In a recent blog post, Mark Johnson, CEO of JP & Associates, referenced a trick he uses to complete proactive tasks.

The concept of implementation intentions was introduced in 1999 by psychologist Peter Gollwitzer.

IF {situation} THEN I will {your planned behavior}.

Developing good recruiting habits often means doing some tasks you initially find unpleasant.

Most people need a trigger event to jump start the right activity.

That trigger can be self-generated (ex. a time-block on your calendar or an alarm on your phone), but that doesn’t work for some people.

If you’re one of those people, give Dr. Gollwitzer’s method a try.

According to NAR’s most recent member profile, 65% of agents have been in business for five years or less.

It’s a large group of agents (900K+) all trying to figure out how to make their real estate business work.

In the first two years, 81% of these agents complete 10 or fewer transactions per year.

By year five, over 50% of these agents are completing 10 or more transactions per year.

In getting to the five-year point, on average, agents affiliates with two brokerages.

Here are a few insights to take away from this data.

New Agent Recruiting: If your strategy is to hire, train, and get new agents productive, your business model will get attacked from both the front end (attrition) and the back end (competitors recruiting newly productive agents away).

You’ll have to commit to the long-term, stay focused, and keep your margins high to make money at this game.

Experienced Agents: If you have a compelling way to help newer struggling agents get above 10 transactions per year, there is much opportunity.

At this point in their career, agents are looking for solutions, willing to try at least two different brokerages, and not quite at the point where they’re demanding outrageous splits/compensation packages.

In both of these arenas, the competition is intense. You’re not the only one who can see where the opportunity exists.

Who wins? Those who are better at recruiting execution and truly deliver on the promise of getting above 10 transactions/year.

If you Google the failure rate of new agents, you’ll see this statistic pop up on multiple sites:

87% of Real Estate Agents Fail in the First 5 Years

Perhaps this stat was promulgated through internet group think (people just kept requoting it from pervious articles).

Or, it may have been an accurate assessment at some point in the past (perhaps in the period during and shortly after the last downturn).

Regardless of where this failure percentage stat came from, it appears to be wrong.

According to NAR’s most recent member profile and a conversation with one of NAR’s data analysts, the failure rate of new agents is somewhere between 40% and 50%.

In this case, failure rate is being defined as those who get a real estate license and then leave the industry within the first five years.

It’s important to recognize that measurements around employment often change, and sometimes change quickly.

If your job is to encourage someone to jump into a career field where 87% of people fail, it’s depressing.

Especially, if it’s not true.

Yesterday, we had an opportunity to partner with the Real Trends media team to publish a recruiting guide for finishing the year strong.

The guide is a full-length article covering three components of a successful recruiting plan.

1. Claiming a Niche. The real estate industry is too diverse and complex to be a generalist so you must center your attention on those you can help the most.

2. Identifying an Ideal Recruiting Prospect. Once you get a definitive vision of who you want to hire, the recruiting process becomes more focused and picks up speed.

3. Developing a Unique Value Proposition. Most recruiters talk about the features and benefits they provide compared to their competitors, but the pros address the specific problems an ideal prospect is experiencing.

The guide includes additional insights and examples from high-performing recruiters and hiring managers.

If you have some extra time this morning—pop over to Real Trends and get busy on developing your plan to finish the year strong.

Researchers are starting to document how the holistic health of an employee affects their contribution to their employer.

Employees who report being healthy tend to be…

29% more productive

39% more successful

28% more loyal

32% more engaged

…compared to employees who report being unhealthy.

While this research was not conducted specifically for the real estate industry, it’s likely the same patterns apply to agents.

So, what’s the definition of holistic health? It has four components:

Mental Health: Measurement of psychological and emotional well-being.

Financial Health: Measurement of personal and family financial security.

Social Health: Measurement of the ability to form satisfying interpersonal relationships.

Physical Health: Measurement of the level of illness, injury, and physical well-being.

As a starting point, this simple list can serve as a checklist to assess the holistic health of those on your team.

During coaching sessions, ask your agents:

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your _________ health?  

(Use the definitions provided to clarify the meaning of your questions.)

Once you have the baseline developed, help your agents close the gap between where they are now versus a score of 10 in each of these categories.

