by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

I’ll structure this posting as a question/answer session to the topic of helping people escape their corporate job.

If you’re just joining us, catch up by reading the last blog post based on a recent article in Forbes magazine by Brian Rashid.

Brian’s simple premise: Life in the cubical is not as secure as it may seem.

Your application:  For some people, a transition to a real estate career (ie. owning a small business as an agent) may be a viable way to escape an unstable corporate job.

Q:  How do you reach “the cube population?”

A:  Without exception, the best way to reach those who are languishing in corporate jobs is through networking.   People connect with other people and “what’s happening at work” is a common topic.  Get in the habit of asking:  How’s work going?

Of course, you’ll only be able to reach a certain number of people through your own network. So, it’s important you multiply your efforts.   Real estate offices have the advantage of being connected to agents who each have a large number of network contacts as well.  Teach your agents to ask these questions as well.

Q:  How do you reach “the nurse whose feet are getting sore and is hating working the night shift?”

A:  There are large swaths of the population who are outside of your network’s reach.  Use job-related advertising to reach a large population of those who are languishing in their corporate jobs.

A recent Harris Poll on employment revealed some surprising tendencies:

-58% of adults look at job postings at least monthly.  Only 19% never look at job opportunities.

-71% of the people in the labor force say they are actively looking or open to a new job.

-72% of employed adults agree it’s important for them to be aware of jobs currently out there in the market.

-80% of people who search for jobs online spend some time searching outside their current career field.

This data paints a clear picture—people in cubical jobs are willing, able, and motivated to look at new employment opportunities.

The challenge is to place ads in the places where these individuals frequently look and present opportunities in a way people outside the real estate industry can understand.

Q: How do you overcome the negative branding of the real estate industry?

A:  Brian’s original article offers some entrepreneurial ideas to those trying to escape the cubicle death.  Somehow being a contract drone operator sounds more exciting than working in the real estate industry.

While many people have a negative perception of the real estate industry, the draw to entrepreneurism is still strong and positive.  Focus your messaging (both in conversations and in written dialog) on starting a business and independence.

There are many people who are willing to talk about their hopes and dreams of starting their own businesses, but very few have an idea worth pursuing or a plan on how to make it happen.  Being a real estate agent can eventually fill that void, but only after they’ve envisioned themselves as starting a business on their own.

Conclusion

The more you become a student of how the employment marketplace operates, the more proficient you’ll become at attracting those who are stuck in dead-end jobs.    As a side benefit, you’ll also learn more about how people think, dream, and make decisions.

This information will make you a better leader.   It will make your agents better agents.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

Most of the new agents who will join your company over the next decadewill have one thing in common:  They’ll come from traditional jobs where things didn’t work out like they had planned.

Brian Rashid calls this experiencing the slow cubical death.

In a recent Forbes magazine article, Brian explains the reality employees must embrace before they step out on their own and start businesses.

It’s helpful information for anyone who wants to be successful at recruiting in the real estate industry, but it’s only the first step. Showing them how to escape is the valuable insight necessary to endear them to you and your organization.

Identifying the Problem

In an attempt to wake employees up from a fear-induced stupor, Brian delivers this short manifesto to his corporate readers.

If you have a 9-to-5 job, you probably have a target on your back. You may not even realize it, but here is what it says. “Fire me whenever you’d like and with no warning. I will probably be screwed when you do, but you don’t need to worry about it. Until then, I will be here doing whatever you tell me.”

You need to leave your job.

Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next month, or even this year. But you need to start building additional sources of revenue right now….

People, good people, are getting fired left and right. Even if they are good at their job, they are being let go. In many cases, they have no clue what to do next. This makes them stressed and anxious and depressed.

They were lulled into a false sense of safety. But it’s just that, false.

Everything is being outsourced. If your job can be done by someone or something else at a lower price, you are gone. It is not even personal. I don’t think your boss is a bad person. If his or her job can be outsourced, his or her boss will fire them, too.

But it is happening. And you need to be ready for it.

You’re the Solution

When considering a real estate career as an option, the objection candidates hang onto most passionately is that working as an agent is more risky than staying in their “get a regular paycheck job.”

Brain’s message is clear—what most people think is secure is not secure at all.

What can you do to convince them of this reality?  Unfortunately, not very much.

If you push too hard on this idea, the candidate will start to feel like you think they’re stupid or you have something to sell.   They will feel attacked and fight or flight will set in.

What you can do is illustrate how owning a business is not as risky as it may seem.

In the last couple of years, what have you observed your most successful new agents doing to overcome their feelings of insecurity?

Since insecurities typically have to do with finances, what financial tactics do successful new agents use to compensate for the gap in pay and benefits?

Make a list of these ideas and tactics and keep it handy during your interviews.

After asking lots of open-ended questions about the candidate’s financial situation and the fears associated with these concerns, try to match some of the common solutions to their unique situation.

The old saying about the grass being greener is true.  Spend most of your time making sure your lawn looks enticing.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

The real estate industry is filled with rejection.  There’s no getting around it.

You’ve probably reluctantly made this connection on your own:  Those who are the most successful in any sales process tend to be those who are the most comfortable with rejection.

