Archive for real estate interview
How to Discover the ‘Red Flags’ in the Interview
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Do you use a planned, consistent interview process? If you do, you will easily discover those ‘red flag’ areas–those areas you must double-check to assure that candidate is qualified to work with you. If you don’t use a consistent interview process–when every interview is a ‘wing-it’ experience—you’re constantly thinking about what to do next. We can’t pay attention to those red flags which pop up and wave themselves in our faces. We’re seduced, too, by what we perceive as the candidate’s attractiveness for us, and we tend to ignore those red flags. If you’ve ever hired someone, and then discovered, that person had a ‘secret’ he kept from you in the interview, you know what I mean!
Methods to Discover those Very Important ‘Red Flags’
Here are some methods you can build into your interview process to avoid those costly hiring mistakes:
- Use an application consistently, or at least ask the candidate to answer some questions in writing (have all questionnaires approved by an attorney to assure they consist of legal questions)
- Ask the prospective candidate to complete some tasks prior to the interview, so you know if the are willing to make you ‘leader’ and learn from you
- Create a professional interview process you follow consistently*
- Create ‘behavioral predictor’ questions (questions based on their past) and practice those questions until you are a master at them
- Use a behavioral profile (like the DISC) to check your observations and learn more about the candidate. Learn how to ‘validate’ the behavioral profile with the candidate.
- Quit being in a hurry to hire every candidate, and choose those candidates more carefully. After all, they reflect your vision and values.
For a copy of my 8-step interview process, click here.
What a Systematized Interview Process Does for You
You will not only hire better candidates, you will avoid those awful ‘surprises’ after committing to that agent (and I’ve had some doozies, as you probably have had, too). You will gain the respect of your team, because you aren’t giving them a problem, but a solution. You will find hiring winners easier, because that candidate is judging your competency as an interviewer and leader at the same time you are judging that candidate’s appropriateness for your team.
SAVE in March: $70+ off Recruiting Resources
(regularly $129.95, now $99.95)
For in-depth how tos in these four sins to saint status, see Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners. 
A $40 value, the Blueprint is FREE to those recruiters who purchase The Complete Recruiter. Plus, get The Complete Recuiter at $30 off (regularly $129.95, now $99.95) AND my new eBook on recruiting, From Romance to Reality. Order now and save $70+. This offer expires Mar. 31, 2012. Click here for more information.
Are You Ignoring the Red Flags in your Interview Process?
Posted by: | CommentsIs your interview process gaining the kind of agents you want? Or, are you unpleasantly surprised ‘after the fact’?
The scene: You have been waiting all week with baited breath for that desired candidate to keep his appointment with you. Now you’re in the interview. Everything seems to be going fine, until…
You get an uneasy feeling. It’s just a ‘gut’ response. You can’t put your finger on it. Yet, this candidate has been recommended to you. He’s a top producer. You need him. Other companies have been wooing him. So, you ignore your gut and keep going.
Sound familiar? We’ve all been there. We are enamored with that candidate. We really, really need his production. Our competitive nature comes to the fore when we learn other companies are vying for this very agent. So, we don’t pay attention to the ‘red flags’ that are being waved in front of our face. In the next few blogs, we’ll investigate those ‘red flags’–and I’ll ask you to share with me YOUR red flags, too.
What are ‘red flags’?
The term ‘red flags’ has been around our industry for years. Literally, ‘red flags’ are indicators you observe which may be ‘knock-out’ factors for that candidate. Or, taken one at a time, they are warning flags. They indicate a candidate doesn’t fit the profile of the kind of agent you’re looking for.
Some Indicators that We’ve Been Ignoring Red Flags
From consumer feedback and sales statistics, seems to me we have been ignoring the red flag concept in our hiring practices lately. Why do I draw that conclusion? One reason is that 65% of agents today are part-timers. Now, you may decide to hire a part-timer on purpose. But, I’ll bet you’ve hired several agents in the past year who didn’t reveal to you they had a full-time job (and it wasn’t selling real estate…). You thought you had hired someone who would start ‘up and running’, but, instead, you hired someone who is slow and crawling—if moving at all!
Consumer Feedback Indicates our Red Flag ‘Ignorance’
Another clue that we’re not paying attention to those red flags is the consumer feedback. In a recent survey of buyers, the California Association of Realtors’ survey found that buyers rated their buyers’ agents at an all-time low: an overall satisfaction rate of a lousy 4%! Yes. That’s right. Not 40%–but 4%. You and I know that’s too low to get return business. It’s too low to maintain any type of attractive commissions. So, it’s time to bring that ‘red flag’ concept back and practice it to protect our businesses.
What ‘red flags’ do you note? How have you been ‘snookered’?
SAVE in March: $70+ off Recruiting Resources
(regularly $129.95, now $99.95)
For in-depth how tos in these four sins to saint status, see Your Blueprint for Selecting Winners.
A $40 value, the Blueprint is FREE to those recruiters who purchase The Complete Recruiter. Plus, get The Complete Recuiter at $30 off (regularly $129.95, now $99.95) AND my new eBook on recruiting, From Romance to Reality. Order now and save $70+. This offer expires Mar. 31, 2012.
