WEEK 7

DEVELOP SYSTEMS AND PROCEDURES

Systems can set you free.

I have proven this fact time and time again with the systems I created over the course of my career. Early on, I had a system in place for covering my floor time at the real estate office where I worked. I hired an assistant to answer the phones and take messages for me instead of doing it myself. This freed me up to spend more time with my clients.

Later, I developed a system that enabled me to show homes to more than one couple at a time and have the paperwork processed on the way back to the office after couples finally decided on a home. By developing systems and procedures for processing the paperwork, I could outsource the job to assistants, again giving me more time to do what I do best and love most—sell to clients.

When I decided to expand operations into acquiring foreclosure properties, I developed a system for that, as well. In fact, I wrote a step-by-step procedure manual complete with sample documents that enabled any intelligent individual to profit from the purchase and sale of homes in preforeclosure. I then hired someone to run my “foreclosure division.” I still became involved in certain transactions, but the talented and gifted team I put together handled most of the work, so I was free to deal with higher-level issues.

Systems have set me free, and they can do the same for you.

DOCUMENT YOUR JOB

Salespeople often convince themselves that nobody can do what they do as well as they do it. As a result, they end up wasting time performing routine tasks that any fully trained assistant could do just as well. Even worse, because they waste time on routine tasks, they have less time and energy to devote to customers who really need it.

In our book Power Teams: The Complete Guide to Building and Managing a Winning Real Estate Agent Team, RISMedia’s founder and CEO John Featherston and I point out the many benefits of the team-based approach to sales. One of the top benefits is that sales teams excel in providing customer service, because other members of the team liberate the salesperson so he or she can focus on tasks that only the salesperson is qualified to perform.

Before you become too convinced that nobody could do what you do as well as you do it, I challenge you to document everything you do. Create a step-by-step procedure manual for all the tasks you perform. If you take up the challenge, I am convinced that you will discover that you are wasting time on many tasks you could easily outsource to an assistant—anything from assembling marketing and sales packets to screening your e-mail to filling out sales reports to building and maintaining your web site.

As an added bonus, if you take up my challenge, you now have a detailed procedure manual for training your assistant. With step-by-step procedures and a little hands-on training, your assistant can be up and running in less than a week. All you have to do is delegate, and the more experienced your assistant becomes, the less training you’ll need to provide.

 

 

Tip: If you do not want to spend time writing procedures manuals, then consider hiring a technical writer to do it for you. The technical writer can help you identify procedures, break them into tasks, and then write step-by-step instructions. Including sample documents or boilerplates, so your assistant can simply “fill in the blanks”, can take a lot of the guesswork out of some tasks.

IDENTIFY PROCEDURES

The first step is to identify procedures. Real estate agents might have a procedures list that looks something like this:

• Send out a marketing packet.

• Send out a prelisting packet.

• Color-code files.

• Follow up with clients.

• Process transactions.

• Develop a sales presentation to deliver to sellers.

• Develop a sales presentation to deliver to buyers.

• Assemble a preclosing packet.

If you’re selling automobiles, tractors, computers, pharmaceuticals, lawn-care services, or any other products or services, your procedures list is likely to look quite a bit different. Sit down with a pad of paper and a pen, and start jotting down a list of procedures to follow when dealing with new clients. This should help you identify the procedures you already follow to make a sale.

Break Procedures into Tasks

Once you have a set of procedures, break each procedure into a series of tasks. Your goal is to make each procedure as easy to accomplish as possible, so you do not have to answer questions or show a new hire what to do. You simply show the person where the procedures manuals and any required tools and supplies are located. The new employee or team member can then follow the required steps.

For example, the procedure for sending out a marketing packet to a prospective client may require your assistant to perform the following tasks:

• Write a personalized letter or note to the client.

• Gather the latest marketing materials.

• Drop the packet off at the prospective client’s home.

Breaking procedures into tasks enables your assistants to execute the procedures with very little room for error. It also allows you to break things down, so they don’t seem so overwhelming.

Break Tasks into Steps

Break each task into steps. You may even want to illustrate the steps. For example, you may include in your training manual one or two sample letters to clients, so a new hire has a model letter for guidance.

Don’t forget to include Yes/No decision steps. Your assistant may have to make a decision at some point in the process, and then follow one set of instructions if the answer is Yes and a different set of instructions if the answer is No.

DELEGATE THE WORK

Once your procedures are in place and you have one or more assistants, as discussed in Week 8, “Hire an Assistant,” you can start focusing on what you do best and delegating the rest. Delegating becomes a matter of simply finding something that needs to be done and handing it off to the person most qualified and best trained to accomplish the task.

Now you have no excuse for not having enough time to “get around to it.” Do it, delegate it, or ditch it.

 

Ralph’s Rule: Train your assistants well, provide them with the equipment and resources they need to perform their jobs, and then give them the freedom and responsibility to do their jobs. We salespeople tend to be control freaks, and this can drive your best people right out the door.