Training Your Real Estate Team Members to Be Effective

It is essentially fact that people are the most important asset in a real estate company or any company for that matter.  So, we place a great deal of time on recruitment and the interview process in order to find the right person with the right attitude.  And our investment of time on finding the right person to fill the position doesn’t just stop after they are brought onboard.  We continue to find ways and means to train them regularly.

Here are ten significant points to consider so that your real estate business can grow. Keeping a good staff by empowering them to take some ownership within their area goes a long way.  Well trained and qualified staff will also enhance your businesses’ reputation and give you the edge over your competition.

Ten Tips:

• Even before any training commences, select the right person for the job. Don’t just focus on previous experience in real estate but rather consider the applicants skill sets to fulfill the particular roles requirements.  Train the new person to be proficient and competent within a particular job as focus provides better results.
  
•  
  
• Allow some time outs during conference calls.  Follow up with your trainees about what they learned during the call and how this can be applied to their job.  Update them with new found ideas, new apps and other items used in real estate that you have come across that will be useful to their work.
  
•  
  
• Consider bringing in a trainer / consultant to the office for on the job training. You can also send them to webinars to learn new skills in real estate.  
  
•  
  
• Facilitate team discussions within real estate Buyer and Seller groups so that everyone can say what went well or can be improved.
  
•  
  
• If they will work with Sellers, train them on how to handle these individuals to win their business, especially if they have listed their home for six months with no acceptable offer.  Also if they work with the online processes, brainstorm how these methods can always be improved.  Sellers appreciate simplicity once they wrap their head around it.
  
•  
  
• Make SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) and document them to break down the elements of working instructions necessary to cover every job and process your real estate business uses.  Regularly review their value and if dynamic processes need to be rewritten.  Do not underestimate this time!
  
•  
  
• Reward successes on the job, in particular if employees become qualified with awards of merit.   Reward can be a cash bonus but an award like “Real Estate Sales Rock Star of the Month” trophy can do volumes.  All kinds of recognition, financial or psychological can be appreciated by your reports.
  
•  
  
• Use KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) to benchmark each employees success criteria. The number of houses listed and sold per month could be examples of KPI’s.
  
•  
  
• Recognize talent and promote high flyers and solid reliable employees.  Plan for succession for all key positions (including your own) and ensure you train the right people for the business to for the long term if you plan for the business to be around for a while.      
  
•  
  
• Finally, leverage the tracking methods available online for reports, ads or blogs to better understand the need for further improvement.  Stop guessing which one of your advertisements or blogs works and which one does not.  Targeted marketing that is working helps your team in producing an effective way to generate real estate leads seamlessly.
  

Maintaining good staff in a real estate business is not difficult.  However, it does require work.  Implementation and follow up on simple processes should be done consistently and this will benefit the company in time so that all can reap the rewards repeatedly.