and depending on the size of your staff you may want to consider hiring a sales trainer exclusively for your company; I am not referring to hiring a full time an in-house trainer, I am talking about bringing a sales trainer exclusively to train your agents. And against all beliefs hiring a sales trainer it is not that expensive, especially compared to the additional revenue your sales staff will bring.

Every business operates differently and sells a different product or service. However, the sales process is the same: “lead generation (marketing or any other way), present and close” the method never changes regardless of the product or service we promote, however this is why it’s of paramount importance that the trainer has a clear understanding of your goals and biggest challenges you are currently facing, so they can be included in the training program.

Another important aspect of sales and (commonly overviewed as well) is repeat customers and referrals; make sure the programs includes techniques to keep your past clients as clients and referring you new clients.

One more thing you should also consider is the length of the training program. In my experience a two to three day class is best, keep in mind that your sales people will not stop working during the training; they’ll continue to work and generate new business.

There are companies that seem to think that training their sales staff is not worth the money or justify it with not having the budget right now. However, they make this decision to their own detriment. The company with the best trained sales force has a sizable advantage over those that do not. Another and often less expensive choice is online training and although it is cost effective we need to consider the other side as well. Because the trainer cannot see the people’s facial expressions or hear their comments, the risk of your agents not understanding and therefore not applying the techniques increases. Technology it’s fantastic and it has brought our lives to a different status however the human touch is always needed.

In summary, everyone in your company can benefit from some degree of training but specially your bottom line.

Five Tips to Work Social Media

Over the last 36 months social media has become widely popular. Everybody is talking about it and many courses and programs are being offered.

Some salespeople are successfully getting referrals from their “friends”; however, many of them have also failed at it. Why? They just don’t get the way it works.

To help you avert the mistakes commonly made by salespeople when getting into Social Media Marketing for the first time, here are a number of success tips gleaned from 80 actual social media implementations.

1. Don’t Steal Other People’s Work

I see this all the time. Someone takes the time to create a group, sends them great information and builds a relationship with his followers. Then someone else wants to take advantage of this group that took the owner so much work to put together and starts posting promotional comments about his own company. Needless to say, these comments are always removed and the poster ends up looking like a spammer. If you want to succeed in Social Media Marketing, create your own group and post your own content, and don’t try to cash in on someone else’s efforts. Invest some time researching and looking for information that will appeal to the vast majority of your contacts.

2. Avoid Over the Top Self-Promotion

Don’t talk about yourself and your company all the time. People don’t care about that. Give them something of value, build relationships and get people to trust you. Let them know what you do but don’t try to sell them anything. They will call you when they are ready to buy.

3. You get by Giving.

Don’t you just hate it when someone sends you an email every other day asking you to do something (check out my website or register to get their free e-book) but they don’t do anything for you? Instead, see how you can help others. For example, join lead groups, and if possible send leads to other members (not other Realtors, I meant loan officers, movers, etc.); these members will most likely start sending leads your way. That’s how it works. The majority of the people take, take and take, they never give. Do things the other way around (the real spirit of social media) and you’ll be noticed.

4. Use Your Real Name and complete your profile.

I get about plenty of request on a weekly basis; the first thing I do is check out the profile of the person so I can figure out if they only want to have access to my friends and then spam them with solicitation or if they really are looking to network.

5. Do It Only If You Enjoy It

I love meeting people and networking. I love having conversations with strangers and exchange ideas. I am not always thinking about how I can make money out of the person I am talking to. If you don’t enjoy the process, you are not likely to be successful at it. People can read between lines, and they can tell if all you care about is their money.

6. Don’t Annoy Your Followers

In implementing your Social Media Marketing, send your followers a message or a request only if it will be useful to them. And don’t do it ten times per week. Sometimes in the same day I get messages, wall postings, emails or links from the same person about the latest money making opportunity or about how wonderful their company is! In my opinion, that’s not the way to get others to buy your stuff. Also, keep an eye on the number of people that unsubscribe from your lists. If that number is too high, revise your strategy. In another words don't SPAM.

I hope these 5 tips help you with your listings and with your new career; I would like to have the opportunity to share a cup of coffee and to establish a great business relationship.

How to Differentiate a Looker from a Buyer.

“Buyers are liars” probably you have heard that same expression from one or more of your sales people in the last few days. Sales agents are complaining about the quality of the buyers, what a waste of time they are, the lack of loyalty and mainly the low offers these buyers are making.