When I started my first sales job, the initial thing my manager taught me was to repeat this mantra to myself:  “Some will. Some won’t. Who cares?”

He knew I would face rejection quickly and often.  My ability to emotionally disconnect from the negative feelings of rejection had to be overcome if I hoped to be successful.

The same principle applies to recruiting.  The recruiting process is filled with rejection.  Those who overcome the fear of rejection tend to be good recruiters.  Those who are paralyzed by it will languish.

How do you end up in the first group? We’ll learn from a talented Chinese immigrant who had to overcome rejection to pursue his dream of becoming an entrepreneur.

Jia Jiang’s Story

If you have the time, take a look at this 12-minute TED video:

Watch

Jia’s story is certainly inspiring on its own.  To come to a new country and conquer the fear of rejection is quite a feat.  It’s also funny.  I especially like the part where he asks a police officer if he can borrow his police cruiser (expecting to get rejected), and the police officer actually says, “Yes!”

As much as you may enjoy Jia’s story, it will not help you become a better recruiter.  Learning to be more comfortable with rejection will help you hire more agents.

Learning to Overcome Rejection

Over the past several years, I’ve had numerous owners and executives ask me:  “Is there an assessment that would help predict who would be effective at prospecting and cold-calling?”

The answer is no.  At least I haven’t found one yet, and I don’t suspect I will.

The research I’ve read shows almost everyone naturally hates rejection.  In fact, the affects of rejection can be debilitating.  One study showed it temporarily lowers your IQ and hinders your ability to think analytically.

Another study showed that your brain treats rejection much like physical pain.  On a MRI brain scan, experiencing rejection is about as painful as spilling a cup of hot coffee on your hand!

Jia learned something important:  Becoming comfortable with rejection must be learned.  It’s not something people naturally possess.

How do you learn this important recruiting skill?

By turning rejection into a game.  It may sound trivial, but playfully reframing something like rejection has been shown to reduce stress significantly.

In Jia’s case, he credits a game created by Jason Comley called “Rejection Therapy.”  In simple terms, the game involves proactively seeking out a social rejection at least once a day for 30 days.

Comley suggests the game works because of a psychotherapeutic technique called “flooding.”   Flooding is the intentional exposure to the feared stimulus.  At first, stimulus induces an adrenaline and fear response which minimizes with repeated exposure over time.

Does Comley’s game work?  I don’t know. I haven’t tried it.  It does seem to produce results for some people.

Whether this technique works or not, is not the point.  Here’s the important take-away:

Overcoming the fear of rejection is something that has to be learned.

If you want to be a great recruiter, teach yourself to overcome the fear of rejection.

If you want to work with high-performing sales people, teach them to overcome the fear of rejection.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

If you’re working in the real estate industry, you are (by default) in a relationship business.

Naturally, this applies to real estate agents.  But, it doesn’t stop there.

If you’re an owner, CEO, part of the executive team, first-level manager, recruiter, coach, or any other position, your success will significantly depend on your ability to build and maintain meaningful relationships.

One of the critical competencies to maintaining relationships is periodic and thoughtful contact with a large number of people in your network.

These connections (often called follow-up) must be proactive, and the individuals who are high performers at this task typically use some kind of framework.

Today, we’ll take a look at one of these frameworks and see what we can learn from a networker extraordinaire.

A Professional Networker Shares

John Corcoran is a former Presidential speechwriter and now makes his living as an attorney, professional networker, and small business consultant.  He has a bunch of great ideas (most of which he has tested himself) that he frequently publishes on his website.  Check it out if you’ve never heard of his company.

Part of John’s consulting model involves introducing his new contacts to vendors who’ve helped him grow his business.  During one of these recent introductions, he revealed some details on how he and some of his “professional networking” friends do their follow-up.

This dialog was recorded in a YouTube video that you’re welcome to view.  A quick warning: The presentation is couched inside a sales pitch for a CRM software product called Contactually.   If you’re not interested in this product, read the summary below or jump off the video at the 8:50 mark.

A Framework for Following up

So, how do professional networkers follow up successfully?  Here’s the framework John uses.

Make it personal.

Following up with someone generally means getting some kind of message or information (email, text, picture, phone call, etc.) to an individual.  The communications don’t have to be long and detailed (it’s often better if it is not), but it does need to be personal.

If it’s not personal, it’s not helpful.

Deliver Value Through Content

You’ve probably used this technique, but you may want to double-down on your efforts.

It’s meaningful to find relevant information for individuals and personally deliver it to them. This shows you’re thinking of them and have concern for their personal well-being.

To do this effectively, think short and quick.   People generally don’t have time to read or digest things that are long and overly detailed.

Deliver Value Through Making Introductions to Your Network

By introducing a new person you’ve just met to someone in your network shows trust.  It demonstrates you see potential in the new contact, and it’s a thoughtful thing to do.

The tricky part is making sure the introduction is mutually beneficial.  You don’t want to burden your most trusted friends and network contacts with people who are just takers.

While this won’t always work, try looking for situations where the new contact can help those in your existing network.  This is backwards to how most people think.

Work a System

This principle applies to all things in the world of business.  Make sure you don’t forget to apply it to the building and maintaining of your network.

There are many great CRM tools on the market.  Find one and use it.

