A busy real estate manager is under constant attack from the urgent needs of clients, agents, and staff members who want their problems solved.

While problem solving is important, it must be prioritized behind the proactive work of recruiting and retention if you hope to grow your team.

Real estate managers often tell me: In the heat of the moment, it’s hard to make the right decisions that allow me to focus on proactive work.

Here is a simple growth hack from Peter Drucker on this topic:

Most executives had learned that what one postpones, one usually abandons.

When someone comes to you and wants their problem solved, pushing it off until later in the afternoon or the next day will frequently cause the issue to evaporate.

Why? The person with the urgent request will usually either find someone else to solve the problem, solve it themselves, or realize it doesn’t need to be solved.

Delaying problems is not the same as ignoring problems.

If a problem is still an issue a day from now, it probably does need some of your attention.

Using this approach will take courage because the priority-wreckers are used to getting your immediate attention.

But it must be done.

Could agents be saved if you were given enough warning of the impending departure?
 
In many cases, yes, but only if you have enough time (usually several weeks) to solve problems and address issues that are causing the disillusionment.
 
So how do you get advanced notice that someone is going to leave your organization?
 
In a post from the archive, researchers at the Huntsman School of Business found that disengagement from the team was the leading indicator someone was going to leave the organization.
 
Here are a few examples of subtle but consistent behavioral changes people often make in the one to two months before they leave their job:
 
1. They offer fewer constructive contributions in meetings.
 
2. They are more reluctant to commit to long-term projects.
 
3. They become more reserved and quieter.
 
4. They are less interested in advancing in their careers.
 
5. They are less interested in pleasing their manager than before.
 
6. They avoid social interactions with their manager and other members of the executive team.
 
7. They suggest fewer new ideas or innovative approaches.
 
8. They begin doing the minimum amount of work needed and no longer go beyond the call of duty.
 
9. They are less interested in participating in training and development programs.
 
10. Their work productivity starts going down.
 
If agents are demonstrating at least six of these behaviors, there is an 80 percent chance they’re on their way out.
 
The first step is recognizing the signs of disengagement. Next, take quick action to uncover the underlying dissatisfaction.

It’s no secret that inflation has infected our economy and prices are going up in all areas.
 
But according to labor market economist Andrew Flowers, the recruiting industry has been especially hard hit.
 
Three overarching factors explain why it has become a lot more expensive to acquire talent:
 
1. A tsunami of demand for workers across every industry. At this time last year, job openings surpassed the all-time high set in late 2018. And then proceeded to rise another 47%, peaking at over 11 million.
   
2. Job seekers are choosier and empowered with options. There remains 5.6 million people who say they want a job but are not actively searching for one.
  
3. Inflation is disproportionally affecting online advertising. For the 10 years prior to January 2021, online advertising costs had declined by 34% due to efficiencies and competition. But last spring, costs began to surge due to demand. Online advertising prices are now up 26% from a year ago.
 
Recruitment marketing is a subset of online advertising, but these trends still apply or worsen because of the tight labor market and choosy job seekers.
 
If you’re going to dip your toe into recruitment marketing, plan ahead and keep tight cost controls on your advertising budgets.
 
The online advertising vendors are experts at draining your account if you’re not paying attention.

Individuals with entrepreneurial tendencies usually make good real estate agents.
 
Yesterday, I identified four traits to help you quantify this nebulous idea.
 
With this information, it’s easier to develop a set of open-ended interview questions designed to uncover these characteristics.
 
So how do you ask these questions?
 
Avoid questions like: Do you feel you’re trustworthy?  
 
It’s not open-ended and gives your agenda away in asking it this way.
 
Instead, use questions like:
 
Wow, in your current job you seem to have adapted to several challenging circumstances. What are some other situations in your life where you had to adapt quickly?
 
Once they share a couple stories (that you’ve guided them to share), you can close this portion of the dialog with a comment like this:
 
Based on what you shared, you seem to be a very adaptive person. This is very interesting because most of our high-performing agents have this trait as well.
 
Connecting their stories to the traits of your agents creates a perception of fit.
 
And this is the goal of every interview.

If you had to boil the real estate agent position down to one trait that predicts whether a person will be successful, what trait would be at the top of your list?
 
For many of the real estate hiring managers, it’s being entrepreneurial.
 