Whenever I hear an agents complaining about their buyers, I ask them: Did you qualify your buyers? Experienced Realtors are still putting contracts together, because they spend more time disqualifying buyer leads than qualifying them. “The top 10 percent recognize there are only a certain number of hours in the day. And they know they can only close qualified prospects. So they spend time asking tough questions to find real buyers and the ‘lookie-lous’ never make it into their funnel.”

Top performers are so guarded about who goes into their prospects lists that their pipelines look more like cylinders: fewer opportunities going in one end and a higher percentage of them closing on the other. Contrast that with the other 90 percent of the agents. Typically this group aims to prop up every lead that comes their way, stuff them into their pipeline, and hope some will buy a house.

To radically boost the performance of your bottom 90 percent, you need to get them to shift from a mindset of qualifying buyers to one of disqualifying them. And the way to do that is by giving them a qualifying checklist with six questions. When an agent gets on the phone with a lead, he/she must know the answers to these six questions:

1. What was it about the ad (sign, house, etc) that caught your eye?
2. How long have you been looking for a house with a ______?
3. How many houses with a ________ have you seen?
4. Why didn’t you buy one of those?
5. What is your time frame for the purchase?
6. What are some reasons they wouldn’t buy?

Agents are afraid to ask these questions because they think their prospect won’t answer them or because they’re afraid of the answer. These questions are key to the disqualifying process because if the lead is vague or evasive about any of them, it means he or she is not a serious buyer and agents shouldn’t waste their time. Thinking they can turn it around is a bottom 80 percent strategy; spotting the red flag and discarding the lead is a top 20 percent strategy.

When top agents don’t get the answers they want or need, they ask the tough questions, and they’re not afraid to say, “You know, Mr. Prospect, it sounds like you’re interested in waiting for the prices to come down further. So keep my number on file and when you feel the bottom price is here, give me a call.”

I understand that shifting from a mindset of qualifying your leads to disqualifying your leads can be a bit scary. Sales people worry that if they start tossing out leads; there won’t be any more coming in to fill their pipeline. But here’s the gem: These techniques will never disqualify a true buyer; they will reveal the true buyers.

If you’re think your agents are still nervous, ask them the following question: “Do you want to spend it with “lookie-lous” who aren’t serious about buying? Or do you want to spend it with prospects that are qualified and genuinely interested?” If it’s the latter, you need to do a good job of weeding out the former. “Once you get confident with these techniques and see you are closing more sales, you’ll never go back.”

Tips for Today's Market.

How do you deal with today’s market? Is a question I get asked almost everyday of the week. Well, the answer is simple just follow the three simple rules I learned when I was a brand new agent in Real Estate. These rules have helped me and many other professionals build great business and they will do the same for you (as long as you apply them).

Rule #1. Act as If. This is one of the oldest rules; the economy and the real estate business are not what they used to be, but we are acting as if there is no solution to the problem! Why don't we begin to ACT AS IF WERE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AGENTS IN THE WORLD. Will this change anything? Absolutely, it will change our outlook, the way we walk, the way we dress and ultimately the way we perform.

Rule #2. Separate the looker from the buyer. Remember what we learned in real estate school, buyers must be: READY, WILLING and ABLE in order to enter into a real estate transaction. Well, if the buyers you are working with are still waiting for the prices to drop, then they’re not buyers, they are lookers! And right now you can’t afford the luxury to waste valuable time and energy in lookers.

Rule #3. Listings, listings, listings. Remember this is an inventory driven business, if you don't have any listings then you are losing control of the market. Even in a buyers market the listing is king. To get listings you must allocate at least one hour every day to generate listing leads; even if you feel afraid, remember the best way to conquer fear is by facing it.

If there is anything I can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Semper Fi. How the Marines Motivate the Front Line.

In today’s market place, sales agents are taking control of their brokerages financial destinies. More and more brokers and managers allow their agents to use any excuse to justify their low or lack of productivity.

The head business coach for the coaching division of my company, Curtis Phelan happens to be a former marine. I recently asked him, how real estate brokers and managers can benefit from using the Marine Corps principles to make their offices more productive? His answer was: “Marines have a Common Value System they understand what it means to have a mission and they take pride in everything they do and they have a Blue Print for Success.” While former Marine Corps members often run successful sales organizations, experienced brokers and managers are frequently unaware of the motivational master plan that runs America’s finest military organization. Here are the five key components of the Marine blueprint for success, to help you recruit the best people, design better training, develop teamwork, inspire loyalty and achieve victory.