Health and well-being benefits you, your agent, and everyone else in the organization  It’s too important to ignore.

In a podcast from the archive, Dave Mashburn discusses the most important candidate trait to look for during an interview.

There’s one trait that is, by far, the best predictor of performance.

It’s my belief that caring more really separates the highest performers from the average performers.

While assessing for this trait will help you make better hires, it’s difficult to detect during an interview.

So how do find out if a candidate has it? Here’s Dave’s advice:

You have to get your candidates to talk about their personal work stories–about what they’ve accomplished, and how they did it.

You have to keep asking questions. The more you ask details, the more the stories of those who care will emerge with richness and depth.

Doing this type of interview takes a lot self-discipline. It means being quiet, not talking about your own experiences, and listening carefully.

But once you start hearing how someone truly cares more than the average person, you’ll know you’re sitting across from someone who’s special.

Why? It’s nearly impossible for a candidate to fake that they really care.

MetLife recently released their annual Employee Benefit Trends Study for 2020.

The trends over the last 18 years are a case study in how employers are forced to respond to competition, cultural developments, and societal changes.

As you might imagine, the Covid-19 crisis has greatly shaped the perception and dialog many employees are having with their employers.

60% of employers stated their organization is struggling to keep up with the blended work-life world.

87% of employees were interested in working for an organization that has policies to help place boundaries on their working hours.

Managing stress and setting boundaries were clearly the hot-button issues for employees in this year’s study. One researcher summarized their finding this way:

Employers who understand their employees’ experience and needs — and take action to help their employees manage the challenges they face inside and outside of work — will have a more engaged, productive and successful workforce.

If you haven’t done so already, start weaving these topics into your recruiting and retention discussions with experienced agents.

Neglecting these important issues will leave an opening for your competitors.

In a recent podcast, Adena Hefets, CEO of Divvy Homes, reminded her audience why recruiting is so important.

When I first started Divvy, I did everything and felt like I needed to maintain control.

But over time, I realized that spending 20% of my effort on five different “jobs” was not as effective as hiring one talented person to spend 100% of their effort on a single job.

The purpose of adding great people to your team is to multiply your efforts–it’s the most productive work you can be doing.

Any time you’re pulled away from this work, you’re giving up your opportunity to multiply and reducing your long-term effectiveness and ability to grow.

Later in the podcast, Adena admits that poor hiring will derail the multiplying effect. She focuses on these three principles to keep that from happening:

Hire talented people: invest more effort early in the recruiting process to find high quality agents.

Expect autonomy: hire people who are willing, able, and expect to be autonomous.

Give up control: let go of the things you hire other people to do with the expectation they will perform better than you.

Without the realistic expectation that recruiting will multiply your efforts, it becomes a mundane and unsustainable task.

When someone considers making a career change or changing brokers, they typically seek out multiple opportunities.

Researchers found that only 23% of recruiting prospects stop looking after identifying their first opportunity.

The other 77% seek out and evaluate multiple options. This is especially true for the most talented and proactive prospects.

Make the assumption your prospects are dating a few others at the same time they’re engaging you.

To stand-out from your competitors:

Connect Quickly. First impressions are often lasting impressions. Engaging quickly shows you’re interested and have your act together.

Follow-up Diligently. Most of your competitors will drop the ball during the follow-up. Consistent follow-up will set you apart when others wane.

Ask About the Other Dates: Getting information about your competitors will help you uncover objections and learn more about the needs of your prospects.

Even if you’re offering the best opportunity for your recruiting prospects, being slow and passive will keep you from winning the competition for the best new hires.

For many years, real estate organizations have used competitions in an attempt to improve short-term recruiting results.

Sometimes these competitions are successful, but most of the time they fail.

Why? According to community expert, Rich Millington, it doesn’t have to do with recruiting, your company, or the incentives.

Most competitions fail because of their design.

When competitions are done well, they drive the behavior you want and bring people closer together.

When they’re done badly, they incentivize poor behavior, cheating, and drive people apart.

Here are three of Rich’s ideas to make your next recruiting competition more successful:

1. Increase the size of the prize with each new participant/entry.

2. Don’t have just one winner—ensure the top x% of participants win a prize regardless of the number of entries (ex. top 5%).