For some homework, do an inventory of how you’re building and maintaining your network.  Take extra time considering how this framework could apply to your recruiting process—this is where it’s needed the most and seldom applied.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

A few weeks ago, a couple of my kids were studying some of Jane Austin’s works in their literature class.

Her most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, takes on the age-old question of whether an individual should get married for love or money.

I’m sure this topic will continue to be debated for years to come, with no conclusive answer emerging any time soon (if you’re lucky enough to be Austin’s protagonist, you got both).

However in the world of recruiting referrals, Google may have definitively solved this issue.

Are you surprised they study such things?  You shouldn’t be.  Understanding recruiting referrals is an important performance indicator for any organization.

Recruiting Referrals

Your company is not the only one after recruiting referrals.  It’s a common hiring practice for most high-performing organizations.  In a recent article written by Max Nilsen, Google’s focus on referrals is explained:

Like just about every employer, Google is keen on referrals. They come with a built-in reference and, on occasion, some inside information, and provide a sense of familiarity to both the candidate and the interviewer. That tends to lead to a much shorter hiring time, a higher rate of acceptance, and a tendency for the referred hire to stick around the company longer.

How do you get your agents to refer those talented individuals in their networks?  Of course, many real estate companies pay incentives.

Paying for Referrals

Some years ago, Google tried to incentivize referrals and found it didn’t work very well.

Over time, Google got better at referrals, as its hiring chief Laszlo Bock writes in his recent book, but financial incentives had nothing to do with it.  When the company tried doubling its referral bonus from $2,000 to $4,000, it didn’t help at all.

Of course, Google had a bunch of money and a problem to solve.  The easy fix was to just throw money at their recruiting problem.

Many real estate companies try the same thing.   They don’t have as much money as Google, but they still believe incentivizing agents for referrals will cause those referrals to materialize.

Referrals for Love

What does work?  Google soon figured out a simple principle:

People made referrals because they liked working at the company, not because they were hunting bonuses.

Sounds simple, right?  Not so much.

It’s much more difficult to build an organization where people enjoy working than it is to pay some bonuses.    But, the latter strategy works better every time.

In his article, Nilsen went on to describe the detailed and measured approach Google took towards managing recruiting referrals (techniques the company still uses today).

While Google’s actions were all based on the notion of attraction (outsiders are attracted to great places to work), there were still some minor obstacles keeping individuals from making referrals.  They worked hard to remove these obstacles and produced a 30% increase in referral hires.   If you have interest in these techniques, I would recommend reading Nilsen’s article that goes into much more detail.

One final point to note:  Referrals will probably not solve your whole recruiting problem regardless of how effective you become at managing them.

…If Google were to hire referrals at 10 times the rate it hires applicants from other channels, the company would need 300,000 referrals a year to hire as many people as it hoped to. It never got more than a third of that figure.

In other words, referrals are important, but they’re not everything.  If Google, can only gain one third of their hires through this channel, you’ll probably not do much better.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

For experienced agent recruiting, “let’s grab a coffee” is one of the most common phrases used to try to entice candidates into a face-to-face meeting.

Have you noticed this invitation is usually met with resistance or a flat out rejection of the request?

In a recent article in Entrepreneur magazine, Gene Marks explains why this happens.  Gene is a business owner, consultant, and author.   He commonly writes for several business publications.

If you asked Gene to have coffee with you, here’s the response you’d likely receive…

The Common Response to “Grabbing a Coffee”

I don’t mean to sound rude. I really, really appreciate that you’d like to get together. But I’m a small-business owner. My days are really busy, and I don’t have the time to just “have coffee.”

I know you are a nice person and that a face-to-face meeting may very well help us in our relationship. There are some people I know who thrive on meeting others for coffee, lunch or dinner.

But unfortunately I’m not one of those people. This is not something I really want to do. If I’m not dealing with problems in my office, I have so much other work to do and problems to handle that if I do have any available time I’d prefer to spend it with my family. So having coffee with you is really low on my priority list.

If you’re trying to engage a productive agent in the recruiting process, this is probably what’s going through their mind as they process your request.

Gene goes on to explain some of the exceptions he makes to his rule of rejecting coffee invitations.  It’s worth reading through to better understand the mind of your prospects, but (spoiler alert) early-stage recruiting meetings are not on the list.

An Alternative to “Grabbing a Coffee”

The motivation to connect face-to-face with candidates is a good one.  As we discussed in previous discussions, social presence theory informs us that a face-to-face meeting is THE most effective way to build a connection.

If you can’t get the most effective technique, would it be possible to get the second best technique?

According to sociology research, the next best thing to a face-to-face meeting is a phone meeting.  More specifically, a pre-arranged phone meeting having a specific start time and a reasonable duration.

In an email to your prospect, you might say something like this:

I know you’re busy and probably don’t have time to meet with me in person, but perhaps we could connect over the phone for about 10 minutes later this week.  Do you have a spot open in your schedule on Thursday or Friday? Let me know, and I’ll try to flex to meet your availability.

Of course, this all assumes the person knows of you, would want to talk with you, and you have something interesting and compelling to contribute to his or her career.  If you struggle with this situation, let me know and we’ll cover these issues in a future WorkPuzzle.

