What is Your Strategy to Recruit Experienced Agents?

RISMEDIA, September 19, 2009 — Recruiting experienced agents is an easy way for brokers to bring excitement back into their office as well as impact their bottom line. While bringing in experienced agents is a great way to keep your office productive, many real estate professionals are relying on passive forms of advertising to bring in new agents. Here, Todd Shyiak, President, Cogent Step Recruiting discusses the formula for successful recruiting. 

Recruiting experienced agents can bring immediate benefits to a broker — an immediate impact to the bottom line, increased market share and excitement in the office. Yet, most simply don’t have a strategy or the time to recruit experienced agents. 

Of the brokers who do have a plan, many rely on “passive” forms of advertising — drip email campaigns, a website page and direct mail pieces touting the advantages of their brand and office. But passive ads are easy to dismiss and even ignore.

The best and perhaps only way to recruit experienced agents is to call them directly until you actually speak with them. When you speak directly to an agent, you can determine if they are perhaps unhappy where they are today and/or if they are interested in hearing more about your value proposition. The number of agents you end up speaking to and meeting with using the phone instead of ads will increase your chances of achieving your goals exponentially. 

To successfully recruit experienced agents, a broker must first have a goal in mind then develop a plan and execute that plan daily. Assuming the broker has a solid value proposition (an established brand, technology tools, training, competitive rates and good market share, for example) and a commitment to grow their market share, the next step is working through the numbers. If, for example, a broker has set a goal of recruiting 10 experienced, producing agents this year and he or she has 600 agents in their market area with sufficient sales volume to warrant a call, break it down like this: 

• Calling 600 successful agents on their cell phones until you actually speak with them will require a commitment to make 150 calls per week for 12 weeks (1,800 total calls). You will end up speaking with approximately 80% of the agents (480) and leaving a voice mail for 120. 
• Of the 480 that you end up speaking to, between 9 and 12% will be “interested” in exploring their options either because they are unhappy where they are or they want to learn more about your brand/value to them and their business. 
• Of the 40 to 60 interested agents, you should be successful in booking 20 to 40 face-to-face meetings. 
• 20 to 40 meetings will result in between 5 and 10 agents recruited and a lot of momentum and excitement in your office that will result in the “collateral” recruiting of even more Agents. 

The right energy, scripting and objection handling on the initial call will identify a much higher percentage of interested agents in the first place. The critical needs analysis, both on the phone and during the face-to-face meeting is crucial to understanding agents’ current issues and future needs and wants. Broker training on consultative best practices will ensure a higher success rate for the face-to-face meetings. 

Being committed to growing your market share may be a great goal, but you must also commit to train yourself (or your managers) on recruiting best practices. That’s where Cogent Step Recruiting can help. When a broker is overwhelmed with the sheer volume of calls they need to make, let alone understanding the other elements of successful recruiting, we offer an outsourced solution. Most agents are quite happy to get a call from an executive recruiter. 

The ability to effectively identify and attract experienced agents is more than a tactical advantage—in a highly competitive market, it is a core capability that will drive the success of your business for the long term. Set a goal, develop a plan and execute. 

Todd Shyiak
President
Cogent Step Recruiting
www.cogentstep.com 
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