To establish recruiting goals for you and your team, it may be helpful to use the SMART goal framework developed by George Doran nearly 40 years ago.

This framework has been successful in all types of business applications, and it has withstood the test of time because it’s both simple and effective.

Here are the components of a SMART goal as it applies to recruiting:

Specific–target a specific metric (ex. hires) or a lead measure that will result in the desired outcome (ex. face-to-face appointments).

Measurable–select a metric that can be reliably measured. For example, it’s easy to tally the number of appointments you or your team have completed.

Achievable–select an aggressive objective that can be reasonably obtained by hard-working individuals with available resources.

Relevant–the goal should contribute to the overall success of the organization. For example, hiring a large number of low-quality agents to reach a hiring goal may not contribute to the profitability of the company or help you maintain a high-performing culture.

Time-related–specify when the result must be achieved by setting a deadline.

If you’re just starting to set goals, use this framework to guide your thoughts and ideas.

If you already have goals, use this framework to evaluate the effectiveness of your objectives.

This we know for sure—without smart recruiting goals your recruiting performance will suffer.

In a Real Trends article, Philip Gagnon discussed a survey done by the State University of New York about the reasons agents leave their brokerages.
 
One of the surprising findings in the research is the connection between retention and a toxic work environment.
 
Over 85% of agents surveyed reported that they have left a brokerage because the environment was toxic.
 
Many of the agents who did leave their brokerage reported they took a reduction in split to join a brokerage that did not have the toxic environment.
 
There are two lessons to capture from this survey.
 
Ask yourself about toxicity. Are you managing an office that has a toxic work environment? Is your team characterized by frequent drama and crisis management? Are you allowing bad actors to negatively define your culture?
 
If toxicity issues are left unaddressed, your agents will seek peace in other organizations.
 
Ask your recruiting prospects about toxicity. If toxicity and drama are rampant in the real estate industry, it’s likely a hot button for many prospects. Get in the habit of asking:
 
Do you feel you work in a toxic work environment? Do you feel like the drama in your office keeps you from becoming a better agent?
 
Establishing a refuge where agents can participate in a positive and supportive culture may be just the escape some of your prospects need to make progress in their career.

In a post from the archive, my son taught me an important lesson about recruiting while watching a fishing video years ago.
 
Dad, that looks like the most boring type of fishing I could possibly imagine!
 
It’s true. When salmon fishing in a river, the objective is to get your lure directly in front of a fish that really has very little interest in eating.
 
At this stage in their lifecycle, the fish are primarily focused on spawning.
 
So, unless you put something in front of their nose that is particularly annoying, the fish swim past without taking notice.
 
The same is true for recruiting.
 
The people who you’d most like to recruit are focused on doing their job and will not pay much attention to your recruiting efforts.
 
Success happens when you’re in the right place at the right time.
 
When a prospect gets upset by something in their current role and decides to leave their organization, they typically move to a broker who has systematically built trust and credibility with them over time.
 
As a fishing guide once told us:
 
This type of fishing is not difficult, and you will catch fish if you follow the system. The variables are not that complex. Just follow the system, and you’ll be successful.
 
Why don’t more managers execute recruiting like this?
 
Maybe they don’t like to be bored.

Yesterday’s post on the importance of self-awareness generated some additional questions on how to detect this trait during an interview.

Daniel Goleman’s research suggests that individuals with a high EQ will be able to…

a.  Speak accurately and openly about their strengths.
b.  Talk about their emotions and how they affect their work.
c.  Easily admit failures and limitations.

You could craft interview questions that try to get at these issues, but it still feels a little nebulous.

Here’s an easier way.

In a post from the archive, Dave Mashburn suggested this technique:

Ask the standard: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” question during the interview.

When the candidate talks about their weaknesses, follow-up with this question:

“What are some of the things you’ve done to improve your weaknesses?”

Or, “What’s your strategy for improving your __________ (earlier stated weakness)?”

This gets you past the canned answers and helps you discover if the candidate is working on getting better.

This information is important because a truly self-aware person wants to improve their weaknesses.

Regardless of how you get there, assessing for self-awareness is a key part of hiring, and you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you can find agents who have lots of it.

Daniel Goleman is best known for his classic book on emotional intelligence.
 
His research redefined what it meant to be “smart” in business roles where interacting with people was an important part of the job (pretty much every position in modern companies).
 
The first and most important component of Goleman’s emotional intelligence model is self-awareness.
 
He put emphasis on this capacity because he believed it profoundly contributed to a person’s success and served as a foundational building block for other capacities.
 
Subsequent research summarized in HBR backed up his hypothesis.
 
Research suggests that when we see ourselves clearly, we are more confident and more creative.
 
We make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.
 
We’re less likely to lie, cheat, and steal.
 
We are better workers who get more promotions.
 
And we’re more-effective leaders with more-satisfied employees and more-profitable companies.
 
If self-awareness is this critical to a person’s success, it should be something you’re evaluating in the recruiting process.
 
How? Most of it can be caught by just asking open-ended questions, active listening, and trusting what your gut is telling you.
 