This we know to be true:  Getting the dialog going is often the first and most difficult obstacle to overcome in the recruiting process.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

I had the privilege of spending some time in the recent past with the executive team of a high-performing real estate company in California.

When I say they’re high-performing, I’m not referring to the traditional metrics describing the performance of a real estate company (market share, # of transactions, per agent productivity, etc.). Although, they are high in all of these categories, as well.

I’m referring to recruiting performance. This organization does an outstanding job of finding and hiring talented individuals from outside of the real estate industry and launching them into prosperous new careers inside their company.

Here’s the shocking part. When I visited this company 18-months prior, they were terrible at this task. In fact, they were one of the worst performing recruiting companies among those organizations using our company’s candidate sourcing services.

Now, that’s all changed.

In the last half of 2013, they grew their hires by 50%. In 2014, they doubled (100% growth) the number of hires from the previous year. In 2015, they were on track to grow again by more than 50% (compared to the 2014 finish).

What’s going on?

Did they discover some new recruiting technology? Did they hire some high-performing recruiter who’s exceeding expectations? Did they figure out a new training and compensation model to draw in the masses?

Nope. None of these.  The answer is much simpler than you might imagine.

The hiring managers in this company committed themselves to performing the basics of the recruiting process with a high level of skill and effectiveness.

They stopped looking for shortcuts and did the hard work of conducting lots of interviews, being relentless in their post-interview follow-up, and becoming students of human nature.

It’s paying off. Their results are outstanding.

Moore’s Law for Batteries

I’d like to share an analogy illustrating how simply focusing on the hard work of recruiting produces such outstanding results.

It’s similar to what Apple learned in the design of their newest laptop: There are appropriate uses of technological innovation, but there are also some places where technology can’t solve problems.

If you pulled the cover off of a new MacBook (pictured above), you’d quickly see a reality of modern day computer design.   Computer processing power continues to get faster and smaller (this is Moore’s Law) while battery technology is not changing very quickly.

If you buy one of the new MacBooks (a very thin, light, and powerful computer), you’ll be mostly carrying around a bunch of batteries and a display. The actual computer is quite small.

Do you think Apple loves big batteries?   I don’t think so. They would welcome the opportunity to integrate a small battery that lasts 12 hours, but this technology doesn’t exist.   Instead, they design and integrate the smallest computer imaginable and accept the realities of battery design.

Moore’s Law for Recruiting

Many real estate companies are looking for the Moore’s law of recruiting. They’re desperately seeking a technology solution that will cause talented individuals to engage them with minimal effort.

Such a technology solution would require hiring managers to do fewer face-to-face interviews, do less personal follow-up after the interview, minimally engage the problems and obstacles candidates face, and do less of everything else that takes time and emotional energy in the recruiting process.

The problem with such a solution? It doesn’t exist.

Like the small, removable battery delivering 12 hours of laptop life Apple was hoping to put into it’s new Mac Book, not everything can be solved by technology. At least, not yet.

There is no Moore’s Law for recruiting. While technology has helped real estate companies make incredible gains in efficiencies in almost every aspect of their businesses processes, recruiting will always lag behind.

Why? Because it involves shaking up the lives of human beings. This happens at a different pace. It always has, and it probably always will.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

Real estate organizations are more like communities or social groups than tightly run business units.

Predictably, human beings want a sense of belonging, mutual support, greater exploration, and greater influence over our environment.

So, they band together, form groups, and join communities.

The engineers who designed these machines were all working on transportation, but approached the topic from distinctive perspectives. While pursing the common goal of selling real estate, agents want/need to be distinct as well.

As the leader of a real estate “community” (office, team, or organization), it’s advantageous to not only understand the reasons individuals choose one community over another, but also what causes them to stay plugged in.

There is more to learn on this topic.

The insight on this topic comes from Richard Millington, the founder of the UK-based consulting company called FeverBee.  If you haven’t checked out his site yet, please do so.  You’ll learn a lot from his insights.

The Art of Attraction

In a previous blog, I shared the first and most important point concerning the reason people choose one community over another:

[Individuals] are more likely to join groups if they discover the group in the natural course of learning more about [a new] topic.

Of course, the topic of interest for your community (ie. your team, office, or organization) is a career change and, more specifically, learning about working in the world of real estate.

If you’re the one helping candidates learn about this topic, the chances of them joining your community are very high.  From this position, you’re not promoting, you’re attracting.  It’s a very powerful and advantageous recruiting position.

Retaining Those Who’ve Joined.

Once someone has joined your “community,” how do you get them to stay?  For some help with this, Richard points to a well-established social psychology theory:

There’s a widely accepted theory in social psychology called optimal distinctiveness theory.

Upon joining a group [new members] attempt to adopt the behavior of the group’s prototypical members (and the group in turn attempts to enforce norms upon them)….

They mirror what they see the prototypical members doing.

However, once new members get settled into the group, they soon lose interest in just mirroring the behaviors of the prototypical members, and want to demonstrate their own distinctiveness.

This is where the optimal part of the theory comes in…. We maintain a tricky balance of adopting enough of the behaviors to be seen as part of the group and being different enough to be afforded a special standing within that group….

