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By Maddie Jostol, Marketing Manager
With new brokerages entering the market with aggressive recruiting strategies, brokerages are universally placing a lot more weight on the importance of recruiting.
It’s easy to spend a lot of cash winning over agents, but we believe the key is to focus on what really matters. What do agents actually want? As you review this list, you’ll notice we don’t talk about commission splits. You already know commission splits are important to agents and we’re sure you’re doing what you can to offer competitive compensation. Here are some other things that agents are looking for when comparing brokerages.
Tech Stack
Agents want to join an organization that values technology. A robust, established tech stack shows agents that your brokerage is forward-thinking and supportive of its team. We think you’ll find that tech-savvy agents who embrace the systems you’ve hand-selected for them will likely be some of your most successful. It also fosters a culture of efficiency – technology-focused agents will push each other to streamline their businesses
Coming into a brokerage with a leading tech stack means they don’t need to research and train themselves on their own set of tools. You already have a stack up and running, ready for them to utilize.
Training
Training, support, and resources will prove to your agents that you care about their success and professional development. On top of that, helping them to improve themselves as real estate professionals makes a difference on your bottom line, which is always a win. Agents are looking to work for an organization that offers meaningful training and useful, manageable resources.
Before you get overwhelmed, remember that you don’t have to do all of this yourself. Look at your tech tools and vendors – many of them already offer free training regularly. Just promote those to your agents. Make training resources known and easily available to them so they can get themselves training on exactly what they need, when they need it.
Analytics
Access to meaningful data can make all the difference. Agents want data that shows how their business is performing. Look through your existing tech tools to see if your agents have a snapshot of their business anywhere. What tools are encouraging their annual goal-setting? Which ones are giving them necessary visibility into their business’ performance to ensure they hold themselves accountable and meet these goals?
The agents looking for this is typically focused on optimization, always looking to improve their business. These are the agents you want on your team.
Community
Even as independent contractors, agents see the value in having a team, which means building a strong community holds a good deal of weight. Focus on building a community that is unique to the people in your office. Valuing diversity and inclusion is vital in ensuring agents feel safe and respected in your community.
When agents feel like they’re a part of a community, they have people who they can trust, rely on, get encouragement from, and learn from. This leads to higher collaboration in closing more sales, as well as higher adoption of technology tools, and more recruiting referrals for new agents.
Tip: When a new agent starts, pair them with someone in the office who has a similar sales history or sales style as them. Send them out to coffee or lunch together so they can begin to build rapport and trust. Having a go-to team member could make all the difference as they settle into your community.
Common Values
Make core values part of your recruiting process. Outline what values your brokerage and office have. Look for those values in new agents and be transparent about them. Agents who resonate with them will be attracted, and even better, they’ll stick around.
A Warm Welcome
Don’t underestimate the importance of an agent’s first two weeks with your brokerage. It’s all about the little things. If an agent feels welcome when they first join your team, they’ll start off on the right foot. You just recruited them, now start the retention process right away. Make them feel like they’re part of the team and they’ll settle in for the long run.
Everything on this list is about the agent and their success. If your brokerage brand is well-recognized and well-regarded, that box will be checked and agents will start looking at what their day-to-day life will be like at your brokerage. According to NAR, the average agent stays at their current brokerage for just four years. This means you have relatively little time to win an agent over and keep them on your team. Make sure you’re taking actions that truly matter.
Effective recruiting practices and impactful retention strategies are important for the culture of your brokerage, its reputation, and of course, your bottom line.
