Don't Be Afraid of the Syndicators

Well right away I'm sure I grabbed your attention or at least peaked the interest of those who remember what a bad word this was back in the 80's and 90's. I'm referring of course to our "old mindset" that defined syndicator as a some type of "carpet-bagger" that rolled into town and swindled investors into putting up large sums of money to acquire a share or piece of the action in a soon to boom property portfolio. No, that is not what I'm talking about. Funny how definitions change. You know, when a disk was something you threw at the beach and a monitor was the mean kid in the hall who wrote down your name when you were AWOL from class without a pass.

In today's vernacular, syndication refers to broadcasting information across the Internet. No different than a syndicated talk show or sit-com across the cable networks. It is a way for real estate agents, companies or MLS providers to publish real estate listings to online classified web sites. Now, how many of you really knew that? If you did, great job! If not, get educated so that you aren't left behind in the biggest lead generation opportunity to come our way in the last decade!

A recent survey by Classified Intelligence finds that online classified advertising will grow by 32% this year for a total spent of $7.7 Billion dollars. One of the fastest growing segments of online advertising is Real Estate. Savvy agents and informed companies are pushing their real estate listings through the use of RSS feeds, template services and website vendors who offer the service as a part of their listing management tools.

Through these services, real estate listings are pushed to online classified companies such as: google base, oodle, edgeio, craigslist, hotpads, livedeal and backpage. There are several more emerging companies including Zillow that just added an EZ ad template to their website. Zillow's "Mr. Expedia" is set on being the "community" site for real estate. We might as well get used to him and others being around.

Just go to Craigslist.org in any major metro market and search real estate for sale. You'll see that a few enterprising real estate agents have forgone the boring text adds for vibrant templated multi-media ads. How? By utilizing these services, of which some of the easiest to navigate are: Postlets, vflyer and reallyo. The best part is that many of these services are virtually free or can be utilized by heavy usage agents for a nominal monthly subscription fee.

Imagine the leads your company could generate if all of your company's listings could be found on numerous websites across the Internet. Better yet, if a consumer initiated a search by address on any major search engine, several results would be returned with numerous places to get information that would all point back to your website, your agents and your contact information. It's not pie in the sky, it is happening and major companies have already negotiated deals with Trulia, Google base and Zillow to do it on a larger scale.

Perhaps syndication isn't a bad word after all!

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Do You Have Shrinking Square Feet?

It is interesting to note the information gleaned from this graphic provided by the National Association of Home Builders. It highlights the increase in the average square footage of a single family home from 1950 to 2000. Yet the average number of people per household has decreased during the same time period.

Contrast this trend with what we see happening across North America with the average square footage of a residential real estate operation. It is completely opposite.

Since the mid 1990's the industry has seen real estate offices requiring less and less square footage. In the 60's and 70's we saw the advent of large offices requiring as much as 100 square feet per associate. A 100 agent office was no smaller than 10,000 square feet. Open bull-pens, large boardrooms, ample reception areas and gracious executive suites for owners and managers. Not to mention the office space required for the relocation, insurance, property management and closing departments. Remember those days, when we actually could close a deal in-house! I've toured my share of these type of operations, of which the largest was well over 30,000 square feet. Then of course the 1980's and early 90's brought us the ego-required private office or executive wing. An outer perimeter of 10' x 10' offices reserved for those producing $2 Million dollars or above in dollar volume. This has helped to create even greater space requirements. Most real estate offices had morphed into resembling law offices and financial service companies.

What's happening now? Enter the X and Y generation where sense of place, community and casual sophistication rule the design of the today. Taking cues from other innovating companies such as Old National Bank and their living room style lobbies, or Chase Bank and their open kiosk style service counters; the real estate office of today is resembling a gathering place. Have you been to Starbucks lately? In some states, Starbucks has teamed with financial service companies such as Charter Bank to create an open and inviting environment with a bistro on one side, education seminars on the other and a communal living area in the middle.

I had the chance to see an up and coming real estate organization in Midtown Houston that fit this new mold. Of course the owner was a generation X'er. The lobby was open, light and airy. Ceramic tiling, bistro tables, flat panel screens, and a coffee bar were the replacement for the stuffy reception area found in most real estate companies. On the flat screen were company listings, agent testimonials, client testimonials, ancillary service offerings, market reports, branding commercials and neighborhood profiles. A potential client is greeted by the company's concierge, offered a beverage at the bistro bar and invited to sit or stand at a nearby table until their agent is able to see them. This front lobby has replaced the back kitchen's water cooler as the gathering place of choice.

This company has over 100 affiliated associates, however there are no agent private offices, no dedicated cubicles or mini-suites. Agents have access to "hotel space" or "virtual space" that will accommodate their needs while in the office. A couple of the firm's executives have private offices, there are a couple of conference rooms and the affiliated title/mortgage operations have offices. This 100 agent firm occupies less than 4,000 square feet. Quite a change from only a few years ago.

