Archive for interviewing
The Five Interview Questions You Need to be Ready to Answer
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Here are the five questions you need to be prepared to answer. They probably aren’t the questions you’ve anticipated.
I’ve just finished my new book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School. It addresses every question I’ve been asked by the hundreds of would-be agents I’ve interviewed.
Agents Get Many Misperceptions about the Business
I know. As an interviewer, you want to sell your company, your office, and yourself. That’s fine. But, many would-be agents draw the wrong conclusions from those sales pitches. They get the idea that real estate is easy. They hear they are special. They assume they will make gazillions of bucks–just like they see in those reality TV shows. Plus, they get information from other sources: Their agent friends, their other friends, etc. The result is that they go into the business with rose-colored glasses. That’s why it’s estimated that over half of all agents who enter the business in any given year are out of the business by the end of that year.
Agents Need to Look Behind the Curtain
Besides the sales presentations, would-be agents need a full picture of the business, so they can make good decisions. In my Launching book, I give would-be agents the facts about real estate sales. I provide them self-analysis tools so they can find out if they are good candidates for this business. In addition, I give them the five most important questions they should ask their interviewer. Here they are:
Figure_9.6_The_Five_Critical_Questions_to_Ask_cropped
Are you asking these questions? How can you prepare for these questions?
Get Ready to Provide the Proof
Throughout the book, I advise these candidates to ask for proof of claims. They hear:
“Our training program is great.”
“You can make lots of money here.”
“We provide leads.”
“Our new agents make money fast.”
Instead of accepting these statements, I advise interviewees to ask to see outlines, schedules, and statistics. You will stand out if you can verify your sales statements with the facts.
Try This Recruiting Tool and Hire More Winners
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Try this recruiting tool and hire more winners.
Successful recruiting and selection depends on your forming a trusting relationship with your candidate. Here’s one way to do that. Plus, the bonus: You’ll prepare those great potential agents to sell fast, because they will hit the ground running.
Managers: Your new agents wait to start training until AFTER they join an office. Why? Think how much faster they could go if they had lots of the organization and training under their belts prior to their first day in the business? Okay. I know. Until they are licensed, they can’t do the things licensed agents can do. But, they can do many things. And all those things get them ready to hit the ground running. At the end of this blog, I’m providing you my checklist, 30 Things to Do Right Now to Hit the Ground Running, from my new eBook, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
New Agents Lose Lots of Time Because They are Not Prepared to Start the Business
New agents generally spend the first 1-2 weeks or more getting ‘oriented’. Brokers have checklists to assure they get their keys, join the Realtor association, etc., etc., etc. How long do you estimate it takes the new agent just to get those orientation checklists finished? 2-4 weeks? In some cases, they never finish them!!!!! Not only that, they probably think that finishing those checklists assures they are going to be successful agents. Ha!
When Do New Agents Plan to Start Lead Generating?
My studies show that the majority of new agents want to make a sale their first month in the business. That means they will need to start lead generating their first WEEK in the business! From hiring and training hundreds of new agents, I’ve observed they put off the inevitable (lead generation) as long as possible, hoping ‘there’s another way!’ In fact, the more ‘get ready to get ready’ work new agents doing, the worse their habits become and the less money they make.
A Better Method to Get a Check Fast
Instead of waiting until new agents are are licensed, why not get them prepared to sell real estate while they are in pre-license school? These eager beavers can do things like
- Decide on the database/CRM they want to use and learn how to use it–with your guidance
- Populate their databases with 100-300 potential clients
- Prepare an email/hard copy note/letter/social media announcement to all those in their databases saying they’ve joined_____________ real estate company
How this Helps You Recruit
You will
- Form unbreakable relationships from helping great candidates through this checklist
- Be able to see if your candidate goes to work and is serious about a career in real estate
- Develop a great program to prove to would-be agents you are the best choice (keep the statistics and show how much faster these agents make a sale after licensing)
30 Things to Do While in Pre-License School
Even though I call this a ‘checklist’, it’s much more than that. It’s really a mini-training program. You can use my eBook, Launching Right in Real Estate as a reference to help agents through the program.
Proof
How do I know this program achieves the three goals I stated above? I used it as a manager. I saw how some people went to work. These same people literally ‘hit the ground running’ and made sales faster than those who waited until they got their licenses.
Click here to gain my checklist. Let me know how it works for you.
Your Crystal Ball: Three Ways to Determine if They Will Make it As Agents
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Do you feel like you need a crystal ball when you’re interviewing? We may think we’re good at picking winners, but, the statistics say we….well, I’m going to say it–we suck.
How do I know? I see the retention statistics in real estate offices. I just spoke with an agent who told me they were hiring lots of people. That was true. However, out of the 150 people they hired last year, only 40 are still with them. Sounds like a lot of work for little reward.
