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Recruiting Real Estate Agents (the book).
BY DAN WOOD **Chapter One Concept (A Working Draft – please provide feedback, ideas, and corrections [email protected] or 905-903-5442)** Thanks for being a book ambassador – www.brokeragenation.com/ambassador ——————-- Recruiting real estate agents can be a real grind for many managers. It tends to be a “relationships over a long haul” business model. My goal with this book is to shorten that so you have quick leads today, ongoing prospects monthly, and balance out over time. The problem with recruiting is this: “agents in” production doesn’t usually move brokerages. I mean, even if you are cheaper, it’s easier for them to be complacent--until something drastic happens. I’m writing this book primarily for broker-owners and office managers, but many of my ideas will work for teams and agents looking to grow too. So, please share this with anyone you know looking to grow. They can become a book ambassador for FREE and download the complete PDF version of the book as it’s written: www.brokeragenation.com/ambassador. Below is the first draft of the first chapter. Chapter 1) Recruiting Coaching Calls **A shrill whistle sounds through the crowd.** “Pull it in!” The team huddles around the coach. “Great play, guys,” he cheers them on as he pats the closest player on their shoulders and looks them all in the eyes, “but we can do better. Here’s how…” This is what I do with my recruiting coaching calls. I leverage what’s working for you. For some, it’s technology and lead generation. For most, it’s relationships and prospecting. Far too many come to me looking for a magic bullet when what they really need is a better way of holding the gun and enhanced ammo. *I’m not violent, but that was a good analogy. Typically, on our first coaching call, I’d throw mud at the wall to see what sticks. For some, it’s paid ads and social media. For others, it’s the traditional prospecting and relationship building. I like to give a good mix of ideas to see what sticks. That’s what I’m going to do with this book. Pretend we’re doing a recruiting coaching call. We’ll cover a handful of ideas to get the recruiting blood flowing. Our first call starts now. Our First Call Hello? Is this Mr. Broker? Hi, this is Danny Wood! You requested a free coaching call about agent recruiting? I’m going to give you a few ideas that cover both brand new agents and seasoned ones already in the game, ok? I’d like you to listen with an open mind to the end because sometimes it’s my twist that makes all the difference. I don’t want you missing out by saying no and not hearing what’s possible. We can always adapt the plan, and it’s important for me to see what works for you and what doesn't and create a clear path going forward. Do you have pen and paper? You’ll want to take notes. Ok. To start, I’m going to talk about attracting new agents, but, before you shut the idea down because you only want existing agents, just hear me out. I can show you how it’s a lead generation tool for your business too. It will generate buyer leads and seller leads. Sound interesting? Good. For $100 you could do a Google Pay-Per-Click campaign that gets triggered when people are searching the subject of getting into the business. They might be searching:
I always liked the visual of the old man in a boat with 15 fishing rods. He’s sleeping, and his dog is looking over the edge. Clearly, one of the lines has a bite. I always wanted to be that guy. Sitting back as the leads came to me. During the course of this book and podcast, you’ll see different approaches you might like. The Google leads approach I looked at as ongoing fresh conversations that helped build my database… but let’s face it - the 80/20 rule applies to everything. So 80% (more like 99%) of leads won’t become a producing agent. So how do I turn a negative into a positive? One simple script. I’d call the leads back and say something like this: “Hi, is this Joey? My name is Danny Wood from ABC Realty. You filled in an online form thinking about getting into real estate?” Pause and let them answer. “Hey, that’s really exciting! Do you know anyone already in the business?” They most likely already have a family member or friend who’s a REALTOR or broker. You’re just trying to feel out your competition here and make mental notes. If they do have family in the business, chances are they’ll go work with them. Regardless of their answer, you should continue with your conversation. “Great! Since you already have an awareness and radar about real estate, I’m sure you’re going to want to hit the ground running. So let me ask this, do you know anyone right now who’s thinking of buying a home or selling a home in the next few months?” This question leads many to answer with ego, showing the world what and who they know. It’s amazing! Even if you never hired them, you would at least have a fresh source of buyer and seller leads. Let’s face it, referral leads are the best, and they only cost you $6!! It’s kind of a referral? Right? When I ask this question, you can almost hear