The standards you instill into the team need to be backed up with systems.  Michael Sheargold is known for saying “If it is worth doing more than once, it needs a system”.

Topic – 5 S’s of Agent Superteams

Mentor – Michael Sheargold

• Clear and defined
• Standards backed by systems
• If it is worth doing again, it needs a system
• Define the steps and know the pathway

Transcript:

Kevin Turner: It’s Thursday morning. Good morning and welcome to REUNCUT. I’m Kevin Turner, and the show each and every morning produced in association with Property Tree from Rockend, Printforce, LockedOn, [Vepo 00:00:16] and View. You can contact any one of our sponsors by using any of the buttons on all the pages on REUNCUT.

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Let’s get underway with today’s show.

Voiceover: More thoughts now from this week’s mentor.

Kevin Turner: As with anything, as you develop your business or you develop a different style in your business, you’ve got to have a clear understanding about the plan, which is what we’ve already talked about with Michael Sheargold this week, is we help you work towards building a super team, or maybe take a super team to a next level.

But, Michael, it occurs to me that we need to talk about standards, about systems, because that’s pretty much the backbone. I mean, apart from the people, that’s the backbone of the business, isn’t it?

Michael S.: Kevin, this is a real biggie in terms of super team performance, and the challenge is if you haven’t got the standards clear and defined, people will make them up. Why is it that McDonald’s can have 14 and 15 year olds doing the front line customer service of a global organisation, and those same 14, 15 year olds are not cleaning up their bedrooms at home? How is that?

Kevin Turner: I’ve never heard it described like that. That’s quite accurate, yeah.

Michael S.: Yeah, and it’s because they’ve got standards. So it’s not about creating an overwhelm, you know, here are the 750 standards we have within the business, but being really clear that if I’m going to onboard and bring someone on board, for this person to know here are the key standards and that we’re operating by within our team.

Now, there could be some for the entire business. Fantastic. And then some within the team as to what are you vendor management standards, what are your buyer management standards, what are your client nurture standards? What’s response time to emails? What are response time to phone calls? So there’s a real clarity around the lifting management process, and so on.

Once those standards are clear, what backs those standards up is, so what are the systems that will support those standards, to have them, and I use the term “lock and low”. How do we lock and low those standards into a system so it happens consistently well?

Kevin Turner: Just listening to you talk about McDonald’s there, and I just want to make a point, if I may. You’re exactly right, those kids are actually taught, because there’s very strict guidelines about what they’ve got to do. I mean, so many people have tried to emulate that and they’ve failed. This is not easy, is it, to set these standards or know what they are, set them up and then make sure that they’re followed, Michael.

Michael S.: Yeah, look, I think the main reason is that if I’m a solo lead agent, I can just have standards that I operate by all by myself. I don’t need to document them, I don’t need to get them out of my head onto paper and say, “Let’s agree on these 5, 10, 15 standards that we’re going to play the game by.” But as soon as you come into a super team, and, by the way, for the principals listening to this, within your office, if you don’t have clarity of standards, that will make the wheels very wobbly in terms of service delivery. So this is for across the entire business. I’m talking about this in the context of a super team, but it’s absolutely valid for the entire business as well.

The key thing, Kevin, for me, and my favourite saying on systems is, “If it’s worth doing again, create a system for it.” So, is it worth doing a campaign again? Yes. Create a system for it. Is it worth running a magnificent open home? Yes. Create a system for it. Is it worth doing sensational vendor reporting? Yes. Create a system for it. Is it worth doing buyer management exceptionally well? Yes. Create a system for it.

I think most people think systems are big and complex to do. I’m going to go make it much easier for you, and obviously super teams, we go through how to go about creating systems and we actually give quite a few systems at super teams. The key aspect to this, Kevin, is someone knowing the pathway. So if someone was away for the day, I could come in and pick that up and know exactly where we were on that campaign or exactly where we were in terms of what needs to happen along those lines.

Kevin Turner: Yeah, that’s great. Know the pathway. ‘Cause that’s really what it is, is defining the steps to achieve what you ultimately want.

Michael S.: Absolutely. And look, way back when Henry Ford was told he couldn’t produce a motor car on a production line, you know, we said it’s not possible, and, as the saying goes, the first model that rolls off is the Model T. And the reason the model T, if you take the T off can’t, you can do it. So it was a bit of an “up yours” to say yes, I’m going to put the processes together to deliver that.

Kevin Turner: Is that a fact? I didn’t know that. Is that why it was called the Model T?

Michael S.: Absolutely. So you start to have that roll through and get a sense that goes, “Wow, how do we consistently deliver this?” It is easy for an agent to say, “Okay, here’s a pathway of letters, here’s a pathway of communication, here’s these things that need to happen, and look, we’re getting a lot of work with our clients on a client journey.” But basically, what’s the journey that the buyer goes through? What’s the journey that the seller goes through? And what are the steps along that way that 1) delivers a magnificent result, which is a sale obviously for the vendor, and a purchase for the buyer. But how do we take advantage of the opportunity that comes through along those lines, everything from a campaign review at the end of a campaign. When you’ve got a team, you need to actually do those kind of things. So you get the standards and systems in place, it will allow you to expand dramatically and achieve sensational results for clients.

Kevin Turner: Great stuff. Michael Sheargold, back again tomorrow morning.

A reminder, once again, that the Super Teams day is on in Sydney, 31st of July. You can get all the details at resultssuperteams.com.au, or use the links on any one of the pages on REUNCUT.

Talk to you tomorrow morning, Michael. Thank you.

Michael S.: Thanks, Kevin.

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Jet Xavier: John F. Kennedy said, “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly. Don’t be afraid to fail today. I’m Jet Xavier. Have a great day.

Kevin Turner: Thanks, Jet.

That’s it for today. Thanks for your company. Look forward to catching up again tomorrow morning.