Lifting Productivity in Your Commercial Real Estate Team

There is no doubt that a commercial real estate office is a busy place with agents coming and going at all times of day.  The situation gets worse the more salespeople that you have on your team.  It should be said that productive salespeople should not be in the office much during the day, but out in their territory.  The only time that they should come into the office is when they have some calls to make, or paper work to complete.  They should be in the office for only 2 hours per day maximum.

The office principal or team leader that wants the salespeople in the office most of the time is really not giving enough trust to the team to get on with the job. 

Sure, if you have some members of the team that are not producing then they are likely to be wasting the business day and not doing the right things.   In that case you need to know where those sales team members are and what they are up to.  But do you really want them in the office?  Wouldn’t it be better for them to get out and about and meet the people?  Couldn’t you get them to give you a diary update of movements at the end of the day or week that would satisfy your questions?

Poorly performing salespeople that cannot account for their movements should be dismissed as part of an ongoing business cleansing process every 3 months or so.  There are ways to manage out the underperformers.  A constant recruiting process goes hand in hand with running a real estate business.

Salespeople are intelligent and will make their own choices.  If their choices do not match your business model then they should go somewhere else and be helped to do so.  Do not let any underperformers become the ‘elephant’ in the sales team that is frustrating everyone else and taking the majority of your focus.  You and the team do not need the stress of the issue.

Why would you want to tolerate a member of the team that is not producing and is destabilising everyone else?  Sure, they may be providing some income and that fact may hold back your decision to sack or dismiss them, but eventually the ‘elephant’ issue will become so frustrating that it will have impact on your personal performance as team leader.  Remove on any ‘elephant’ issues quickly.  Get on with supporting and helping your good people achieve.

Here are facts that apply to running salespeople in a team:

• Great salespeople like flexibility and support to get on with the job and produce commissions
• Great salespeople will produce business their way if you give them the flexibility and the trust to do the business
• Great salespeople know that they are responsible for the results that they achieve and will get on with the process if you give them the leverage to do so.

If you do not trust any or all of the members of the sales team then you either have the wrong people, inexperienced people, or your need to adjust your business practices.  Trust is really important when it comes to optimising listings and commission results from the real estate team.

Whilst you want the team to perform, the sales team need to see and feel the trust between you and them.  If they know and feel that you do not trust them, they will break the rules anyway and eventually leave the business to move somewhere else where they think they will be ‘trusted’.

Don’t make the sales office a ‘roller coaster’ of emotion for the sales team.  If you are the team leader, give them stability, trust, and direction in the office.  Give them the real flexibility and trust to do a good job and achieve.  Manage yourself first and foremost.

The team needs the leverage and opportunity to be out in the market place most of every working day.   Track their performances by KPI’s and if they do not soon show their results in the figures, then you have the wrong people.  You cannot micro manage salespeople for too long; they will take too much of your time and soon revolt and move on.  Give your top performers flexibility and trust above everything else.

Check out some more tips for commercial real estate teams at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/