Making your salespeople accountable will return more profit than anything else you do!
Ninety-eight percent of us are "conditioned to follow." As young children, we became conditioned to please our parents, teachers, babysitters, and whoever is in charge. As adults, we learn to follow our leaders. Believe it or not, as their sales manager, you are the person your salespeople want to please. This gives you the responsibility to lead and be in charge.
First, You have to get their attention, or you are wasting your time.
Sales agents want to make money, they want to get out of debt, they want to keep their jobs, and they want to please you! But you must show them the money—the big money.
Most people have been warned not to talk about money, politics, or religion. I get it, but let's put those old ideas on the back burner until you get your salespeople out of debt and earning six figures.
They'll become eager to learn and work their butts off if they believe they can make the money they need. (And unfortunately, few know what they need! )
So, your success as a sales manager is based on helping your salespeople dig down deep enough to know what their financial needs are.
Sorry, but you know, they just won’t do this on their own or they would have done this by now. Over 50% of people don’t have a budget or know how much they spent last month. (my guess is for salespeople, the statistics are worse. )
A list of the below is critical:
Debts
Annual and Monthly Budget
Savings and investments
Emergency fund
Once they know their need, then help them figure out the below:
Daily new calls for appointments
Daily follow-up call for appointments
Appointments confirmed and booked each day
Daily tours
Weekly reservations
Weekly contracts required to satisfy their weekly and monthly financial needs
They will need a senior person or “closer” to help with contracts until they learn how to button up a sale. This takes at least six months to make sure they don’t fumble and blow sales..
From here, it's a matter of "holding their feet to the fire" weekly at a prescheduled, sixty-minute, one on one, Accountability Meeting.
Nothing will make more of a difference in an associate's performance than knowing they will be held accountable. After two or three meetings, they know what they did right or wrong this week, and they'll make the mental adjustments.
You must make your expectations for the coming week clear so that they will know what they will be accountable for. You must set their income and activity goals until they acquire the skills and understand the goal-setting process, and that will take six months to a year.
These meetings have the added advantage of letting you know who each salesperson's best prospects are. If a sale is in jeopardy, you can step in quickly, to save it!
Additionally, you'll also have the numbers to make decisions and projections based on what is in your team's pipeline. And you'll sleep better!
During your accountability meeting, stick to the numbers and eliminate the noise, useless conversation, and excuses. Numbers don't lie! After two or three meetings, your sales associates will figure out what they need to do. Some may decide things are too demanding and quit. This is a blessing that comes with the “new sheriff in town.”
Micromanaging intelligent people is demeaning and will cause resentment. Accordingly, you must be upfront with your salespeople with the ground rules. They must understand you will be micromanaging them and giving them the goals you want to be accomplished until they learn to do this independently.
Initially, they’ll push back...But once the money begins coming in,
they will appreciate you and they will thank you.
There are no silver bullets or shortcuts to success in real estate. So, please trust me, holding your salespeople accountable will pay higher dividends than anything else you do!
