When You Should Depend on a Team–and When You Shouldn’t
So, you’ve been thinking about starting a team, have you?
In spite of a dismal economy, your market seems to be rockin’…you’re doing pretty well…and, well, you want to grow.
The natural thing to do is build a team, right? Yes.
A team will help you work more efficiently. It will help you grow…
But before you go a step further, though, you need to examine your reasons for wanting to build a team. Let me show you what I mean with a little story from Realty Times columnist David Flethcer:
“I love teams, but only if I am making a contribution. The most exciting team I have been on was as a member of a 23-man crew on a B-36 bomber in the United States Air Force. I was the tail gunner. Not because I said so, but because I was trained to be one. I made a contribution to the team.
“Watching a squadron of B-36 Bombers flying in formation on a beautiful day at 42,000 feet in peacetime is heady stuff for a 19-year-old. It’s great to be on a team at times like that.
“Then one day our crew was sent to “survival” school in Reno, Nevada, where we were taught and practiced survival skills in case we were shot down behind enemy lines.
“That’s when I learned that there will be times in life when the team cannot help me. Only my skills can. When I was alone in the mountains for five days with three days supply of food it was up to me to set the traps, catch the fish, read my compass, and operate my radio.
“My team couldn’t help me. Only my skills could.”
The same is true for your sales skills…
Only your skills can seamlessly draw 12 hours of hostile talks into an objective, feel-good contract for both parties.
Only your skills can save your commission from dying on the vine in the face of a relentless barrage of arguments from a feisty seller.
Only your skills can nail 25 good leads in one night of networking. Or a day of cold calling.
Only your skills can steal the best property out from under your competitors nose with an irresistible listing presentation.
That means you need to develop your skills. You need to make a list of the three sales skills you want to develop–say negotiating, cold calling and networking–and then practice them until you master them.
Because the truth of the matter is…if you are looking to build a team so you can hand off the negotiating to someone else…or the listing presentation…or the finer points of client relationships…then you need to re-examine your motives.
You don’t want to get stuck in a situation where you fail because you depend upon someone else to handle those circumstances.
You want to be prepared to not only survive…but thrive. And thrive well. See you soon.
And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing blog.
Related Articles
Eliminate This Behavior and Become More Effective
