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Like real estate searches on Google, you'll find hundreds of results if you’re looking for ideas on how to plan and run a great sales meeting. Many real estate brokers are seeking proven ways to actively engage their team of agents both online and in-person. In my experience, the only way your agents will choose to engage, connect, and build long-term relationships with you and your leadership team is by creating an environment where they understand that your goal is to increase their personal and professional success—not waste their time.
The difference is consistency. We start on time and end on time. We want the 25 relentless sales professionals that call CENTURY 21 The Gene Group home to know that we're not going to take up valuable moments from their business day. Our productivity team huddle always includes a preset agenda, with specific milestones that focus on growing the agents’ business and skillset. We address common problem areas with clients in today’s market. Goals are set on the calendar in advance for the entire year.
We sift through market dynamics to make sure that our agents—both on the buying and selling sides—are well equipped to handle whatever the market throws at them. For example, a recent topic of discussion was dealing with the challenges of multiple offers. We covered that issue from both the buying and selling perspective. For the buyer, there are a multitude of options, but it all boils down to asking the listing agent, “Outside of price, what's most important to your client?” A lot of folks get tunnel vision here and think price is the main driver and that’s not always the case. On the listing side, highest AND best is the common theme over the last decade, but with today’s eager buyers, highest might not be best and a seller may be better served with a lower contract price with stronger financing or even occupancy. Those latter variables circle right back to “what’s more important.”
As a broker, I take personal responsibility and full ownership by making sure that I evaluate the entire marketplace and thoroughly examine all aspects of the business to find out intel and solutions. This helps me find ways we can tighten up and fine-tune our approach, and then distribute that information to our agents to provide the greatest benefit to them and their businesses. We’re here to help sharpen their swords—we aren’t afraid to put in the reps—and then scrum together collectively to see what's working, what's not working, and how best to get to our desired outcomes.
Here’s a tip to kick your meetings up a notch: Consider having a parking lot session afterward. Following our team huddle, our leaders stay in the parking lot (physically or virtually) to connect at a deeper level, listen to individual stories or concerns, and share experiences, both personal and professional. This gives us a way to be there for our agents in a more open setting and have that human interaction that is so necessary in this business. This is the people business, and those interactions help us strive. You should try it, too.
The single strand of DNA that's woven throughout this is coming from a position of contribution. This industry is a business of the willing, so it's going to be both skillset and “will-set” that creates the success. Put those two together and attack the market earnestly and you'll be able to do a lot of great things for your agents and their clients.
I am a realist. No broker knows everything, but we are an accountable group. My organization is a commitment-based organization and I’m a commitment-based leader. That culture flows through every employee and to our agents. We support our agents in the commitments they set for themselves, and we help hold them to those commitments—our meetings are a part of making that happen.
They also know, and value, that I have a 20-year background in IT. I'm a systems and processes guy. My acronym for SYSTEM is, “Save Your Self Time, Energy, and Money.” In addition, my executive administrator, business assistant, director of agent experience, two contract managers, and I hold two team huddles a month. We also have an open forum, or what we call a “building blocks” class, every other week. I hold them at different times so more people can attend. We toggle one session at 9 a.m. and then the next session will be at noon so that anybody's schedule can then match up to take advantage of the opportunity to gather, share, and learn.
The team knows that the time invested in these meetings are not a bottleneck to their daily success, but rather, they’re viewed as the necessary business calisthenic that helps build their skillset and abilities. We're dotting “i's,” crossing “t's,” and focusing on what's coming next. At CENTURY 21 The Gene Group, our leadership personnel serve as battery chargers for our agents, fueling and filling them with the business energy they need to succeed.
Our meetings are about learning how to take massive action, not an hour-long diatribe of words to force production and productivity. Brokers need to willingly show that they are in the boat with their agents, heading in the same direction. Our leadership is committed to our agent’s growth, and they know that meetings—online or in person—are all about helping them grow personally and professionally.
Our highest and best purpose on this planet is to help others and we, as brokers, have been given a skillset that allows us to make an impact. Whether it’s meetings in person or online, we believe that if you come from a position of contribution, your team will be more productive, and they will stay loyal to you and your company.
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