Archive for Recruiting
How’s your PR? What PR?
Posted by: | CommentsHow’s your PR? What PR? Are you taking advantage of FREE marketing? You should. I hear brokers say ‘I’m too small a broker’. ‘I don’t have a marketing budget’. Good. You don’t need one. Use the strategy below and reap big recruiting rewards.
Do you want a free recruiting tool? You’re a real estate professional. You have limited advertising/recruiting funds. You want to recruit more. You want to establish your credibility as an industry leader. One of the best strategies is to write articles that get published, and use those articles in all of your marketing strategies. Here are the steps to follow to write articles that are valuable and that get published every time. The best thing about this strategy: It’s absolutely free! Any broker of any size can do it.
The Process: Simple and Straightforward
Writing an article follows the same process composers use in writing a popular tune: It starts with the theme (A), continues with the middle, where you expand on the idea and example (B), and ends again with the theme. When I’m teaching my “Train the Trainer” course, we practice this simple structure when we create training programs.
The Eight Simple Steps to Get Started
Here are the simple steps I’ve used over the years to create articles that have gotten published hundreds of times in major real estate magazines and newsletters:
1. Decide on who your audience is, so you realize for whom you’re writing
2. Decide on the challenge (s) they have that you want to address
3. Jot down all the ideas you have about the challenges and solutions
4. Narrow the topic so you can zero in specifically on what you want to write about. The biggest mistake writers and teachers make is to choose too broad a topic for the time or word framework. For example, it’s difficult to write 500 words on how to create a team. You CAN write 500 words about why to create a team; or three strategic tips in creating a team.
5. Choose one to three ideas to discuss.
6. Arrange the topics in the order you want to discuss them
7. To expand on the ideas, present the idea clearly and then give an example. One commonality I’ve found among editors is that they want examples with the idea. Otherwise, the reader doesn’t really get the picture.
8. Close the article with the reiteration of your challenge and solution. Give your audience positive motivation to take action.
In my next blog, I’ll discuss how to build your distribution list easily–and how to distribute your articles. You’re on your way to an awesome free recruiting tool!
Managers: Develop this skill and then teach your agents how to use PR effectively. Use this skill in the interview to show agents how you’ll help them expand their reach.
Social media: Usually today, articles are published electronically. When your article is published, put it on your Facebook business page and LinkedIn. Invite peole to share the article. Instant PR!
‘Attraction’ is Key in Recruiting: How ‘Attractive’ are You?
Posted by: | Comments
How ‘attractive’ are you in recruiting? Being ‘attractive’ is a powerful magnet effective recruiters develop. What do I mean by ‘magnet’?
Those attributes, qualities, talents, and skills, that agents are drawn to.
The market’s heating up, and good recruiters are getting appointments like mad. What makes one person be able to hire great agents with ease, while other recruiters find it difficult? Effective recruiters have, purposely, developed magnets. You can, too. Here are the steps:
1. Identify your strengths.
Look beyond the normal things managers talk about. I know you have some special talents and skills from ‘the rest of your life’. What are they? One of the best recruiters I know has figured out to get right to agents’ hearts—to find out their fears and their aspirations. Although this came naturally to her, she has also taken several coaching and self-actualization classes, and has worked hard to translate what she learned to her recruiting strategy.
Caveat: Don’t rely on company or office features to do your recruiting for you. You must stand out as a leader, coach, and mentor.
2. Attach the benefits of those strengths to your recruit—keeping in mind the needs you are filling for that particular recruit.
By doing this process, you’ll have the information you need to design a full presentation that takes advantage of the trends, makes it easy for you to become a master presenter, helps you reveal and explain your magnets, and gets you the recruits you want.
Script (what my being a musician means to the candidate): “Yes, I was a musician in an ‘earlier ‘life’. You may not see what that means in terms of sales success, but I learned that the discipline and tenacity I developed was a great help in persevering in real estate sales. I can help you ‘keep on’ keeping on, because I know the motivators needed to create high level sales.”
