Hands-on coaching can have a dramatic impact on improving an agent’s skills and helping them grow, but it can also be intense.
Knowing how hard to push, when to back off, when to challenge and when to reward depends on the person.
Forging individual connections is at the heart of coaching.
But if the goal is to help agents achieve growth and to fulfil their professional potential, it takes more than getting to know them personally.
Tailored coaching and training approaches require an understanding of the agent’s motivations.
Money, career path, work-life balance and many other potential motivations will shape an individual’s outlook and will therefore shape the best approach for them.
Personality profiling can help establish a baseline understanding of who the agent is and what drives them, but side-by-side honest planning is needed to get to their true reasons for doing what they do.
From here, detailed, individually-tailored plans can be created.
They should include specific benchmarks against which success will be measured.
Performance tracking and regular check-ins should be embedded to ensure those benchmarks are on track to be achieved.
The successful achievement of a goal is powerful motivation in itself.
Personally, I do weekly check-ins to stay on top of the status of everyone I’m training.
Regularity is necessary when it comes to identifying issues too.
In training and coaching, there are some tell-tale signs that the individual connection is not strong or is being eroded, or that the plan may not be quite right.
Changes in the agent’s consistency, not showing up for sessions, falling behind on tasks, low energy, dodging accountability, and pulling back in group settings can all indicate an issue.
If you notice hesitation in their language, that they avoid certain tasks like calling and doorknocking, or if they default to administrative tasks instead of prospecting, it could be a sign their confidence is waning.
That they are not tapping into their individual motivation.
It’s critical in these cases for coaches to act fast.
Pivot quickly.
If you notice that the benchmarks you’ve set – even though they’ve been set in collaboration – are not appropriate to the individual, don’t wait to change the approach.
If the individual connection you need as a coach is not being forged, act straight way, perhaps by simplifying the plan.
If group learning sessions aren’t working, bring it back to individual coaching.
Focus on quick wins to rebuild confidence.
Is making 10 connections before 10am possible?
What about booking one appraisal per day?
Creating and posting one solid piece of content on a daily basis?
Or nailing a role play with positive peer feedback?
Depending on the individual, creating opportunities for them to achieve immediate, albeit small, wins might re-energise their focus in seeking bigger picture ones.
Ultimately, tailored coaching is about changing behaviours.
This is not to be confused, though, with changing personalities.
It’s about enabling the agent to embrace who they are, then helping them use their own natural drive to achieve their goals, in a way that’s naturally ‘them’.
Recently, I was working with a quiet but capable agent and through one-on-one work, it became clear that a lack of confidence was holding them back from where they wanted to be.
They were avoiding making calls, even though they had all the skills, and knowledge of the details, to make great connections.
In this case, with this understanding, I realised that repetition was what was needed.
So a challenge was set: 20 connects a day for 30 days.
With accountability measures embedded, the agent bought in.
Before the 30 days was reached, their confidence was up and they were averaging one market appraisal per day.
Another agent I worked with recently showed real strength at open homes but their follow-ups needed improvement.
Together, we identified the need for them to set aside time to focus solely on pipeline nurture.
Two 45-minute windows were blocked out each day for this purpose, so the agent could cement the connections they were so natural at making.
Within six weeks, they had achieved growth in market appraisals of 30 per cent.
Another example: an agent with a great, proactive attitude was rushing into doorknocking.
But their enthusiasm took over – their pitch was too fast and connections weren’t being made.
Together, we worked on slowing it down.
Repetition was a part of our plan, but not in a volume sense.
We practiced measured, patient, meaningful doorknocking which prioritised personal interactions.
Their leads tripled within a fortnight.
The key to great coaching outcomes is understanding the agent.
Not only what drives them, but who they are.
This, you can’t change.
And you shouldn’t want to, because only through authenticity will strong customer connections be made.
There’s plenty of theory that goes into the design of an effective training program.
But for the possibilities behind those theories to become realities, the program needs to put equal emphasis on practical implementation.
In doing this, you see the true personality of agents emerge.
The key to growth for agents is to be in the moment and to be who they are, because the window with a customer might only be open briefly.