Podcaster Summer Suleiman recently shared some ideas on how to recognize this trait in the prospects you’re evaluating. Here are some of my notes on the topic:
 
They’re persistent. Launching a business is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires stamina, and while some ideas work, more often they don’t. Look for the pattern of try, fail, and try again.
 
They’re adaptive. Successful entrepreneurs are willing to quickly try a different approach when something isn’t working.
 
They’re confident. Every successful entrepreneur who built a great enterprise started with a crazy idea. This attitude (believing in a possibility) is the foundation for those who are successful.
 
They’re trustworthy. The success of an entrepreneur often hinges on building trust. Those who are investing in a new business bet on individuals who are trustworthy and first-time clients do the same.
 
If a person possesses these traits, it will typically show up in their background and work history.
 
During your interviews, ask open-ended questions designed to uncover what may not be obvious—both to you and the person you’re interviewing.

In a recent interview promoting his new book, Tony Robbins said: Just thinking positive is B.S.
 
It’s a clickbait headline for sure, but it shows Robbins realizes something researchers have known for years. 
 
Positive thinking often backfires when it’s used as a strategy to achieve success.
 
For example, one study demonstrated how positive thinking led post-college job seekers to fewer job interviews, less job offers, and lower salaries.
 
In another study, students who fantasized were less likely to ask their romantic crushes on a date and more likely to struggle academically.
 
In a third study, hip-surgery patients recovered more slowly when they dwelled on positive thoughts of walking without pain.
 
What gives? Why is positive thinking often connected with negative results?
 
More study may need to be done on this topic, but the two most common hypotheses on why this happens are:
 
Less Preparation. Ceaseless optimism about the future only makes for a greater shock when things go wrong; by fighting to maintain only positive beliefs about the future, the positive thinker ends up being less prepared, and more acutely distressed.
 
False Feeling of Working Towards Goals. Positive fantasies hamper progress and dull the will to succeed. Imagining a positive outcome just conveys the sense that you’re approaching your goals, which takes the edge off the need to achieve.
 
So, now that everyone is depressed, what does work? 
 
Some of the more traditional ideas like hard work, tenacity, and a focus on doing whatever it takes to accomplish the goal.
 
This is what some researchers call grit. If you’d like to learn more about this concept, read this post from the archive over the weekend.

Many of you are familiar with Brian Buffini’s classic elevator pitch:
 
If you were going to buy or sell a house, or had a friend or family member who was going to buy or sell a house, do you have an agent you would refer them to?
 
Most people say no and then you reply: I’d like to be that person. Here’s my card.
 
The agent then puts the new contact into their database and starts marketing to them, providing them things of value, and building a relationship.
 
The same approach can be used to build a recruiting database.
 
If you connect with a competitive agent over the phone or at a networking event, try closing the conversation with a similar question:
 
I know you’re probably happy with [their current company]. But if you someday got to the place where you needed to change offices, do you have a place in mind?
 
I’d like to be that place. Do you mind if we stay in contact?
 
If you’re adding a couple of these agents to your recruiting database each week, you’ll build the necessary foundation to produce a consistent flow of experienced agent recruiting leads.

If you have a headache, you can take ibuprofen to alleviate the pain.
 
But the pain is not being caused because your body is lacking enough ibuprofen.
 
There is an underlying cause of the pain. It might be you’re dehydrated or didn’t get enough sleep last night.
 
When recruiting, many hiring managers offer quick fixes intended to relieve symptoms.
 
Prospect: My current broker doesn’t provide leads…
 
Hiring Manager: We can provide you leads… (under their breath–for a fee and they won’t be very good quality) 
 
This approach doesn’t address the underlying problem.
 
Why is the prospect lacking leads? Have they built a database? Are they doing activities to generate leads on their own? Why are people not referring business to this person?
 
The most effective recruiters go after the underlying causes of the pain.
 
They act more like health/wellness coaches and less like doctors.

A powerful recruiting brand helps prospects opt-out of the recruiting process when they don’t fit the position or the culture.
 
Your ideal agent recruiting profile should build upon this idea.
 
The first step is defining what you want, but don’t stop there.
 
Also define and list the characteristics you’re not willing to accept. Here are a few of examples:
 
New Agents:
 
I’m looking for new agents who will quickly transition to working full-time.
 
I won’t accept agents who are planning to sell real estate part-time.
 
I’m looking for new agents who have an established sphere of influence in the community.
 
I won’t accept agents who have been living in the community less than a year.
 
