In some ways, we all want things to stay the same.
 
We want the things that are working to keep working.
 
We want the people who are productive to stay on track and produce even more.
 
We want the systems we depend on to remain reliable.
 
But if you’ve been around long enough, you know the business and real estate world doesn’t allow us to indulge in this comfort.
 
It requires us to adjust or be left behind.
 
It also rewards those who recognize that the connection between people, systems, and opportunities needs constant adjustment.
 
It’s the reason the most successful business owners are always recruiting, regardless of market conditions.
 
They recruit to replace those who are paralyzed, uncommitted, and dragging down their team.
 
They recruit to find new talent who is better suited for the new systems they’re creating.
 
They recruit to keep competitors from employing the most talented agents in their marketplace.
 
It’s the shuffle that never ends, and those who are good at this part of the game create the most sustainable and profitable organizations.
 
As a veteran CEO told me over the break:   If you don’t get that real estate is about recruiting, you don’t get real estate.

Like previous years, the Recruiting Insight writing and editing staff will be taking a two-week break from publishing as we enter the holiday season.

We’ll restart publishing on Tuesday, January 3rd.

Thank you to all those who read, ask questions, and engage in the discussion. We learn much from this daily dialog, and we hope you do too.

If you feel like you need some Insight while we’re away, we’ve put together a couple of resources to tide you over until we return:

a.  Try reading the Top 25 Insights. This page contains our most read posts from the year.

b.  Try the Random Insight Button. After you click into any post on Recruiting Insight, you’ll see the “Random” button at the bottom of the post. Click this button and you’ll be served up some new Insight.

I wish each of you a safe and joyous holiday season, and hope you’ll get the opportunity to recharge, as well.

Yesterday, we discussed the importance of identifying a network of influencers who are willing to help recruit more effectively.

An influencer is someone who gives you inside information about what’s going on in the offices of your competitors.

Where do you find influencers? Here are a few sources:

Vendors. Think about who works with your business, but also works with competitors. For example, loan officers, title reps, warranty and insurance reps, staging consultants, and many more.

Vendors are often willing to talk about what is going on in the broader marketplace.

New Hires. When an agent comes over from a competitor, it’s a great time to ask: Is there anyone else in the group who is also unhappy?

To confirm (in their own minds) they made the right decision, new hires are often willing to reveal this information. If another agent joins your office, it confirms they did the right thing.

Competitive Agents. In a recruiting dialog, you may get to the point where your prospect makes it clear they are not ready be recruited.

At this juncture, you may want to say: I know the timing is not right for you, but is there anyone else in your company who may be frustrated and need to make a change?

A winsome hiring manager develops relationships with many influencers and then uses the information they provide to focus their recruiting efforts.

It’s the proactive way to be in the right place at the right time.

An influencer is someone who gives you inside information about what’s going on in the offices of your competitors.

Where do you find influencers? Here are a few sources:

Vendors. Think about who works with your business, but also works with competitors. For example, loan officers, title reps, warranty and insurance reps, staging consultants, and many more.

Vendors are often willing to talk about what is going on in the broader marketplace.

New Hires. When an agent comes over from a competitor, it’s a great time to ask: Is there anyone else in the group who is also unhappy?

To confirm (in their own minds) they made the right decision, new hires are often willing to reveal this information. If another agent joins your office, it confirms they did the right thing.

Competitive Agents. In a recruiting dialog, you may get to the point where your prospect makes it clear they are not ready be recruited.

At this juncture, you may want to say: I know the timing is not right for you, but is there anyone else in your company who may be frustrated and need to make a change?

A winsome hiring manager develops relationships with many influencers and then uses the information they provide to focus their recruiting efforts.

It’s the proactive way to be in the right place at the right time.

We all know it’s a bad idea to grocery shop when you’re feeling hungry.
 
Self-discipline and good judgement are set aside as your physical desires and emotions tell you to buy food to satisfy those short-term hunger pains.
 
In a recent podcast, Kevin Castle suggests many hiring managers make poor recruiting choices for the same reasons.
 
A short-term hiring need blinds them from recognizing and doing what’s best for the team.
 
How do you know if this is happening to you?
 
According to Kevin, you’ll…
 
Short-cut the interview/hiring process. Slowing down keeps you from making stupid mistakes.
 