Who determines what’s really “attractive?”
Agents. Managers are usually long-term real estate “pros”. They assume their company features are the best attractors to desired agents. Problem: These features are valued by managers, but they may not be equally as attractive to agents.
Example: For years, a large company in the area told prospective agents they could make more money by affiliating with that company because, “We have meetings daily.” In reality, the meetings had become poorly attended, boring, and resented by the agents. The only “beneficiaries” were the managers, since they could more easily keep tabs on the agents if they required the agents’ bodies show up at the desk at 9 A.M. daily! As agents became more independent, and competition from other companies increased, the meetings, which 30 years ago had been team-builders, became outmoded. They actually were a deterrent to recruiting! If these managers had taken the agents’ perspective, they could have avoided using a worn-out, ineffective presentation.
Be sure the features you’re promoting are of value to agents. Are you promoting some features that are out of date?
Big idea: YOU—your talents, your skills, your personality—are the biggest magnets imaginable. Build them to exceptional strength!
What skills and talents have you developed outside real estate that you have translated into ‘attractors’ for agents?
The Bottom Line: What a Recruiting Mistake Costs You
Posted by: | CommentsWhat does a recruiting mistake cost you? Many brokers have told me it costs them nothing. Pshaw! It costs a whole heck of a lot. Take a look at my estimates below:
What are your numbers? Have you ever figured it out? Let me know. As a CRB instructor, I would ask managers this question. Generally, they figured the cost of a bad hire was $10,000-$30,000. What’s yours?
Do you have your recruiting plan in place? Check out The Complete Recruiter, with a special price of $30 off ($99.95 this month), plus 2 bonuses, a $70 value. You can’t afford to wing recruiting anymore!
Hire a New Agent? You May Have Just Lost $30,000
Posted by: | CommentsDid you just hire a new agent? What’s your success rate with agents? Do you know? Do you know how much it costs you when an agent fails? Most brokers don’t realize they are doing irreparable damage to their companies by hiring those who aren’t going to go right to work—and keeping those who won’t work. Here are the 3 biggest consequences to poor selection I see.
1. Stops you from hiring great producers. Likes attract. How can brokers hope to hire that great producer when they have more than 10% of their office as non-producers? I can see it now. “Sure, I’ll come to your office. I’m a top producer, and I just love to be dragged down by those non-producers. It will be my pleasure to waste my time with them.” Not.
2. Kills your recruiting message.
Do you have a training program? Do you use it to recruit? Here’s the real message: “We have a training program. All our new agents go through it. We don’t get any results from the program, so it really doesn’t work. But, join us.” You can’t possibly show how successful your training program makes your agents because your training program can’t possibly get results—poor people in and no actions and accountability required.
3. De-motivates your agents to provide referrals to you.
Your outcomes and hiring practices speak more loudly than you could possible speak. Why would one of your good agents possibly refer someone to you when your good agent doesn’t see those you hired starting right out and making money fast?
This Market Won’t Cover Up an Inadequate Selection Process
In a fast market, ‘accidental sales’ buoyed poor agents and made them look as though they were actually selling enough real estate to be a ‘median’ agent. When the market left, so did the agents’ ‘mirage’ of decent production. Now, brokers need to hire with purpose (using a stringent, professional interview process). Then, they need to put agents right to work with a proven start-up plan.
Please Tell Me What You Think
What do you think a non-productive agent costs the company? In my next blog, I’ll give you some line items that will probably double what you think a bad hire costs. Let’s see what you think first. Poor hiring practices really, really hurts brokers—both financially and emotionally.
What do you think? Should a broker hire anyone who walks through the door? Does your broker hire anyone who walks through the door?
Do you have your recruiting plan in place? Check out The Complete Recruiter, with a special price of $30 off ($99.95 this month), plus 2 bonuses, a $70 value. You can’t afford to wing recruiting anymore!
