How to Run a Sales Meeting in Commercial Real Estate Agency

A sales meeting in commercial real estate is something that will normally happen weekly.  Typically everyone will get to the office at the same time (8am) on the same day, and the meeting will carry through for most of the morning.  There are some real problems with this process and sales meetings need to be handled more efficiently.

These are the problems with sales meetings:

• Sales people will only be mentally committed to the meeting for about 1 hour.
• Any meeting that goes over 1 hour is usually unproductive and rambling.
• Agendas and minutes should be kept but are invariably overlooked or deemed unnecessary.
• The mornings are the most productive for salespeople and consequently any sales meeting at this time will destroy the best momentum period of the day.

So in saying all of this, I know that I have upset many sales managers.  On the other hand I have resonated with all good salespeople.  Wasting time in a lengthy and rambling sales meeting each week is not good for the commercial real estate business or the mindset of the top agents.

Here are some rules to help you build a good meeting process for your agency:

1. Move your meetings to 0530 pm on a Tuesday.  By then most of the important issues of the week will have been dealt with so the pressure will be off.
2. Make a rule that the meetings are over by 0630 pm.  That will then allow salespeople to get home at a reasonable time.
3. Keep minutes of the meetings so that everyone knows what was raised and agreed.
4. Give each salesperson 5 minutes to provide a market and deal update.
5. Set a firm agenda and make sure that the meeting convenor sticks to the time frames.
6. Keep minutes of the meeting and circulate the minutes the next day to all concerned.
7. Any tasks that are set as part of a person’s duties, sales territory, or listings, should be tracked for response and action.  Sales people are by nature not overly detailed when it comes to completing tasks.

If you have a large real estate team, break up the office meetings to smaller team subsets and have them meet weekly.  The larger office meeting can occur monthly.

I go back to the point that salespeople in commercial real estate should be out in the field each day meeting the right people and negotiating the deals.  That is what they are there to do.  Don’t let your office meetings wreck part of the momentum that is required.