Three Ways to Predict if They will Succeed
- They let you lead the interview
Don’t you love it when that would-be agent wants in, and immediately tries to grab the conversation? Usually that person opens with, “What are you going to give me?” Or, I want a special deal.” There are two problems here. The first problem is that they asked for a special deal and you don’t even know who they are. After having interviewed thousands of would-be agents, I’ve concluded that the ‘importance posturing’ is just that. The second problem is that they aren’t letting me lead the interview process. If they won’t let me lead now, are they trainable? My experience is that they are not trainable. They know what they know and they defend it to the death.
2. They demonstrate the qualities you want with ‘past-behavior’ questions
Frequently, interviewers ask ‘future-based’ questions, like, “If you were ever in a situation where you had to lie, would you?” Well, of course, the candidate has the ‘right’ answer ready for you. Avoiding any future-based questions is one of the keys to choosing the right interview questions to review what you want to learn. Instead of those future-based questions, learn to ask ‘past-based behavioral predictors’. In the next blog, I’ll explain these questions. In short, these questions revealed how the candidate acted in the past. The truism is
we behave in the future as we behaved in the past.
3. They demonstrate, through their actions, they possess the qualities and skills you want.
Few interviewers decide in advance the qualities and skills they want in an agent. If you haven’t done that, do it now. Rate them in order of importance. Now, create questions (past-based), that will reveal to you whether the candidate has the qualities and skills you want.
In my new book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They don’t Teach You in Pre-License School, I give would-be agents the qualities will-be successful agents possess. I also provide them some questionnaires to help them determine whether they have those qualities.
Here’s my list:
What’s your list? What questions do you have that indicate whether the candidate has the qualities you’ve observed show they will make in the real estate business?
Interview Time Saver: Questionnaire on Your Ideal Job
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Interview time saver: Use this self-analysis tool.
Having interviewed at least hundreds of would-be agents, I know that they really don’t want to be interviewed. They want information. So, I used to spend hours educating them. That is, until I figured out that shouldn’t be my job. But, somebody has to, right? That’s why I wrote Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
Pre-qualifying Tools for You
When I wrote the book, I was thinking of those hundreds–or thousands–or hours I spent, and how futile that was. Why? Because the majority of those people either wouldn’t go into real estate or weren’t serious about making it a career. Was I naive? Sure. Did I do a poor job of screening? Yes. But, that’s how I learned to provide the information would-be agents need, and the self-screening tools to help them make the best decisions for them.
Help Them Choose the Best Job for Them
One of the pre-qualifying tools I created for the Launch book is called ‘What’s Your Ideal Job’? This helps people clarify what they really want. It also opens the door for you to probe further to find out what’s really on their minds.
Make your Career Night Stand Out
Most career nights are simply sales jobs. The speaker tries to convince everyone to join the company. And, these speakers are good salespeople! So, many people go into real estate sales who really shouldn’t be there. That’s one of the reasons we have those high turnover rates. Using the self-analysis tools in the Launch eBook for your Career Nights will help you screen people properly–and will help them separate the myths from the truths about selling real estate.
The Self-Analysis Tool: What’s Your Ideal Job?
Use this in your Information Package and/or Career Nights. Let me know how it works for you. Here’s to an effective, time-saving process for pre-screening your candidates.
Figure_1.1_Your_Ideal_Job-with-referenceCareer Night Strategy: A Great Way to Involve Your Attendees and Recruit More Winners
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Holding career nights is one of the lead generating methods recruiters use to find great recruiters. But, too many career nights sound the same: Sales spiels of the company and how great the company is. After while, it’s not believable. Instead, why not use some methods to involve attendees and help them self-select for real estate.
Hiring Someone Who Won’t Contribute Doesn’t Help You
First, before I show you my quick questionnaire of self-analysis, let me ask you: Do you want to hire anybody, just to have a body? I know. Managers tell me they are careful who they hire. Yet, 50-75% of their hires fail in the first year. How does that compare with retention rates of other businesses? Not so good–in fact, it’s pathetic…..
What Do You Gain with High Turnover?
Well, you do gain bodies and momentum for a short time. You gain bragging rights. Maybe you even gain market share–at least agent market share. And, it takes some time to see what you are losing. So, what do you lose?
- Your good agents–they don’t want to work with non-producers
- Your staff–they burn out trying to help those who won’t go to work
- Your bottom line–your expenses go up, without profit coming in
- Your position in the market–you become the place to go where people don’t work
Help Them Screen Themselves Before they Enter Real Estate
I’m just finishing my book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School. In it, I’ve put several self-analysis tools to help those interested people decide whether they will love real estate, are willing to do the work, and what it takes to succeed. Here’s one of those analysis tools:
Figure_1.2_Self-Analysis_Attributes_for_SuccessMake Your Career Night Stand Out: Be the Counselor, not the Salesperson
Most people who hold career nights act like super salespeople, and they may be. But, just selling someone on something without interviewing them is against all the sales principles we use today. Why not follow the guidelines of principles sales, and inform, educate, and counsel. You’ll stand out as a quality company who upholds its values and chooses wisely. Great recruits will appreciate your approach.