their chest puff out. You can hear the pride in their voice. “Well, yeah! I know my mom is looking to buy, and this friend of mine wants to sell down the road. My neighbor, too… and ….” By doing this, you’ll at least get an idea that they have an “inventory” already. Now you can continue. “You don’t want to miss out on anything, and you’re not yet in the business. How far along in your schooling are you? Have you looked into the costs or time required to become an agent?” Pause, let them answer. At this point, I don’t get into the full details. I defer them by saying, “I have a word document that shows the schooling you’ll need, the costs involved and the time it takes. It’ll also show you how much you can earn as a real estate agent here in ______ (city).” The word document I send them has the names of the local school(s), boards and associations, industry resources (like access to our online training), and a chart showing how much you earn if you sell X number of houses. Doing this saves time over the phone so I can get back to those buyer/seller leads they just mentioned. It’s also a future follow up touch... “Hey did you get that email I sent? Did you have any questions…?” Ok back to the call: “You can’t actually help these people till you finish school… but I have an idea! What if I help them and you come in and shadow me from beginning to end? Like your own personal boot camp. I can show you the beginning of the transaction to the paperwork, marketing, and of course the closing. I can show you how to set up the prospect and do the CMA—all of that. I’ll even give you a game plan on how to launch your business. From building a database and working it for referrals to prospecting and generating leads. Sound good?” Usually, they’ll be really excited! You’ll get a possible, future agent, having established a good working relationship and a few prospective clients! And, for just $100 a month! Talk about a win-win! Let’s say you start getting these “getting into real estate” leads. This keeps your pipeline full of possible recruits and possible buyer/seller leads too. In six months, these recruits will start finishing their courses and begin interviewing brokers. Who do you think they’ll be reaching out to when that time comes? Yep, you. Now, keep that up for six to nine months, and you’ll see a steady flow of people getting into the business every month!! Question? Do you need to hire them all? Nope, not at all. Be selective. But, at least you get first chance, and, if you do what I said above, you’ll have gotten paid along the way too. Synopsis I always look for ways to get paid for building my database. When I started as a single agent, I worked rental leads because they closed in a month and I looked at it like I was getting paid to learn the business. I learned the paperwork, prospecting, follow up, showings, negotiations… all of it. Advertising for new agents is kind of the same thing--only the buyer/seller referrals pay a much bigger commission. It’s funny. I was actually on a coaching call last week with a BIG team leader. He currently has over 2,700 job applications to be his buyer agent!? Most of the leads are from the general public basically looking for a regular job thinking it’s hourly pay, and they don’t have the proper education. Sources include: Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder, local classified ads, facebook marketplace, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter and social media ads (I’ll get to this in another chapter), etc. So, now, he has a new problem. It’s not getting the leads; it’s, “How on earth do you sort and process that many people?” One-hundred percent of his leads all get funneled into a survey that asks them DISC profile questions because he’s looking for a specific person. It’s like 1% that make it through to talk with him. Before they even talk to anyone, the leads get redirected to do an interactive video interview. The candidates watch a video asking a series of questions that have countdown timers before moving to the next question. Each question plays a different video of him asking the questions and showing his personality. Basically, it’s short, 30-second clips built into a survey. He makes it more interactive and personal during each question. Now, what question do you think was a game changer? You guessed it! “Do you know anyone thinking of moving in the next 3 months?” If answered yes, they get tagged as a “follow up” regardless of the DISC profile. These are really warm leads to pick up the phone and call. You have the right name, phone number, and email… and you know they have prospects for you! Do you see how one approach can lead to many outcomes? You just need to change the way you look at things. I suggest you read this book with a beginners mind. Be a kid again and make your own rules. Experiment, play, and be creative. Get your hands dirty and start building ongoing systems that work. We’ll make this entire thing called “recruiting” actually fun. Many times in this book, I’ll write out a how-to for my ideas. If you don’t like the idea, please skip the how-to part and