If you’re a Star Wars buff, you may remember the short scene from Episode II where Obi Wan was solicited by a shady “death stick” dealer.

While having a drink at the bar, he used his Jedi mind powers to help the dealer find a better career:

You don’t want to sell me death sticks. You want to go home and rethink your life.

The dealer quickly responds: I want to go home and rethink my life.

In the real world, there are many people who are already home, and they’re just starting the process of rethinking their lives.

It’s sad, but employment uncertainty has quickly become a reality for millions of individuals.

Most people are still stunned or in denial of their new reality, but a small percentage have started seeking out employment where they’ll be less dependent on an employer.

It happened during the last downturn and it’s happening now.

It takes a unique person to respond to adversity in this way.

Once activated, they’re the individuals who have the resilience and grit to become your next high-performing agents.

Recruiting has always been a long-term process that operates by the law of the farm.

Unless we’re entering some kind of nuclear winter, those who have the foresight to keep planting will be rewarded with high-performing agents when things turn around.

In a recent podcast, Steve Murray highlighted some of the insights emerging from this year’s Real Trends 500 report.

In an analysis of the top 903 brokers looking back over the past 5 years, over 600 companies grew their transactions during this period. This is not surprising considering the health of the market.

As you’d expect, some grew at much faster rates than others.

In fact, the top 25 brokers grew their transaction volume by over 200% during this period.

What caused them to consistently grow beyond the rate of their peers?

It wasn’t the initial size of the company, geographic location, brand of the company, or the sales model that made the difference.

In fact, by looking at the data alone, it’s difficult to discern what caused the high performance.

It wasn’t until Steve and his staff conducted follow-on interviews with the owners of these firms that the common denominator emerged.

Most of these companies grew organically and not through merger/acquisitions.

I heard over and over again from owners—”we spend 30% – 50% of our time and resources on recruiting and developing agents.”

Depending on how the public health crisis plays out in the months ahead, many real estate companies may be forced to make difficult cost-cutting decisions.

If/when this happens, it’s important to protect the recruiting and agent development infrastructure in your company.

Why?

It comes down to having a mindset that recruiting and developing people are at the heart of a residential brokerage company.

One of the hiring managers from a large real estate company in California has been reaching out to me over the last few days.

We had met in early January, and I encouraged him to add video interviews to his tool kit. He’s a little set in his ways and resisted until last week.

On Tuesday, he wrote:

Well Ben–you got your wish. I have been banished to work at home and will attempt to do remote/video interviews. So, help me get started. I am leaving the office with my laptop in a few minutes.

Of course, we helped him get set up.

On Thursday, his recruiting coordinator checked in:

This has been a challenge for us all, but it’s going great. We’re setting appointments and candidates are completing interviews! 

On Friday, he wrote:

It has been a learning curve–quite steep for me. But I am enjoying it.

It’s very efficient, and I’m quite busy. I am impressed by the low no-show rate.

Still not an expert, but I am getting better with each interview. People are very forgiving.

Last night he wrote:

Thanks for checking in, Ben. Soon I will be one of your go to experts on this. That is my goal.

I thought it would be so much more difficult of a transition and it hasn’t been.

If you have a laptop and an internet connection, you can be meeting with recruiting prospects.

And many of them want to hear from you—especially if you’re a voice of reason.

I spoke with the CEO of a large real estate company (2000+ agents) over the weekend.

I asked: How are your agents handling with what may be the new normal?

It’s interesting. About a third have quickly realized what’s changed, and they’re charging ahead with our virtual tools, reaching out to clients, and even writing a few deals.

Another third are moving slower, but they’re proactively trying to figure out what to do and how to do it.

The final third are sitting at home and flipping between Netflix and cable news and waiting for the world to end.

Capturing and sharing the stories of those who are charging ahead is something every leader should be doing at this juncture.

This CEO sent me 11 screen shots of texts, social media posts, and emails from agents who are charging ahead.   Here are two of my favorites:

So far, I haven’t lost anything, and my team has executed multiple contracts over the weekend.  Let’s hope we can get inspections and appraisals now…

My team is still showing property, but with gloves and restrictions.  We will not hold open houses.  Inspectors and contractors are working, but with caution. New listings are coming online and our MLS has just allowed listings to stay active with virtual showings.  Sellers have become more motivated and offer deadlines have disappeared.  Back to the good old days!

Sharing this kind of good news not only brings recognition to the early adopters, but it also inspires the second group to push forward and not give up.

And, don’t limit the sharing to just your own agents.

Reach out to the broader community of agents who work in other companies, as well.

People need to hear good news, and a rising tide lifts all boats.

I had the opportunity to hear Steve Harney speak yesterday concerning the real estate industry’s prospects and the ongoing health crisis.

Often referred to as the voice of reason, Steve uses financial experts, real-time housing data, and direct experience to draw his conclusions.

As difficulties mount, there’s a tendency to compare this crisis to the 2008 real estate downturn/great recession. But, the data doesn’t really support this perspective.

The 2008 financial crisis was like a tornado rumbling through a city and destroying everything in its path.

Afterwards, it took several years to rebuild the financial infrastructure that real estate depended upon for its viability.

This crisis is different—it resembles a really bad snowstorm.