Using the optimal distinctiveness framework (first we want to be accepted, then we want to impress), you can finally understand what motivates your members.

For example, you can look at any member’s contributions to a community and determine if they’re trying to be part of the group or trying to be distinct from the group in a particular trait the group values (usually specific knowledge).

This theory has important implications for the retention of agents in your “community.”

Of course it’s critical for a new agent to integrate and feel accepted by the group.  I think most real estate organizations are good at this.

What’s more difficult (and hardly ever done), is helping new agents find and make a distinctive contribution to the team and then recognizing that contribution.

If you can “optimize distinctiveness” in your group, you’ll have a very powerful retention tool.  You’re competitors will have no chance of duplicating your approach because they will not be able to duplicate your community.

Start thinking about how you can apply this theory to those on your team.  What distinctive trait does each person possess? What unique contribution is each person making?

If you can find, recognize, and celebrate these distinctions, you’ll greatly strengthen each person’s connection to your organization.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

A few months ago, I introduced you to the work of Richard Millington and his consulting company FeverBee.

Richard’s focus is helping large organizations develop, grow, and sustain online communities.  It’s difficult work because, as he frequently points out:

Most online communities aren’t.  They’re online but they’re not communities. They’re a group of people looking to extract instant gratification from a collective resource. They want immediate help or immediate resources.

Since most of you don’t manage communities, this information doesn’t apply to you. Right?

Not so fast.  Reread Richard’s description.

I would argue that many real estate organizations (offices, teams, companies) operate more like communities than tightly managed business units.  While this reality has its advantages, it also has its own set of challenges.

Here’s the good news: These challenges can be turned into a recruiting competitive edge by a knowledgeable hiring manager.

Many of the principles that cause individuals to join, engage, and flourish inside a social group mirror the dynamics of a real estate organization.

Why Do People Join Communities / Groups?

According to social scientists, people join groups to survive.   Richard asserts that group dynamics evolved over thousands of years, and the focus on survival is embedded in every human being.

Individuals were more likely to survive in groups. Groups offered safety from environmental dangers and the pooling (and division) of collective resources.

This matters more than you might think.

Groups today offer us emotional safety (the same parts of the brain are activated as physical safety).

Groups let us be who we really are and want to be. Groups offer us a sense of belonging and mutual support.

Groups also give us the ability to pool our resources and each receives a greater division of the benefits.

This includes exploration of our given field and bigger influence over our environment.

Keep these four principles (sense of belonging, mutual support, greater exploration, and greater influence over our environment) in mind.  We’ll use these again later.

How Do People Decide What Groups to Join?

This depends.  If the person is a “newbie” to the topic of the group, they’ll generally make choices based on one very predictable principle.  If they’re “veterans,” things get more complex.

For newbies, Richard reveals the common motivator that causes people to associate with one group over another:

They’re learning something new.  

Last year we made an interesting discovery. Most new members to communities hadn’t been involved in that topic for long….

[Individuals are] more likely to join groups if they discover the group in the natural course of learning more about the topic.

We want our communities to be the central place for people that are new to the topic. We always want more newcomers to the topic than hardcore members.

We want to be the ultimate resource for people that are new to your topic.

This idea has some very important recruiting implications.

If people are most likely to join a group when they are learning about something new, you would have a huge advantage if you were the person they first contacted in the discovery process.

Secondly, if you (the hiring manager) can’t deliver on helping individuals learn about their new topic of interest (real estate), candidates will quickly find a group who can deliver on this need.  Of course, they’ll become connected to the new group in the process.

Next time, we’ll address the veterans.  There is a whole different group dynamic among those who already have knowledge.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

Today’s insight is the final installment in our discussion on building quick rapport with the candidates you meet during interviews.

Establishing an environment where both parties understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well is the most important objective of a first meeting with a candidate.  The “perception of fit” we’ve referenced earlier in the discussion (Part 1,  Part 2) is a two-way street.  Unless you truly like the person (and the individual likes you), the perception of fit will feel contrived.

How do you experience this level of genuineness in a 45-minute interview?  We’ll draw upon what Robin Dreeke references as the most important technique he teaches in the FBI’s training on building rapport–ego suspension.

Learning to Suspend Your Ego During Interviews

Robin explains the importance of learning to suspend your ego when meeting people for the first time.

Have you ever heard someone make a false statement and NOT corrected them?  [This is an example of suspending your ego.]  …Suspending our individual egos is difficult because of our genetics [as humans].   Conversely, it is one of the best techniques to utilize … to have a positive interaction and attain rapid rapport.

What does it mean to suspend your ego during a conversation?

Suspending your ego is nothing more complex than putting other individual’s wants, needs, and perceptions of reality ahead of your own. 

Most times, when two individuals engage in a conversation, each patiently waits for the other person to be done with whatever story he or she is telling.  Then, the other person tells his or her own story, usually related to the topic and often times in an attempt to have a better or more interesting story.

Individuals practicing good ego suspension would continue to encourage the other individual to talk about his or her story, neglecting their own need to share what they think is a great story.

This may sound like a simple concept, but it is surprisingly difficult to do.   In fact, it is hardly ever done during normal day-to-day conversations. That’s one of the reason’s it so effective.