My Big ‘Red Flags’ in the Interview Process
Posted by: | Comments
For the last few blogs, I’ve been blogging about that all-important interview process. We’ve talked about the dangers of ignoring the red flags. We’ve investigated how to discover those red flags. I’ll bet you have certain ‘red flags’ that pop up during the selection process that drive you nuts. I do, too. These include the following comments from the candidate:
“I just want to hang my license” (usually stated over the phone; my response is that I want to hang them…)
What are your commissions?” – stated in the first five minutes of the interview (I’ve never interviewed an agent I hired who started the interview that way)
“I want a special deal.” –also usually stated in the first five minutes of the interview, or even over the phone (what makes them so ‘special’?)
Personally, I have never interviewed a candidate who was a ‘fit’ with one of my offices when they led with commission questions.
Other Red Flags
The candidate won’t fill out any paperwork (pre-appointment questionnaire or application)
They ‘drop in’ and expect me to drop everything to meet with them (they must think we managers just sit around waiting for Their Excellencies to show up)
They’re late to the interview—or just don’t show up
They obviously didn’t make an effort to dress in business attire for the interview (I realize this varies greatly by area, but you can tell if the person made an effort).
Specific Red Flags To Notice in the Interview Itself
They won’t answer my questions, or, when they answer, they answer as though it was a question for me to acknowledge
They won’t let me set the structure and tone of the interview (they immediately want to know what I will do for them)
They say they don’t know their production for the past year—with any metrics
They defend their low production and/or are accepting of a few transactions a year
They don’t have an idea of how they will change their production for the better
They seem enamored with the companies that have already hired them in a 15-minute “interview” (low self-esteem, anyone?)
They have been ‘sold’ on the companies that tell them they will provide them leads
They want to be hired ‘on the spot’. They’re not willing to do a 2-interview process, even when I explain the benefits to them
As you can tell from my red flags, my values and vision drive my judgement about these candidates.
What are your ‘Red Flags’?
One broker’s red flags may be another broker’s acceptable standards. What are yours? List five red flags or knock-out factors. What process or system do you have to discover them? Decide whether you would absolutely not hire an agent who demonstrated that behavior, or whether it was a minor flag. Finally, how many of those minor red flags do you need to identify before you rule that candidate not suitable for your team?
How to Discover the ‘Red Flags’ in the Interview
Posted by: | CommentsDo 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 Committing These Four Recruiter Sins?
Posted by: | CommentsAre you committing any (or all) of these four recruiter sins? Have you hired ‘abundantly’? Unhappy with your production and retention rates? Most brokers are. Yet, it’s so easy to see why they have low retention rates. They’re creating them with their selection practices! And, in this ‘new normal’ market, we can’t hire so ‘abundantly’ and expect our agents to hack it in the real world.
The Four Recruiter Sins
Here are four of the most common “sins”, with recommendations about how to avoid them.
Sin # 1: Not considering a potential recruit a ‘candidate’
What do you call your potential recruits? I’ll bet you call them ‘leads’ or you say that you’re trying to recruit this person. Stop acting ‘needy’.
To become a ‘saint’: Call those potentials ‘candidates’. After all, you are screening, qualifying, and selecting them to your unique culture, your company. Shouldn’t they consider themselves lucky to get chosen by you?
Sin #2: Selling too much and too soon in the selecting process
The first part of the selection process consists of questions, questions, questions. Why then, do agents tell me they were asked very few questions, but were sold, sold, sold?
To become a ‘saint’: In your first interview, or first part of the selection process, ask questions and listen 75% of the time. Your candidate will tell you exactly what she is looking for, so, you can arrange your ‘tell’ (presentation) portion to fill her needs.
Sin #3: Not using a planned selection process
We teach our agents to use a planned presentation for buyers and sellers. Yet, we selectors just ‘wing it’. We have no system in place. What do you think we look like to the candidate who is interviewing for a position in a ‘real business’?
