The most important part of becoming the best real estate brokerage in your area is having real estate agent tools that allow you to attract the best talent. Your agents represent your firm to your customers. They're an extension of your brand. They help bring in and retain new business. But having the best real estate agents goes beyond being able to train people effectively. It also means being able to recruit and retain top talent. As a real estate brokerage how do you attract and retain agents? There is a set of best practices that can help you recruit young and talented agents but also keep the best real estate agents with your brokerage. Let's take a closer look at how your real estate brokerage can recruit and retain top real estate agents to continue satisfying customers, closing deals, and winning new business.
The first thing you should do for your team is to ensure they have everything they need to perform in their roles. This means giving them the technological tools for agents that they need to stay organized and up to date with their client base. This will help retain your current base of agents. It also serves as a selling point for new recruits. It helps differentiate you from any of your competitors.
Some tools they'll need to get ahead could include a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. This allows them to keep track of and manage their clients effectively. These can also include digital and social marketing capabilities. Take video marketing, for example. 83% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and for good reason. It's effective at showcasing your ability to promote your agents and the properties they're selling. You could use drone footage to demonstrate the quality of your properties. It can also allow your agents to display their personality and sell themselves before speaking with the clients.
Branded real estate apps can offer your agents a convenient tool to communicate and interact with clients. HomeStack can help you build a customized brokerage app that will help your firm and its agents prosper.
The bottom line is that real estate agent tools help give your team a leg-up. They make you a more attractive place to work.
Many companies like to publicly flout their practice of putting customers first. But it makes more sense to put your employees first. When you take care of your employees and give them a great place to work where they feel valued, they in turn take care of the customers.
This means creating a welcoming environment for your team to work in. Invest in creating a clean and professional office environment. This will give your agents a place to work when they're not out with clients. It will also give them a place to bring clients back for meetings if the need arises.
Your firm should have a clear set of values that guide the work you do. This is about more than simply winning clients - it's about how you approach work every day. It's about the type of agent you're looking to recruit. First, you have to clearly define these values internally. Then, make sure they're reflected everywhere they can be - within your office, on your firm's website, and in any materials you send to prospective agents. Look for these values in every client you recruit or retain.
Your culture should also play a big role in your brokerage's larger brand. Maintaining brand awareness is critical for successfully retaining customers, but it also plays a vital role in retaining top talent as well. By establishing yourself as a winning firm with great clientele and a strong track record, you'll attract the best candidates through your reputation alone.
From an agent's perspective, your brand should reflect a place that consistently delights clients and closes deals. The best candidates are going to want to come to where the most opportunities lie. Ideally, that's with you.
You should also encourage your new and existing agents to develop their own personal brands and support them in those endeavors. That means giving them the resources they need (business cards, the aforementioned tools listed above, etc.) to do that. Help them establish an online presence by encouraging them to post on your firm's blog or social media sites. Every action they take to make their own brand stronger in turn builds your brokerage's brand.
No matter what stage of their careers your agents are, they'll want to know they have a clear path for success. That's why establishing well-defined career tracks for them is key to getting them to buy-in for the long-term. Show them they'll have room for growth and that they can count on staying with you, and advancing, over a long period of time.
To help them on their career path, you can also provide mentors. Tap experienced real estate agents within your firm to serve as guides for not just the industry, but your specific brokerage and the way you do business there.
Recruiting and retaining the best of the best is about more than looking for candidates on job boards and posting listings. It involves have a well thought out strategic process for recruitment and retention. It also involves having a thorough recruiting process in place so you can:
Invest in recruiting software that can track your candidates, their information, and where they are in the recruitment process. That way when you follow up with them, you won't waste time trying to catch up on where you are in the process. You'll know exactly what message you want to share with them at that time.
You can also host recruiting events for selected agents in your area. These can be open houses, happy hours, social mixers or other types of social events. This is a great opportunity for you to network with talented candidates while having your current team on hand to sing your brokerage's praises.
With the right real estate agent tools in place, you can promote your own brand to the top candidates. The first tool you'll need in your real estate tech toolbox is an app reflecting your real estate brokerage's brand.