3. Make it a collaborative challenge—encourage participants to form teams to enter and solve the problem together.

It takes extra effort and creativity to design a more effective competition, but it’s time and energy well-spent.

If you’re not truly incentivizing the behaviors that contribute to the overall goal, what’s the point?

Last Friday, I ordered a meat thermometer from Amazon.

I placed the order at 2:30pm and just after 5pm, a delivery person smiled and handed me the thermometer in my driveway.

There was no special request to expedite the delivery, no extra fees, and no fuss from the delivery person.

My online order profile simply said: Your package was delivered. It was handed directly to a resident. 

While it all appeared to be business as usual, it was one of the most amazing displays of business execution I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve had hundreds of Amazon packages delivered to my house over the last 15 years, and the fact they can still amaze me is remarkable.

Amazon seems to have tapped into this principle: People love to be amazed.

And it’s a principle that applies to your recruiting prospects, as well.

Amazing someone with your response time to a request, a unique solution to a difficult problem, or recognizing an important goal they accomplished will set you apart from your competitors.

It initially creates some playful attraction (I wonder what you’ll amaze me with next?), but it’s not long before they’re asking:

Don’t I want to work with amazing people?

In 2010, Todd Herman was voted the Greatest Salesperson in the World after winning a worldwide competition sponsored by the global marketing firm Ogilvy.

He became a finalist by creating an online video of him selling a red brick. The two-minute sales presentation is entertaining, and it illustrates the power of a great pitch.

In a recent email, Todd referenced this competition and the most common question he was asked by reporters after he won.

Why would you want to be known as the ‘greatest salesperson’?

While it was an appropriate question (Todd was not a professional salesperson by trade), it revealed the stereotypes and stigmas many people have about those who are in sales.

Why wouldn’t you want to be known as being a great communicator, a great messenger, a great empathizer, a great listener, a great motivator, and a great researcher?

Because in order, to be great at selling, you have to be great at those things.

When you’re trying to hire a high-performing real estate agent, you’re looking for a remarkable person who possesses all these traits.

It’s why these individuals are so hard to find.

It’s also why the relatively few agents at the top make a disproportionate amount of the money in the real estate industry.

Earlier this week, Jim Dalrymple published an excellent article packed with new agent hiring data over the last few months.

Jim compiled licensing data from 32 states and reported two important trends:

1.  Retention is good. The number of people with real estate licenses in the U.S. has mostly held steady during the pandemic.

2.  Hiring is better. The data showed an initial drop in the number of license applicants in the first months of the outbreak (perhaps due to lockdowns), but an increase in new applications in late spring and early summer.

So what explains the growth in agent hiring during this time period?

For one thing, it may have to do with people from other industries losing their jobs and opting to give real estate a shot.

There’s always a strong influx of real estate agents when there are higher levels of unemployment. The income opportunity is great and the commitment is low.

It also may be related to the type of unemployment some workers are experiencing.

A lot of people that are in travel, hospitality, and service. They may be thinking, ‘I could sell a couple homes and make 30 grand, so I’m going to get my license.’

As a hiring manager, this influx of agents means you’ll suddenly have more choices and the opportunity to be selective.

Don’t forget: About 10% of those entering the industry now will be top performers in a few years.

If you’re the one who hires the top 10%, there will be a big payoff.

Over the past few months, I’ve encouraged you to look at the Covid health crisis as a way to acquire top talent from other industries.

Many of you have taken this advice to heart, and you’re seeing talented new agents prepping for their career change and starting work in your offices.

No one is a better example of this work than Gina Verbanac at BHHS The Preferred Realty in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio.

During the last few months, Gina has been feverously building her recruiting pipeline and now has 102 recruiting prospects waiting to test and an additional 140 in licensing school.

Gina’s keys to success are mindset, focus, and belief.

Where others saw crisis, she saw opportunity.

When others became distracted by bad news, she remained focus on her system and goals.

And above all, she truly believes her company can create successful real estate entrepreneurs.

If you’re still sitting back waiting for conditions to improve before you recruit, use Gina as your source of inspiration.

Results are never instantaneous, but it’s always a good time to start building your pipeline.