Choosing your Next Great Manager; Best Questions to Ask
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Choosing that best manager is very challenging. Before I share my questions with you, let me ask you:
What traits, skills, and qualities are you looking for in a manager? List them before you read this blog.
To help you create a great system to choose your manager, I’ve created questions based on the skills, traits and qualities I think are important in a manager. First, I’ve listed each important trait, quality and skill an effective manager needs (in my opinion).
Questions: After each item, I’ve listed questions to ask to ascertain if this person has sufficient strength and background in each area.
Using this questionnaire: Probe deeply in each question to discover their true behaviors. Don’t go quickly from question to question. Write the answers and analyze them later.
1. Successful salesperson in real estate or another field
Question: Describe your sales record in your previous field (s). Probe.
Note: You need a manager with a successful sales record or else that manager won’t actively recruit, and won’t have the skills to make recruiting calls.
2. Possesses leadership qualities to inspire others.
Note: You need a manager who can get others to follow in a positive, participative manner.
Question: Describe a time in your life where you assumed a leadership role. Probe.
Question: Which manager in your business history did you admire? Why?
Question: Which manager in your business history did you not admire? Why?
Question: Have you ever worked in a participative organization? (with leadership groups, etc.) Probe.
3. Is willing to hire and retain to company standards.
You need someone tough enough, but diplomatic enough, to create and implement a standards-based company.
Question: Have you ever worked in an organization with standards? (minimum expectations). Probe.
Question: What standards did you work with at your last real estate company? (You want to ascertain if this person thinks standards are important, and whether this person will implement standards to hire, select, and retain).
4. Has recruiting skills.
Question: Describe how you got leads in your sales career (listen for pro-active lead generation). Listen for taking full responsibility for his/her own sales success. Listen to assure it wasn’t ‘inside sales (retail or given an area to follow up on).
Question: Describe your lead generating plan in sales.
5. Has coaching skills.
Question: Have you ever been coached? Describe it. What were the positives? The negatives?
Question: Have you ever coached others? Probe.
Question: Have you ever taken a course (s) in how to coach? Describe.
6. Has training skills.
Question: Have you ever trained anyone? Please describe. (Listen for training, accountability, measuring results).
Question: Describe your training (the training you have taken). Have you taken training courses in management? Describe.
Question: Have you ever taken a speech course? Describe. (ability to organize thoughts, do persuasive presentations, lead meetings successfully)
7. Ambitious and energetic person who wants to build wealth through others.
Question: Tell me a goal you attained and how you attained it.
Question: Tell me about a time in your life when you refused to give up on a dream of yours. Probe.
Question: How have you been preparing to lead others?
What other traits, skills, and qualities are you looking for in a manager? Do you questions reflect your needs? Let me know.
How to Get It Right When You Hire That Next Manager
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s probably the toughest thing we do–hire a manager. And, there’s little information to help us. That’s why I wrote this series of blogs. Here’s the third blog in this series.
Past Experience is a Huge Benefit
Look for a person who has been trained in another business as a trainer/coach/leader. This is really important. When I was finding and screening leadership for one of the largest franchises in the world, I found that the really ‘magic’ ingredient was that the potential leader had already had some experience in the skills of management.
The Second Pre-requisite to a Successful Management ‘Hire’
Before you even think about hiring a manager, sit down and make a list of the duties you want that manager to do. This is your customized job description. Now, go back and prioritize those duties–with the most important ones first. Here’s what I hope your list says—in this order:
Recruit
Select
Train
Coach
Lead: Challenge and inspire seasoned agents to the next career level (retention)
Manage staff
Time Frames for Important Activities
Did you add time frames to that job description? If not, go back and do it now. You don’t want a manager that pushes recruiting to the last hour in the day—and then doesn’t get to it!
To get my manager’s detailed job description with hours expected, plus a time analysis you can use for all your managers, click here.
Doing all the other ‘Stuff’
Where’s the rest of the “stuff”? I know. You have on your list ‘broker questions’, crisis management’, floor schedules, write ads………but, guess what? You can get just about anybody to do those jobs. In fact, instead of hiring a real sales manager, if all you need is operations, hire an administrative assistant who can and will do it all (except for the broker questions, which you can field, or hire one of your good agents to field).
The All-too Common Problem: Hiring an ‘Operations’ Manager
I find too many owners or general managers—anyone who needs to hire and manage a manager—are settling for an ‘operations manager’—when what they desperately need is a people developing manager. What does a people developing manager do?
Finds the right people and develops them into productive salespeople who return a profit to you
You don’t need a babysitter. You don’t need just an ‘answer man (or woman). You don’t need merely an operations person. You shouldn’t settle for just a ‘crisis’ manager. You need someone who will focus on and drive recruiting and productivity—lead that office into greater profitability, not just take up space in the manager’s office!
You’re Not Done Describing the Job
You need to go much further than just a prioritized job description. You need to attach your performance standards for management activities (minimum expectations for that person to retain his/her job) in each of these areas. For example:
How many hours a week do you expect your manager to recruit? (lead generate)
How many lead generating calls do you expect your manager to make per week?
