Using behavioral assessments to help screen and select Buyer's Agents can dramatically save on training and replacement costs. It's really easy to get excited about a Buyer's Agent at the interview stage, but then find out later that they are not able to sell, convert leads, create leads, or close for the contract. You might find they are successful in a short period of time, but they leave your team to go out on their own quickly. You have then invested in them, and once you are in a position to recapture all of that time and money you invested, they leave without so much as a thank you.
When you are evaluating the behavioral style of the Buyer's Agents, you want to evaluate their:
D - Dominance
I - Influencing
S - Steady
C - Compliance
Each of these four behavioral styles, and the blending of them, will pre-determine how your Buyer's Agent will react in certain situations. I believe there is a very good combination of behavioral styles, some good ones, and some disasters waiting to happen both in sales, service, and longevity of being on the team. Let's look at each of these possibilities.
The dangerous behavioral combinations
Any time you have a Buyer's Agent who has a High Compliant score, you will need to be cautious in your hiring. In many studies that have been conducted worldwide, less than 10% of top producing salespeople have the Compliant score as one of their top two scores in a DISC assessment. My view is, the odds of getting solid sales performance out of someone in this category is limited and clearly against the odds.
You may be someone I am describing who is an exception. My words to you are Congratulations! You must be exceptional because you have beaten the odds. Why try to roll the dice again? Also, the time you will invest to bring them to a level of competency probably won't be worth it.
Another challenging combination will be someone with a High Dominant score. This person will sell, and sell in high volume. The problem with them is not sales and sales production; the problem will be their ego. They are team players as long as the team is theirs. Their success will be quick and significant. The problem is you will probably be training your own competition.
The reason I know this is because I am one of these people. I was an assistant to an Agent for three months earlier in my career. I brought in a lot of listings and sales in those three months. It was easy for me to calculate "how much money I was making him". That was my attitude, which is the attitude of a Dominant. I felt that I was being taken advantage of with the split arrangement with my Lead Agent, so I left him and stayed with the company and went out on my own. The Lead Agent and I didn't have a formal agreement of how long I would work for him. There was no non-compete contract, so he spent three months training his own competition.
Just like with me, you could be hiring someone who will become your own competition if you hire someone who has a High Dominant score. I have seen this happen hundreds of times in the last seventeen years.
The best behavioral style for Buyer's Agents
I have studied performance in sales, longevity of service, lead conversion ratios, and referrals generated for hundreds of teams. It's my professional view that people who have a behavioral style with high scores in both Steady and Influencing make the best Buyer's Agents. Because of these two behavioral influences, you have someone who is optimistic and enthusiastic about their job and real estate. They are people oriented and service oriented. They are verbally skilled in persuasion naturally. They are sociable, convincing, trust building, friendly, good listeners, and sincere and steady.
You have someone that prospects will like and trust right away. You have someone who is organized and dependable as a service provider. They will tirelessly follow-up on the leads that are given to them. They will not produce as many leads as a person with a Higher Dominant score, but they will follow-up with them better. While the Dominant will get bored or frustrated with a lead that doesn't buy quickly, the steady in this Buyer's Agent will be like a bulldog with a bone. They will chew it until they get it done.
Using a behavioral analysis or assessment to increase the odds that you have hired well needs to be a part of your practice. With your desire to expand your business through people, you must not waste your resources of time, energy, training, and money on the wrong candidates for employment. You will spend a few dollars on the front end to save a lot on the back end.
It's like the popular commercials in the 1970s by the Fram oil filter company. The greasy mechanic would always say, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." He was saying the same thing I am. You can invest in assessing people you hire to ensure your success now, or you can invest more money later in turnover, lost performance, blown sales, and re-hiring and re-training people to replace the poor hires we do now.
Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print.
Real Estate Champions is a premier coaching company. Training covers a wide spectrum from new agents, to seasoned, as well as those interested in real estate marketing or real estate investing.
Evaluating Buyer's Agents Behaviorally
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dirk_Zeller
No comments:
Post a Comment