With remote working suddenly becoming the new normal, you might be still be trying to navigate how to be productive and effective as a brokerage leader. Here are five ways to keep your team motivated and your business moving in the right direction.
1. Communicate. Communicate.
Communication is more important now than ever before and it’s what will be memorable once things are back to normal. Make sure you have a regular plan of communication with your team as well as your clients. Those one-on-ones are more critical than ever. Virtual sales meetings are great morale boosters for the whole team and enable you to show off your leadership. Use them as an opportunity to communicate changes in state and local protocols and share best practices. Make sure a key point of these meetings includes sharing progress on goals and milestones reached. It’s important that you continually motivate now more than ever to keep their spirits up and their fires lit.
Don’t forget your clients, too. Make it a point to post on Facebook, send emails, newsletters or host virtual events to let the community know you are still open for business. Real estate needs are still active, and transactions continue to take place. Even though business can’t take place in the traditional face-to-face sense, let them know you have the technology and virtual ability to still hold consultations, make offers and do business. Promote virtual events like consumer seminars and virtual open houses.
2. Make Sure You Have the Right Tech
From having the right equipment to having the right software, make sure you have everything you need to conduct business comfortably. Invest in a good headset, wireless mouse or keyboard. Find the video conference software that works best for you to effectively stay in touch. Applications like Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Meet and Slack are all popular and effective. Make sure you have a good real estate CRM and marketing tools for your team so they can communicate effectively with their spheres, prospect and market. Having strong tools will enable them to be more productive with any downtime they may be experiencing. Weichert for example, enables all it’s agents and offices with myWeichert which features a powerful CRM complete with automated follow-up and lead gen tools.
3. Embrace Video
Even if you are uncomfortable, learn to embrace video. You may not be able to interact with your agents or clients face to face, but it’s still important that they see your face. Don’t worry about being perfect and polished out of the gate. With everyone in the same boat, there will be a lot of imperfection out there and everyone is OK with that. This is the perfect time to dabble and the more you do it, the more comfortable it will become. Letting your agents see your face can make a huge difference in motivation, productivity and general well-being. We still need that human connection, even if it’s virtual. And it will be good for you as well.
And no matter how business transpires, one thing will not change: clients will continue to want to do real estate business with people they trust. Letting them see your face and still being able to look people in the eye will help instill that trust and confidence in you and your agents. Super important.
So, find an area with good lighting and create a good camera position. If you don’t have a good background behind you, no problem! Get creative by hanging up a sheet or invest in a divider screen. Then organize your talking points, hit the on button and smile!
4. Make Sure You Have a Plan and Stick to a Schedule
Now more than ever, it’s important to schedule your time. When you work remotely, days easily start to blend into one another. Make sure you structure your day. Have a scheduled start and stop. Get ready like you are going into the office. Make sure you take breaks. Schedule those one-on-one’s, sales meetings, online client meetings, recruiting events and consumer seminars on your calendar for each week. Remember, what gets calendared gets done. Make sure you are scheduling virtual open houses, direct marketing and other activities that you would normally do. Just because you aren’t in the office, doesn’t mean they still can’t happen. They just might need to happen differently, but make sure you have it on your calendar to do.
5. Make Sure You Have a Support Network
It’s easy for nerves to get frayed and for stressors to get to you. So, make sure you have a reliable support network to talk to, bounce ideas off of and vent. That type of interaction help you maintain your sanity and keep you motivated while you continue to motivate your own team. When you are part of a franchise, this can be one of the most valuable aspects of affiliation. Our current franchisees are finding tremendous support from our service team as well as each other in navigating the most challenging of circumstances.
So, while working remotely for an extended time can be a unique challenge, we are fortunate to live in an age where there is much available to us to keep business moving forward. The important thing is to have a plan, assemble resources and have the right support in place to help you succeed. At Weichert, our franchisees have an abundance of support to get through situations like this one. From online real estate marketing tools and sales materials, to coaching on how to conduct business virtually, to technology that allows for ongoing communication and business continuity. If this sounds like something your business could benefit from, reach out to us today at www.weichertfranchise.com
