Don’t be afraid to turn down business. We have a mission statement about who we’ll do business with and who we won’t.
If there’s not a high level of
ethics with our clients, we
won’t do business with them.
It’s hard sometimes because
it’s so competitive and you
want that business so badly,
but we all know that when
there’s a problem, we will look
at each other and say, ‘They’re
going to have to find someone
else to do business with.’
That empowers my sales-people. They know that if
they come to me and they say
that they’re having a big problem with a client, I’ll say,
‘Don’t do it. Tell them to go
somewhere else.’
Skip the weekly sales meeting. We send out a little e-mail
communiqué four days a
week, and salespeople participate in weekly e-mail discussions that are almost always
geared toward adding value
for our clients. We don’t have
weekly sales meetings at all.
When I worked before at
places that had them, they
were dull and a waste of time,
and the top producers didn’t
want to come. I didn’t enjoy it
when I worked as a salesperson for another company; I
didn’t see they were of use. We
do a lot of things by e-mail
where people can respond
after they’ve really had the
time to think about the discussion at their own pace.
Set goals and acknowledge hard
work. In contrast to competitions and contests, a lot of
people respond really well to
one-on-ones and personal
goals that we set together. If I
notice that they’re falling
short, I’ll sit them down again
and say, ‘This is not where you
want to be.’
When I see that they have
reached their goals, I acknowledge them. Many times, it’s
just personal congratulations
and maybe going out for a
drink. We also give laptops or
private office space when they
reach certain goals.
It’s important to me for a lot
of different reasons. When
you’ve come up through the
ranks and you’ve done the
exact same job they’re doing,
then you genuinely feel an
amount of thankfulness and
gratitude. When you start a
business, you always feel gratitude when money comes in
that you personally didn’t have
to go make.
HOW TO REACH: Karen Derr & Associates Realty Inc., (800) 656-7653 or www.karenderr.com