But then go one step further and ask yourself this question at the end of the interview:
 
How would I rate this prospect’s self-awareness on a scale of 1 to 10? 
 
Those who score low on your scale will likely be your worst hires, regardless of how great they are in other areas.

As a manager, your success is measured by your big accomplishments.
 
These are both important business metrics (e.g., adding $10M in production to your office via recruiting) and relational objectives (e.g., my office is a place where agents can share openly and be vulnerable).
 
These big accomplishments don’t just materialize out of thin air.
 
They are the result of dozens of small actions each contributing to the objective.
 
Organizational consultants often call these micro-behaviors and advise managers to put their focus on these behaviors instead of the end result.
 
Why? Because behavioral change is incredibly difficult—both for you and for those you manage.
 
Setting and keeping a recruiting time block in your schedule is a good example of business metric micro-behavior.
 
A relational example could be starting each of your one-on-ones with a short personal time asking what’s going on in the lives of your agents.
 
Perhaps the person who told us to “not sweat the small stuff” was wrong.
 
When attempting to grow your office or team, it’s the small stuff that makes the big accomplishments possible.

When responding to an internet sales lead, you can’t move too fast.
 
Even waiting a few extra minutes often allows a competitor to slip in and hijack your opportunity.
 
Recruiting moves at a slower pace.  If you call prospects two minutes after they apply, you’ll probably weird them out!
 
It’s good to let some time pass, but not too much.
 
Here are some contact rules high-performing recruiters use for new-to-real-estate prospects:
 
Reply in Less Than 12: Reply to applicants/interested prospects within 1 to 12 hours after they apply.
 
Engage in Less Than 24: Engage applicants/interested prospects in live conversations within 24 hours after they apply.
 
Meet in Less Than 72: Meet face-to-face with qualified recruiting prospects within 72 hours after they apply.
 
Try following these rules for a couple of weeks and measure the change in your recruiting funnel.
 
You’ll not only see your funnel start to grow, but you’ll also find the quality of prospects start to increase.
 
Why? The most talented prospects respond to being treated professionally.

It may seem odd, but your success as a recruiter or hiring manager depends a lot on your likeability.
 
I see this play out frequently with the managers I coach—all else being equal, the popular managers recruit more and better agents.
 
Is recruiting success really governed by the same rules as a junior high social group?
 
This topic was addressed by Dave Mashburn in a podcast a few years ago.
 
Dave reminds us that the brain commonly uses fixed action patterns (rules of thumb) to make decisions, and likeability is one of those patterns.
 
Recruiting prospects can’t help but being attracted to and more easily persuaded by those hiring managers they like.
 
If you were one of the unpopular kids on the playground, don’t despair. I have some good news for you.
 
While conducting the research leading to this discovery, researchers also uncovered some simple things you can do to make yourself more likeable. Here is a quick list:
 
Give compliments. The easiest way to increase your likeability is to give others sincere compliments. It’s not that hard to find something nice to say.
 
Find common ground. People like those who are similar to themselves. If you’re not naturally similar to someone else, take the time to find and connect on some less obvious commonalities.
 
Cooperate towards a mutual goal. If your prospect’s goals become your goals, something magical happens. You suddenly become a valued partner who’s helping them succeed.
 
If you’re mindful of how you’re being perceived by others, you’ll increase your likeability and your recruiting success.

A while back, one of our highest performing clients revealed how he starts the new agent interview process.
 
When the recruiting prospect arrives, my assistant seats them in one of our small conference rooms.
 
She then gives them a folder of information and says, “Your hiring manager prepared this for you to look over for a few minutes, and he’ll be in shortly.”
 
This packet includes the start-up costs estimate, recruiting information for our company, how real estate agents get paid, our success rate of new agents, our market share graph, a separate local real estate market update, and our pre-listing package. 
 
This typically covers 90% of the questions an individual would normally ask during the interview. 
 
This package allows me to stay in control of the interview and not get sidetracked answering questions covered in the package.
 
The best interviews are those where the candidate does 70% or more of the talking. 
 
Top-notch interviewers don’t let themselves get sidetracked from this objective.

Technology solutions in the world of recruiting are seductive.
 
Your hopes of efficiently engaging thousands of people through email, social networks, or other online venues are often dashed.
 
Why? There is a huge chasm between someone seeing your employment brand and proactively contacting your company to talk about becoming an agent.
 
In one study conducted by a large recruitment vendor (discussed in a webinar, so I don’t have the reference), the typical conversion rates were revealed among the best insurance, services, and transportation companies in the country.
 
For every 1000 employment brand impressions:
 
8 – 10 prospects visited a career site or a landing page.
 
0.5 prospects applied (i.e., 1 apply out of 2000 impressions).
 
These conversion rates did not fluctuate much across companies or industries.
 
You can move the performance needle a little bit through good content, a compelling offer, and great execution–but not much.
 
Here are two takeaways from this data:
 
Financial metrics are important. Boil down every campaign or recruitment marketing initiative to a cost per engaged applicant. This is the metric that matters. It is also important to track advertising cost per hire.
 