To become a ‘saint’: Create and master an effective selecting system. Know your steps. Follow your steps. Have your whole system written down. Use it with each candidate.
Sin #4: Asking questions that don’t tell us what we need to know
Most brokers have their favorite interview questions. However, it’s not connected to their agent job description or to the qualities they are looking for in real estate agents. It’s just a question they like.
To become a ‘saint’: Design your questions to reveal the skills, traits, and qualities you’re looking for in that real estate agent who represents your unique culture.
SAVE in March: $70+ off Recruiting Resources
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.
Another Leadership ‘Whack: Quit Calling your Agents your ‘Customers’
Posted by: | CommentsWhack: Toss the mantra ‘our agents are our customers’. The real customer is demanding we pay attention to them—or else.
Many brokers call their agents their ‘customers’. We thought that, by calling our agents our customers, we would please them, create loyalty and forge recruiting tools. This trend of calling agents ‘customers’ was a reaction to the old-style ‘father knows best’ management. Not a bad thought, but, unfortunately, too limiting. We assumed that, if we provided the services agents wanted, everything would be wonderful.
That thought process has sure gotten us into trouble. Why? Because we forgot that the person who actually pays commissions is called a ‘buyer’ or a ‘seller’—the end user. If the end user is unhappy, they vote with their feet. The result of our lack of focusing on the end user is plummeting commissions and alternative ‘agent-lite’ companies, relying much more on technology than personal service.
The bigger business world got it long ago. When is the last time you were asked about the level of service in a business you were using? I’ll bet you are asked at least once a week. The bigger world of business discovered long ago that they had to satisfy the needs of the consumer-and that those needs were escalating by the minute.
How do we put the real consumer first, providing the services that make them so happy they would never leave us?
Recommendations:
- Quit hiring non-committed agents. They simply will not do the work, create a business, and serve consumer needs to warrant a ‘generous’ commission
- Establish standards of production for your agents. What do you expect of them—and when?
- Accept that a low-producing agent cannot and does not provide excellent service—and the consumer knows that
- Pretend you are a consumer. Which of your agents would you want to work with? Which of your agents wouldn’t you want to buy a home from?
If your agents aren’t your customers, what are they? Perhaps partners, as one very successful franchise has termed them. You decide.
Get Real Leadership Strategies
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effective? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.
Another Whack Up the Side of the Head for Leaders–Selecting with Purpose
Posted by: | CommentsWhack: Selection: That ‘Give Everyone a Chance’ song is so played out.
Thinking of your potential recruits as ‘candidates’ is a huge sea change for brokers. It helps us use a selection process to actually screen candidates, not just sell them on us. (Think of the problems your agents have with buyers and sellers when they sell their clients before—or instead of—screening them: over-priced listings, no loyalty, no motivations for buyers to buy). We are about the only industry left that doesn’t use a planned interview process. No, we just sell, sell, sell—and end up hiring many agents who do not fit our culture, do not go to work, and do not respect us as a business. This may have worked short-term in the on fire market, but it just doesn’t work when we need real workers.
What the Business World is Doing to Sharpen its Recruiting Practices
I just heard of a new web-based program that asks questions of an interviewee, records the answers, and provides those answers to the company interviewing to take the place of the first interview. This saves the company time and personnel resources. Let’s apply that to real estate for a minute. What would you learn about that candidate if you weren’t in front of the candidate? If you couldn’t take part in the conversation? If you could listen carefully to the candidate’s answers? What would change in your selection process if you could play over and over again those answers, pretending you were a client? I believe brokers would initially hire less—but better. (Irony: Hiring better actually propels the hiring process into a realm where you do hire faster—but better!)
Recommendations:
Get and use a planned interview process.
Spend at least ½ of the time you have with a candidate asking questions and listening.
