I often get asked by agents if I would spend some time with their new assistant. What they really want though is someone to train their assistant for them. Agents are busy, and they realize that if they take time out of their day to train their executive assistant, then they won’t have time to lead generate for new business. And they are right. Training takes time and balls get dropped.
But here’s what I’ve learned after observing the growth of some teams.
The best executive assistants actually train themselves.
In the beginning, when you are new, your agent will need to teach you the basics:
- how your area’s MLS works
- where client information is kept (could be a CRM – Customer Relationship Management either online or in a software system,or it could be on notecards or in a spreadsheet)
- where to find real estate contracts, how to fill them out, and what information is necessary
- what online resources he is currently using and the usernames and passwords to access those sites
After that, it is up to you to explore all of those things and learn how they work. This is where you are training yourself. See if the company who created the system has online training, or call them to ask them questions about how it works. You can also find another assistant who is using the same system to ask her questions about how it works. There are likely aspects of the system that your agent isn’t utilizing because he didn’t have time to learn and implement them.
Once you’ve got a good understanding of what you are working with, you can either improve the system you have or recommend new systems.
This is the difference between being an employee and doing what you are told versus being a strategic partner and taking ownership of the betterment of the company.
What you may not realize is that your suggestions for improving the company’s systems are the infrastructure on which your team’s growth is dependent. If the team adds 30 more transactions next year and 50 more the year after that and 75 more the year after that, will your current systems be able to handle the load? What would need to change in order to efficiently process that many transactions?
You may not know the answers to these questions until you’ve had sufficient time using your current systems. In my experience, “sufficient time” is six months to a year. By then, you will have mastered the system you are using be able to identify its strengths and weaknesses.
Moving forward, it may be helpful to go back and read Resources for Learning How to Be an Assistant and The One Skill That Will Guarantee Your Success as a Real Estate Assistant.
Getting up to speed is one of the hardest parts of the executive assistant position. If you ever have questions or need someone to lean on, please reach out. It’s my goal to help assistants like you be successful! Connect with me at egilbert@kw.com, or visit my Facebook page.