With dedicated, motivated and talented team members with shared goals, a business can grow and thrive.

 

The idea of shared goals doesn’t mean that every agent on a team needs to have the same approach to business or the same personal goals as everyone else; quite the opposite, in fact.

 

Team success is even more likely when those team members support each other in their individual pursuits, whatever they may be.

 

But many a team leader has trouble finding agents who are both available and a good culture fit for the business.

 

Time for a new approach: A good way to find great new talent is to stop looking for them.

 

Let them find you. Here’s why, and how.

 

 

Differentiate

 

Much in the way that home buyers start their searches online 85% of the time, a licensed agent who is considering a transition to a new team is already online researching teams in their area.

 

What is it that sets your business apart from others? Are agents able to find you for what you stand for? If so, there’s a much greater likelihood of a match.

 

Check online reviews, emails and texts from grateful buyers, sellers, loan officers, inspectors, home improvement professionals, title companies and others you engage with regularly.

 

In the process, keep an eye out for language patterns that emerge and repeat themselves. This language is what sets apart one team from another.

 

Leverage those terms wherever possible in conversations, emails, social media marketing and even in slogans or on the “Join us” page of the team’s website.

 

Don’t have a “Join us” page? Time to build one that incorporates the values the team shares and the value the team offers each new member.

 

Be sure to include tangible benefits of joining the team, such as group discounts on LeadHax marketing that automatically target the buyers and sellers they need to reach.

 

 

Define a name and a brand

 

If it’s time to attract new talent to work with you, choose or amplify the professional identity that clarifies that the team includes two or more licensed real estate professionals.

 

If anyone who works alongside you already is a licensed agent, choose a word like “group” or “team” or “associates” and attach it to your surname. Remember that, until two or more licensed agents are working together under the same name, California real estate law prohibits team-related terminology.

 

Even if you’re still independent, hire a graphic designer to create a professional logo that reflects your identity and approach to business. Ask the designer to leave open space in the logo for adding team-related verbiage once you’ve added someone to the business.

 

Use your surname or your full name with the logo in all correspondence, advertising, direct marketing and digital marketing including social media.

 

Be sure to include that verbiage in your integrated marketing with LeadHax pro. That’s because, whether you're promoting a new listing, recruiting top agents for your firm, or boosting your brand, your targeted audience will see your ads across the web.

 

Demonstrate the “why”

 

For many agents, it’s not enough that a team they’re considering is top producing or specialized or highly rated by clients or even that they offer the resources of a major brokerage.

 

What they want and need are support, empowerment and processes that simplify work so that they can thrive in their own areas of expertise.

 

Blog or post to social media about how you conduct business. Use actual anecdotes that demonstrate the support that each team member provides the others. Share posts of team members enjoying work, social outings and even hobbies together.

 

Contact your local association and offer to present a 30-minute training session on an area of your expertise at an upcoming meeting. Have a team member record the presentation so you can edit highlights to share online.

 

Create and share other videos of new team members joining you on a showing, a listing presentation, or an outing.

 

Involve existing team members in the effort of getting the word out there about who your team is and what you represent. Tag each other in these posts for wider exposure.

 

If within a month of kicking off some of these efforts, your email isn’t flooded with messages from agents or agents in training who want to get to know you, then conduct business-to-business marketing campaigns.

 

Harness those keywords that you found in referrals; highlight video clips, blogs and social media posts; discovered when searching reviews and thank-you messages.

 

Finally, offer to advise and train agents who aren’t part of your team. Even if they do not end up joining your business, they’ll become valuable partners in future transactions. They’ll also speak highly of you to their colleagues.

 

And we all know that word-of-mouth is the best kind of recommendation.

 

Watch this space for an upcoming blog on retaining the top talent that joins the team.