The real estate industry never sits still. And given its shifting nature, the sector is remarkably well-suited to furnishing the toolbox of knowledge and skills needed for success. To keep pace with evolving trends, companies must nurture a sales force that is highly trained. At RE/MAX Malta, we understood this over a decade ago and have been developing our approach of continual education ever since.

Our research indicates that giving agents access to continuous learning leads to continuous business improvement. From onboarding to every step of their career, RE/MAX Malta’s Training Academy with its courses, trainers and support structure develops each of our front-line agents. Besides having access to the international learning platform RE/MAX University, our sales force benefits from RE/MAX Malta’s own e-learning platform.

Our training philosophy hinges on the idea that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach lacks relevance and credibility. It is a model that too many companies still subscribe to. And treating each agent as a clone of the next is not productive or cost-effective.

A singular approach to training does not recognise staff as human beings and leaves them feeling undervalued. Our agents experience pushback from clients every day, which is never an easy experience. And their training should be tailored to embrace these everyday realities.

Through our ‘hearts and minds’ approach to developing skills and behaviours, we fully customise our workshops and incorporate two essential and often-overlooked ingredients: encouragement and inspiration. By cultivating agents’ inner confidence, self-esteem and motivation, we show how changing one’s perspective can change life.

Time and again, we see potential transformed into high performance, but this

 requires a growth mindset and a deep commitment to change at both the individual and organisational levels. We hire coaches with extensive expertise, who have themselves experienced day-to-day life on the front line in Malta and abroad. They identify each individual’s unique needs and encourage agents to demand more out of themselves. All our agents need to bring to the table is a genuine desire to learn and to serve customers with empathy.

Ultimately, the absolute power is always in the customer’s hands, so we teach our agents how to adapt to each customer’s wants because not doing so will sabotage the relationship. So rather than chasing the sale, we adopt a ‘customer is for life’ attitude and focus on relationship building with customers.

We fully customise our workshops

‘Good customer service’ has given way to ‘positive customer experience’. We teach our agents about customer psychology – their thought process, expectations and motivations – and how to communicate professionally. The past months have made customers more cautious and sceptical about who they do business with. So now more than ever, the next competitive battle will be based on constantly improving the customer experience.

Classroom training is the first step, followed by one-to-one coaching. Rather than focusing on shortfalls, we master strengths first to increase self-esteem and confidence. By doing so, people are then more open to learning and improving their weaknesses. Whenever agents hit a bump, they can get in touch for guidance as often as they like.

In this respect, the experienced managers at our franchise offices are crucial. They put theory into practice and provide day-to-day support. Our managers also gather in-field observations that help our trainers zero in on critical performance issues and anchor every learning point in reality.

The benefits of our customised, caring approach to training are distinctly tangible. With learning that is credible and

relevant, we have seen improved agent

retention. And, consequently, by eliminating the harmful cookie-cutter perspective, we are also experiencing improved

customer retention.

Our front-line staff are agile and strive for continuous improvement, never resting on the previous year’s or quarter’s successes. As a company too, we must never rest on our laurels. RE/MAX is one of the world’s most recognisable brands and RE/MAX Malta leads in the local market. Our customers do not settle for mediocrity. With our pioneering training infrastructure, we will continue keeping our finger on the pulse and pushing ahead because good enough is never enough.

Finally, in line with the company’s strategy to attract quality over quantity, RE/MAX Malta recently launched new incentives for its current real estate agents, giving sales associates working for one of the RE/MAX Malta franchises the opportunity to earn among the highest remuneration in the industry.  These new incentives are based on quality and agents are required to reach

certain targets to achieve the highest tiers.  

To conclude, agents need to understand that there are expectations that come with being a RE/MAX agent and that it is in their best interest to deliver an excellent customer experience. By doing so, they will be rewarded.

Mark Ellul is Training Academy manager at RE/MAX Malta.

To understand more about the recently-launched incentive programme, aspiring agents and the general public are invited to join a ‘60 minutes with RE/MAX’ webinar. To sign up for free, visit https://remx.co/60Min.

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