How to Encourage More Prospecting from Your Sales Team

Written by Adam Horth

Last week, Smartre Training members participated in the annual ‘Sprint’, a four-hour prospecting window where members across Australia and New Zealand collaborate to set a new record for the number of property owners spoken to.

We’re delighted that we broke the record with an impressive 9,063 conversations.

A terrific result in its own right, but the big benefit is the number of listings and sales that will flow from the morning’s efforts.

Prospecting is a huge part of Smartre Training’s culture, yet this is not the case for many agencies in the wider real estate community. Business leaders often tell us they can’t get their salespeople to prospect. Many throw their hands in the air and declare that prospecting is dead.

If you have felt this way, here are three steps you can take to instil a prospecting culture in your agency.

1)??? Make it easy to prospect.

One of the barriers to prospecting is salespeople don’t know who to call. It is the responsibility of the agency owner to build and house a thorough database of property owners in your marketplace that salespeople can prospect.

Smartre Training shows its members step-by-step how to build what we refer to as their ‘Primary Database’, containing every property in their area, combined with thorough ownership and contact information.

These Primary Databases unlock your agent’s ability to easily speak with property owners in your area.

2)?? Make it fun to prospect

Despite popular belief, prospecting can be a lot of fun. Salespeople love two things – sales and people. Prospecting provides them a platform to connect with great people in their communities and discuss real estate.

Acknowledge prospecting efforts in your weekly sales meeting. Celebrate when a salesperson generates a new listing from their efforts. This helps embed this new culture.

Team exercises, where everyone prospects together for a few hours, build comradery. It shows that all team members are willing to get in and prospect. The occasional prospecting contest injects the level of competitiveness in which salespeople thrive.

Partner these with small incentives or team lunches so you - as the leader – can reinforce what the team has accomplished.

3)?? Ensure it’s effective

The key to ensuring salespeople continue to prospect is to ensure it gets results. Help them by providing quality prospecting training. Do role plays with team members, provide great scripts, and teach salespeople which qualifying questions to ask.

The other key to effectiveness is volume. Simply doing 20-30 calls a week will seldom achieve consistent results. Encourage salespeople to begin with 100 calls a week and build from there. (Note: when we say calls, we mean conversations. Don’t count how many numbers they dial, or doors they knock – only count conversations).

Easy, fun and effective – it will surprise you how these three simple steps will shift the culture of your sales team toward prospecting.

If you would like to discuss the ideas in this article or how we may be able to help you build your Primary Database, please reach out to Scott on 0402 700 775 or at [email protected] for information about our next Management Seminar.