An engaged applicant is valuable. When someone figuratively raises his/her hand and says, “I want to talk to you about working at your company,” drop what you’re doing, and quickly connect with this individual. This is where the return is realized.

I recently received this email from a high-performing hiring manager whom I coach:
 
This morning, I got a random phone call from an out-of-area prefix that I decided to answer.
 
It was an agent who was on a team and was not getting compensated fairly for the leads she was generating on her own.  She wanted to step out on her own.
 
Then she said something interesting: “I heard about your office from _______________.”  (It was another agent, and I didn’t recognize their name.)   
 
She went on to say that if she makes the change, three of her teammates would follow her because they needed more too.
 
The manager has since hired this agent ($4.4M producer), and there may be more coming.
 
Who was the mystery agent who referred the prospect? 
 
Turns out, it was a new agent prospect she had interviewed earlier in the year. 
 
The prospect was not a fit for this manager’s office (she was working part-time), but she remembered the amazing details of the office from the interview.
 
This is the best kind of experienced agent recruiting—you create something so remarkable that agents in the marketplace are talking about it.
 
How do you create this kind of buzz?  It comes from having a great value proposition and a culture that attracts your ideal prospect.
 
This hiring manager recruited over $20M in experienced agent production/year for the last two years, and she’s on her way to doing it again.

In a study conducted by a major career site, individuals were asked questions concerning how likely they were to stay in their current job, and what might get them to move.
 
94% of workers said they would immediately take their dream job if it became available.
 
This makes sense–who wouldn’t move to take their dream job?
 
But, the follow-on question (and answer) revealed something more surprising:
 
67% of workers said they would be willing to make a job change even if the new position was not ideal.
 
Loyalty doesn’t seem to run very deep.
 
If you’re an experienced agent recruiter or hiring manger, this is positive news.
 
This research may not translate to the real estate industry in every way, but it says something about human nature and loyalty.
 
If a similar study was conducted with real estate agents, it would likely reveal a large percentage of agents are somewhat susceptible to changing companies.
 
Like in this study, it would also show that what you’re offering as an alternative doesn’t have to be ideal.
 
It just needs to be good enough to address some of the frustrations they’re experiencing.

Working as a real estate agent is like starting your own business.
 
This is a phrase frequently used by real estate recruiters and hiring managers to describe the reality of starting a real estate career.
 
Part of your job is to make that reality sound interesting, doable, and fun.
 
To build your case, you may want to reference the research the Chamber of Commerce compiled on why individuals choose to start businesses.
 
There are lots of amazing facts documented in the research. Here are my four favorites:
 
Lots of people own small businesses. There are almost 33 million small businesses in the US and over 19 million are home-based/self-employed with no additional payroll or employees (most real estate agents would fit this category).
 
Many people work in small businesses. About 46% of the working population (61 million individuals) works in a small business.
 
Over one million new businesses get started each month. By contrast, the “new jobs” added to the economy by traditional employers are typically 25% of this number. It may be a crazy thing to do, but a lot of people are starting businesses!
 
Most businesses don’t have employees. Approximately 70% of all U.S. businesses (small or otherwise) are non-employer businesses. This is how most real estate agents function. The average income for self-employed owners of small businesses is $51,816 per year.
 
Your recruiting success depends on how you frame the discussions with your prospects.
 
So be ready to make the case that smart, capable individuals start businesses.

If someone is in your recruiting database and you haven’t connected with the person in a while, here is a quick text that will help break the ice:
 
Hey {insert name}, you just popped up in my head, so I figured I should say hello and check-in. How are things? How did {insert activity/project/trip/event/hiring/} work out? Anything you need right now? Hope you’re well, but if there are any little or big stresses I can help with, let me know.
 
This script works because it’s warm, it references something you previously talked about, and it focuses on their needs.
 
It’s also a low-key way to access their state of state of mind by asking about their stresses.
 
If someone is stressed, they may open-up to you and share their concerns.
 
If they’re not stressed, you should be able to tell from the tone of their response.
 
If they don’t respond, assume they were busy and didn’t have time to respond.
 
Recruiting is often a game of showing concern for others and catching someone at that moment when they are vulnerable.

Yesterday, we discussed how a hard-charging, close-them-quickly recruiting mindset often incites the psychological immune system in your recruiting prospects.
 
Once activated, prospects will subconsciously resist future contact and engagement.
 
So, what do you do instead?
 
The best recruiters are empathetic and sense when someone needs space to process options at their own pace.
 
And they focus on these two activities to avoid pushing their prospects to close:
 
Maintain a full recruiting pipeline. If you have lots of opportunities, you’ll be less tempted to manipulate. You’re tempted to push from a mindset of scarcity.
 
Consistently deliver value-added follow-up.  Diligent follow-up focuses on making your prospect’s life a little better today. With this foundation, they’ll start to believe you can make their life a lot better in the future by working with you.
 
There’s certainly a time and place to close an interview, but it’s usually after you’ve done the hard work of building trust.
 
That takes time.