Brokers and team leaders can utilize these tips for providing constructive feedback in an authoritative manner.
Broker-owners or team leaders provide leadership and guidance for their agents, and providing sales associates with constructive feedback is one key way of sharing your vision and helping them develop their skillset.
Here are five tips to help associate brokers, agents, and team members reach their sales goals more successfully. These will likely foster stronger relationships within your office as well as increased productivity overall.
Before offering feedback, be honest with yourself about your own biases. Everyone has different points of views; just ensure yours are not founded in sexism, racism or ableism. Masala Dukuly of LifeLabs Learning emphasizes this fact by saying we all possess bias. But it doesn’t have to be projected onto others.
Create feedback as an interactive dialogue. Start your conversations with agents by asking for their permission before offering feedback, such as asking “Can we take some time together and talk about ways we work with new prospects. Would that be okay with you?” By seeking permission beforehand, this creates an environment in which they feel free to respond, participate, and learn rather than becoming defensive or feeling put “on the spot.”
Make your feedback specific and objective by using one or two examples during your conversation, rather than generalizing or using vague language. Instead of saying, “You seem disengaged,” try this instead: “It is essential for my team members to respond within five minutes to client messages sent via phone calls, emails or texts during business hours.”
Make your feedback relevant to the situation at hand. For instance, if a team member was late for an important sales meeting, you might say something like this: “Because of your tardiness yesterday at our team meeting, momentum was lost developing our strategy with regard to an important prospective client we have been trying to land as clients. Therefore, I strongly advise arriving on time and prepared.”
Be open and welcoming of feedback from your agents, even if it can feel awkward at first. Approach it as dialogue at your company and chances are everyone involved–including yourself–will benefit from the experience. Your agents’ input may even help improve your communications and leadership abilities or enable more specific and targeted constructive criticism in future interactions.
Feedback should be two-way traffic that benefits all involved within an office setting.
