Attracting new agent talent is arguably the most valuable component of a successful real estate brokerage. Many of us know this, but how do we ensure we’re doing it well?
Agent recruitment has the power to help grow your business and build a better environment for mentorship, learning and improved referrals.
Finding the right talent that fits well with your company culture can be a huge investment of time and money, so it’s important to have a refined outreach approach, all while highlighting your company’s unique value proposition. When you do it right, you keep your top talent, attract new prospects and see even better returns.
Here are a few ways for you, as a real estate broker and owner, to stay on top of the recruitment game.
1. Evaluate and establish your brokerage’s value proposition
In many ways, appealing to new talent is like cultivating your consumer leads into profitable clients: you must highlight the unique characteristics of your brokerage compared to others and clarify why you’re the best fit for their needs.
As you market your company to potential candidates, one of the most important things to convey is your employer brand, which is composed of your business’ values and focus.
Consider what makes your brokerage unique to build an attractive value proposition. Evaluate the ways in which your company is different — such as being native to the city, offering referral incentives, providing educational opportunities and more.
Once you’ve fine-tuned your brand messaging, you can focus on recruiting great agents around town. Take time to meet with each agent — at least five times to get to know them on a personal level.
The best job candidates will only seriously consider companies that make time for them and who are established in the market.
2. Offer impactful technologies to simplify workflow
By providing a turnkey and technologically-advanced office and marketing environment, both your retention and agent production has the potential to be much higher.
You don’t need to have the latest artificial intelligence technology or drones flying around your market. Most agents simply want solutions that help them build their personal business and client roster. An example may be that a brokerage integrates a web-based lead management solution that allows remote access, agent management of their leads and allows for client engagement.
When you incorporate technology into your brokerage, provide proper training and support for your agents to ensure that agents get the most out of it all. Training them properly, and making sure that agents can see how it will make them more efficient and be more productive will make them more likely to use it.
Once your agents see how new technologies can impact their personal business, they’ll be more likely to want to stay.
3. Cultivate culture
Culture is a vital factor of engaging and attaining new agent hires. Across industries, data shows that supportive workplace environments lead to more fulfilled and productive workers than those who are employed in more demanding offices.
Maybe you regularly recognize and celebrate meeting sales goals, or your company takes deliberate steps to encourage open communication. By fostering a strong, positive culture, your agents can grow as individuals and as a team.
4. Invest in developing your agents
Instead of searching for the top five percent of agents in your area, start thinking of ways that you can take respectable agents and make them even better. Invest in agents that have the drive and intelligence to move themselves forward in the field.
Training is a huge part building up your most ambitious agents. A well designed training program provides an atmosphere where agents can relate to and learn from one another. They share in each other’s successes and challenges both growing as agents and as a team. That teamwork element needs to be ingrained into every educational session and encouraged by brokerage managers.
Additionally, as a broker, many of your agents will want to learn from you and discover new ways that they can grow, so it’s important to make time to provide them with insight and feedback on a regular basis.
If they can learn from you and feel that you are invested in their performance, you will be more likely to retain them.
Chris Arienti is the broker/owner of RE/MAX Executive Realty in Franklin, Massachusetts and is the head of The Arienti Group Real Estate Team. Connect with him on Twitter.