Becoming a Great Conversationalist

The key to implementing this technique is focus and self-awareness.  Remember what you’re trying to accomplish during the interview (building rapport) and don’t give into self-centered behavior.

Human beings are not genetically coded to care as much about others and their stories as much as they care about their own….  Common etiquette and courtesy dictates that individuals be given equal time to share their own story of the events in their own life. 

Those individuals who allow others to continue talking without taking their own turn are generally regarded as the best conversationalists….  They are the best at building [both] quick rapport and lasting rapport.

In this series, we’ve covered four of the ten techniques Robin explains in his book.  If you want to become more of an expert in building quick rapport during your interviews, buy a copy of Robin’s book and discover the other six techniques he teaches.   The book is a quick read (less than 100 pages) and cost just $3 in the Kindle format.

Robin’s techniques are also helpful for agents to use with their clients.  These are good topics to cover during sales meetings and agent training.

Bottom line:  If those in your organization are known for building great rapport with everyone they meet, the benefits will be both widespread and impactful.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

Last week, I introduced you to Robin Dreeke, the author of a great book about building quick rapport with those around you. Robin primarily learned these techniques in the FBI’s Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis program.

Many of the techniques the FBI uses to build trust with confidential human sources can be applied to the real estate recruiting process. To get caught up with this discussion, read the previous posting in this series.

Today, we’ll cover two more techniques the FBI frequently employs to cause their “interviews” to be productive.

Guideline #2 for Building Quick Rapport: Establish Artificial Time Constraints

Robin does a great job of setting the stage to teach this technique:

Have you ever been sitting in a bar, an airport, a library, or browsing in a bookstore when a stranger tried to start a conversation with you? Did you feel awkward or on your guard?

The conversation itself is not necessarily what caused the discomfort. The discomfort was induced because you didn’t know when or if it was going to end.

…Developing great rapport and having great conversations [requires] letting the other person know there is an end in sight, and it’s really close.

Robin shares lots of stories in his book about the conversation starters he uses. Almost all of the stories start with a phrase like, “I have a meeting that starts in 5-minutes, but I had a quick question….”

This simple phrase lets a person know he won’t be trapped. Once this happens, an important protection mechanism is lowered and the chances of this person opening up increases.

How does this relate to recruiting?

Surprisingly, many of your candidates are cautious and protective when they show up to the interview. Since the objective of an interview is to build quick rapport (remember perception of fit), letting the candidate know the interview is not going to last forever is an important first step in lowering resistance.

Try starting your interviews with a phrase like: “Thanks for coming in to meet with me. I have another meeting in 45 minutes I have to attend, so hopefully this will be enough time to get to know each other….”

Guideline #3 for Building Quick Rapport: Pay Attention to Your Nonverbals

I know most real estate managers were once agents, and it’ s common to receive (and now teach) training on the importance of nonverbal communication during the sales process.

It’s important to recognize the same nonverbal communication principles that help the sales process flow smoothly also apply to recruiting engagements.

Here are some nonverbal techniques commonly deployed by the FBI to build rapport:

Smiling: Looking grumpy or like you’re having a bad day is not a good way to start a relationship. Make a point to smile, especially when you first meet.

Slight Head Tilt: Adding a slight head tilt (one way or the other) to your smile shows others you have comfort with them and trust them.

Lower Chin Angle: High chin angles give the impression of looking down your nose at others and that you are aloof or better than them.

Holding Palms Up/Open: When sitting at a desk or conference table, hold your palms up and open while speaking.

(Examples: Smiling/Slight Head Tilt, Lower Chin Angle, Palms Up/Open)

The key to controlling nonverbal communication is self-awareness and a little bit of practice. FBI agents practice in the mirror. You might want to give this a try too.

There is much more to learn on this topic. If this is of interest to you, I would recommend picking up a copy of Robin’s book.

I’ll cover a few more topics later this week before wrapping up this series. Until then, try what you’ve learned so far in your next interview.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

In recent articles, you may remember us talking about “perception of fit.”  We’ve covered this topic numerous times because researchers have demonstrated it’s the number one factor that causes individuals to change careers.

The principle behind this research is simple:  When individuals perceive (ie. mostly feelings) they are a fit in your organization, they start to rationalize or talk themselves into all the other reasons necessary to make a change. 

If a candidate does not quickly experience a feeling of “I belong here,” the rest of the recruiting process will be an uphill battle.  It usually ends with the candidate disengaging regardless of the logical reasons working in our organization may be the best thing for their careers.

So, this begs the question:

How does a hiring manger get candidates to perceive they are a fit in his or her organization?

…by building quick rapport with the candidate during an initial interview.

If a candidate walks out of a first meeting with you and thinks, “I really like this person. I feel like I’ve just met someone who understands me and my situation,”  the individual can’t help but feel they would be a potential fit on your team.

How do you build quick rapport with a candidate whom you’ve most likely just met for the first time?

This will be our topic for the next few blogs.  The techniques we’ll discuss do not just apply to recruiting, they can be applied to any situation where relationships are key to success.

What the FBI can Teach you about Recruiting.

