Now that you have a few prospective recruits, you’ve called them and they said they would get back to you. What steps do you take next?
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to call them one time.
As you can probably guess, you will need a long-term plan for following up with them. Sometimes, it takes weeks, months, even years. But once the right recruit comes along, it’s worth it. There are ways to make real estate agent recruiting easier, too. For example, creating drip emails could automate part of the followup process, but remember: keep it personable.
Growing your business requires time and effort, but once you get the ball rolling, it will become abundantly clear why follow-up matters.
As you can see, a lot of real estate agents and brokers are new to their firms. However, it seems that many also last six years or more. According to these stats, one can speculate that agents bounce around a little in the beginning of their careers and find a firm they love and settle into.
This is valuable information when real estate agent recruiting. Knowing where they are in their careers and how to sweeten the deal for them will help you grow your team more effectively. Once you know the general direction, how do you persuade recruits to take the leap?
Find agents that suit you company culture
Hiring the right people is hugely important. We wrote an article about the hiring process and how to build a brokerage culture. Make sure you choose the right people who will be a great fit.
If your company values integrity, humility and drive, make those important traits to have.
As we have written before, you could offer personality tests for your potential hires, or use a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to see how they will be able to grow within the company.
Also, multiple interviews are helpful as anyone can put their best foot forward the first time.
And remember, always check references.
Stand out
One of the most important things you will want to do is stand out to your potential recruit. Think of them as a client, wanting to stay top of mind.
As you can see, transaction sides almost triple in less than a decade within a team as opposed to a single agent. This is something to consider as a team leader and as a team member. Being a part of a team has the potential to grow more than if someone was on their own. Not only that, but it’s also nice to be a part of a team.
Celebrate their wins. If you notice they posted a listing or helped sell a home, congratulate them. By doing this, you will establish your name and brand as well as a local leader in the area. If you leave a call-to-action, it could plant the seed for when they are ready to transition.
Thank potential recruits for doing business with you. If they are the buyer or seller agent for one of your transactions, make sure you show your gratitude when you follow-up. It will set you apart and show that you are pleasant to work with.
If you have a prospective agent’s email, add them to your email list and begin a monthly market report. Providing another agent information that could help their business shows that you care about their success.
Make sure you get employee testimonials about your company and team. People need proof and validation that you are someone who is worth working with. Joining a team is a big decision and showing a potential recruit that you are pleasant to work with will show them that.
The best way to stand out is to show why you’re different. You can point out key operational differences, the technology that you’ve incorporated and administrative services that you offer.
Always remember, personalization is key and you should be mindful that everyone is in a different stage in their career. Making your follow-up messages personable will help you stand out even more. Talking or writing to someone specifically, keeping in mind their details, will set you a world apart.
The Long Game
Creating a long-term follow-up strategy can be difficult to keep on top of, especially since you have your own business to take care of. According to CoSchedule, over 60% of customers want to see emails from brands at least once a week. Although sending an email to dozens of people might take a lot of time, it’s necessary for your business to grow.
When contacting prospects, 40% of respondents prefer emails over other forms of communication followed by social media at 34%.
Creating a drip campaign could be beneficial. These would be automated emails that trickle into potential recruits’ email inbox to keep you top of mind. You never know when someone is finally ready to take the leap, but if they see a follow-up email from you every once in a while, it could lead to a new recruit.
That being said, don’t forget to try to personalize an automatic drip campaign. To the best of your ability, try to separate your email list into categories like prospective buyers, sellers, recruits and more. That way, you can tailor some of your emails to be more specific.
Directly emailing or mailing potential recruits is also a really good habit to get into. Nothing is more thoughtful than a message to check up on someone.
As you grow your business and are able to let other team members take control of more tasks, the more you can focus on growing.
With SmartSetter, the average broker generates 1.11 recruits per month or 19 recruits per year. You will want to follow-up with each of these prospective team members to make sure when they are ready to join a team, yours is top of the list.