Non-financial incentives foster real estate training culture

Providing incentives to sales staff is a traditional method used to try and boost turnover - both in terms of cash value and volume.

However, getting the mix right between a base wage and commissions is no longer the be all and end all of real estate training.

This is because financial incentives have a limited effect on personal performance - while research has shown that people can carry out manual repetitive tasks for longer if there is a financial reason to do so, this has its limits.

In addition, the research was able to show that commissions-based programs were only useful in these mechanical areas - they did nothing to help with mental agility or creative, personal endeavours.

Instead, it has been suggested that staff programs include a third element into the mix - that of training and value-adding cultures.

These two factors have been shown to generate a better response in sales staff across a number of fields - not only do the employees have enhanced selling skills thanks to business education, they also have a personal reason to persevere that is not purely related to finance.

For these reasons, being able to integrate an element of personal attachment to a firm will actively help to boost sales efforts.