Experienced Agents:
 
I’m looking for agents who are completing 8-12 transactions/year and want to scale to 20+ transactions.
 
I won’t accept agents who are completing less than 5 transactions/year.
 
I’m looking for agents who are individual contributors and want to use our support systems to grow.
 
I won’t accept agents who are planning to build a team inside my brokerage.
 
Sometimes it’s easier to quickly recognize what won’t work.
 
From there, you can focus more effort and attention on those who have a higher probability of succeeding.

It’s conference season in the real estate industry again, and it may be the first conference you’ve attended in a couple of years due to Covid.
 
Out of practice? In a post from the archive, Dave Kerpen provides a quick checklist of some things you can do to get back in the groove before heading out.
 
1) Research speakers and attendees ahead of time and reach out. A week or two before the conference, look at the speaker list and the attendee list. Research the people you’d most like to meet and spend time with while you’re there.
 
2) Use social media to connect with and compliment the speakers. Do you want to connect with a speaker? One of the best ways to grab a speaker’s attention is to engage with them on social media before the conference, and pay them a genuine compliment before or during the speech.
 
3) Skip a panel or two and hang out in the break room. As valuable as the content of a conference may be, if you’re there to meet people, it can be more valuable to hang out outside the panels, in the break room, trade show floor, or by the coffee or snacks.
 
4) Forget just giving out business cards–collect them. Ask each person you meet for his/her card- and then, connect with them on LinkedIn – either after the conference, or right then and there.
 
5) Ask meaningful questions of the people you meet. Ditch the small talk and ask better questions, such as “What are hoping to learn while you’re here?”, “Who at this conference would you most like to be connected with?”, and  “How can I help you?”  You’ll get people talking about what they care about and form more meaningful relationships faster.
 
It may feel a little odd now, but the best relationships are built and maintained in person. Let’s step-out and make it happen again.

Contrary to what you sometimes hear, compensation is the most important consideration when younger workers evaluate employment options.
 
According to columnist Michael Puck:
 
Next-generation workers are not prioritizing work/life balance, good managers, flexibility, and engaging work above pay. 
 
More than half (59%) of Gen Zers say that pay is the most important consideration when applying for their first full-time job.
 
While reporters love to focus on generational differences, this trend was showing up in all parts of the workforce after wages started rising a couple of years ago.
 
In light of this reality, you should develop a coherent plan for talking about compensation with your recruiting prospects. Here are some items your plan should include.
 
A description of what you offer and what it’s worth. Unless you’re the cheapest option in your marketplace, you’re offering something in exchange for higher splits and/or fees. Outline the value of what you offer.
 
An understanding of what your competitors are offering. This can be a moving target, but there are patterns you should know and recognize. Being able to say: Here’s what you’re going to find when you talk to our competitors…puts you in a better place to tell your story.
 
A dialog about net profit. There are no free lunches. If an agent is not paying someone else to do the menial tasks in the sales process, they are the low-paid administrative employee doing all this work.
 
Don’t be caught flat-footed when negotiating compensation.
 
The most talented recruiting prospects are doing the math—you should too.

In a recent newsletter, performance coach Todd Herman describes how helping agents in the right way can cause them to experience a high level of business luck. Or so it seems.
 
The types of help that lead to good fortune comes in two forms.
 
Social Help. If you can develop an office where your agents are constantly around the high-performers, mentors, and leaders who will get them where they want to go, you’re equipping them to succeed.
 
As Warren Buffet once said: “There are many different qualities successful people have, but the one all of them share is they’ve chosen their mentors and whom to model wisely.”
 
Success moves at the speed of relationships.
 
Environmental Help. Probably the most under-appreciated aspect of success is the environment. For example, when immigrants come to America, they find success much easier than in other parts of the world.
 
The system you place yourself in can remove a lot of the friction.
 
You can take an average person and put them in a great system, and they can outproduce a superstar in a flawed system.
 
As a leader, it’s important to prioritize the assistance you’re providing agents in these two areas because, according to Todd, something magical happens when you provide this type of help.
 
If you think of social help and environmental help as two circles in a Venn diagram, the intersection is luck. And the quality of both of those circles seems to determine how much luck you’ll experience.
 
So, you can engineer the luck your agents are experiencing in their businesses by developing a great environment and fostering great relationships.
 
At that point, maybe it’s not luck anymore.