Look for reasons to say yes. Overlooking red flags because the prospect has some compelling strengths is unbalanced.
 
Overlook cultural fit. Successful hiring managers ask for the opinion of others on the team. What do you think of this person?
 
To keep yourself from getting caught in this trap, do the hard work of creating and maintaining a large and vibrant recruiting database.
 
Poor prospects don’t look so great when you have lots of other choices.

The day-to-day work of recruiting can sometimes feel relentless.

How do you stay on track and not give up?

According to Rich Millington, connecting with a few close peers on the topic can really help.

Most communities (online or others) attempt to bring a large number of people together around a common topic of interest. This approach often doesn’t lead to meaningful interactions.

The real power of an online community is to help members establish a small peer group of individuals whom they want to impress and emulate.

They need to have a private place to engage with their peers, share advice, and have a mentor who can support them.

They need to make real and strong relationships by being encouraged to speak openly about their thoughts and feelings.

If you’re in the recruiting trenches, find a few others who are fighting the same fight.

Even a simple email or chat group could give you a place to share your struggles, ideas, and successes.

You’ll be surprised how these interactions will renew your energy and give you the strength to continue the fight.

In a recent Inman article, Mike Delprete makes the dire prediction that most brokerages are heading into a long, cold winter.
 
Declines in revenue are being driven by both market conditions and seasonality.
 
Many of the big brands are experiencing the largest declines in revenue along with the iBuyer companies who are fighting for their survival.
 
Buried in this depressing article was some good news for a certain company who is successfully bucking this negative trend.
 
Compared to last year, most brokerages experienced a significant revenue decline in Q3.
 
The exception is eXp, which is benefiting from tremendous growth in agent count, transaction volume and market share.
 
eXp’s year-over-year growth stands in notable contrast to industry heavyweights Anywhere and Compass, which both experienced year-over-year declines in revenue.
 
Mike confirms the age-old real estate principle: 
 
Transaction growth (especially during difficult times) is directly correlated to recruiting (i.e. increasing the number of agents on your team).
 
You can move the needle a small amount by increasing agent productivity, but the significant gains in transaction volume come from adding agents.
 
If you want to create your own silver lining to these dire predictions, focus time, effort, and resources on recruiting.
 
eXp is leading the way on a national level.

Who is going to lead the way in your local market?

According to researchers, the connection between social media activity (ex. someone liking something you post) and follow-on profit-generating outcomes is not very strong.
 
For traditional marketers, the profitable behaviors are actions, such as, getting a prospect to buy something or recommending a product to a friend.
 
For recruiting, the profitable behaviors are similar. A hire is the end goal but getting a prospect to refer you to someone else in their network is also helpful.
 
After five separate experiments involving thousands of subjects and prominent brands, researchers concluded:
 
By itself, the act of liking a [post in a social media venue]—requiring mere seconds of attention and, by design, one click of a button—may simply induce too weak a signal to modify behavior.
 
This doesn’t mean social media engagement is useless, but it was shown to be helpful only when it was followed-up by additional, actionable steps.
 
The actionable steps for a hiring manager can initially be small things like getting permission to follow-up later via email or agreeing to a scheduled call-back in a few weeks.
 
Eventually, live conversations (via phone, email, and text) and face-to-face meetings need to ensue to convert any social media goodwill into hire-producing activities.
 
The lead measure of recruiting will always be face-to-face appointments.
 
Your social media activities will only prove helpful if they’re supporting this objective.

A wide body of experimentation and research suggests that what the mind believes to be true is a very powerful thing.

And according to best-selling author Bruce Kasanoff, the same forces at work in a drug validation study have a profound effect on a person’s career.

Researchers have demonstrated you don’t need more training to be qualified for a promotion. You don’t need caffeine to wake up. You don’t need a good night’s sleep to feel rested. 

It just takes a credible researcher in a professional setting to tell you that you have what you need.

In essence, the placebo effect works because a patient believes something to be true based on the authority of the person in the white lab coat.

If you manage a real estate office or lead a team, this is a very important principle to understand.

Why? Because you’re the credible researcher in the professional setting!

This is not about tricking people; it’s about demonstrating the power of belief and using your authority to assist those under your care.

It’s your job to understand what your agents believe about themselves and their propensity for success.

If you neglect this responsibility, your agents will be left to listen to the random voices that speak into their lives.

