It is essential that you create meaningful targets or benchmarks that are tangible and traceable for each staff member. These benchmarks are much different for the sales-oriented team members like Buyer's Agents and Listing Agents. The benchmarks for these production-oriented staff need to be aligned with the standard an Agent should aspire to.

For a Buyer's Agent, there should be a set standard or benchmark for number of units sold. The minimum standard should not be below two transactions a month or twenty-four units in a year. I personally feel that is the absolute basic minimum standard for even a brand new Agent to the business. If a Buyer's Agent can't do two deals a month, they shouldn't be on your team. With the leads that a Champion Lead Agent creates (the ad calls, sign calls, open house opportunities), twenty-four units a year should be easy to obtain if the Buyer's Agent has determination, desire, and a little discipline.

The twenty-four transaction minimum benchmark can easily be achieved through forty-eight buyer consultations or buyer interviews. Buyer consultations or buyer interviews need to be conducted in your office. The Buyer's Agent needs to be adept at explaining their role and services and the benefits of doing business with you and your team. They need to be able to convey the truth about the conditions and opportunities in the marketplace. The Buyer's Agent must be able to explore the client's wants, needs, desires, and expectations of their next home and of the Agent they are selecting to represent their interests. They must then be able to ask for an exchange of commitment of loyalty on the buyer's part for their service guarantee. Many Buyer's Agents offer a poor version of this important meeting with a prospect.

There are two main reasons for poor buyer consultations or buyer interviews. The first is, most never get a prospect to such a meeting. They run out and show property and attempt to build rapport with the prospect using the same tired process that most other Agents attempt to use. They don't push the prospect enough, or show the prospect that an appointment with them for a consultation carries significant value to the buyer. They don't raise the value of the appointment to a high enough degree to gain the prospect's desire to meet with them. In essence, they won't be very effective because they don't conduct them frequently enough to achieve a reasonable level of competency. No one is naturally outstanding at anything without applying a reasonable level of practice, time, repetition, and discipline. People can be naturally gifted at something. They can have previous experience that is transferable, but they don't become Champions or world-class through osmosis.

The second reason the buyer consultation yields less than desirable results is the presentation isn't planned. Even when most Buyer's Agents manage to get a face-to-face meeting with a prospect for a buyer interview, the structure (agenda, scripts, dialogues, trial closes, value building segments, questioning, and qualifying) is so undefined and unorganized in it's delivery that the odds of their success in securing an exclusive right to represent contract are diminished.

Designing a set agenda for your meeting with a prospect and knowing what to say and how to anticipate each agenda item will enable you to stay on track; this provides a better, more complete articulation of services, benefits, and values that the prospect will understand more easily. Knowing what to say and the order in which to say it will raise the conversion ratios of prospects to committed clients. At the low end, a Buyer's Agent with a reasonable understanding of the structure and delivery of a Champion Buyer Interview will close more than 50% of the prospects they meet with face-to-face to an exclusive right to represent contract. I have seen highly skilled Buyer's Agents who have practiced, rehearsed, role played, and debriefed their presentations regularly close in excess of 80% of the buyer consultations they book.

Establishing measurable benchmarks in units sold and appointments booked will ensure that your minimum standards are correct. You could also include standards for leads, contacts, open houses, returned calls, conversion rates, and return call or e-mail promptness. There are a number of key benchmarks to establish for sales-oriented staff.

It is more challenging to establish benchmarks with administrative staff. Areas that need benchmarks for them will be communication with your clients and prospects (quantifiable by survey scores), productivity, and reduction in your involvement of production supporting activities. The most valuable benchmark relates to productivity and getting priorities accomplished. Are these important administrative people establishing the correct priorities based on your view and your business? Do they understand what your priorities are for the business, and are they working accordingly? Do they know what your priorities are for the day, and do they complete them always before going home? Always is a very limiting and exclusive word to define this. Always will give you a clear picture because you are comparing it against 100% adherence.

You might want to establish a benchmark for frequency of communication with a client. The Assistant should be handling the majority of the communication with the client. They should be sending out the written reports, advertisements, showing feedback, and making weekly or bi-weekly courtesy calls to the client. I would suggest that you, as the Champion Lead Agent, make a call to your clients a minimum of once a month, however, twice would be even better. Is there enough communication between your team and the client who is listed, pending, or searching for their new home?

Another benchmark could be survey scores. Use a survey to determine how you are viewed by the clients you just completed a transaction with. Even though there are a number of people involved in each transaction that influence customer service, most surveys can be connected to the lender, title company or attorney, marketplace changes, Buyer's Agents, you, or other Agents in the transaction. Your administrative team has one of the greatest influences on customer satisfaction and referrals of anyone involved in the transaction – other than you. Using a scoring benchmark in this customer service area will help you improve service and drive up referrals.

Published: January 29, 2010

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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. To learn more regarding this article, please visit www.realestatechampions.com.