"In any business," he said, "these days, it is accepted worldwide that ongoing training is vital to real success. You must never stop learning.

The plain truth is that our group is now operating more efficiently, more productively and with greater attention to client s needs than ever before. Although we still have a long way to go, the improvements we have experienced are due primarily to the importance we have placed on training.

No other single factor has made so significant a difference - and, frankly, we cannot understand how any major estate agency can perform well without the sort of training we provide."

Pat Leonard, the Rawson Property Group's chief trainer, said that the real value of training lies in its ability to "transform attitudes" rather than to teach the technicalities of the estate agency business, important though these are.

"A significant percentage of the agents recruited by any agency will have joined with the idea that this could be an easy way to make money.

The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth.

The hours agents work are long, the frustrations can be overwhelming and the hit rate on sales is very seldom as high as any agent hopes for.

"We have, therefore, to inculcate the realisation that hard work, with ongoing report-backs to all stakeholders, is essential.

We have to make it clear that even the slightest hint of reluctance to give service or peevishness in the service role are totally unacceptable.

Those who get the message make good agents and often stay with group for 20 years or more - those who do not usually end up in some other easier occupation."

South Africans, said Leonard, still fall behind Europeans and Americans in their understanding of what service really entails.

"There is, in South Africa a tendency to admire the macho dominant attributes, to see service as servitude not as courtesy and good manners.

"This attitude we have to change - but we can do so through good training and we have done so with a vast majority of our agents."

Once the agent has the right attitude, said Leonard, he or she will find his work highly enjoyable.

"Real service is always a total pleasure - even when it does not lead to a sale.

This is what we teach people on our courses."