A cool infographic from http://careerenlightenment.com/

The stats are from all companies, but it’s some food for thought.

If so many companies are using social media and so many job hunters are using social media, should you be using social media in your recruiting?

Do you have a mission statement for your real estate brokerage?

Not a generic one.

Not the one in the lobby that no one has looked at since you hung it up.

Not the one that no body remembers.

I’m talking about an honest to goodness, mission statement that helps you make the tough decisions about your business.

Not only helps you make decisions, but it gives guidance for your staff and agents on how to behave and act also.

In the video below, I share info about a consulting conversation I had with a client on getting clarity about their mission statement.

Maybe its a 30 second commercial or the 2 minute trailer before a movie starts.

There is some brilliance and genius in these pieces of content that you can learn from and apply to your efforts in recruiting Realtors.

What You Can Learn About Recruiting Realtors From Movie Trailers

The objective of movie trailers and promos is get you to pay way too much for a ticket to the movie and spend even more money on popcorn. So, how do they do that?

Give just enough to recruits, but not more

A good movie trailer gives away just enough of the movie, but doesn’t give away too much. If they give away to much, it feels like you saw the movie already and don’t need to go now.

Have you ever been to a movie and it felt like the funniest parts, best scenes were actually in the trailer?

Look at your recruiting. Does it create desire?

Or are you giving everything way?

Evidence of success

In this trailer they show who the director is, Jon Favreau. Don’t know who he is? That’s ok, they tell you. He directed Iron Man. You’ve probably heard of that movie. So, even if you don’t know the name Jon Favreau, you probably know his work.

In the trailer they also show the Executive Producers, one of who is Ron Howard and another Steven Spielberg. Those guys are pretty important right?

Some movie trailers will tell you if thee writer, director or actor has won any awards or been nominated for anything in the past. had in the past. For example, Golden Globe winner, or 2 time Oscar nominee.

Take a look at your recruiting, how do you give evidence of success?

Testimonials

Sometimes the whole movie trailer or commercial is just testimonials from media or movie goers that have watched it already.

“Best romantic comedy of the year.”

“Amazing special effects.”

Sometimes, you even only get one word.

“Outstanding!”

“Thrilling!”

“Hilarious!”

Take a look at your activities and material…are you using testimonials and what others say about you and your brokerage, in your recruiting information?

Applying movie trailer tactics to your recruiting efforts

Take a look at these tactics and see if you notice them the next time you watch a movie trailer.

Look to apply these tactics to your recruiting Realtors efforts.

Get help recruiting more Realtors to your brokerage.

Socialcruiting 1 to 1 Consulting

Not long ago, the mom and pop local bookstores starting going out of business, because they couldn’t compete with the big store bookstores like Borders.

And now, Borders is done.

After filing for bankruptcy in the beginning of the year, they couldn’t rebound and are shutting the whole thing down.

What did Borders do wrong?

I don’t think Amazon directly put them out of business. Borders could have adapted and got online and of course they did, but that didn’t save them.

What finally did them in?

I believe it was the Kindle.

Borders didn’t just fall behind with marketing, service, convenience and online presence. They fell behind in technology. And they sold books.

What are you doing to get to the top or stay at the top?

Remember, it wasn’t that long ago Borders was putting others out of business. Maybe you have dominated over the last 5 or 10 years. How can you be certain you maintain that?

Maybe you are just starting out and trying to fight to get to the top. How will be different?

How will make sure that you don’t go the way of Borders?

Generating recruiting leads is easy.

Converting the recruiting leads is a bit harder.

Lead Nurturing is where you actually start to see real results in Realtor Recruiting..

Lead Nurturing is so difficult because it’s so easy to give up. It’s easy to quit after the Realtor recruit doesn’t return the 2nd voice-mail or reply to the 3rd email. It’s easy to give up, so you do.

You need to understand that its not the Realtor recruits job to follow up with you. Its your job to follow up with them.

When Do You Quit As A Realtor Recruiter?

