We have just hired some new agents for our company and have them all lined up to head through our customized and highly touted training program to make them successful salespeople. We take great pride in teaching them how to complete sales contracts, prospecting, marketing and advertising listings, doing comparative market analysis, handling objections and the rest of the details that we believe are important to launching the new agent on the road to success. If we have enough nerve we even suggest to a recruited experienced agent that they too might benefit from some of the training our company has to offer.

Now, all of this is good and I strongly support the fact that we need this type of program but is it enough? Are we offering the same length of training we did ten or twenty years ago? Albeit that we did little in the way of technology back then compared to today.

I am a big believer in the educational process. The absorption of information and data. We need to do even more. In the process of revamping our respective company training and education programs perhaps it is also time to add some frequently missing ingredients…

First, what is the “mission” of our company? What is our purpose and how can we communicate this to our sales team starting with the first day someone joins our firm. A constant reminder to all of those affiliated with our company on why we are here. Basically, the foundation upon which all else develops. Something that needs to be constantly reinforced and stated. Sort of like the “Pledge of Allegiance” without the reference to a deity.

Second, what is the company philosophy? What are the principles underlying our operation? Perhaps idealistic but what are the fundamental truths by which we, as service providers, are going to conduct our business. A committed statement and teaching of our beliefs and attitudes about our approach to the business. This perhaps leads into the next ingredient.

Third addition is a rule of the company on Ethics. Perhaps we assume, sometimes for the wrong reasons, that all who join our firm operate under the same rules that we do. What is the right and decent way to practice our service business? How do we treat others? What, do we as a company consider right and wrong ways in which we are going to do business? Basically, what are the standards that we as a company have adopted as the way in which we practice and treat others. Yes, the National Association of Realtors has their “Standards” and we may have re-stated those as our own but this goes beyond that.

In many other professions classes in ethics are mandatory. Law, medicine, architecture, finance and many others have stringent practices of ethics. Have we done enough in the field of real estate? Perhaps as individual companies adopting our own set of rules and standards and teaching these to our staffs we could help obviate the claims made by other agents or consumers. A sort of built in risk management program.

All of these three ingredients make up our “core values”. Who we are, what we are about and what our focus is become the core of our company. Technology may change and certainly the regulations and contract forms will all change but the core, the “heart” of what we are about will remain the same.

All of this culminates in communicating and reinforcing the Fourth ingredient: Expectations. As we have set forth our philosophy and ethics along with measurable and quantifiable items like listings taken, closed transactions, and so forth then have we communicated to all who join our company what the company expectations are for behavior and production? Have we communicated fair and reasonable consequences should our standards of practice be violated or our expectations not met? It would seem that if we are to hold all who comprise our company as “accountable” then we need to clearly communicate what the expectations are to begin with.

Regardless of the level of education we may have achieved there were always rules, standards and well communicated expectations as we progressed through the educational process. We knew what the consequences of our actions or inactions would be and in the end we were held accountable by teachers, parents, family and peers. Perhaps as we look at our own company training and education programs we need to re-consider who we are, where we are going and all that is at the heart of what we do. Maybe we can raise the bar on our own performance, eliminate some problems and clearly communicate exactly what we are about.