Real Estate Sales Meetings That Sizzle
Your 10-step plan for sales meetings that agents want to attend.
Your sales meeting is the cultural point of your office or company. Have excellent sales meetings and attendance soars. Your tribe gets bigger, stronger, and more connected. Retention and recruiting improve. Momentum, rising market share, and profitability follow.
How do you create great sales meetings? Here’s a simple 10-step template that helps you plan for a one-hour meeting that sizzles.
- Return on Investment (ROI). Make sure your people feel that they’re getting a return on their investment of time. Make the meeting memorable. When associates stay afterward and talk about what they learned or are repeating it the next day, you know you’ve made a difference for them.
- Goals. A great sales meeting accomplishes as many of the following goals as possible: Connection, Information, Education, Inspiration, Motivation, and Celebration. If you’re achieving these goals, your people will be drawn to your meetings to get their energy fix. They love the energy, learning, and being part of a tribe. Playing upbeat music before and after the meeting adds to the energy.
- Appeal to the four personality types.
- Power People want takeaways (something they can use today in their business.)
- Party People want to know that they’ll get to talk.
- Peace People want reassurance that the company and the market are safe and OK.
- Perfection People want to see some numbers, so make sure you provide market statistics. Also, have a printed agenda for your meetings.
- Start on time. (First 5 minutes) Start without really starting. Have you heard of “Realtor Time” (five minutes late)? So, start with a 5-minute inspirational video. The perfection people will appreciate starting on time. The party people will get there by the time the video is over and feel they made the meeting without being embarrassed for being late.
- Welcome and opening activity (5 minutes). Welcome everyone (including guests) and start with a group activity. “Turn to the person sitting next to you and share what you are grateful for,” is an example. Or, “Get into small groups of four or five and share the best deal you know about in the market.” Party people (the largest group of associates) love this exercise because they get to talk.
- Celebration! (2 to 5 minutes). Find something to celebrate. Party people love this because it’s fun. Peace people love it because it means all is OK.
- Announcements, builders, property pitches. (20 minutes). This is the information stage of the meeting. Have market data for your perfection people. Format this section, so you have control of the time. Do not hand your meetings over to outsiders—lenders, title officers, or builders. If you have a new home neighborhood to announce, make sure the builder knows the time constraints. Unfortunately, too many sales meetings stop right here and become only information meetings. When that happens, energy starts to leak out of the room, and people stop coming.
- Program. (20 to 25 minutes). This should be the main event. It’s the primary reason your people are showing up. The program needs to provide a takeaway. Something they can use TODAY! Your best programs often come from your people sharing how they do something. The takeaway needs to be consistent with your culture and vision. If resources are required for your people to execute the takeaway, you need to have the resources teed up at the meeting. Avoid, “We’ll be getting you the __________ over the next few days or weeks.” They want it NOW! They are motivated to act NOW! Keep the momentum going.
- Finish with high positive energy. If you need to cover negative information, cover it earlier in the meeting. Always finish on a high positive. Hopefully, the program will end on a high positive note. If not, finish with an inspirational video.
- End on time. Meetings that run overtime are like a fish. They start to smell. People gradually drift away. Respect your people’s time. Control the agenda. Follow these 10 points, and your meetings will sizzle and so will your company!