Our instruction on this topic comes from an unlikely source—Robin Dreeke, the director of the FBI’s elite Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis program.  It may not seem obvious, but FBI agents recruit spies and confidential human sources in the agencies efforts to thwart our country’s adversaries.

Starting in 1997, Robin learned that building quick rapport was not only going to be critical to his job success, but also his survival.  In his recent book, he outlines some of the techniques he uses to connect with strangers, build trust, and get them to feel like part of his team.

While I won’t have time to share all of Robin’s secrets (all of which are valuable), I will select a few I think are most applicable to the real estate recruiting process.

Guideline #1 for Building Quick Rapport:  Listen without Judging. 

Here is part of a recent interview Eric Barker did with Robin:

The number one strategy I constantly keep in the forefront of my mind with everyone I talk to is non-judgmental validation. Seek someone else’s thoughts and opinions without judging them. People do not want to be judged in any thought or opinion that they have or in any action that they take.

It doesn’t mean you agree with someone. Validation is taking the time to understand what their needs, wants, dreams and aspirations are.

As you may know, people have a strong desire to talk about themselves.  Given the opportunity, individuals will indulge in this pleasure and trust those who facilitate its accomplishment.  This leads to the building of quick  rapport.

Feeling judged short-circuits this process.  When a person starts to feel judged, they quickly retreat into a “fight or flight” mode of thinking.  This ruins rapport building because it keeps your candidates from talking about their favorite subject—themselves.

Do a quick inventory of your interview style.  How many times do you listen to a candidate’s experiences and then give your opinion or perspective on what they’ve said?  This is judging.

People who are masters at building rapport don’t do this.  Instead, they validate.  There will be time later in the relationship to share your opinions, but not during the initial interview.

There will be more to come on building rapport.  It’s not only a critical ingredient in the recruiting process, but it’s also a skill that will be helpful in other areas of your professional and personal lives.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

The aging of the agent workforce is a demographic reality that many real estate leaders list as one of their top strategic concerns.

Since the average age of real estate agents in most markets is now over 55-years-old, the focus of many hiring managers is to seek out younger agents as new hires.  Younger agents are the most desirable replacements to those who are retiring because they have the most long-term potential (ie. hire them young and keep them around for as many years as possible).

This all sounds good, but how does this approach stack up to some of the latest research on millennial generation hiring?   This topic was recently addressed by Derek Thompson, a senior editor at the Atlantic, and the results may surprise you.

Thompson highlighted recent youth unemployment research conducted by  economists Martin Gervais, Nir Jaimovich, Henry Siu, and Yaniv Yedid-Levi.  There were several finds with direct application to real estate hiring.

Hiring agents in their 20s has drawbacks.

Jumping between jobs in your 20s, which strikes many people as wayward and noncommittal, improves the chance that you’ll find more satisfying—and higher paying—work in your 30s and 40s.

[Researchers noted:] People who switch jobs more frequently early in their careers tend to have higher wages and incomes in their prime-working years. Job-hopping is actually correlated with higher incomes, because people have found better matches—ie. their true calling.

The most talented individuals are likely to job-hop in their 20s.

It may be better to wait until candidates are in their 30s and they’re looking for their true-calling.   For years, one of our clients has told me that he likes to hire agents who are “settled in their lives.”  This research seems to support this idea.

Waiting too long to hire (into the later 30s and 40s) has drawbacks too.

There is a notion that “today’s younger generation” is more likely to quit a job than workers were in the 1970s and 1980s.  This is not the case.

For the HR person considering a young worker, it’s not true to say, ‘If I hire them they are more likely to leave my firm.’ That likelihood hasn’t changed. But if that person does leave my firm, the next job is more likely to be totally different. Young people aren’t quitting more. They’re experimenting more.

Notice the last part of what the researchers discovered:  Experimenting with something “totally different” is common in the 20s, but tails off in the 30s.

Becoming a real estate agent is something totally new for most individuals.   It only makes sense that many of the most talented individuals will have found “their true calling” by the time they are 40 years old.

Is there an age-related “sweet-spot” for hiring agents? 

There may be a sweet spot happening in the early 30s where a person is still willing to try something new, but they’re ready to focus their job search on discovering their true calling.

Researchers also noted that wage-growth happens for most people in their 30s and 40s.  If an individual is looking for a career to apply what they learned in their 20s and experience significant wage growth in their 30s, the real estate industry may be a great fit.

Try weaving some of this research into your next interview—especially if the candidate is in his/her early 30s.  You may tap into something your interviewee intuitively knows but has not been able to articulate.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

As hiring managers, one of our goals should be to become an expert at interviewing candidates.  This is not easy, and it doesn’t come naturally to people conducting interviews.

In fact, if you think you’re a “natural” at conducting interviews, I would venture to guess this is one of your blind spots.  The skillful interviewers I’ve observed have worked at developing and honing this craft over a long period of time.  They’re humble.  They’re constantly learning.  They fight against the natural tendencies leading them astray.

We frequently discuss interviewing in our blogs because it’s a broad topic and learning to be proficient must be approached from many different angles.

Today’s angle is anticipation and preparation. 

Skillful hiring managers anticipate what’s going to happen based on clues in the conversation.   At the right time, they express thoughtful points of view prepared and practiced long before the interview.

