Building A Strong Group

Building a great team

In the first meeting when we work with prospective new groups we tell them several things.  The first thing we tell them is that building a strong group will be harder than you think, but in order to have success we have to have 3 things in place to have a shot at success.

1-      Get good people who are good at what they do
The person matters more than the profession.  Every group when they get started wants to know who are the core spots.  I always answer that while there are core spots (Financial Advisor, Realtor, Mortgage lender, Contractor/Remodeler, Insurance P&C, CPA, Attorney-Real Estate, Attorney-Wills & Trusts, Business Banker) getting good people who fit regardless of their profession is significantly more important.  You need to know, like, and trust your team.  If you don’t referrals won’t happen.   Build your group around good business people who you like.

2-      Learn to trust each other and then be willing to fight to create opportunities for one another
I love when I see groups fighting for each other.  When a group is fighting for each other it is fun, because you know you have other people who have your back.  They want you to succeed as much as they want to succeed.  When this happens everyone is going to get some referral opportunities.

In the referral section we always talk about how we brought someone up in conversation.  When a group is fighting for each other you’ll hear things like:

“I was pushing for you…”
“I brought you up in conversation.  They said they already had someone, but I said if you need another opinion Natalie is the best!  I’d encourage you to give her a shot.”

3-      Embrace the process & system  
This comes down to:
-Run a good meeting that creates value
-Have an attendance rate above 80%
-Make your guests feel welcome
-Track and close your referrals in www.TheReferralsGroup.com

I like to tell groups that if you look at your annual  meetings like you are a playing a 12, 24, 36 game schedule (depending on your meeting frequency).  You aren’t going to win every game, but you should try to win as many as you can.   Keep things in perspective, if you have a bad meeting (a loss) then evaluate why you lost and try to win the next one.  Don’t have two losses in a row.  The losses in this setting are almost always preventable.  It usually comes down to attendance, attitude, running a valuable meeting, and tracking what you do so you show off what is working.

Hall of fame coaches Bill Belichick with 5 Super Bowls wins (now 6) 69.5% of his games.  Coach K at Duke 76.4%.  Coach Calipari at UK 77.4%  Some groups think they’ll win 100% of their meetings.  It won’t happen, but you should try to win as many as you can!

Building and sustaining a successful group is hard, but when you get it right it generates great results and is a lot of fun.  Stay focused on building it around:

-good people
-learn to fight for each other
-embrace the process