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Is it the market?
Is it me?
Is it my broker?
How often has one of your agents said, “I’m leaving because I can do better over at Brand X”? Maybe that’s true; perhaps it’s not. Yet from my experience, it’s not you, it’s the market.
How can you ensure agents feel confident in what you’re offering?
I assume you have a defined niche, a clear idea of your ideal agent and a compelling value proposition. If not, you have work to do. Yet in my years of experience, I’ve yet to meet a broker-owner or team leader who did not honestly care about the growth and well-being of their associates.
So, with that foundation, what’s the deal? You and I know it’s in the daily habits of our associates, in consistent and creative marketing, and delivering a solid experience from start to finish.
My business partner, Ben Hess from Recruiting Insight, wrote an ebook on the “psychology of recruiting,” where he covers some of the basic science of human motivation. One of those concepts is that our brains are wired to jump to quick conclusions. This is useful in reacting quickly to the environment around us, yet sometimes fast conclusions lead to flawed conclusions.
What if there was a better way? What if you mastered the science behind what motivates your associates? If you understood the science and knew how to apply it, you wouldn’t have to guess at what strategy to use. You would know and could retain more agents in your team, office and firm.
Build your mastery with this book list
There are several books that I’d recommend for building your mastery, like Atomic Habits, The Miracle Morning, The Power of Habit, Do Hard Things and more. If you took each of these books and had to summarize them into the basic drivers of what motivates us, it might look like this:
- Developing daily habits
- Cultivating a sense of belonging
- Honoring your instincts
In The Power of Habit and Atomic Habits, we learn how much of everything we do in a typical day is out of habit, without even thinking about it. Many times we don’t even remember how those habits got formed.
An important part of getting someone to create a new habit is breaking things into small steps. For example, in my work with Tom Ferry over several years and studies, we found that most agents have similar common habit challenges:
- Relevant and consistent marketing
- Prospecting consistently
- Maintaining and working a database
- Organization and time management
- Maintaining a winning mindset
So, what if you got really good at helping your associates solve those problems? For example: where are the listings? We know in this market where the listings are. The listings are in David Knox’s 7 D’s:
- Death
- Divorce
- Diplomas
- Diamonds (engagements)
- Downsizing (10,000 people in the U.S. turn 65 every day)
- Daily grind (job changes)
- Discretionary income changes.
An essential part of getting your associates to create new prospecting habits is to break things into small steps. So, can you break things down into a system “For success: Here’s how we do it here.” One example of the leading indicators to break down and make simple? New appointments created each day or week. What if you had a 90-new-appointment hustle in your team, office or firm?
Create a belonging culture where everyone contributes
Besides habits, a fundamental need — even more so now than ever — is the need to belong. As a broker, how do you rate yourself on creating a belonging culture? What if your associates felt like they belong at your firm by having a voice, and the ability to contribute so they feel important enough to stay? Is there a way in your firm to:
- Give the work a deeper meaning (every home sold creates two jobs)
- Make more people feel more valued more often
- Find a balance between collaboration and competition
- Offer a venue to share wins, breakdowns and breakthroughs
- Connect the organization and community to the brighter future you envision
- Be the collective voice of reason in all market conditions
- Create a strategy to connect the languishing with the thriving
Instinct, according to Gary Klein, Ph.D., is the way we translate our experience into judgment and actions. I suspect as you read parts of his article, you had some thoughts like:
- I had a feeling about it.
- That was my hunch.
- I feel that in my gut.
So now it’s time to act. Just like your agents, break down one of these leading indicators and make it simple to execute. The ideas you just had reading this article are worthless without execution.
One of our clients is conducting a 14-day sprint at 8 a.m. every day on “How To Earn Listings In This Market.” Another is starting a book club. Yet another is hosting a weekly pizza, prospecting, and profit session.
To win the day? Leave nothing to chance and do all you can to eliminate the “It’s my broker’s fault” mindset.
Mark Johnson is an author, speaker and business partner in Recruiting Insight.
