Category: Leadership Articles

This is a two-part article on the Do’s and Dont’s of hiring. Last month, we discussed the Hiring Don’ts. This month we look at the Hiring Do’s.

The Seven Do’s of Hiring

1. Hire for attitude

If you hire somebody with a bad attitude, this will poison your team. Author of Winning the War for Talent, Mandy Johnson, says that people with bad attitudes are hardly likely to suddenly develop a good attitude once they join your company.

Frame your questions around testing attitude, for example, “Can you give me an example of what you think is a good work ethic?”

Continue reading Hiring Do’s and Don’ts (Part 2)

This is a two-part article on the do’s and don’ts of hiring. In this issue, we will discuss Hiring Don’ts. Next month we will cover Hiring Do’s.

First a question: Do you believe successful hiring is an art or a science?

Many real estate agency leaders will say that hiring is an art. Without  effective hiring and induction systems, they’d be right. But with systems, you have more certainty of finding and developing winners, moving hiring from art to science. Continue reading Hiring Do’s and Don’ts (Part 1)

Here in the digital world of the 21st century, let’s give some thought to happy client reviews and, in particular, how we use them.

Some salespeople appear to be more interested in seeing their ‘names in lights’ on sites like the major property portals and Rate My Agent.

Less, if any, attention is given to Google and Facebook. Continue reading Reviews: Your Name in Lights

Many offices struggle and so do their salespeople.

In the nineties, salespeople wrote on average $135,000 in fees. Since 2010 we have seen little evidence that this average has changed much, despite selling fees trebling over that time and markets booming in many regions. Continue reading A Sure Way to Higher Profits: why coaching salespeople pays dividends

Leaders often complain that their salespeople won’t do the right actions. It’s one of the biggest complaints that leaders make. They fear putting pressure on their salespeople to do the right actions out of fear they will leave.

These leaders have no control, and without control they will never develop winning teams.

A large part of this problem stems from the reward structures these agencies use – commission-only definitely, but debit-credit is no better. When salespeople are in credit, they are fundamentally the same as commission-only salespeople. In their minds, they work for themselves and will resist leaders asking them to do any actions they don’t want to do (like prospecting). Continue reading Out of Control: What to do when salespeople won’t do the actions

You may have read about the highly publicised court case in South Australia where Harris Real Estate and agent Arabella Hooper were ordered by the court to pay $750,000 in damages. The judgment cited that after leaving Toop & Toop for Harris Real Estate, Hooper used data to develop business using data taken from her former employer.

It’s refreshing to see that the courts are now taking data theft seriously, but if you find yourself overly concerned with this, ask yourself, is data theft a disease, or is it merely a symptom? Continue reading Data Theft: Disease or Symptom?

Pittard clients are spread across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. It stands to reason that they are operating in different markets. Some are in booming markets, some in static markets and some in down-trending markets. But no matter what market they find themselves in, we give all the same advice:

It’s not the market that determines your success, it’s YOU. Continue reading Listing Flow: an essential focus

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when a salesperson is in a performance slump, although many leaders don’t appear to notice until the salesperson has been in the slump for too long – sometimes months.

In aviation, pilots have a saying, “Stay ahead of your aircraft”. There have been many pilots involved in serious accidents or killed because they were flying aircraft that were too fast for their skill. Flying fast aircraft requires thinking ahead especially when landing. Pilots must slow fast aircraft sooner, washing off speed early so that they don’t approach the airstrip too quickly. Continue reading Numbers and Ratios: A Glimpse of the Future

If you want to get your new sales recruits off to a flying start, first teach them the essential actions – those necessary to succeed – and then help them formulate a plan loaded with those essential actions. Then follow up and ensure they are being done.

Essential actions are non-negotiable. Do the actions, or leave. Never allow your salesperson to negotiate the actions downwards. Continue reading Essential Actions

Take a minute and look around your agency. Everybody looks busy, don’t they? But are you making money? Are they making money? If you’re not careful, you may mistake busyness with production. Remember – not all activity is created equal!

In all jobs, including yours, there are only two types of activity:

ACTIVITIES THAT LEAD TO RESULTS AND ACTIVITIES THAT DON’T. Continue reading Activity

In my experience as a real estate agency profit consultant, I’ve seen many real estate businesses in grave financial trouble, and many spend themselves into oblivion. For businesses to survive and thrive, they must be built on solid financial foundations.