Seth Godin, writes in the book “The Dip” (affiliate link) about salespeople who quit,

“A well-reported study found that the typical salesperson gives up after the fifth contact with a prospect. After five times, the salesperson figures she’s wasting her time and the prospects , quits and moves on.

Of course, the study reports that 80 percent of these customers buy on the seventh attempt to close the sale. If only the salesperson had stuck it out!

Is it true that people need to be closed constantly, that seven is a magic number, and the key to selling is to be aggressive? I don’t think so. I don’t think the best salespeople are the ones who are always in your face, always asking for the order, always pushing.

I think the lesson of the story is this: Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of facts. If it were just a presentation of fats, then a PDF flyer or a web site would be sufficient to make the phone ring.”

When do you quit going after your Realtor Recruit?

Are you transferring emotion? Or hoping the recruiting website makes the sale for you?

Seth goes on to write,

“Prospects are experts at sensing what’s on the salesperson’s mind. People have honed their salesperson radar-we’re really good at detecting sincerity (or lack of it). If a salesperson’s attitude is “Hey, if this person doesn’t buy, there’s someone right down the street I can call on,” what’s projected is “Hey, I’m not that serious about you having this product.” On the other hand, if a salesperson is there for the long run, committed to making a sale because it benefits the other person, that signal is sent loud and clear.”

What signal are you sending?

You might not went to come across as a pushy, aggressive recruiter but your lack of follow up and nurturing the recruiting process might make you come off looking like a recruiter that doesn’t care about the recruit succeeding or not.

That of course, is not true, right?

Become A 6%er Recruiter

Herbert True was a marketing specialist. Seth might be referring to Herbert True and is noted for saying,

• 44% of all salespeople quit trying after the first call
• 24% quit after the second call
• 14% quit after the third call
• 12% quit trying to sell their prospect after the fourth call

Let’s flip salespeople around to recruiter.

That means that 94% of all recruiters are quitting before even getting to the 5th contact. So, only 6% of recruiters still have the opportunity to recruit the real estate agent.

You have to become a 6%er. You have to be left standing after the other 94% quit.

After you have generated a recruiting lead, converted that lead, do you have a lead nurturing process to make sure you are there when the Realtor is ready to make a decision to move to a new brokerage?

As a real estate speaker I’m in airports alot.

Something that I’m looking for in airports is a moving walkway.  When I’m running a bit late for a connection between flights or have a few terminals to walk to, I keep my eyes open for those moving walkways.

When you use a moving walkway you are able to get to your destination quicker without exerting extra effort. It’s a great tool for leverage.

When you step on a moving walkway, you maintain the same speed, but basically cover twice the distance OR you can stop,  rest from holding your luggage, but still keep the pace as if you were walking.

Increase your real estate agent recruiting

There might not be a magic bullet to increase your real estate agent recruiting, but there are many amazing technology tools to help you maximize your work day, make more progress and accelerate your recruiting.

Even certain lead generation activities like blogging and using social networking will help you amplify your efforts and get you more recruiting appointments.

Recruiting Tools and Technology

Technology and tools have a unique place in today’s real estate brokerage. They can either assist you substantially in your Realtor recruiting efforts and give you the ability to increase your real estate agent recruiting without extra strife or these tools and technology can distract you from buckling down on core recruiting activities.

It’s like this…

I am trying  to get to Terminal C in the airport. That is the goal.

As I travel to my goal,  I find a moving walkway and now I’m traveling quicker now to goal.

I see some recruiters in their brokerage, getting on “moving walkways” with out even knowing what terminal they are moving to.

Its just an interesting, fun tool and technology so they get on it.

There are kids like this at the airport. They are bored. There is nothing to do while they wait for their flight.  So, they ride the moving walkways and escalators, just for fun. Just to have something to do.

Have more discipline than this.

Have goals in mind.

Know what results you want from your recruiting efforts

Then look for the tools and technology that will help you increase your recruiting.

If you want access to tools and technology that will help your real estate agent recruiting…

Check out Socialcruiting 360

I was having a discussion with one of my Realtor recruiting consulting clients and I was trying to pinpoint exactly the kind of progress they were making.

