In order to find profit in your brokerage in 2010, you will need to recruit.  By now, you’ve probably cut the expenses about as far as you can because the last two years in this industry has forced that for most everyone. If you cut any further, the viability of your firm may waiver.

If you own, or manage, a brokerage that needs to find profit in 2010 and can’t cut expenses any further, what do you do?  Thankfully, the answer to that is quite simple; however, finding the time, learning the best ways to do it and then mustering the discipline to do it, isn’t.  The answer is, and this is nothing new, to finding profit this year is to recruit experienced agents. 

You can potentially bring in an additional $125,000 of revenue, this year alone, by simply recruiting five producing real estate agents.  Yes, it’s true, only five.   And because it would be expected for those agents business to grow under your tutelage you can potentially see $375,000 added to your bottom line, by those same five agents, in just three years!  Wow, who knew?

 Have you ever taken the time to truly figure out what it would mean to your bottom line if you recruit? Most, I daresay, haven’t.  The pressure to recruit agents is part of everyday

Read the rest of the article at http://rismedia.com/2010-03-17/recruit-today-profit-tomorrow/

Published in RIS Media March 18, 2010

In my everyday dealings with real estate brokers, there are some common dynamics that I am hearing about, in regards to recruiting in 2010.   Maybe they are unique to this market time and maybe they are a remodel of the same challenges that you have always dealt with.  Here’s what I found, you decide if they are new or just a different version of why recruiting can be tough:

1. Reaching the agent who you are trying to recruit seems harder than ever.   It feels like you’ve tried it all: a couple of emails, one or two voice mails, an attempt  to start a conversation when you saw her last week on tour and yet, she is not responding.

You would really like to have her on board; you know the value you have to offer her and can’t figure out how to get a hold of her.  You heard through “a friend of a friend in the business” that she is overwhelmed with spam email about recruiting, not from you but from all parties in the marketplace and is almost feeling stalked by local brokers.    How do you differentiate yourself to get through?

Your job as a managing broker is more demanding now than it has been in the 25 years since you started doing this. Whew!  You are working harder, with less staff and need more to happen than what you have time for.  2010 is a critical year for finding some profit in that frustrating P&L report that appears every month.

Read the rest of the article at http://rismedia.com/2010-02-16/recruiting-dynamics-of-2010/

Published in RIS Media Daily Advisor on February 17, 2010

Recruit, recruit, recruit.  Since the beginning of time in the real estate industry, there has been a focus on the need to recruit.  As you begin the new decade of 2010, what are your plans for recruiting solid, producing agents into your brokerage?  Are you doing the same things that you have been doing the past 30 years for recruiting? If so, is it working for you?  If not, I encourage you to implement one, or more, of the following recruiting strategies.  

1. Create a strong value proposition that you, and your team, can confidently tell other s about.

• What is unique about your brokerage?
• How will an experienced real estate professional benefit by joining your firm?
• What are your key retention tools?  Are you talking about them?  Is it technology, market share, coaching support?  Why do people join your firm and why do they stay?

 This can be a painstaking process to try and put into words and yet it is worth it. Sometimes, brokers/owners don’t have the patience to put a company’s value proposition into words.  Discipline yourself to make the time; ask for help from those around you. Ask your current agent population the questions above.  Come up with something that will get the attention of your target recruits.

 Read the rest of the article at http://rismedia.com/2010-01-12/top-recruiting-strategies-for-2010/

Published in RIS Media Daily Advisor, January 13, 2010