You’re an agent just licensed. Or, perhaps, you’re an agent with less than two years in the business. You want to be as successful as you can possibly be. You believe that some of that success will be due to your training program. You’re looking for a great training program. What should you expect from a training program?
What to Look For: Five Critical Points
If you’re looking for effective training to get your career started fast, you need to choose a training program that has these features:
1. The objective is fast productivity, not just knowledge. When you interview, ask what the objectives of training are with that company. If it’s just knowledge, run the other way! You will know a lot, but you won’t be in business very long!
2. The training program has business-producing expectations and goals. For example, if you expect to make money fast, your training program needs to help you learn to set prospecting goals and attain them. That doesn’t mean lecturing in class. That means you have an activity plan and are working in the field during the class duration. That also means that you aren’t in class all day.
3. The training program is built around a business start-up plan. Ask to see the company’s business start-up plan for you. If it isn’t sales-producing, it isn’t a real start-up plan.
4. Sales skills are practiced by the students in class. How can you expect to be competent with clients if you haven’t gained competency and confidence in the classroom? Clients are very discriminating these days. They expect agents to know what they’re doing! During the interview, ask for a description of how the students spend class time. If the manager says the students listen all the time, pick up your materials and go to the next interview. You need skills training; you don’t need to know everything the instructor knows.
5. Expectations for achievement in sales developing and packaging are clear. Is this a college-level training? In college, students are expected to perform during the course. If you’re not expected to practice outside class, and get your sales packages together (like listing and buyer presentations), then this isn’t a real training. It’s just a time-eating event. Wouldn’t your consumer expect you to have a high level of competence? Then, your training program must deliver.
One such business-producing training program is Advantage 2.0, created by National Real Estate Educator of the Year Carla Cross, CRB, MA. This program is centered on her best-selling business start-up plan, Up and Running in 30 Days, and the classroom modules are highly participatory and practical.
Armed with these 5 critical expectations, you can choose a training program that is dedicated to assuring you quick results, high sales skill, and confidence with consumers. Why settle for less?
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Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a former master-level CRB instructor, popular international speaker, and author of 6 books and 20 productivity programs. Her in-office training program, Advantage 2.0, is a skill-developing, objective-based program with full facilitation guides and audios designed to get the agent a sale during the first month in the business. It’s also being used internationally to train experienced agents for more productivity. Contact Carla at 425-392-6914 or see her web site at www.carlacross.com.