If considering a new office, or the renovation of an existing floor plan, take into consideration current trends affecting office design and square footage. The trend of companies moving away from private offices and towards remote space is no longer speculation or a prediction, it is here and it most likely won't change.

Losing Agents? Close the Back Door!

I recently had the opportunity to debrief a few sales associates in the course of conducting some research and intelligence on a nearby competitor. This competitor is a fierce recruiter that is known for their emotional recruiting tactics and close-knit family style. They have enjoyed decent agent growth due to their taking advantage of a disruption in a couple of other companies. In short, they are doing exactly what any good recruiting, expanding and growth-oriented company should be doing. They're keeping a close eye and open ear in the marketplace.

Over the last couple of weeks our brokerage has recruited back a couple of the agents we had lost to this competitor, plus we were able to pick up a few more that had become disillusioned in their experience at the company. It didn't take long to see that there was a pattern and common theme with the experiences of all these associates while affiliated with this innovative competitor.

Here's what we heard from these agents:
1. They were all passionately pursued, masterfully sold and thoroughly excited.
2. The honeymoon period lasted about 4 months.
3. They figured out that they were just another agent, in an everyday firm.
4. "Why was it we came here again?"
5. A bunch of promises, no meat.
6. Management was too busy recruiting, so they had no promised support.
7. Major pressure to help the firm recruit.
8. The firm had two types of agents: existing agents and recently recruited.

I could go on and on about what the agents said, but bottom line, their experience didn't line up with sizzle of the sales pitch. A very good opportunity for us to each take a look at our brand and company promise in our recruiting presentation to make sure that we are indeed delivering on our claims. Think about that for a moment.

However, the bigger "aha" for me was the realization that this company has failed to remember and implement the "romance factor." They were excellent at romancing and pursuing the agent in the recruiting process, they were even good at getting the agent to the altar. What they failed to do was maintain the romance after they were a part of the family. It was like watching a new couple with all the potential in the world slowly drift apart because there were no ongoing maintenance efforts such as: keeping commitments, writing a little note here and there, the total loss of affection and emotional support. Don't laugh at the analogy; it's the truth.

Ask yourself this question: "Am I recruiting my own agents as passionately as I recruit prospective agents?" Upon further research I wasn't surprised to learn that this company has one of the highest attrition and churn rates in the marketplace. Every time they recruited two agents, one was walking out the back door! Why? For the reasons stated above. When was the last time you checked your firm's proverbial back door? Romance your agents and you'll effectively keep it locked, barred and closed!

A Simple Question is Your Key to Recruiting Success!

It seems that in this competitive recruiting environment every broker is looking for a silver bullet. Some type of secret arrow that you can pull out of the proverbial presentation quiver whenever you need that extra edge to convince a prospective agent to join your firm.

It is not uncommon for broker/owners, managers and recruiters to spend thousands of dollars a year attending recruiting retreats, buying packaged recruiting programs or getting coached by the latest guru just to get their hands on that elusive recruiting script or technique that could push their efforts to the next level. However, if you haven't figured it out by now, there is nothing new under the sun, no new earth shattering script or some automated program that will do the work for you. The emphasis of course being on the word "work" - a nasty four letter word that 84% of sales professionals can't stomach.

You know what I'm talking about; it's the 800 pound phone receiver served with a heaping portion of call reluctance. Generally speaking, most broker/owners don't do the work necessary to be successful, or better yet, schedule the time necessary to set themselves up for success. A 13 year survey of industry brokerage managers concluded that only 10% consistently devote time to daily recruiting calls. I couldn't help but also notice that the same 10% are typically growing, expanding, acquiring and profitable. I hate to say it, but do you remember the sage advice admonishing us to duplicate the actions and attitudes that successful people exhibit? This is what separates the successful from the mediocre - they just do it!

OK, so you know what you have to do. Reach out and touch someone - make the phone call. After all, recruiting is a contact sport. Watch out! Here comes the nervous energy; you might be asking, "what will I say?"

I recently had the opportunity to meet an incredible recruiter. A person who is disciplined, focused and driven to be the best in the industry. No doubt, he probably is as he consistently recruits over 300 agents annually. When asked what makes him successful, he laughs about his unrelenting contact with his target list. Either he recruits them, or they tell him to drop dead and stop calling. What does he say though? It is really rather vanilla, simple, but powerful! When speaking to agents with at least one year in the business, he asks each one, "Are you making the kind of money you thought you'd be making by now?" Just think about that statement. What were you thinking when you first got into the business? Think about the allure, the so-called glamour, the independence and the pot of gold promised by the prospects of getting into the business. You'll have to admit, you probably didn't make the kind of money you thought you'd be making right off the bat.

One simple question, combined with the act of actually picking up the phone could pay you dividends for years to come.