For example, most new-to-real estate candidates struggle with the idea of giving up a traditional job (salary, benefits, perceived security, etc.) and working independently.  Starting their own businesses can seem uncomfortable, risky, and unwise.

Overcoming this mental obstacle is a prerequisite to becoming an agent.

A skillful interviewer will ask questions during the interview to uncover the emotion behind this concern and then be prepared to objectively address the issue.

For this topic, we might want to reference some of the research Forbes magazine recently compiled on why individuals choose to start businesses.  There are 16 “amazing facts” in this article.  Here are my four favorites:

Lots of People Own Small Businesses.    There are almost 28 million small businesses in the US and over 22 million are self-employed with no additional payroll or employees (most real estate agents would fit this category).

Many People Work in Small Businesses.  Over 50% of the working population (120 million individuals) works in a small business.

Over 500,000 new businesses get started each month.  By contrast, the “new jobs” added to the economy by traditional employers are typically half 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 75% of all U.S. businesses (small or otherwise) are non-employer businesses.  This is how most real estate agents function. Non-employer businesses generate just under $1 trillion in revenue each year.

Ineffective interviewers (those who are “naturals” and do interviews off the cuff) will typically make two types of mistakes:

Miss the verbal cues that illuminate the objection.  If we’re asking lots of open-ended questions and listening carefully, clues about a candidate’s unique concerns emerge.  If the interviewer is doing most of the talking, the candidate’s anxieties remain unaddressed.

Address objections from their own experience.   If we don’t anticipate common objections and prepare beforehand, we tend to address objections from our own experiences.  This is a hit-and-miss approach that rarely works out well.

For example, a candidate could express concern about the risk of starting a business and I say, “When I got out of college I went to work for a big corporation and it was miserable.  I stepped out on my own and things worked out great.”  So, what if the candidate didn’t go to college, never worked for a big corporation and has a close friend who was part of a failed start-up company?  Your own experience means nothing to this candidate.

This is just one example, but the principle applies to all the common issues and objections you hear during interviews.  Listen to the candidates’ stories.  Anticipate the common objections.  Prepare responses beforehand that are objective and thoughtful.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know we frequently discuss tactics for helping employees leave their traditional jobs and transition into the real estate industry.

While the mastery of these tactics can be helpful, there is a premise that undergirds the thought process of most traditional employees who engage in this dialog:

Individuals consider changing jobs/careers when they are unhappy in their current positions.

If during an interview, you’re able to help a candidate understand, articulate and own their unhappiness, you’ll be much more successful at converting interviews into hires.   Success rates improve because candidates will only listen to your “solution” when they become convinced that you understand the uniqueness of their problem.

How do you become more effective at addressing happiness (or a lack thereof) in your interviews?

To address this topic, we’ll lean on the expertise of Jessica Pryce-Jones, the CEO and founder of the iOpener Institute for People and Performance, a consulting company that has done extensive research on happiness in the workplace.

In Jones’ research involving more than 9,000 people from around the world, she investigated what might be missing or misaligned in an individual’s work experience.  In turn, she identified five components that tend to be characteristics of people who are happy at work.    Here is a list and quick summary of each component:

Contribution.  This is about what you do, so it’s made up of some of the core activities which happen at work. Like having clear goals, moving positively towards them, talking about issues that might prevent you from meeting your objectives and feeling heard when you do so.

Conviction.  This is the short-term motivation both in good times and bad. That’s the key point: keeping going even when things get tough, so that you maintain your energy, motivation and resources which pull you through.

Culture.  Performance and happiness at work are really high when employees feel they fit within their organizational culture. Not fitting in a job is like wearing the wrong clothes to a party—all the time.   It’s hugely draining and de-energizing.

Commitment.  Commitment matters because it taps into the macro reasons of why you do the work you do. Some of the underlying elements of commitment are perceiving you’re doing something worthwhile, having strong intrinsic interest in your job and feeling that the vision of your organization resonates with your purpose.

Confidence.  Confidence is the gateway to the other four drivers. Too little confidence and nothing happens: too much leads to arrogance and particularly poor decisions. Without greater levels of self-belief, the backbone of confidence, there will be few people who’ll take a risk or try anything new. And you can’t have confident organizations without confident individuals inside them.

It stands to reason if these are the common characteristics of people who are happy at work, those unhappy are typically going to be missing one of more of these components in their current environment.

To the thoughtful hiring manager this information is the treasure map for interviewing—it tells you right where to dig to find the unhappiness that your candidates are experiencing.

This insight can be easily turned into open-ended interview questions having a high probability of resonating with candidates.  For example:

“What type of meaningful contribution are you making in your current job?”

“When things get difficult in your current job, how do you maintain a sense of energy and motivation towards your tasks?”

“Tell me about a job you had in the past where you were a great fit on your team.  Do you feel this way in your current job?”

You get the idea.  Make up a few more questions on your own.  After asking these questions, be quiet and let the candidates tell you about their experiences.  Resist the temptation to share your own experiences.

Finally, once the candidate reveals their unique pain, tactfully suggest how becoming a real estate agent on your team could solve their specific problem.

Using research to guide your interviews will make you more effective.  These are simple guidelines you can start applying to your next interview.

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