How many interviews do you expect your manager to hold per week?
How many hours a week do you expect your manager to interview and select?
What are the selection standards you expect from your manager (who should be hired and who should not)?
How many hours a week do you expect your manager to train?
How many hours a week do you expect your manager to coach?
Who do you expect your manager to coach?
What leadership activities do you expect of your manager?
What staff/operation activities to you expect?
What do you expect your manager to do to increase the bottom line? Decide this in terms of:
Recruits per month (decide on your ratio of new or experienced)
Production per month
Moving your experienced agents from ____ revenue units (sales and listings sold) to ________ revenue units by _____________ (date)
Profitability increase of __________ in _____________ months
This specific standards agreement is usually missing in the hiring process. It takes awhile during our coaching sessions to develop a workable standards agreement for each situation. But, without a standards agreement, you haven’t laid out exactly what the job expectations are. You have no method to coach and hold your new manager accountable. And, if you need to terminate, you need to have measureable reasons to terminate.
Now, armed with your description of the ideal manager, your job description, and your standards agreement, you’re ready to search for that ‘people developing’ manager who will take your company to greater productivity.
Want many more of these great strategies to be more profitable? Take a look at www.365leadership.net, my innovative leadership strategy by the month subscription series. Our next series starts in September. Join us and get r-energized!
Don’t forget to get my manager’s detailed job description, plus a time analysis you can use for all your managers: click here.
What didn’t I say in these blogs that you believe is important in hiring a great manager? Let me know.
Hiring your Next Great Manager: Run the Other Way If…
Posted by: | CommentsYou’re in the interview process, attempting to do a great job in choosing your next manager. What do you want to listen for? What ‘red flags’ should you notice? It all starts with your job description. (Look below to get mine).
The real estate industry is changing rapidly. Yet, many of our job descriptions for managers have not changed in 40
years! So, don’t rely on that old job description when hiring. Instead, look way past the ‘traditional manager’ profile. What do I mean? You can’t afford to have just a ‘maintenance manager’. You can’t have a manager who:
Sits in the office and waits for a crisis
Refuses to recruit because he/she ‘doesn’t have time’
Doesn’t believe in standards of performance
Thinks training should be done by someone else (unless he/she is managing a very large office)
Thinks managing is about getting groups to do what he/she says, instead of developing each agent to his/her potential
What to Listen for in the Interview
If your candidate says any of the statements below,
“I just want to support my agents”.
“It’s tough out there; I want to keep encouraging them to just hang in there.”
“I want to be available to agents 24 hours a day.”
“Retention is much more important than recruiting.”
“ I don’t train or coach. You’ll have to hire someone to do that.”
“I don’t believe in taking courses. I learn from experience.”
“My expertise is in answering broker questions. I’ll be there for them”
“Crisis management is my forte.”
Run the other way. In my experience interviewing hundreds of would-be leaders, any of these statements is a strong indicator that the person is going to practice ‘maintenance management’. You need much more than that. You need an action leader.
For a job description of that action leader, click here.
Want many more tips/strategies/leadership actions to put to work to build a more profitable office? Check out www.365leadership.net. This subscription series provides you one leadership idea/action per month. It will motivate and inspire you to be the best leader you can be. Next series starts in September. Join us!
What Should New Agents be Prepared For?
Posted by: | CommentsIf I knew then what I know now……how many times have we said that about relationships, cars, homes–or real
estate? What do you want prospective agents to know prior to entering real estate? What should they be prepared for in the business?
I’m getting ready to create the 4th edition of Up and Running in 30 Days, and I want to be sure I am ‘telling the truth attractively’, so that agents entering the business will have a clear view of the business, the work, and will grasp and implement the Up and Running start-up plan. So, help me out and answer the questions below. In addition, I’m putting out a new edition of Become Tomorrow’s Mega-Agent Today. Your advice will help those who are thinking about the business, and those who are challenged by the business.
Sometimes Our Candidates Hear It, But They Don’t Listen
Sometimes, I find that the agent has been told the bold truth in the interview, but really didn’t listen, believe it, or take it to heart. What are some of those things you tell candidates but they don’t grasp or believe? What could have made them believe you?(I’ll be sure to state these the best way I can, to help others get the right kind of guidance starting their careers).
If It Sounded Too Good in the Interview….
From interviewing hundreds of would-be agents, I know the things they’re told in interview that sound wonderful–and turn out not to be true. Examples:
You won’t have to prospect with us. We’ll give you all the leads. (Really? But, what’s the quality of those leads, and what do you have to do after you get the lead? Are they ready to buy? )
We have great floor time. (Really? If so, why aren’t all the agents in the office selling 40-50 homes a year?)
You’ll get lots of re-lo leads. (Why? What’s the work you have to do with those leads?)
You’ll do great with us. (Sounds like you’re really exceptional and all those other agents in the office aren’t….)
We’re the biggest. you have to be with us to succeed. (So, everyone with you succeeds?)
What Should the Candidate Be Wary of in the Interview?
What do you end up telling the candidate to help him make the right decision about entering real estate?
Thanks for contributing to the success of others in the industry. It strengthens us all and helps clients regard us with respect.