This is explained in depth in our four-day presentation of the Agency Profit System®, but here are some important foundations that all leaders should strive to have in place. Continue reading Financial Foundations

Of all sayings, I despise this the most: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

I have heard people use this phrase as justification for not training, not leading, not prospecting, not developing a team, as justification for leaving things exactly as they are.

To illustrate how stupid and dangerous this is, let’s apply it to your car. Would you drive your car, kilometre after kilometre, never adding oil, checking the tyre pressure or having it serviced? Would you just drive it into the ground?

Why not? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Treat a car this way and soon it will be ‘broke’ and you will need to fix it. A hefty repair bill will follow.

Imagine if you did this to your business!

Sad news: MANY LEADERS DO!

Leaders who don’t study leadership or work at developing their teams, who fail to determine a culture and set standards, fail to control expenses, fail to keep a watchful eye on profit, who lack discipline, are leading their companies downwards.

There is no marking time. You can’t stay exactly where you are.

You’re either going backwards or forwards, and it’s up to you, the leader, to decide in which direction you will take your company.

Great leaders constantly fine-tune their company and their team for peak performance. Leaders who fail to do this are attempting to mark time, not realising that they are, in fact, going backwards.

A leader who thinks, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” may have a business that is doing fine now, but it’s only a matter of time before the business will be ‘broke’ and the leader in damage control – and probably broke too.

Ditch the loser saying and replace it with this one:

“If it ain’t broke, build on it!”

In the eighties, management expert Michael Gerber coined a phrase that became popular across the world: “Work on your business, not in your business”. A lot of us were very excited to hear that.

I still am. However, I saw a few people send their business bankrupt and then blame Gerber’s maxim. Let me make it clear: it wasn’t Gerber’s fault. His ideas were sound then and now. What these leaders overlooked was the word “Work”. WORK on your business… Continue reading Profit Systems

In my work as a real estate agency profit consultant, I have heard all the excuses. It’s twenty years since I heard a new one. The complaints remain the same. The same conversations we had in the nineties are still around this century.

One of the top complaints is from leaders: “I can’t get salespeople to focus!” Two others are “It’s different in my area” and “I can’t get my people to prospect”. Continue reading When Salespeople Won’t Do the Actions

Multi-tasking is a myth.

While performing two straightforward chores at the same time is easy – you can stir the custard while talking on the phone – it is folly to think that this transfers to complex tasks. The law forbidding texting while driving is for good reason – you cannot safely do both at the same time. Likewise, you cannot perform other complex tasks simultaneously. Continue reading Less Selling, More Leading

Many people who open real estate agencies expect it to be easier than it eventually turns out to be. Many suffer from the Field of Dreams thinking, “If you build it, they will come”. That doesn’t happen very often.

It does not take long for agency owners to realise that Get Rich Quick is not a plan. Most times, business is a hard slog, which can be made harder by a lack of planning and a lack of training. Continue reading Get Rich Quick Is Not a Plan

As leaders, we should be the ones setting the standards in our businesses. One standard that should be compulsory is Excellence. Is Excellence compulsory in your agency?

There is an old saying, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well”. No doubt you have heard this gem. I agree with it wholeheartedly.

If we are going to do anything, shouldn’t we do it well? Personally, I’d rather be known for quality than mediocrity, or carelessness. I am sure you feel the same way. I have great difficulty understanding why anybody would want their name applied to anything less than excellent. Continue reading Is Excellence Compulsory In Your Agency?

In almost three decades as a real estate agency profit consultant™, I have worked with many leaders and interviewed many more. Over this time, I have heard many leaders say, “I can’t seem to motivate… [insert name here]”.

Leaders who say such things do not appear to understand the source of motivation: motivation comes from within. Leaders cannot motivate people – it’s a waste of time trying – we all must motivate ourselves. Continue reading You Cannot Motivate People

In my 25 years as a real estate agency profit consultant, I have often heard leaders complain that they can’t find good people. A second complaint is that they can’t get salespeople to do the winning actions necessary for success. Prospecting is always top of that list of actions they can’t get people to do.

When are we going to stop whinging and start acting to fix the problem?

Great leaders set standards. Great leaders have Non-Negotiables. Depart from these and you no longer work on the team. Continue reading A Leader’s ‘Non-Negotiables’

Some leaders are too strict with their teams. Others are too soft. There are problems with being at either extreme.

Soft leaders

Soft leaders should not be in leadership positions. They seldom build excellent companies. They rate avoiding conflict higher than they rate setting standards and enforcing them. If these leaders do build excellent companies, it is often because they have deputies that have the real control. Continue reading Strict or Soft: the problem with extremes