“You don’t offer any training”; usually said with a condescending sneer. We get this all the time. And our answer has always been; “why would we”? Remember in high school when you had to write a “report”? You would copy some text found online, change the wording a bit and call it your own. Well, that’s exactly what most real estate training is: copied book reports from generations past.
Fact is, you work in the World’s oldest profession. And yeah, I know what you are thinking. But remember, “Sales” don’t happen until some 3rd party butts in trying to profit from it. Such is the lot of the 100% commission sales trade. And that lot is pretty much the same across multiple industries; insurance, retirement planning, real estate, stocks or any sales situation that offers no salary.
Since the dawn of time, hustlers have been creating profit for themselves by putting themselves into other people’s transactions. And please don’t take, “hustlers” to be negative in any way. Sales is a hustle job. Ever see a successful salesperson who was bulldog lazy?
The problem with much of real estate training is that it has NOTHING to do with real estate. It has everything to do with living on a 100% commission. At your fingertips is a vast amount of information on how best to perform in that environment. Not surprisingly, some of the best training available is hundreds of years old. That’s not a joke. There is plenty of free universal training that teaches discipline, goal setting, follow-through, follow-up, approach, rejection, team building, and planning, etc. And much like Shakespeare, many of these core themes transcend the generations.
For example, creating a “Weekly Planner” is a great idea. It really doesn’t matter if it was written out with a quill or tapped on a phone; a good idea is a good idea. The point is there is so much great training available today, agents who settle for a Broker’s lame rewrites are selling themselves short. Sales requires self-motivation. It’s a fact. Agents who are waiting for a Broker to train them might not fully understand the profession they are in.
Where to Start?
Forty percent of the top 10 highest grossing Sales training books of all-time were written by 2 men; Zig Ziglar and Jeffrey Gitomer. Start with the classics. By Zig Ziglar: “Selling 101” and “Little Red Book of Sales”. By Jeffrey Gitomor: “Sales Bible” and “Secrets of Closing the Sale”.
Other suggested titles: “The Sales Development Playbook” by, Trish Bertuzzi. “Gap Selling” by, Jim Keenan and “Fanatical Prospecting” by, Jeb Blount.
Want a more structured training environment? This is where it gets weird. Proceed with extreme caution! Sales Training is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Some companies within the industry are good, many are bad. But, none of them are accountable for producing anything. Much like the weight-loss industry, if their customers aren’t successful, it isn’t because of their product, it’s because their client didn’t execute. This, “it’s never our fault” service scenario, leads to a lot of fraud and scam. Think, Trump University.
Phony or not, structured training programs are expensive. So be very careful. In this category you will find 2 types of solutions; training through formal structured companies and training from experienced long-time Agents. An example of company solution can be found at: www.DaleCarnegie.com. They have been teaching the basics of sales for decades. Consider them a safe but expensive bet.
The other category of training is from thousands of experienced agents, who most likely found their franchise training unsatisfactory, and knew they could do better. I would place; https://www.rlretraining.com/ in this category. I don’t know this person or have any first-hand knowledge of their success. But, their training approach and course design appears spot on. And their prices are some of the most reasonable I have seen.
How do you know who is good? You don’t, in many ways it’s a crap shoot. But, if you can’t find many positive reviews of anyone’s particular solution, it may be an indicator. Do your research!
Real Estate Training – The Easy Part
Atlanta’s agents are truly blessed with arguably the best MLS in the nation. Yes, FMLS is one of the very few, “for-profit” MLSs in the nation. And as with all for-profit companies, they invest much of those profits into improving their product. Over a 60+ year period, FMLS has developed quite a product.
The best real estate training advice anyone can give you is; take advantage of FMLS. They offer FREE training—take it! Learn their application inside and out. Know all the tools and what you can realize from them.
Once on an MLS, run a lot of searches. Read the data. Learn neighborhoods, trends, patterns. The consumer expects their agent to be an “expert”. The data found at the MLS can make any agent an expert. Keep on searching. MLS tools are the key to the start of every real estate career.
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