The entire process from inception to conception must be built on systems designed to bring out the best in candidates and help us qualify, quantify and hire the best among them. Once the systems and sub-systems for this goal are established, a competent person can slip in and manage the results so that I can still make the best use of my time!

Here’s a sample system:

System: First 5 Minutes of Meeting a Client:

• Complement them.
• Give them floor plans.
• Offer them gum.
• Give them a business card.
• Give them something.
• Listen to them.
• Know the staff’s name and introduce them if necessary. Take care of staff/doorman.
• A pretty brochure with all the relevant information about the apartment, building and neighborhood.
• Get their name and use it often.
• Smile at them.
• Enthusiasm.
• Are you familiar with the Upper East Side?
• Best location to meet them at.
• Carry tissues with you in case client needs it.
• Seven testimonials of clients who live in the building.
• Outside tour of the building.
• Tell them something about yourself. Your experience with the building.
• Humor. Humor. Humor.
• Be attentive and be a good listener.
• Make them feel you are their equal. Tell them you lived in the same neighborhood (if you have!)
• Five questions that will give you a lot of information about how they found you and what they are looking for, etc…
• Go to the office first, find out about rents, get floor plans and number of apartments to show.
• Safe building.
• Friendly staff .
• Any trouble finding the address?
• Do they have pets? Pet store/dog walkers. (Different presentations for women and men.)
• List of restaurants.
• Verbal info about the neighborhood.
• Neighborhood report.

Systems and Your Assistant!

Your systems will keep you on track while you juggle everything on your own. However, once you hire an assistant, systems become more important than ever. When training someone, it’s much easier to introduce them to a system than to explain the responsibilities alone. If you tell someone what they need to do without telling them how to do it, you’re wasting a lot of time with the trial and error it will take an assistant to figure out how to be efficient.

Good Systems are FLUID

Although a system is a formalized method, it should by no means be set in stone! Each system should be continually re-evaluated and tweaked for enhanced performance. Your assistant will be an invaluable help with this. An assistant will spend a lot more time with most of your systems than you will; let him modify the system in ways that improve productivity. No system is perfect and all of your systems will continually change over time as your business changes and as you find more efficient ways of getting things done.

Strive for Simplicity

Try to keep systems as simple as possible. Making changes upon changes over time can leave you with an overly elaborate system that actually makes things more difficult than necessary. Always look for things that you can trim down. Ask yourself, is this particular step really serving me? Can I combine steps to make things go more smoothly? When developing and improving upon your system think: fluidity, clarity and simplicity. Now think of some words you may not attribute to systems: beauty, elegance, grace. Calling a system “beautiful” certainly makes you think about it in a whole new way! Consider beautiful systems in nature. Honey bees work in complete synchronicity. Each has a task and as a member of a collective work force each operates with single-minded purpose and hyper-efficient grace. Imagine a set of systems in your business that worked like a hive of honey bees! Strive to develop beautiful systems. Your return on your time and effort will be many times over!