Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had some time with your family after a satisfying and profitable 2021, despite the challenges we faced.
Hope is a positive emotion. The dictionary definition is “A feeling of expectation and desire.” It’s good to have hope.
It’s perfectly fine to hope that the market will continue to boom in 2022, even to hope that the boom will never end.
But hope is no way to run a business. Smart leaders hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
I’m no economist, but a warning sign is when forecasters talk about no end in sight to the booming market. And when agents act as though the boom will never end it should be a signal for caution.
Markets rise; markets fall. It’s the nature of markets. Booms and busts always end. If we knew when the peaks and troughs were going to occur, we’d be billionaires.
But though we cannot predict the market, this does not mean that your business is at the market’s mercy. Good businesses make good profits in any market. I hope you are one of those businesses.
Here are some of the areas where you can, and should, take control:
Stock
In boom markets, the challenge is to find stock. Marketing channels, including prospecting, require planning and execution. It is the leader’s job to ensure that everything is being done to find listings.
When the market changes, the challenge becomes pricing stock so that it can sell. This is an entirely different skill set for salespeople. The leader can train the team in this area.
Team Size
The more sales you want to make, the larger your team must be. Recruitment is within a leader’s area of control, and should be within a leader’s area of expertise.
It if isn’t, you need recruitment systems and training in that area. Pittard can help you.
Team Quality
Good quality leads are wasted when incompetent salespeople attend appointments. Leaders must ensure that regular training is available to the team and that attendance is compulsory. Again, Pittard can help you.
Team Results
Leaders can accurately predict the profit that comes from their rental department, but in many agencies, the sales department results fluctuate wildly.
This should not be so. With systems, you can build a profitable sales department with predictable results – regardless of market conditions. And yes, Pittard can help here too.
These are just four areas where a leader can plan improvement in their sales department. By focusing on these areas, the agency becomes less susceptible to market fluctuations. The business is prepared for any contingency.
We hope the boom lasts. We wish it would never end. But knowing that it will end, let’s plan for continued prosperity, in any market.
Hope for the best, but always plan for the worst.
Gary Pittard