move on. I don’t want to lose you on the details. At the same time, I want this to be a major resource for you, so I’ll go deep when I can. The how-to parts might even change over time. For example, Facebook might change its dashboard, so my written text may become outdated or something. Don’t stress it. Just do what I would do--become a professional problem solver. Google search for the answer. Ask for help and fail forward. The winners will take my ideas and make them your own with whatever experience, drive and capacity they currently have. Trust me. Small action is better over no action. So, if you liked this “Google ads recruiting” idea, read the how-to section. If not? Skip it, and I’ll see you in the next chapter as I carry on our coaching call. How-to: Google Pay-per-Click Campaign Before you even consider doing a Google PPC campaign, you basically need to work backward. You need a website, blog, or landing page to send them to, right? You’ll probably want a video at the top of that page explaining “who you are and what they’ll get for filling in the form?” After that, you’ll probably need an autoresponder and database to reply and follow up from. My trick to setting up new systems is to break it into smaller parts like that and knock them down like dominos. One at a time. So, let me help. In this case, we’re going to start with the video first. It helps to create the call to action and written text from the script. This can be used on the landing page, plus it can be repurposed as a social media ad. Video Script: “Hey, it’s Danny Wood from ABC Realty. Are you thinking of becoming a real estate agent in the ________ area? Fill in the form below, and I’ll email you the schooling you’ll need and the industry contacts you should have, and you will see how much you can earn as a REALTOR. I’ll be following up to answer any questions you have about getting started. Then, we can even invite you to our next training event!” The Gear: To be honest, any modern camera or phone will work, including what’s in your pocket. You can always switch out the video later with something polished and produced, but, for now, just get something done so we can work with it. I suggest going in early when the office is quiet, turn on all the lights and turn off any fans. Humming appliances don’t sound like much until you replay the video. I’ve even unplugged refrigerators before. Set up a tripod at eye level by the front desk and stand with your company logo behind you on the wall. The lighting and mic are almost more important than the actual camera you use. A lapel mic is best for the quality of sound, cost, and ease of use. The iRig lav mic (order the two-pack one here- https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigmiclav/ ) is great because you can later use it for doing interviews. Two sound sources go into one video with no editing required. As for the light, check out Amazon for the Aputure AL-M9 LED light. It’s super small and can be used on the go. It’s also cheap. It’s black, plastic and the size of a credit card. Don’t go for the newer red metal one. It’s overkill and heavy. I’d rather two of the cheap ones over the newer one. Are you going to use all this gear as a reason to wait? Please just do a video today with the best of what you have. You can always update things later. I 100% get ahead because I don’t let limits stop me. I’ll always do the best, with what I have and improve over time. So, set a date now to start recording. The video should be 30-60 seconds long. Don’t go over that. 1) People don’t care to watch you talk for that long. 2) You need the clip under 60 seconds if you plan on doing paid ads on many social media platforms (YouTube video ads can be longer). Once you’re through, upload the video to YouTube, Vimeo, or your Facebook business page. You can embed these videos into the landing page you’ll be making next. Check out my example of a video embedded. I like how it shows social proof. This makes it more real: www.brokeragenation.com/ambassadors The Landing Page: Most of you already have a website. Ask whoever you pay for that service, “Can I (or you) make a landing page, new page, or a blog and, if so, how?” The answer should be yes. I assume they’ll send you instructions. I suggest a new page on your website so the URL is clean. For example www.abcsample.com/joinus. If you use a blog, the URL will be a lot longer. If you use a landing page, it’ll be a hidden page on your site and won’t get any organic reach. Do whatever works for you. My vote is adding a permanent page. The 3 things you need on this page should be the video, a call-to-action, your contact information, and a form they can register on. I like giving my information so it’s not behind a wall. I’ll actually type my phone and email so they can click it. Many people use a photo of the contact information, but that’s not clickable. Your goal is to make it as easy as possible to make contact. One really cheap landing page builder is www.Weebly.com. If you don’t have anything, start with that. My book ambassador landing page is a good layout example: www.brokeragenation.com/ambassador. Do