September 18, 2023Expert hosts Preston Guyton, Nick McLean, and Suneet Agarwal unveil secrets to running top teams. They share proven strategies, SOPs, and practical tips for effective meetings and trainings, emphasizing productivity, morale, and goal-setting. Real-life examples and insider insights provide valuable guidance to unlock your team’s full potential.
VIDEO CONTENTS:
- 00:00 – Introduction & What We’ve Been Up To
- 08:00 – Training & Meetings
- 15:40 – Running an Effective Weekly Meeting
- 37:00 – Social & Team Building Events
Episode breakdown: running team meetings and trainings people attend
Suneet Agarwal, Preston Guyton and Nick McLean pick up their eight-pillar series with ongoing trainings and meetings. Suneet runs a team in Sacramento, Preston runs a brokerage of about 110 agents in Myrtle Beach, and Nick runs a team in Washington state. They compare weekly schedules, explain why most of their ongoing training is optional, and walk through how they run the weekly meeting itself.
Treat training as part of your recruiting offer
Suneet notices that some real estate companies build almost their whole offer around training and call themselves training companies. Because he came from that world and recruits hard against it, he wants no one to be able to say they train better than his team. Training is part of the agent offering, the first of his eight pillars, so it has to be good enough to win recruiting conversations.
Set a weekly rhythm you can keep
The three schedules look different, but each is fixed and repeats every week. Suneet runs multiple businesses, so he keeps a few high-impact meetings. That means a 30-minute huddle on Monday and Friday and a weekly team meeting on Tuesday at 11. He holds separate huddles for agents, ISAs, operations, marketing and management. His team also offers two to three optional trainings every day, led by his sales manager, his director of agent development, his operations manager and his ISA manager.
Preston’s company meeting is Wednesday at 8:30, with an EOS leadership meeting on Tuesday, a Tuesday session called Sharpen the Ax and an accountability meeting on Thursday. His Agent Excellence program runs four times a year for seven weeks, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 to 1, for new agents and agents with less than 18 months in the business. Twelve agents were in the current class and seven had already enrolled for the next. Nick has met Monday through Wednesday from 9 to 9:40 for ten years. Monday is training, Tuesday is the team meeting with a consistent agenda, and Wednesday is sales, process or accountability training. New agents also meet with him Monday through Thursday for 30 to 90 days.
Keep ongoing training optional and make it worth showing up for
None of the three makes ongoing training mandatory. Onboarding is required, but after that, attendance is the agent’s choice. That gives the leader honest feedback about whether the training is any good. The hosts tie it to opportunity. Agents who want leads are expected to show up, and they shouldn’t ask for more leads if no one has seen them in the room.
Nick learned to handle top producers who feel they’ve outgrown his training. One agent who had been with him five years and sold 40 homes a year told him he didn’t need to come anymore. Nick agreed he was repetitive and asked a question instead.
Would you be willing to come to the meeting and share what works for you? I notice you’re really good at this.
Nick McLean
Top producers who get the spotlight tend to show up, and attendance rises. Preston ends some meetings with a 30 to 45 minute mastermind where agents talk about what’s working, so newer agents can ask questions of the team’s biggest producers.
Run the weekly meeting as a meeting, not a training
For the longest time I thought it was a training opportunity first, and I don’t think that it needs to be.
Suneet Agarwal
Suneet’s format is consistent. He opens light, then has his mortgage team discuss the market, which always draws questions. Next he puts up conversion numbers for 30 days, 90 days and six months, shows the team average and who is above it, and lets agents see where they rank. He closes with what’s working and what isn’t, and he recognizes agents who are producing the results he wants more of. Preston’s meeting highlights wins, new listings and new agents, then often ends with a mastermind.
Accountability can come up, but Nick has learned not to call people out cold. If he plans to hold someone accountable in front of the group, he asks their permission first. Another option is asking who is struggling and letting the room help. Suneet keeps meetings to 45 minutes and ends them the same way each time, and Nick ends with “go sell some homes” so everyone knows it’s over.
Track attendance and follow up without anger
Preston tracks attendance every week as part of his EOS scorecard. If attendance drops in one meeting, he changes the format. At 110 agents he is moving to one in-person meeting a month, held off-site with breakfast, and Zoom meetings the other weeks. Nick and a member of his staff track attendance and call everyone who missed, simply to tell them it was a good meeting. He asks agents to text if they can’t make it, and he has stopped venting about absences.
I need to be not ripping the people that aren’t here in front of these people. I need to just spend my energy on supporting the people that showed up.
Nick McLean
Outside the office, Preston’s team has a social committee of four agents with a monthly budget, and its first event, paintball, drew about 28 people. The hosts say these events often attract a sponsor and help recruiting, because agents post about them.
Key takeaways for team leaders
- Pick a meeting and training rhythm you can hold every week, and keep it.
- Make ongoing training optional, tie opportunities to attendance, and use turnout as feedback.
- Invite top producers to teach what’s working instead of asking them to sit through basics.
- Keep the weekly meeting to a set agenda: market, numbers, wins and what’s working. Save training for training.
- Track attendance, follow up warmly with those who missed, and put your energy into the people in the room.
