Thursday, February 21, 2008

3 Reasons Why You Should Quit Having Weekly Sales Meetings




Yes, unbelievably, there are three reasons why a broker would want to quit having weekly sales meetings. Why waste your time preparing, planning and delivering meaningful content to your team on a weekly basis if it is all in vain. On the other hand, is it?


First:


Stop providing sales meetings if you want your team to lose continuity and rhythm. After all, that is what one of the goals of a weekly sales meeting is all about; i.e. bringing together your group to motivate, encourage and inform them with meaningful information. It is a proven fact that a professionally run sales meeting can help boost morale, motivate the downhearted, and redirect the lost. Think about a boxer who has been in the ring battling their opponent for a grueling two minutes, being banged and beat-up back and forth from one set of ropes to the next. In reality, that is what many of your agents go through on a weekly basis in the real world. When the bell rings, the boxer’s retreat to their respective corners to get the necessary requirements from their coaches and trainers to get back out there and to improve on what they were doing wrong in the last round. Without a weekly sales meeting, your team will in essence move from one round to the next without a break, advice, support and nourishment to improve and win the fight.

Second:



It’s okay to quit having sales meetings if you want to break the communication link between yourself and your sales team. Most real estate agents will tell you that a big part of their frustration with a company or organization is the lack of communication. “No one told me,” is a sentiment often overheard from within the inner walls of the office talk. Unfortunately the lack of communication leads to a feeling of discontent and that “no one cares about me,” to discouragement and ultimately changing companies or leaving the business. Weekly sales meetings help bridge the gap and foster strong communication ties between the company and the agent. Let’s face it, people want to know what’s going on and being informed shows you care and are concerned about everyone on the team owning a part and being involved in what is happening with the organization.

Third:



Stop your weekly sales meetings if you believe everyone in your organization already knows everything there is to know about real estate and the real estate economy. Let’s face it, why waste your time trying to teach others if they already know all there is to know? Unfortunately, when you take that attitude you’re destined for a fall! I love the quote by Malcolm S. Forbes, “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” Whether you agree with it or not, people want to learn new and exciting things. Real estate is an ever-changing industry and with changes comes the need to help our group and colleagues lean and improve on knowledge and education.

What’s Next?
First, don’t quit offering weekly sales meetings that is unless you want to follow the truths outlined in each of the three reasons noted for quitting your weekly gatherings. Second, don’t feel like you have to spend a lot of time preparing and planning for weekly sales meetings. There are many good companies like http://www.realestatesalesmeetings.com/ where you can subscribe to receive weekly meetings, browse the large database of published meeting content, and be ready to motivate and encourage your team with little or no preparation at all. Finally, remember that sales meetings provide that weekly opportunity for you to connect with your group, and to coach them on through their real estate journey. Don’t concentrate on the numbers in attendance, but the quality of your meetings. When you begin hitting homeruns each week during your weekly sales meetings those in attendance will tell others, and before long you’ll have a room full of agents eagerly awaiting your agenda!

Would you like to receive a couple of free weeks of sample sales meetings from my company http://www.realestatesalesmeetings.com/? If so, send me an e-mail and I will put you on my mailing list to participate in my free offer. Send your request to John@RealEstateSalesMeetings.com.

2 comments:

Dennis Swartz said...

What about small companies? We only have 7 agents, and only 3 would be available to attend meetings? @What should we do?

Unknown said...

HAve the meeting anyhow - Sometimes small groups can be more effective anyhow and you can actually have meetings where you can not just discuss what is going on in your marketplace but you can work on creating service plans, pre-listing books, listing books etc. As long as they walk away feeling it was valuable, they will come again and again and maybe...they will tell some of their competitors what you are doing and someone else may want to join your company!