As a specialist Real Estate Recruitment Agency, Placed Australia are in a unique position to see behind the curtain in a lot of different Real Estate businesses. Not all Real Estate Agencies are the same, but the Job is the same. List & sell as much Real Estate as possible. Simple!
Most Agencies suffer from staffing issues. In some business's, it's a revolving door, but pushing on and not addressing why will more than likely result in this continuing if steps aren't taken...
So what do some Agencies do to consistently attract the right talent? I will reveal this below...
We all know, in this competitive environment, Agencies with a small army of Agents almost guarantees there will be new sales happening consistently, creating cash-flow, and will allow the Agency to grow even more... (start a new office, recruit more staff, buy another rent roll etc).
Recruitment is always at the top-of-mind for most Agency Principals, regardless if they are just starting out, have a small team growing into a medium-size team or a large team looking to expand into other areas... (Click the link or image for the Blog on Scaling Real Estate Teams).
When it comes to Recruiting Sales Agents, there is definitely a full-blown war for talent going on behind the scenes. It's a huge win for any Agency to attract good talent that know how to List & Sell Real Estate. Recruiting a new Agent with solid GCI figures is basically the acquisition of a small entity, that has a significant positive impact on the Agency balance sheet. It's less input in training, better sales results and more revenue for the Agency.
The hard pill to swallow is; when you are losing good Agents as fast as you can put them on, it can be super frustrating. Most Agencies face this scenario at some point and it's knowing what to do now that matters...
Some Agencies find Recruiting and retaining talent so much easier than others. Why?
It all has to do with their culture, brand positioning in their market and the other Agents in the business who are finding extraordinary success as a result... It's also about support, ongoing development & training and, in some cases, leads!
All Agencies struggle to find good talent. It's an ongoing thing. Some Agencies do it better than others because they focus on the things that make them attractive to an Agent to move across...
They promote the key differences they provide over other Agencies that just don't.
They work on making their systems and branding better.
Associate career development programme (take on and train green Associates).
They continue to invest in their skilled staff with ongoing training and mentorship.
They identify what good Agents really want and deliver on that (Lead Gen etc).
They partner with good Recruiters who are constantly out hunting for the right talent.
They create an awesome office environment that their the Agents can be proud of.
They recognise staff behind the scenes that make the day-to-day happen.
They outline clear career growth plans for everyone in every role.
They offer Agents clear scalability and room to grow within the business (retention).
Offer their staff an attractive $$$ bonus for introducing other good Agents to the team.
Making staff feel valued by giving them responsibility on internal projects.
We already know that 82% of all people who get their Real Estate License, don't go on to renew it in year 2 or 3. That leaves 18% or so of the Agent talent pool that 100% of the Agencies are battling over to join their team. Yep...18%. This is why it's a struggle to attract the right talent. There is simply not enough of the skilled talent to go around.
Knowing this...it begs me to focus all Agency Principals attention on the internal culture of their business, and looking at ways of making their business super-attractive for any experienced Agents to make the jump.
Things like your office fit-out, location and team all play a big part too. Good Agents don't want to work in a tiny back street Agency with drab décor. They want the sexy office for their clients to see, and bring them in to sign contracts.
I wish I recorded the meetings of just about every Agency we have engaged with over the past 4 years and could play back the snippets for you now... but the gist of it is below..
Most Agency Principals ask us to go out into the world and find them the same thing when it comes to Real Estate Sales Agents. They say.... "Find us as many experienced Agents writing between $300k GCI and $600k GCI. Don't worry about the $1m + writers, their too hard and take too long to move, and come with a level of self-importance and unrealistic expectation on comm splits. If you find one who's moving for the right reasons, of course we want to know about it, but focus hard on the Agents doing 12 - 25 sales a year and we'll get them to 40,50 + sales a year.".. (sound familiar?).
Awesome, we get it! That's what we do every day... but you have to ask why would an Agent leave a decent business and move to your Agency? What's so radically different? What key selling points (Value Proposition) can be used to turn their head and get them interested in moving their business to yours? (Click the image for the blog on the "Real Estate Recruitment Dance").