1. Recruiting: Marines send out their top performers to recruit the best people. These experienced officers display a missionary zeal, and they personify the values and pride of a Marine.
How much recruiting have your top salespeople done in the past? I know, you are probably saying “my top agents will never do it” well, it all depends on how committed your top agents are about working for the most successful company in the area.

2. Training: Marines spend 12 weeks in basic training. When the training gets tough, drill sergeants often quote the old saying, “the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” Boot camp is not designed to weed out certain people, but to cultivate everybody. While many companies allow those who don’t perform up to standard to linger around until they quit, Marines practice until everybody graduates.

What kind of training do you have in place to help new agents succeed and avoid being an expense for your company? How about your experience agents; what systems do you have in place to help them make more money and become more successful?

3. Leadership: Marine officers lead by example. If a leader asks a platoon to climb a 100-foot wall, he will be the first one to start the climb. Of all military services, the Marine Corp has the highest casualty rate among officers. In real estate, the best sales managers are not the ones who hide behind their desks, but those who go out to see the toughest customers with their front-line people.

One of my clients in South Jersey, (by the way, he happens to run the largest company in the area), makes a point to go out FSBO prospecting with his agents in a regular basis.

4. Commitment: The Marine Corps credo is do or die. Curtis says that you have to be careful what you ask a Marine to do because he'll die trying. Marines in action show how much a highly committed team can accomplish. What if salespeople adopted such high standards for new listings or assisting other agents become more successful? Remember the more successful agents working for your company, the easier the listing, selling, recruiting and the more profitable your company will be.

5. Loyalty to the troops: While many companies often tell agents that they are replaceable, Marines are told that they are irreplaceable. They know that the entire country and their fellow Marines depend on them. It's natural for a Marine to say, "I love my Marine Corps." How many salespeople say, "I love my company." More and more companies are studying the Marine Corps model for motivation. As a result, their sales teams take more pride in their product and more pride in their companies. Imagine the possibilities. Imagine every salesperson in your company as proud as a Marine. Imagine how many competitive battles you'd win. Every year, thousands of loyal and highly trained Marines retire: why not deploy their talents to win more sales?

Just in Case you Know Someone who's Considering Quitting.

In today's economy, many real estate professionals are considering leaving the industry and move on with their lives. However, no one has ever reached success before facing numerous and very difficult challenges and if we quit we will never know what the future could've been like.
Just in case you know someone thinking about quitting, please share this message.

• In 1816 his family was forced out of their home. He was still a small child and had to had to work to help support them.
• In 1818 his mother died.
• In 1831 failed in business. In 1832 ran for state legislature - lost.
• In 1832 also lost his job - wanted to go to law school but couldn't get in.
• In 1833 borrowed money from a friend to start a business, by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.
• In 1834 ran for state legislature again - won.
• In 1835 was engaged to be married, his fiancée died and he was heartbroken.
• In 1836 had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.
• In 1838 sought to become speaker of the state legislature - defeated.
• In 1840 sought to become elector - defeated. In 1843 ran for Congress - lost.
• In 1846 ran for Congress again - this time he won - went to Washington and did a good job.
• In 1848 ran for re-election to Congress - lost.
• In 1849 sought the job of land officer in his home state - rejected.
• In 1854 ran for Senate of the United States - lost.
• In 1856 sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party's national convention - got less than 100 votes.
• In 1858 ran for U.S. Senate again - again he lost.
• In 1860 Elected President of the United States.

In 2009 we celebrate his Bicentennial, his name: Abraham Lincoln.

Never, ever quit. You were born for greatness.

Six Reasons why I Love Today’s Market.

Media loves to point out the negatives in today’s market. We’ll this week I spent some time with my friend Chris Leader and we agreed there are some positives to this economy. Hope you will agree with us.

1. I love today’s market because during the last market I lost more than one sale after my clients were outbid and they felt I didn’t work hard enough for them.

2. I love today’s market, because during the last market there wasn’t a big enough selection for my buyers to choose from.

3. I love today’s market because during the last market my buyers got the worst end of the deal; houses were sold “as is” and had to pay top dollar for them.

4. I love today's market, because during the last market, buyers and sellers stopped seeing me as a real estate professional and didn't appreciated my efforts or valued my knowledge and expertise.

5. I love today’s market, because it has allowed me the opportunity to develop new skills, I’m learning how to be disciplined and to work this business as a business.

6. I love today’s market, because life has removed all the obstacles that where preventing me from becoming the sales person I was born to be.

“If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t then you can’t. Either way you are right.” Henry Ford.