The difference between good sales managers and great ones is the “great” ones show their salespeople a direct path to the money. Salespeople must see a significant financial reward to do the hard work.
Showing them the path to the money is needed to get their attention as they climb the real estate sales mountain.
A career in selling real estate requires a tremendous amount of discipline. Savvy sales managers know only a small percentage of people have the fortitude to suffer through the learning curve. If selling were easy, everybody would do it, and the industry wouldn’t have an 87% turnover rate!
Fear is one of the three prime motivators of all humans, and salespeople live with constant fear! Fear of what you ask? The fear of REJECTION. Now you know why the average sales associates:
1. Don’t call leads fast enough
2. Don’t follow up on leads
3. Drop leads too soon
4. Search only for the “low-hanging fruit”
5. Burns leads
Here’s a secret I’m embarrassed to admit: Even top producers are reluctant to make cold calls. Our subconscious mind protects us from our natural fear of rejection. It takes a lot of grit and determination to make those uncomfortable calls. As soon as top producers have a large enough client list and can afford to do so, they work exclusively on referrals.
Save your marketing dollars. Instead of paying for more leads, train your sales team to close more sales from the leads they already have. Have them get comfortable being uncomfortable for two or three hours a day when they make calls for appointments with people who can buy.
The criteria to judge your salespeople by isn’t how many sales they CLOSE, but by how many new conversations they have each day to make appointments!
CALLS + APPOINTMENTS = SALES
Since most commission salespeople are in debt, show them that the path to Financial Freedom is through making new calls. By doubling the time they spend setting appointments, they will double their income.
For example, take a sales associate closing one sale out of every 20 presentations and show them how to focus on getting one more deal out of the 19 potential sales that are now getting away. When this happens, they will double their sales, double their commissions, and you double corporate profits.
Unfortunately, management tends to blame their associates for the lack of sustained success. The truth is everyone is always doing the best they can at any given moment based on their level of awareness. If your salespeople knew better, they would do better! They need training on how to use scripts to qualify leads and to set appointments.
You've probably given your sales associates sales training in the past, and while there was an initial burst of productivity, people returned back to their comfort zone. This is why your sales training must include the concept of spaced repetition to create a behavior change.
Sixty-two percent of the acceptance of a new idea comes after the sixth exposure!
For instance, we recommend sales associates spend ten minutes a day reading and role-playing our Let’s Get Acquainted qualifying script. These 21 qualifying questions will increase sales dramatically and save your salespeople days of wasted time with unqualified suspects. Leads are all “suspects” until they qualify to become “prospects,” and should not take a salesperson's time until they are qualified.
A hundred things go into building a successful sales team, but if you start with the right people and the six inches between their ears, you are beginning in the right place. As your salespeople discover Financial Freedom, you will go from being a GOOD sales manager to a GREAT sales manager.