Let me know how this self-analysis works for you.
Be Prepared! Five Questions Every Candidate Should Ask
Posted by: | CommentsHere are the questions I think are most important for a would-be or transferring agent should ask their interviewers.
Unfortunately, the interview process is not as practiced or prepared by either party as it could be. So, the interviewer doesn’t find out critical information from the candidate, and the candidate asks a few general questions. I hate to say this, but some interviewers spend most of the time selling the candidate on the benefits of that particular company. Candidates get excited and join–and then find out there’s more to the story.
Any Surprises Should be Good Ones
It’s very dis-enheartening when the agent new to an office finds out that something he heard–or assumed–was not exactly what he found after being hired. Guard against that by fully informing that would-be agent prior to hiring. The only surprises the agent should get are good ones!
It’s a Retention Issue
I don’t think we in real estate appreciate how important our approach to interviewing and onboarding is to retention. According to a recent business onboarding survey, the majority of those new to companies (all companies, not just real estate), decide in the first 30 days whether they want to stay with the company. It pays to be fully transparent and consistent, from that first interview, through onboarding, and into training.
Those Questions Candidates Should Ask
Here are the questions, excerpted from my new eBook, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-LIcense School.
Figure_9.6_The_Five_Critical_Questions_to_Ask_croppedWhat do you think I’ve missed with this critical list of questions?
P. S. Launching Right in Real Estate has 77 questions or categories for candidates to choose from, to assure they get the information they need to make the right choices for them.
Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
New! For Your Career Nights
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Here’s something to put new energy and interest into your Career Nights.
In my new book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School, I provide several self-analysis tools so people can make the decision that’s right for them. Unfortunately, often would-be agents are not informed. Instead, they’re sold. They get excited about real estate as a career, see the ‘easy money’, and think it’s for them. Not so fast. Selling real estate can be a wonderful career for the right person. And, it’s the wrong career for some people, too.
Put the Selling Aside and Let Attendees Discover
Unfortunately, Career Nights can dissolve into sales pitches. Instead, give some time to helping attendees discover whether they are right for real estate.
Use this quick questionnaire help attendees rate themselves in the qualities that make agents successful.
Take the Questionnaire Yourself. How Many Threes Did You Give Yourself?
You can rate yourself from “3”, which means you rate yourself as having lots of that quality, to a “1”, meaning you have not so much.
Congratulations! Every ‘3’ represents a quality that successful agents exhibit. Here’s what I mean.
#1. Successful agents get up in the morning and start their day in a productive way. They have a great deal of self-discipline. No one has to kick them out of bed or tell them to get to work.
#2. Successful agents finish the job, even if it takes them 12 hours that day. Unsuccessful agents great selling real estate like a 9-5 job. Doesn’t work with clients!
#3. Successful agents don’t shy away from challenges. They’re always learning and striving.
#4. Successful agents don’t wait for someone to invite them. They organize, motivate, and inspire!
#5. Successful agents have a great belief in their abilities to succeed, even when others don’t.
#6. Successful agents always keep their promises; clients can count on them.
#7. Successful agents are ‘learning based’. They don’t believe their training is over after that initial office training!
#8. Successful agents love accomplishing things. That’s their motivation–not just the money.
#9. Successful agents learn to handle the great deal of rejection we get in this business. They’re very tough-minded.
#10. Successful agents are willing to jump off the high diving board without gathering every bit of information available anytime.
What’s a Trait of Successful Agents I didn’t mention?
Let me know what I missed. There are a myriad of qualities and traits successful agents exhibit each day. Also, let me know how this energizes and changes your Career Nights so they stand out from the others.
Behaviors that Successful Agents Exhibit
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What are behaviors that #successful agents exhibit? What are the #attributes of successful real estate agents?
Make your list here. Now, compare it to the behaviors I listed in my book I wrote to educate prospective real estate agents.
What They May Exhibit that will Assure Failure
It may be easier to make a list of the behaviors that assure someone won’t make money fast enough in our competitive, self-starting business:
- Never had a job until mid-twenties.
- Still lives at home.
- Doesn’t have to make a living.
- Has never taken initiative to try something new.
- Hates having to reach out to talk to people.
- Loves technology; fears people.
- Has had 7 jobs in 7 years.
- Doesn’t believe in having to learn from someone or be led.
- Gives up easily.
What should I add to that list?
