The 3 Hardest Things About Recruiting No One Talks About

What’s a realistic number of agents to recruit in a year?

How many meetings or how much time does it take to hire an agent?

If I had to choose the two questions I hear most, those are the two I would choose.

And at the heart of those questions is one thing…

Expectations.

Brokers want to know what to expect as they launch or ramp-up their recruiting efforts.

So today I’m sharing the three hardest things about recruiting no one talks about.

And I’m not sharing them because I want to discourage you or make recruiting sound more difficult than it is.

I’m sharing them because I don’t want unrealistic expectations to cause you to feel like you’re struggling or failing at recruiting.

So, without further ado…

Hardest Thing #1 – Recruiting Requires Time

Look at the producing agents in your market and I’m betting you’ll find nearly all of them are full-time.

The same is true with recruiting.

Look at the brokerages in your market who consistently hire productive agents and I’m betting you’ll find nearly all of them have someone recruiting full-time.

There is a direct relationship between the number of hours you invest in recruiting and the number of agents you can potentially recruit.

So if your goal is just to hire a handful of agents each year, you can get away with investing just a handful of hours each week.

But if you have loftier recruiting goals, you’ll either need to invest more time or hire someone to recruit for you.

Hardest Thing #2 – Benchmarks Don’t Exist

Objective, industry-standard recruiting benchmarks don’t exist when it comes to hiring productive agents.

Yes, benchmarks exist for getting appointments.

My company has them for cold calls and emails because we’ve done tens of thousands of both.

But no benchmarks exist for the number of meetings or amount of time it takes to hire productive agents.

If you’re curious why that is (and what you can do about it), click here to read an article I wrote about the topic last year.

Hardest Thing #3 – Agents Will Waste Your Time

This is often the toughest one for brokers.

Agents will no-show for recruiting appointments.

They will tell you “yes” when they really mean “no”.

They will tell you “yes” and then change their minds.

They will fail to return your texts, emails and voicemails even when they asked you to contact them.

But the thing is, none of those are unique to real estate agents or recruiting.

Recruiting is sales.

And every salesperson everywhere deals with time-wasting buyers.

So know it’s coming.

But also know it isn’t personal. It’s just a part of the process.

Drew

P.S. – Ok, so on a lighter note, want to know the best thing about recruiting no one talks about?

Agents will thank you for recruiting them.

Right now, there are agents in your market who feel stuck with their current brokerage because they don’t know a better option exists.

And if you’re consistent with your recruiting, you’ll find those agents are grateful you reached out.