The truth about real estate sales training

I was away in Toronto the other day. It is that time of year again when real estate brokerages train up, re-train and further train their sales reps, getting ready for the spring market. In the many years I’ve been a real estate agent, sales training, just like changing the clocks for daylight savings time has become the signal for real estate agents to lace up their sneakers and get into the game.

I’m always in the game.

Last week’s sales training, when I look back on the learning, when I boil it down to its essence, was all about bonding early with new clients. That’s it. Agents are busy. Potential clients are busy. We both have choices to make. For lack of a better word, a word that was not used yesterday, we have to nurture the early relationship until we can get involved together in the process of real estate. And it is a process, buying or selling a home. It is a stroll or a sprint along the learning curve, a voyage of discovery and sometime an adventure, gaining the necessary knowledge to make good decisions.

The truth about real estate sales training

Sales training is not always good. I used to think it was, but it is not. I used to love sales training. I used to eat it up. When I look back at my career in sales, I’ve been trained more than a half dozen times.  But then I found that the training did not match up with reality. I found that the methods and ideas contained in the sales training was stuff I would never do anymore. I would do it in the 90’s but I wouldn’t do it now. Society has moved on but training has stayed the same. I actually refused to join any sales training for the past four or five years. I would tell my broker that I was fully trained now, and didn’t need any more. But the real reason is that I don’t agree with a lot of the training I received. Much of it is “old school”, “burn ‘em and turn ‘em”, “shove through” shucksterism.

I cannot abide.