The great news is for Agents in the above mentioned GCI bracket, you can call us anytime and we can get you in front of some amazing Agencies who are dedicated to supporting their team, where you will be guided and grow your GCI in the next 12 -18 months. Don't just sit and expect things to get better. You have to take steps. Call Us
We all know it takes time to find the right Agents and get the right ones over the line and it's all about timing. Agents usually only move when relationships in their current office starts to break down or their sales figures are being impacted by Agency policy or nothing that was promised is materialising...
We can speak to an Agent on Friday and they are super-optimistic about selling all their listings on Saturday and wouldn't even consider a move. Come Monday, after a challenging weekend result, they're deflated and considering if they're in the right place... You just have to get them in that moment. If you're an Agency Principal and your day to day is trying to help your team sell property, in most cases, recruiting for growth becomes harder and harder because your time is split, and you have to get an Agent at exactly the right time for them to even entertain a move...
Getting an Agent to eventually entertain a meeting can take many touch points...and touch points take time. This is why Recruiters are usually much better positioned to get you the Agents you need because we know when and why an Agent would consider a move and act on it quickly!
I will share with you 10 key things I have learnt as a Specialist Real Estate Recruiter that make Agents want to move to another Agency....
Leads. Agencies with a Lead Generation team win the talent attraction game 90% more than others. They know, if they offer the leads, even at a 50/50 split or 40/60 split, the Agent will be far more comfortable to move across knowing they have leads on top of their own efforts. ( I cant stress enough how positive this is for recruiting new Agents.)
Brand. If the brand is well recognised or positioned beautifully in the right market that attracts sellers, the Agent will find it less of a struggle to win business, and they will come.
Other Agents already hitting big numbers. Agents are attracted to success. If you have other Agents in your business who are already regarded as super-successful, you should be leveraging that success as a recruitment tool. (Social Recruitment Videos with successful Agents telling their story of success after joining you etc).
Support. Agencies that genuinely provide support to their Agents through ongoing development, advertising, mentorship programs and even bringing in coaches regularly to up-skill the team. There is always a balance.
Smooth and easy onboarding. Having everything prepared for an Agent before they start. Cards, logins, maybe even a lead or 2 to hit the ground running.
Flexibility to do a deal. Be flexible enough to offer an Agent 100% of the first deal or 2 to make it attractive in the short-term for them to jump across. It can mean a lot to an Agent.
Attractive Commission split. Getting an Agent to move from a 50% comm split to another 50% comm split will be super hard. Moving to a 65% comm split or better is easier, but most Agencies hands are tied with their structure and how the comms are split internally. Think of other ways you can make it attractive, like 65% on your first Sale in any given month, but if you do more than one in a month, we will give you 75% or 80%. Then it resets in the new month. This makes the Agent strive to do more volume each month to chase the bigger commissions.
Working from Home. Lets face it...more an more people want to work from home. Is it a bad thing? The jury is still out. Some Agents perform just as well if not better working from home. Some don't. Allowing the right Agents the ability to work from home a few days a week can be a very attractive incentive for an Agent over being forced to come to the office 6 days a week and burning fuel at $2 a litre. Maybe they have to hit a certain level of sales volume before you entertain the idea of Agents working from home. (Hit these numbers and you can work from home. Don't and you can't).
Culture. Probably the #1 reason people stay in an Agency or leave. If staff are leaving, do exit interviews and ask them why and get a handle on this fast and make changes quickly. People will be honest on the way out. Take it on the chin and make changes. Ask your staff regularly if anything needs to change from a culture perspective and implement if needed.
Taking control of how your brand is perceived in the market. Spend time creating content that highlights your key selling points as an Agency to other Agents. Control the narrative.
All of these points are easier said then done, we know. Working on them takes time and serious work to build-out the above in an already busy environment. Taking time to position your Agency to cover these things, can only offer more value to incoming Agents in the long-run and hopefully starts to curb the fallout an ignite growth.
If you are growing your team and want the help of Placed Australia Recruiters, call any one of the team at Placed Australia Real Estate Recruitment today and let us know how we can help you win the war on talent.