you can see how I have a video, my contact information, a registration button, and other resources? All your landing pages should follow that lead. It’s nice and clean, mobile friendly, everything is clickable, and it’s all related to one topic. Most websites have a form builder. I suggest using one that ties directly into your database. That way leads get to be created as contacts and set on the proper follow-up list. If you don’t know how, ask your database, “Can I make a custom form and embed it on my website? If so, can I set them on a specific follow up drip? If no, do you work with Zapier?” If they do, great! If not, hopefully, they work with Zapier. If you don’t know what Zapier is, let me tell you all about it. Zapier is like a robot that takes data from one app and triggers action in another. *This is too complicated for a book. Just know it’s game-changing if you never used it before. It works with over 1,400 apps & programs now. Ask me for a video on this. I made a tutorial on how to use it. If you receive two “no’s” in a row (no custom forms and no zapier), no worries. Just get a new database… lol, just kidding. Ok, next option. Find something that does. For example BombBomb can build forms, trigger drip plans, and is video based. This link www.bombbomb.com/?bbref=BROKERAGENATION gets you a 14-day free trial and my 90 business plan on calling buyer-seller leads. MailChimp allows you to make contact forms that embed on a site. Agile CRM is free and allows you to embed forms with an auto drip. Whatever you use, the form should be simple. It should basically include a space for the name, phone number, and email address. You don’t want a lot of other gibberish on there. The more you ask, the less you’ll get. People get overwhelmed easily. In fact, if I go to a website that wants me to fill out a form or a survey and find that it’s two miles long, I’ll back out and say, “Forget it!”--even if I really wanted whatever it was they were offering for free. Still feeling stuck? Call 905-903-5442 and we’ll “unstuck” you. ? Follow Up: Once you have a working form, you’ll need two things. One is to bucket, tag or label the leads so you can pull a list later and manage them. Depending on the CRM you used, they’ll title it differently. So, make sure you set that. I suggest naming it “Recruiting Prospects.” All recruiting leads get this so that you can pull a master list. You need this for doing mass emails, retargeting ads, pulling calling lists, etc. I also suggest creating subcategories so you can manage the database better versus one big mashup. It’s better to break them down into smaller categories:
*I know that at every turn we discovered more and more to-do’, making it easier to say “F this.” To me “F” stands for “Fun,” because it’s fun to get ahead of the competition! Some brokers let stumbling blocks like this totally stop them. Not you! You build from each checkpoint and realize everything you do snowballs so long as you keep failing forward. Consistent movement is the key, so be an adult and take action on the hard things. It’s amazing what you can do when you try. Don’t be like the others. Thank You System: You’ll need a “thank you” screen or email of some kind when people register, right? Spoiler alert: YES. Send them something like this: Thanks, NAME, for registering. As promised see attached for the document on getting into real estate, the schooling, the contacts and how much you can earn. We are actively growing and hiring new agents. How far along are you at becoming a REALTOR? Did you want to meet at my office for coffee and to chat about the business? I hope to help, Dan Wood of ABC Realty PS: Do you know anyone thinking of moving? I can show you an exercise I did so I hit the ground running. PPS: No questions are stupid. Please feel free to text me directly. I don’t want you feeling alone in this business. 905-903-5442 Access our online training at www.abcsample.com/training – my gift to you. Test Before You Pay: Now, that it’s all set up, I want you to test the landing page. Register with a spouse or partners email. You want to test two things: 1) that the lead received the thank you email, and 2) that you actually got notified about it and that the contact was saved properly in your database. If everything is looking good, it’s time to advertise! Setting up Google Ads (skip this chapter if you aren’t setting up the ads): We can actually do this for you. Go to www.brokeragenation.com/recruiting or call me direct at 905-903-5442. However, if you still want to set it up yourself, these are the basics. Start by going to https://ads.google.com. It will walk you through step-by-step, but I have suggestions below for each part. When you create a new campaign make sure you have display ads TURNED OFF. You only want Googles search ads, not the display ads. I suggest $100 a month. I doubt many of you will need more unless you live in a super large city like Toronto or New York. Even then I say start low and build up when I’m ready. I’d rather you spread your marketing budget to multiple sources versus spending it all on one