The Broker-Owner was also curious about the investment and if I was in fact helping their recruiter learn how to recruit real estate agents or just learn about social media.

We needed to start setting benchmarks so we could measure the ROI of the Brokers time and money.

I shared with them that I believe there are  5 phases during the recruiting process that a real estate agent will be moved through.

How To Recruit Real Estate Agents – The 5 Phases of Recruiting

Phase 1 Identify your target audience

You can’t recruit’em all. Well in time you can, but if you try to get’em all at one time, you will never be able to devote the right time and energy to bring a recruit into your brokerage.

Identify the agents that you want in your office.

Phase 2 Contacts

The next step is about who you have made contact with from the target audience. Who did you call? Email?

Phase 3 Connections

Connections take the contacts deeper. You actually make a connection, you meet with them.

Phase 4 2 or more

One appointment is easy, the second appointment is the hard one, but if you can get it…CELEBRATE!!! The second appointment and any additional follow up appointments allow you to truly connect and start to build a relationship with the recruit.

Phase 5 Transition Plan

A transition plan is basically commitment. Its them saying they are coming, but you don’t have their license yet.

It’s like getting engaged before marriage.

It’s like a high school athlete signing a letter of intent for a scholarship to a college.

How many in each phase?

Maybe you use my 5 phases or you develop your own. But the idea is that you can quickly identify how many recruits are in each phase. And of course, the objective is to keep moving the recruits through each phase until they join you. You run them through an orientation of your company and then make sure you have a strong training and retention program to keep them from leaving.

I love this quote from Seth Godin about marketing.

Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done. – Seth Godin

Now replace, marketing with recruiting, and what do you get?

Recruiting is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.

Are you treating Realtor recruiting like an emergency?

Are you spamming and annoying them?

Or…

Do you have a plan, a thoughtful exercise/strategy that you are consistent with?

For a planned, thoughtful recruiting strategy…

Get access to my Socialcruiting Blueprint. FREE!

Professional One Real Estate Franchising published some great content about how real estate brokerages can use social media.

I think its great content because, the Founder of Professional One, Michael McClure asked me to contribute.

The content is from a talk that Michael did at RE Tech South.

I wonder what your take away will be from the video. Mine is large or small, it doesn’t matter social media can work for every real estate brokerage.

Here is the Broker Social Media Case Studies

Objection is when I say: this doesn’t suit me. Resistance is when I make sure that what doesn’t suit me never happens again.  – Ulrike Meinhof

If you are recruiting real estate agents, you are going to run into objections.

Real estate agents just don’t wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “I think I’m going to change real estate brokerages today.”

And if they did, you should probably be suspicious of them.

One of the most common objections you will receive during your real estate recruiting process is “I’m happy where I’m at.”

Objection Handling During Real Estate Recruiting

You will get the “I’m happy….” objection during your first initial contact if you have not provided enough value to them yet.

If are not connecting with them on twitter, facebook or their blog and not sharing info with them via your blog , you will certainly get objections to meeting.

Keep in mind, you are not trying to recruit the agent, you are just trying to get a meeting. Actually, I hate the word meeting, lets use conversation. You are simply trying to get a conversation with them, in person.

What to say to a Real Estate Agent that is “HAPPY”

There are a few ways to handle this, but one of my favorite is as follows:

Recruit: “I am happy where I am at. Not looking to move brokerages.”

Acknowledge and repeat what they said verbatim, so that they know you are listening…

Socialcruiter: “Recruit, thanks for being so upfront and candid with me, I appreciate that. So, knowing that you are happy and not looking to move to a new place, what would be a good time to get together and have a conversation?”

You basically side step the objection, because you are not trying to recruit the agent over the phone, email or facebook anyways, right?

You are just trying to have a conversation, right?

You don’t even know if YOU want them, until you get to know them, their goals and their character.

Just keep in mind that many objections can be handled ahead of time by creating the relationship before you ask for the conversation.

Learn more about the recruiting process, objection handling and social media inside Socialcruiting 360