A few years ago, I witnessed a snapshot of the life of two estate agency firms in the same town, which was all it took to identify the successful agent from the struggling one.
Picture the scene, if you will…
At 8am one Wednesday morning I arrived to prepare to run a course for an independent agency in the training room above one of their residential sales offices.
Most of the staff were already present and as always I was struck by the smart interior and energetic atmosphere even at this early hour.
Having got myself and the training room organised, I wandered downstairs to witness a team meeting in full flow, as the staff discussed yesterday’s successes and today’s challenges with enthusiasm.
Everyone seemed involved and alert, and were making notes on various action points.
A huge white-board included yesterday’s priority tasks, targets and potential business opportunities.
I then went outside to get some air and pick up a newspaper. En route to the newsagents, I happened to pass another estate agency office at around 8.30am and glanced through the window to see two members of staff in the front office.
One was reading The Sun and the other was putting on his tie.
It will probably come as no surprise that when I took a drive around the area later that day, the initial agent was seen to hold a dominant market share within the town in question, while the latter firm appeared to be a bit-part player. And on a recent return visit, I discovered that the second agent has ceased trading…
For any manager in our currently challenging industry, a well-run daily team meeting makes a massive difference to productivity. Yet many fail to hold such an event at all, while others merely go through the motions because superiors have told them to.
Managers have such huge challenges in their role, not least because they are often responsible for a large chunk of the front-line sales business that needs to be achieved. Upon listing all the areas of responsibility of an effective manager on a recent course, the delegates came up with over thirty separate suggestions!
A structured daily meeting is not the answer to all ills; however, it achieves a great deal in helping a manager manage successfully.
Management is sometimes defined as “the art of directing physical activities and human resources in the attainment of predetermined goals”, and there is no better time to undertake such “directing” as in a team meeting.
An agenda is essential to ensure all key areas are covered and must include a review of yesterday’s activities, new business opportunities in terms of valuations, instructions, applicants, viewings and sales, as well as team input into problems and challenges that they face, both individually and collectively.
From this agenda there is a natural flow of objectives for the day ahead, which can be discussed and issued to the appropriate staff.
The manager can then record these objectives, and more importantly be seen by the staff to do so: the aforementioned white-board shouldn’t be underestimated as a focal point for all tasks for the day. Place it out of public view, but somewhere where the staff will see it regularly, and it will do a bit of managing in your absence!
The manager must then ensure subsequent monitoring during the day and checking at close of business.
Employees benefit from a clear set of daily goals, as they will be focused on those tasks and motivated as they are gradually achieved during the day.
The staff are also more likely to ensure those objectives are met, given that they know there will be a review of success or failure at the next meeting.
Sales can be created in this environment as a valuer describes yesterday’s new instructions to salespeople who come to the meeting equipped with a list of their hot buyers/tenants.
A review of new applicants for whom nothing on the available list seems suitable may prompt a colleague to suggest a less obvious alternative from the withdrawal list, lettings portfolio or forthcoming valuations.
Different angles on problems may be seen by team members leading to a plausible but previously untried solution to a problem sale.
Commencing each meeting early enough in the day will minimise interruption, but as long as one member of staff is allotted the task of dealing with incoming enquiries, then the rest of the team can concentrate for the duration.
A manager needs to adhere to the timeless cycle of planning, monitoring and checking. Without these team meetings, the first part of this process is at risk, thereby automatically jeopardising the other two.
The time spent on an effective morning meeting will doubtless be the best investment in a manager’s day.
Julian O’Dell, TM Training & Development
01480 405583
I disagree. I know a successful office that is up and running in 5 minutes and an unsuccessful one that has a daily meeting of between 45 and 60 minutes. Strong staff can be up and running in 5 minutes, weak ones need to talk for 45 to 60 minutes.
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Have to agree here. We are blessed with much more tech nowdays which serves to keep a team updated/motivated throughout the day. Long morning meetings with staff getting in 30-60mins early is a clear sign, in my view, that the team need to be conditioned for a whole day before it has started and the manager is not making use of his online tools/software to manage throughout the day . A re cap , update and quick brief (10 mins) is all that is required 1st thing, not a lengthy meeting for meetings sake…..it’s old hat, a bit like whiteboards.
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Morning meetings are probably the best thing i learnt many years ago working for a corporate agency.
They are a fantastic time to look at missed opportunities from the previous day and focus on the coming day.
They can only help you drive your business forward, no down side to them at all.
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No downside? Didn’t you read the bit about the 8:00am start? Don’t staff have kids to look after / drive to school, or stock to feed at that time of day. And trying to hold a meeting after the phones start ringing is a waste of time.
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I agree I think they are a crucial part of every day set up. I would question one aspect of the article though, sorry Julian: the whiteboard. To me it smacks of area managers trying to run an office through numbers and acting like estate agents are stock brokers. In todays market place the biggest differential that estate agents have over the bucket shop merchants is the emphasis on the customer. That doesn’t mean you need to be a stuck in the dark ages agent, its about being a smart one. A whiteboard directs staff towards numbers and speed: flog it and move on. The clever agent thinks about every instruction, in turn each relationship and in what ways they can maximise the return on the customers trust to the advantage of both. Work the client not the numbers!
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I LOVE a whiteboard!
Not to monitor viewings and individual targets, we use them to highlight roads where our vendors are looking, where the offices have/need to canvass, And we set out the office target and how close they are to achieving it (they get a bonus if they hit their monthly’s) also what completions we have that day/week.
But i agree with you the way the corporate use them. You need to have X viewings, Y Valuations and Z F/S – Completely 80’s and not in the customers interest.
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It was really the corporate mentality use of them I question SP. But the way you use one sounds more constructive thats for sure. It is a throw back to the 80’s in a way and any office needs to be on top of its numbers but perhaps not in such an obvious Gordon Gekko way!
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Better tell the lads to tone down the red braces 😉
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Had to share with you RealAgent, i was on Lindkedin earlier today and came across a an update from one of the Bruce brothers regarding PB – and how they are so impressed with their staff due to the feedback on trustpilot
Thought it would make you smile!
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Morning Glory- Convolvulus- Bind Weed- Essentially all the same thing! One gardener’s flower is another gardener’s weed. Don’t introduce morning meetings if you don’t undersatnd them, their effect or their impact.
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