thing. Save money for your events, Facebook ads, appreciation marketing, etc. Spending $100-$300 a month targeting new agents on Google is a good spread. Ok, ready? These are my points to watch out for: [https://ads.google.com] 1. Location is everything: Google will give you the ability to choose your geographic location for your ads. Delete any other geographic location it already has set for you. It might default you to targeting the entire country! Use your business’ address. You’re going to tell Google to set up a radius around your business of X amount of miles. “How many miles?” you might ask. That depends. How many miles can you travel from your brokerage in a half hour? That’s how many miles you want your radius to be. If you’re not sure on the mileage, Google maps would be more than happy to help you. Unless, of course, you serve rural markets and agents drive long distances or work remotely. When I targeted the $100 getting 16 leads a month, it was targeting a city that had a population of 300,000 people. I didn’t target the next city over because those agents would probably work at a brokerage in that area. Could I recruit them? Yes, but I’d rather target the best fits and not worry about the fringe. 2. Define and Promote: Next, it’ll tell you to define your product or service. Type in “Real Estate Agency.” You use a long laundry list of real estate keywords to promote your ad. Some you might want to consider may include:
3. Words can make or break: Now, the fun part! You get to write your ad! You’ll be faced with a box filled with three lines: “Headline 1, Headline 2, and Description.” “What the heck am I supposed to do with that?!” you might ask. Careful! I’ll get to that! There’s a basic format for writing ads. You want the ads to match the topic they were searching. In this case, a sample headline would be: Hiring Real Estate Agents In The Miami Area (Toronto, New York, Durham Region, etc.). Because Google limits you to so many characters per headline we put headline one as: Hiring Real Estate Agents Headline number two is where we’ll plug in the “In The _______(your city) Area.” The description is longer. For that, you could put something like: “Thinking of becoming a real estate agent? We are hiring new agents. Training provided. Find out how to get started at ABC Realty.” Depending on the length of your city and brokerage name, you might need to play around to make it all fit. Lastly, on this page, it’ll have a place to choose where your clicks will send your “clickers” to. This is very important! Listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth! Make sure your destination URL goes to your landing page and not just to your website. 4. Bidding and Budget: Here are a few extras for you. You don’t want your pay-per-click campaign to be one of the many that fail simply because it’s not set up the best way possible. There are many other tips and ideas, but here are just a few. After you finish up your campaign setup, go into your page, pick your campaign, go to settings, and set up “manual bidding” for your clicks. Google loves gullible people. They’ll try to fool you into letting you let them automatically bid for you on your clicks. They’ll overcharge you *every *single *time. Do away with the “Display Network.” Beside it, if you uncheck it, it should just say “search.” It wastes your money otherwise. Another thing I’m going to hit is the “ad extensions.” Do you want your ads to look more robust and creative? OF COURSE, YOU DO! Ad site extensions. These are basically links to your other pages, like your “we are hiring” and “free training” pages. You can also add your phone number and things like your address. Doing this will double the length of your ad, pushing all content from your competitors down further on the page, making it even more awesome! You’re doing great! Pay-per-Click Payoff: Unfortunately, you’ll have a lot of people who fill out the form during your campaign that just don’t follow through. Smile, though! It’s not a total loss! It’s a great idea to work this into a remarketing worksheet for buyer leads and seller leads. They, too, can be a buyer and a seller. - - - - - - - This is a concept for one chapter of my recruiting real estate agents book. Please give feedback, ideas, examples & stories. I’d love to hear them. Want the full book as a download? Become a book ambassador: www.brokeragenation.com/ambassador More ideas on agent recruiting? www.brokeragenation.com/managers and www.brokeragenation.com/recruiting Call or text Dan Wood direct at 905-903-5442 and email [email protected]. Want the next chapter emailed to you? Get the the full book as we write it!
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(C) BrokerageNation: real estate recruiting websites & real estate agent marketing / technology.
Real estate agent training program by Dan Wood 905 903 5442 | terms & privacy | Get Started | Technology | Real estate recruiting websites - pricing | blog
Real estate agent training program by Dan Wood 905 903 5442 | terms & privacy | Get Started | Technology | Real estate recruiting websites - pricing | blog
