Hire for Attitude; Train for Skill; Educate for Success

Hire for Attitude; Train for Skill; Educate for Success

Category:KB Consulting Solutions

With the current rate in our profession climbing to an all-time high and the cost of that churn accelerating even higher, what would it look like if we used a more discerning lens before making the hire?

What IF we adopted the practice to:

• Hire for attitude
• Train for Skill
• Educate for sustainable, predictable success

First things first, whether you are an owner/manager or Rainmaker, you must decide what level of professional meets and exceeds the essence of your culture and environment.  Meaning, does your team consist of and support only full-time professionals or are co-career or part-timers (and there is a difference!) allowed?   Upon making that decision, model your talent search and interview process accordingly.

Hire for Attitude:

Determining and defining what makes a person tick and more significantly what motivates them to perform is tricky.   I don’t know about you…but I enjoy working with nice, happy, joyful and positive people.  Experience has proven that often in the sales industry, a spirit that reflects these characteristics combined with a great work ethic can enjoy a career that is unstoppable.

Likewise, one of the most challenging qualities and or characteristics which is damaging to a service and sales professional is a bad attitude.  Owning the sense of entitlement, arrogance or being overly confrontational will serve your career as poorly as being lazy.

Unfortunately for those of us serving in the leadership capacity and responsible for hiring, a bad attitude can be as equally challenging to identify before the hire.  So, what do we do?

Ask discerning questions:

Explore their “Big Why” with these recommended, probing questions:

• What activities do you most enjoy in your current professional role?  Why?
• Why are you interested in the career we offer?
• Describe what success in Real Estate looks like.
• Who will benefit by your success?
• Who will support you and serve as support/accountability and commit to support your journey to success?
• What activities do you enjoy most in your leisure?  Why?
• When doing these things, who do you most enjoy sharing the experience with?
• What has been your most rewarding professional experience?
  • Who supported you and played a vital role in this experience?
• What has been your most rewarding personal experience?
  • Who supported you and played a vital role in this experience?
• Describe a time that you worked under pressure and performed well?  Why?
  • What was the result?
• Describe your ideal scene (professional and personal) in 3 years, 5 years.
  • What will be your production in real estate?
  • What will this success enable/empower you to accomplish both personally and professionally?

Define (as best as possible) their potential band-width and work ethic.  Determine their commitment and willingness to devote time, energy and talent to build a successful career in real estate by asking these probing questions:

• Describe (briefly) your previous work experience.
• Describe your current daily routine?
  • What do you like most about it?
  • What do you dislike most about it?
• At what time each day are you most effective and efficient?
• What work have you most enjoyed doing?
• What work have you enjoyed the least?
• What has been your greatest sense of accomplishment?
  • Professionally
  • Personally
• If you could create the perfect work day, what would it look like?
  • Who would you engage with?
• In an ideal world, describe “how” you would be working?

Train for Skill:

May we agree there is a huge difference in training vs education?  In this segment, we want to discuss training for specific, foundational skills which we believe are imperative to support a successful real estate career in today’s market space.  You may hear other Coaches and Consultants make statements such as “you train and dog and you educate professionals.”  Although this statement has merit…I do believe the skills which we refer to are quite essential to be a successful REALTOR® or dog.

Accountability:

This is one tough business.  If you don’t know yet, you will soon discover that we get beat up. A lot.  We take the heat, grief and burden of the industry.  A lot.

You need a strong, resourceful, vigilant and dedicated partner to hold you accountable.  One who will talk you off the cliff when you should not jump and push you off when you should. Not only will this individual hold you to do your job, they will celebrate with you when you achieve success and help you to access what when wrong when you don’t hit your goals AND make sure appropriate adjustments to empower you to move forward and try again.

• Who do you answer to?
  • Who will hold you accountable to complete the foundational activities each day to ensure you deliver exceptional service and build a career worthy of your time, energy and talent?
• You may choose to have multiple life accountability partners:
  • Professional
  • Health
  • Spiritual
  • Life

As a real estate professional, we recommend the services of a professional business/productivity Coach.  If you cannot financially afford the services of a Coach, it is most like the result of not having invested in the services of a Coach. (think about that).  If you elect to “partner” with a peer or individual in your market space, we encourage you to do so with caution.  Always strive to seek and share empathy not sympathy.  A right partner will bail you out of jail when things go wrong, not be sitting beside you in the cell asking, “what when wrong?”  Seek to find a partner who is in a different market, experience different yet supportive activity.  One who can provide solutions and be a resource not provide excuses and allow you to get by with poor practices and unhealthy activities.

Establishing Good Habits and Adopting Best Practices:

• Time Management
  • Live out of your calendar
    • Place all activities, both personal and professional in your calendar
  • Time Block
  • What is income producing?
  • What fills your passion?
  • What is taking you forward to achieve and maintain all goals?
• Identify and honor all activities that are “non-negotiable”
• Develop and implement systems, procedures and policies which allow you to stay in the flow and adopt a “set it and forget it” real estate practice
  • Business Planning
    • Identifying and understanding all numbers
    • Production & Financial
  • Farming/Marketing/Prospecting
  • Listing Procedure and Buyer Consultation
    • Presentation
    • List to Contract
    • Contract to Close
• All other procedures and processes

Good is the enemy of great.  Don’t allow things that “feel” good and “fill” time and allow you to mistake busyness for productive, business activities and practices.  Combing good habits with the right systems provide a “no fail” method.

Educate for Sustainable, Predictable Success:

While training may be habits and practices, education is staying ahead or at a minimum abreast of the market.  Taking full advantage of all education opportunities will provide the conduit for your business to grow despite what the market is providing.   Professionally educated agents consistently drive the business they desire by:

• Using powerful scripts and dialogs
• Understanding market stats and conditions (local, regional and national)
• Identifying and adopting relevant trends
• Adopting the right technology to support their business model
• Embracing market disruption

If your objective is to build and maintain a sustainably profitable real estate business, begin with the end in mind.  Reduce churn AND frustration while increasing profitability by making the right hires. Use your gift of discernment and immediately improve the way in which your business grows.

What IF you hire for attitude, train for skill and educate for sustainable success?