While some of these voices might be positive and helpful, most of them will be negative and counterproductive.

The market is tough, and we’re entering the winter months.
 
Is this the advice you’re giving your agents right now?
 
I hope not.
 
A lack of prospecting is the cancer that kills an agent’s business.
 
Regardless of the circumstances or the time of year, it’s always appropriate for an agent to reach out to previous clients, those in their database, and others who are trying to make sense of the real estate market during turbulent times.
 
People want good information, and they need an expert to show them the way.
 
And now it’s time to drink you own Kool-Aid.
 
Everything you’re telling agents about prospecting also applies to you.
 
Experienced agents are asking:
 
If the market declines, how am I going to make up lost income?
 
Does my broker have the knowledge and experience to help me navigate the choppy waters ahead?
 
How am I going to pay my daughter’s tuition bill in January?
 
First get these questions answered for your own agents.
 
Then start answering these questions for your competitors’ agents.
 
The best recruiting happens when you’re solving problems and helping agents see the future.

Fear and anxiety have been washing across the real estate industry for the past few months.
 
Not a day goes by without a new article popping up telling us how things are going to get worse in the days ahead.
 
While these headlines are great click bait for the media companies, they don’t help you, your managers, and your agents make sense of the challenges they’re facing.
 
If you’re looking for a way to turn the fear and anxiety into something helpful, I would encourage you to take a few minutes to listen one of Dave Mashburn’s most popular podcasts (3 minutes).
 
This post from the archive has been widely shared among our readers since it was posted four years ago, and I’ve even shared it with my kids when they’re facing challenging circumstances.
 
It’s an important concept to add to your toolkit as a leader.

A few weeks ago, one of the hiring managers I coach reported his recruiting activity from the previous week.

I did not have any prospects remaining from our normal lead generation tactics, so I picked up the most recent agent awards list for our marketplace.

As I reviewed the list, I was looking for someone whom I knew professionally and who had some kind of recent connection to my office.

Bingo.  I recognized a high producer who recently had a transaction with one of my agents.

This would be my uncomfortable call for today.

Surprisingly, I caught her at just the right time. 

She had left her original company a year earlier when her team broke up, and she transferred to a new broker where she felt very isolated and alone. My value proposition was a perfect fit for her.

Long story short—we onboarded her earlier this week!

This manager received a huge payoff from a recruiting rule I’ve seen some of the highest performing recruiters follow:

Make at least one uncomfortable recruiting call each day.

Granted most calls will not produce such a remarkable result, but over time there are many positive benefits from executing this simple daily discipline.

Are you willing to make an uncomfortable call today?

In his bestselling book, James Heskett makes a compelling case for focusing much of your effort on talent acquisition and retention.

No matter what business you’re in, the only way to generate enduring profits is to begin by building the kind of work environment that attracts, focuses, and keeps talented employees.

Whether software designer or delivery truck driver, accountant or hotel housekeeper, the most valuable aspects of jobs are essentially the human tasks of sensing, judging, creating, and building relationships.

This means a great deal of a company’s value now lies between the ears of its employees.

When someone leaves a company, they take their value with them—more often than not, straight to a competitor.

As you put your plans together for 2023, make sure you’re putting the appropriate emphasis on recruiting and retention.

How?

Look at your schedule. The most effective hiring managers spend at least 20% of their week on recruiting.

Look at your expenses. One of our clients proactively schedules 12 retention events each year. The purpose of these events is to help agents maintain a connection to the office (and they are not cheap).

Look at your energy level. Are you dedicating the “best you” to recruiting and retention tasks? If these are being pushed to the bottom of your task list, your results will suffer.

Great results start with the right focus. Make sure talent acquisition tops your priorities both in planning and execution.

No, not really.
 
Who welcomes new prospects?
 
Who uncovers the hidden talents an individual possesses?
 
Who monitors the BS filter to exclude those who overstate their abilities?
 
Who guards the company culture and keeps us from hiring jerks?
 
Who inspires a new prospect to see possibilities and a new vision for their future?
 
Who helps a frustrated individual find solutions to the obstacles holding up the hiring process?
 
Who celebrates with the person who makes it across the finish line and starts a new career?

Systems, technology, and automation are all necessary and welcome additions to recruiting.
 
But, they can’t replace the organic touches needed to breathe life and energy into something that’s human by nature.