Ask the right questions (questions about their pasts). Practice those questions and keep a list of them in front of you.
Use the hiring ratios great companies use: Hire only one out of five candidates at minimum and one out of ten to create a quality company. Do these ratios this frighten brokers? Sure. It means we must become skilled recruiters. Businesses hiring service people use hiring ratios of one to twenty. Ask yourself: Would you hire a secretary with the interview-to-hire ratios you hire agents? Do your agents have as great an impact on the perception of your company from the public as do your staff?
Create a ‘mutual expectations’ dialogue to assure that agent sees the value in your training, coaching, and start-up plan. “You never have another chance to make a first impression” is the truism here.
How Tough are You?
Exercise to see how tough you really are: Write down the three most important actions you want that agent to take after you hire the agent. Now, evaluate those actions. Are they actions a successful agent would take, or are they squishy, lovely, stay-out-of-the-fray actions, like ‘attend meetings’? You’re either managing to the low producer or managing to the upward-bound producer. Which do your mutual expectations say you are managing to?
Leadership by the Month
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effective? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.
Managers: Here’s a ‘Whack Up the Side of the Head’
Posted by: | CommentsThis January and February, I’m featuring the topic ‘leadership’. Why? Because it’s one of the biggest real estate industry trends (and probably world trends) of 2012 and beyond. Look for leadership strategies and trends (not just in the real estate industry), plus ready-to-use documents to go from ‘maintenance management’ to leadership. And, check out my complimentary recorded webinar for leadership. See more below, too.
The market was on fire. To take advantage of that situation, the majority of brokers were hiring everyone that walked in the door They knew even the least dedicated agent could find a friend, a relative—a stranger—to sell a house. Most brokers considered the business as a ‘bigger is better’ proposition.
The ‘on fire’ agent mentality. Agents scoffed at the notion of business plans. They didn’t need business plans. They were too busy. They didn’t need training. Who needs training or coaching when buyers and sellers find them? In truth, there were plenty of opportunities to make money in real estate without much dedication, hard work, and skill required. So, that’s what brokers got: Lots of agents having happy ‘accidents’, not skilled, not very committed to the long term—but making some money.
Happy Sales Accidents Come to a Screeching Halt
Then, things changed. Those ‘fair-to-middlin’ agents having many happy ‘accidents’ in an on fire market weren’t really ‘fair-to’middlin’. In a more challenging market, their deficiencies showed up. They became one-to-two transaction agents who had a few lucky accidents and sold some houses. Even though we love to tell agents to create referral businesses, we would all agree that closing one to two transactions yearly will never create the critical mass needed to drive a referral business.
Agents reacted quickly to market change. Realizing that the market wouldn’t be so forgiving, agents found ‘real’ jobs. But, in most cases, they kept their licenses with the brokerage, hoping to run into someone with whom they could work. Some hoped that this was just a blip in the market and that the fire would rise from the ashes again soon.
Brokers less quick to adapt. While agents sought other jobs or relied on other sources of income, most brokers took no actions. So, brokers were left with half their office ‘checked out’. They languished about their work force. “How can we get them to work?” they asked. The answer is simple but not what brokers want to hear. Most agents who had a few happy accidents in the former market aren’t willing to lead generate to make sales.
Bottom line: What worked in an ‘on fire’ market just doesn’t work when the market isn’t ‘pushing’ sales.
Get Whacked and Make the Changes Needed to Profit
My dad used to say when my sister and I were behaving badly he thought we needed a ‘whack up the side of the head’. Don’t worry. He didn’t actually do it, but we did pay attention when he said it, because we knew it was time to stop, look, and listen—and change our behavior! It’s time, I think, for brokers to get that ‘whack up the side of the head’, too.
In my next few blogs, I’ll provide that ‘whack up the side of the head’ I believe we brokers need to move our businesses past ‘maintenance to leadership.
Gain Innovative Action Strategies
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effecctive? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.