Blog / Prospecting

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“The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Alvin Toffler

Are you one of those agents whose experience in the school system is something you would rather forget? For most school students, the good memories from school (friends, games played and sports) have been overshadowed by bad ones such as hard chairs, teachers who did not really care if the students learnt or not, homework, seemingly irrelevant subject matter, and so on.

In short, it was a system that did not cater for the needs of the individual, and in some cases, did not foster an environment in which students were encouraged to learn and enjoy the experience and rewards that come with learning.

Are your employees ready for today’s workplace? However, times change and today we are now working in a dynamic and everchanging workplace. Think of the changes we have to contend with and re-learn as part of our quest to conduct our businesses effectively and competitively:

• technology is changing on an almost daily basis
• legislation is constantly changing - these changes may relate to our own agency/sales business or be major legislative changes that have an impact on the management of our businesses
• consumer protection and ethical business behaviour is today a paramount consideration when running all types of business
• the safety and security of staff as well as the safe and secure handling of confidential documents and files is critical to an on-going business operation
• the moral and legal concerns of harassment and discrimination are an ever-present concern, along with wider global concerns such as financial crises and terrorism.

Today’s agency owners must have strategies in place to ensure that information is introduced and implemented to deal with all of the above as they occur. However, the implementation of these strategies will only successfully come about when agency employees understand the importance of essential changes and are confident enough to integrate new policies and procedures into the workplace.

The acceptance and implementation of the appropriate policy and procedures will only happen when staff are trained and educated in the following areas:

• why the policies and procedures exist
• the advantage of policies and procedures, systems and strategies
• how these policies and procedures are implemented
• the importance of on-going monitoring of policies and procedures.

In today’s real estate workplace, a welltrained work team is not a luxury; it is essential. In fact, the most successful agencies today put a strong focus on a workplace learning environment in order to create a motivated and productive team. Recognising that training is an essential element of achieving financial success is probably the first step towards creating a culture of learning in the workplace. As well as enabling the business to achieve profitability through learning, there are some other significant outcomes of creating a positive and progressive learning culture within the agency, such as:  

• empowering the individual
• creating a “team” culture
• motivating the individual and the team.

The Role of learning

Once management has recognised the need for on-going workplace learning, the next step is to identify the needs of the team and the agency and match these needs with both informal and formal learning opportunities. Real estate agencies typically set goals for listing and selling a certain number of properties each month.

Consider this simple example

Your target is 50 sales, taking into account conversion ratios, you must conduct 75 listing presentations. You have also identified that to create the opportunity for 75 listing presentations, you must conduct at least 120 appraisals. To generate the opportunities for the appraisals you must prospect at least daily. Prospecting will involve a mix of letterbox dropping, telemarketing, contacting past clients, customers, business and personal contacts.

The above scenario is played out in nearly every real estate office in Australia. Over time the goal plan is adjusted, reviewed, and analysed. Agency sales representatives will be rewarded for achieving goals or chastised for failing to make the grade. It is usually at this point that a salesperson believes they are “not cut out” for the real estate industry. As a result some people will leave the industry altogether.

Having sales targets and goals is required to achieve success in the real estate industry. However, often missing is the support and the provision of workplace learning opportunities that will assist in achieving the set goals.

The salesperson in the above scenario would have been empowered to work on achieving their target if they had been able to access learning tools within a carefully developed learning plan. The learning plan needs to be designed for and in conjunction with the particular salesperson.

All of these areas should not be taken for granted by the agency management. Even the most experienced salespeople will need to upgrade their skills in areas of agency operation. As markets and consumer expectations change, so must the training required to deal with these changes.

All the learning needs that have been identified in this article are not single experiences. They are learning opportunities that must be reviewed on a regular basis. To create a culture of learning the agency must make a commitment for on-going learning, which in turn creates a great sales team.

The next part of the process is to look at the diversity of the learning needs within the team, and develop an understanding of the diversity of individuals we are catering for and the varying learning parameters we will need to work within.

A real estate learning scenario

The following is a typical plan that should be in place for all salespeople.

1. When they commence:

• learning to create a realistic and achievable personal business plan
• an understanding for the need to have a personal financial plan
• the essential skills and knowledge required in real estate, and how to apply these
• training in consumer protection, including rules of conduct, Fair
• Trading practices and ethical issues relating to dealing with others such as salespeople, clients and customers

2. Creating business opportunities:

• successful prospecting strategies
• customer management strategies
• essential communication skills for real estate
• systems for monitoring and measuring performance

3. Appraisals:

• essential market research and analysis of real estate data
• how to prepare a market report
• follow-up strategies

4. Listing presentations:

• preparation for listing presentations including comparative market analysis (CMA)
• completing a valid enforceable agency agreement
• how to manage the new listing within the agency
• post-listing communication strategies with the client

5. Servicing & marketing the listing:

• how to create a marketing and advertising plan
• office policies and procedures in relation to listings
• essential client communication during the marketing programme
• how to conduct an open for inspection
• effective qualifying strategies and managing buyer enquiries

6. Selling:

• well developed closing skills
• negotiating offers to purchase
• completing appropriate sales contracts
• post-contractual management of the sale including monitoring of special conditions and attending to settlement matters.

Paula is a licensed real estate agent with over 20 years experience in managing and delivering real estate education and training to the industry. Paula is leading the national team to provide the Australian property industry with professional, high-quality and ethical real estate training. For more information on Kaplan Professional, visit www.kp.edu.au.

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