By Ronn James

 Ryan Seacrest: “Tonight our sales reps will put their abilities to the test. Panel, what do you have to say about our sales rep’s listing presentation?

Randy: “Naw, dawg, I wasn’t feelin it. It was too low for me.”

J-Lo: “I love how you looked tonight. The Prada shoes and Kate Spade bag were a nice touch.”

Steven: “You need to take it higher, much higher. That’s where the true superstars are”

No, it is not a singing competition but a sales test. Listing presentations, offer negotiations, open house conversion and finally obtaining a listing on the spot. How would you fair amongst your competition?

On , young singers express their life-long passion for their craft. They bring a fan base with them and mom and dad often lead the cheers as those who sing in the shower compete against those who have been trained all their lives to do one thing; sing.

Imagine that our business had such a competition where equal opportunity existed for young and old, new and seasoned, skilled and not skilled to show their stuff in front of three potential clients for a live audience.  What would you do? More importantly HOW would you do?

I recently spoke to a new Phase 3 graduate in Ontario. This young man with 12 years of new home sales experience under his belt confided to me that he didn’t know the first thing about selling a house right out of the course. He’s not alone.

How do these new agents compete? I know many brokers who must grin when faced with the fresh enthusiasm that brand new real estate agents bring. Poor new souls hoping to shadow or be mentored by a senior agent, these newbies look to train and spar in a friendly environment to hone their new skill and craft. Imagine that same new salesperson optimistically looking at future financial reward, coupled with the potential perils that a CRA audit can bring when that financial reward is not well managed.

Survival of the fittest has always been the underlying theme of any sales culture. The strong survive and the weak perish. It is imperative that we take a good look at what is involved in earning our stripes. I see three challenges:

First is education. In my most recent Real Estate Council of Ontario update course it became obvious to me that we hear what we want to hear and know what we want to know. The instructor read out a scenario and asked the participants (experience levels ranged from two years to 30+) to comment. I am sure it comes as no surprise that despite the many years of combined experience at the table, we were unable to come up with a consensus. Regardless of the scenario, this is a common issue in our industry.

The second challenge I see is transparency. Real estate people do not often play nice in the proverbial sand box. This is due, in many cases, to the generational gaps in real estate professionals. If you are a boomer, your formal education likely involved covering your work and ensuring you weren’t caught cheating off another paper. Those who followed later, however, often studied in more collaborative settings.  A group approach demonstrated that “we” was stronger than “me” and newer real estate professionals continue to crave this in our industry. Poor preparation and few mentoring opportunities make it a difficult road for this group. The closest thing they find is a modern day team where leadership and business operation struggles couple with micro management and instead create adversity in the group setting.

The final challenge is what I call the “one set of rules” struggle. It is difficult to observe the policy makers in our industry shape things to suit their needs. Most sales reps you speak to today can share an experience where rules and policy have been ignored. If the rep winning all the prizes does so at the expense of everyone else, who then is responsible to create change in a largely self-regulated industry?

I do believe that salespeople would perform differently if they were being judged by three potential clients all wanting to hire the best representation for their needs. Considering these same sales reps would also be seen by both live and social media audiences, the stakes would inevitably be higher, flaws would be amplified and brilliance would likely hit some pretty high notes.

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