How to Use this Information in the # Real Estate Interview Process
Are you familiar with behavior-based questions? They are questions that ask a person about his past behavior. Why? Because past behavior determines future behavior. (Not always, just 95% of the time. Do you like those odds?) I don’t mean that what someone does specifically determines she will do that again. This is what I mean:
As you listen to a person tell a story about his past, listen for themes that run through the story. For example: One of the behaviors good agents exhibit is tenacity. They just don’t give up. They accept rejection and keep going. If someone or something is difficult, they wade through it.
The question: Think of a time in your life when you thought of giving up–a time when you really wanted something, but getting it seemed difficult or out of reach. Describe what happened.
Don’t interrupt. Don’t ask another question. Just hum, agree, or probe. Find out all you can about that story. As you listen, ask yourself:
Does that person have enough ________________ to be a success in real estate?
Your turn. Look at my list of behaviors. What should I add?
I’m updating my book for prospective agents. Please help me create a book that’s different, insightful, and helpful to both the prospective agent and the manager/interviewer. Thank you!
What Should An Agent Know Before Committing to Real Estate?
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What should an agent know before committing to real estate as a career?
After interviewing dozens of would-be agents, I had compiled a stack of paper that I handed out to interviewees. I was trying to educate them so they could make a good career decision. One day, one of my recent recruits said, “You should put that in a book.” So, I did. Now, I’m creating a new edition of the book. I’ve renamed the book
Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
What should be in the book? What’s most important for that would-be agent to know? What mistakes do would-be agents make in choosing companies? What could I add to make
Saving Management Time
From all those interviews, I found I wasn’t really interviewing. I was educating. What could I include in the book that would save you interview time, and prepare the candidate for a real interview?
What misconceptions do would-be agents bring into the business that cause them to start slowly or fail?
Blast-Off for Launching Right
I’m planning on having the edits done by Dec. 1, so the eBook will be available a few weeks after that. Please add your experience and expertise so I know the contents will be useful to real estate managers.
Just leave me a comment and contribute to our industry. Thank you!
What Magic Johnson Can Teach Us About Business–and Life
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I can’t do it. It’s someone else’s fault. If only….I’ll never be able to. I tried that once. It didn’t work. It won’t work for me. Give me (you fill in the blanks) or else I can’t succeed.
You’ve heard all these reasons why someone can’t succeed. (Makes me depressed just reading this list.) So, it’s refreshing to hear someone speak about how to succeed—with no excuses. I don’t mean that we all don’t at times need a hand up. But, those are the few times. They don’t become our mantra.
I just watched a video where a UPS executive interviewed Magic. Here are some of Magic’s insightful comments.Dream it First to Live It
At age 16, Magic was a janitor while in school. He would go sit in the CEO’s chair and pretend he was the CEO; giving orders, making decisions, acting like a CEO. He said he always wanted to be an entrepreneur, not just a basketball player. Look what happened.
What are you dreaming?
On Not Giving Up
As Magic transitioned from famous, successful pro basketball player to businessman, he thought his fame would magically open doors and make him successful. He found it opened doors (they all wanted to meet him), but, it didn’t get him the funding he needed to expand his business. He was turned down ten times before a bank took a chance on him.
How tenacious are you?
Network and Lead Generate and Learn
Magic wanted to find out what was important to prominent people. He got the list of Lakers season ticket holders, and called up to 50 a day. Many met with him, and several became investors with him.
Are you lead generating with tenacity?
Tailor to your Target
Magic was an early investor in Starbucks, and has over 125 Starbucks locations today. He met with Howard Schultz, the founder and then president, and told him he needed to tailor his Starbucks businesses to his clientele. You can imagine where Magic wanted to place his Starbucks. He told Mr. Schultz he didn’t want that music that was in most Starbucks stores. He wanted Michael Jackson, Beyonce, etc. He didn’t want scones. You get the picture.
Are you targeting your marketing to your audiences?
Hire and Work with the Best
Magic says, if you find great talent, you don’t need to micro-manage them. This comes from his experience as a basketball player.
Are you affiliating with the best? Do you need to ‘up your game’ interviewing?
Shine Your Light on Others to Succeed
As you help others succeed, you’ll succeed. Magic says his reason for being in business is to help others. He’s helped thousands of minority business people launch businesses. This comes, too, from his experience as a basketball player. His mentoring others resulted in more success for everyone.
Are you providing a hand up to qualified, determined talent?
Learn from Everyone
Magic believes everyone has something he can learn from. He values each person and seeks their contributions. He says he loves to learn and he’s constantly learning.
Are you learning from those you’re around?
Add Value
Magic believes the secret of business success is to add value. When he meets with someone, he thinks about how he can add value for that person.
Are you adding value to those you work with, coach, or teach?
Does your Interview Process Need Polishing?
Check out this system for selecting winners. Save time, money, and training. See it here.