In a world where recruiting and retaining real estate professionals is more competitive than ever, let’s pause, simplify the process, and speak to refining the art of identifying and attracting the talent you’d like to bring to your real estate brokerage. Let’s discuss the art of storytelling. Why? Because if you are not telling your story, someone else will. And it may not be the story that should be told!
Simplify the Process:
Recruiting real estate pros is simply telling your story. No ONE in your market can share with greater passion and clarity the story of your real estate brokerage than you. Telling your story is weaving the threads of your brand, tools, benefits, services, and support into a beautiful, colorful tapestry that wraps around your candidate and provides the needed resources to take their career to the next level.
It's important to realize that 70% of the professionals you attract are emotional decision-makers. They make their decision to join your brokerage based on how they feel and high trust. Your storytelling must be genuine. You must make the conversation about them. The other 30% are logical decision-makers and make their decision to join your brokerage based on time and money. For 3 out of 10 you must craft your value efficiently and effectively and get to the details of the compensation more quickly. Learn the key indicators of their behavior and customize our presentation to meet their behavior and you will see your results in recruiting real estate agents increase dramatically.
Engagement:
As Donald Miller so clearly shares in his book, Business Made Simple, mastery of storytelling is positioning your candidate as the Hero while you guide and navigate them through a journey to improve their career and empower them to live the life, they desire by implementing the solutions you offer. How do you do this? You must know what value you bring to the table and match with their needs. The secret to storytelling is having the candidate join the process. It’s imperative that you know enough about your candidate to engage them in the story by asking questions – make them your Hero – and guide them to the best solution.
Your success is fueled by the engagement and participation of the candidate. Allow them to join and become a part of the journey. To be a part of the story, encourage them to ask questions and participate. Be ever mindful that the conversation is collaborative, you are not “selling” them on your brokerage, you are inviting them into a consultation to make a mutual decision for their future. As the Guide, you strategically ask probing questions that allow you to highlight and share your tools, benefits, and services. Together decide how adoption and integration of each will enhance their career.
Listen Aggressively:
Only by listening aggressively will you be able to navigate them to the best solutions provided by your brokerage to impact their future and enable them to achieve greater success faster. Mastering the art of listening will change every aspect of your professional journey as a real estate broker. It will not only increase your effectiveness as a recruiter but will also sharpen your skill as the Guide and increase your retention of existing talent. And we all know the most effective and efficient recruiting is retaining your existing talent.
ONE of our favorite quotes by Simon Sinek is “Hearing is listening to what is being said. Listening is hearing what is not being said.” Listening aggressively is much more than hearing. It’s watching body language, listening to tonality, and the speed and passion with which someone communicates.
Weaving Value into the Conversation:
This process is a consultation and conversation. The moment it becomes salesy or a “pitch” you will lose engagement with the candidate and trust. Salespeople simply do not want to be sold.
Once you’ve established what you will present, continue to engage them with questions (almost as if table sharing) and together monetize each of the value items offered by your real estate brokerage. Make certain you take the conversation to a deeper level by breaking the monetization into additional transactions to be closed once on board with your real estate brokerage. Only then will you compete on value and not cost. Also, be ever mindful that the number ONE reason an agent joins a real estate brokerage is the Broker. By the way…it’s the number ONE reason they leave. The point? Your role as the Guide is extremely important. Authentically sharing your passion, talent, and desire to navigate professionals through their real estate careers is a vital component of effective storytelling.
Weaving Money into Your Story:
The most frequently misunderstood thread in the tapestry is compensation. Think about it, if real estate professionals moved for money, they would all be at 100% concept companies. The fact? More than 80% of the members of the National Association of Realtors® are associated with traditional (split) real estate brokerages. For that reason, understand that for most of the talent you attract, it’s going to be much more about the value than the split. Therefore, you must bring your value to the forefront and monetize each tool, resource, and benefit you offer. Ensure this includes your industry experience, availability, and responsiveness to their needs.
Finish Strong:
Without a strong close which creates a call for the candidate to act, it all unravels.
You must ask them to join your real estate brokerage. Today. If you think they are going to join, they most likely will not. Remember, you cannot lose what you do not have. Ask them to join.
Recruiting is Telling Your Story; Retention is Living the Story You’ve Told:
Simply stated, the video must match the audio.
Whatever you presented and promised in crafting your story must be provided once they join. Upon realization the story is real, not only will they stay, but they will also become story stewards. As Story Stewards, they will tell others about your real estate brokerage and help you grow the office and market share.
Become an Artist:
Storytelling is an art. Become an artist for your brokerage. Feel so passionate about what you’ve established that you feel guilty when you don’t share who you are and what you offer to the real estate community. Remember, it’s not about the money, it’s about what the money will do and how a move to your brokerage will be life-changing.
Let your story wrap your candidate in a powerfully woven tapestry that will support them professionally and personally as if they have been swaddled. They will not walk away.
About Kathy Baker: A legend in the real estate industry, Kathy Baker is Vice President of Learning for Realty ONE Group and ONE of the company’s most prized assets. For 30+ years, Kathy has served as a consultant, coach, trainer, speaker, and Executive in the industry. Early in her career, Kathy served as a Broker/Partner with a RE/MAX Brokerage in Raleigh, NC, and for 17 years, she was a catalyst for the company’s success. As General Manager and a ferocious recruiter, Kathy focused on recruiting and retention as the key to profitability, and grew the office to over 300 devoted real estate professionals landing them in the top 100 RE/MAX brokerages in the country, closing over one billion dollars year after year.