Yes, it came on unexpectedly and has profoundly impaired our ability to conduct business. Yes, it’s wreaking havoc on our economy every passing hour.

But here’s the thing about snowstorms—they eventually pass, the sun comes out, and the snow melts.

Most of the infrastructure underneath the snow is still be intact and undamaged.  Under these conditions, it may not take long to get back on track.

Is Steve right?  We all hope so!   But, no one knows the future.

Here’s some advice as you try to make sense of what’s happening:

Rather than assuming this snowstorm is the beginning of the next ice age, get busy helping those around you weather the storm.

Start with your own agents and employees, and then reach out to those in the broader real estate community.

Many companies, offices, and teams are not well-equipped to handle a crisis like this. It’s a great time to lend a hand to those who are suffering.

As the effects of the public health crisis start to ripple through the economy, there’s a temptation to pull back and disengage.

I’m hearing things like: Let’s sit tight and see how this plays out.

While the future is not clear, there is much we can be doing to care and provide hope for those who depend upon us.

My colleague Bill Watkins sees these events as a call to action for true leaders:

Continuing as is (doing the same), stopping all activities (doing nothing), and delaying decisions (waiting it out) are not options in a “business continuity” crisis like this.

[It’s our job to] to address confusion, concerns, and constraints with thoughtful, decisive action, and to preemptively respond to what is to come with agility, grit, and grace.

If you’re responsible for a company, an office, a team, or a family, it’s time to step out front and be a leader. Those who are depending on you need this more than anything else.

Leaders show compassion, meet short-term needs, and figure out the next steps. They’re not perfect, but they are present and engaged.

In the long run, the best recruiting happens when prospects are attracted to something remarkable.

This is your chance to be remarkable.

A couple of years ago, we had the opportunity to manage a large recruiting project for a client on the West Coast.

During the engagement, our team was conducting about 70 video interviews per month.

We learned a lot about video interviews over the six-month duration of the project. Here are some of the best practices we documented:

Keep Them Brief: Video interviews should be shorter than in-person interviews. The best interviews lasted between 20 and 30 minutes.

Set Expectations: A video interview may be a new experience for some of your prospects. Start the interview with a brief summary on how the interaction will be structured.

Ask Permission to Take Some Notes: Losing eye contact during a video meeting makes the interaction feel a little cold. Letting prospects know you’ll be looking away to jot down some notes (and it’s OK for them to do the same) makes it feel less awkward.

Follow a Predefined Structure: Your 30 minutes will go by fast, so it is important to break the interview into segments. Our segments were setting expectations (2 minutes), open-ended questions (8 minutes), standard questions (8 minutes), answering the prospects questions (5 minutes), closing the interview (5 minutes).

Offer Options for Moving Forward: If you believe a prospect has good potential, offer several options for moving forward in the recruiting process. People like choices, and it’s important to get a commitment to take the next step before disengaging.

With these best practices in mind, try scheduling and conducting a few video interviews.

Once you get a few under your belt, you’ll be surprised how much you enjoy connecting in this way.

Every company, office, or team has been forced to respond to the potential dangers of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Recruiters and hiring managers who normally depend on face-to-face meetings and interviews are quickly modifying their practices.

Many of them are replacing face-to-face interviews with online video meetings.

If your company does not already have an online video meeting solution, I’d recommend setting up a free Zoom account for conducting interviews in the weeks ahead.

Zoom offers unlimited one-on-one meetings (perfect for an interview).

Zoom also allows you to establish a personal meeting ID. Your unique meeting URL helps your recruiting prospects to quickly connect to your online meeting.

Finally, Zoom permits prospects to connect via phone or computer audio. Even if technical problems keep the video from working, you can still have a conversation with your prospect (similar to a phone interview).

Setting up an account is free and takes just a few minutes.

Whatever you do, don’t let this public health crisis keep you from recruiting.

People often consider changes when their “normal” is disrupted. It’s a great time to be in the game.

It seems experienced agent recruiting is being driven by funky economics.

With the proliferation of new brokerage models, external capital flowing into the industry, and the paranoia of being left behind many hiring managers are jumping into a race to the bottom.

If you’re tempted to compete under unreasonable terms, consider this an intervention.

Here’s the reality–the real estate industry is still incredibly diverse and fragmented.

There are hundreds of small niches where brokers and agents are making profits.

Find your niche, then focus your effort on dominating it.

Recruit agents who are equipped and passionate about helping you dominate your niche.

Devise value-based pay packages that allow you and your agents to fairly prosper when the expectations of your clients are exceeded.

Seth Godin once said,

…the problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win.

Yesterday, I spoke with a high-performing manager about how she keeps the urgent needs of her agents from encroaching on the proactive time she sets aside for recruiting.

Perhaps she was just putting up a good front, but she manages two offices and appeared to be incredibly centered and calm.

When an agent comes to me with a problem, I make a point of not answering their questions.

Instead, I always start these conversations with:   What have you done up to this point to solve this problem?

And then follow-up with:  What do you believe the next steps should be to get this problem solved?

By taking this approach, she’s training her agents to think on their own.

This subtle shift in expectations puts the burden for developing solutions and executing back on the agent’s shoulders.

This strategy is a double win because it causes your agents to become more capable and frees you up to focus on the important work of recruiting.