The Workshop Leader's Resource

I recently received an email from a trainer in the real estate industry looking to branch into training in some of the smaller offices locally.  She didn’t give me a lot of information to go on, only that she was trying to figure out what to charge.

I spent a fair amount of time giving her a detailed answer that I thought might be useful for others out there as well. (I think it’s good to share what you know on the web. The more access we have to a global source of knowledge, the better – from the simple, but useful Credit Card Comparison to Wikipedia – my personal favorite for beginnings of research.)  Keep in mind that you’ll make a lot less speaking in the real estate industry than in pretty much any other industry I know of, so don’t take the actual price I quoted literally unless you’re also a real estate speaker.  Here is the answer I sent:

It’s hard to say how to charge for brokers. Each one is very different. The question you have to ask yourself is what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to bring new people into your training business where you can sell the agents individually into coaching or additional training or products? If so, then the program should be free to the broker with a strong sell close at the end for the agents.

If you are just looking to get paid for your training, then I would highly encourage you to get certified to give CE credits in your state. You will get many more, higher-paying gigs if you can offer CE credits with them. Also, you can get certified to teach GRI, ABR, etc. These aren’t great paying gigs, but they establish you as a professional in training and open doors for other speaking events, plus they build your mailing list which is key if you hope to develop products and agent-centric training sales later. (Which is where the real money is in this business – that’s why I keep coming back to it.)

If you just want to do a little training on the side, then charging anywhere from $100-$250/hr for a training that takes you no longer than half an hour to travel to would be appropriate depending on your experience level. If it takes longer than that, then you should charge for travel time as well.

I run a consulting business teaching speakers and trainers how to develop their businesses. If you’re serious about growing your business, then give me a shout. I’m happy to help.