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Effective Recruiting & Co-Branding by Michael Saunders

michael-saunders

On Effective Recruiting: Co-Branding For Success

By Michael Saunders

Recruiting the top agents in any given market is as essential to the success of a real estate company as finding the right buyers, having the best listings and closing the most transactions.  Once you’ve signed the best and brightest agents and fortified them with the layers of support they need to succeed, the listings, closings and market share typically follow in kind.

To attract and retain the top people in any field you have to continually prove that having your company’s name emblazoned across their business cards is the best career move they could possibly make; that winners just naturally want to co-brand with winners.  Real estate agents are constantly peering over their shoulders; paying close attention to which companies are signing the most successful agents; and, equally important, why and how long these agents remain with the company.  I am extremely proud to say that I have a large percentage of agents who have been with me almost from the very beginning. That’s nearly 33 years now, and counting.
 
That being said, the relationship between agent and company is a two-way street.  At Michael Saunders & Company, for example, we are a value-driven organization.  Being a top-producing agent, therefore, is not necessarily all it takes to strike a match.  Our mutual values must mesh completely; meaning you must demonstrate an ethic of unquestionable integrity while striving at all times to maintain the highest standards of excellence and innovation in your daily business practices.  As well, you must demonstrate excellent communications skills, be accepting of others—including their differences—and understand the value of teamwork.  Finally, you must be willing to make maximum use of the latest technologies that improve and speed our communications.   In exchange you will be given every support mechanism you need for the two of us to be mutually profitable.

At our company we strive to attract the market’s top professionals by demonstrating in both words and deeds that the substantive support we provide our agents—especially in the areas of marketing, continuing education and cutting-edge technology—is second to no other company they could possibly work with.  We show them our latest (and long-term) market share statistics—culled from Trendgraphix, a verifiable, independent source—then show them the high number of buyer-controlled transactions we close each year.  Finally, we take them on a physical walk-thru of our Agent Support Center, where they catch a glimpse of the work being done, meet the various department heads and their team members, sample the daily business routine; and get a realistic feel for the possibilities of working with us.

I think what really sets a company apart in the mind of a potential recruit is its ability to change swiftly and deftly with the times, while remaining financially solid.   For example, it was with no small amount of chagrin that I took immediate steps last year to launch our company’s Assets Management Division the moment it became crystal clear that the mounting number of residential and commercial foreclosures was far from being a temporary aberration.  As soon as we recognized the scope of the problem and knew our agents would need the skill sets necessary to deal with foreclosures, short sales and the like, we set up this entire division to address the crisis; then hired someone with a great degree of appropriate experience to oversee its operations.  As much as I look forward to shutting this division down the moment rampant foreclosures become a thing of the past, I think it demonstrates to potential new recruits that as a company we will always put ourselves out there where it makes the most sense; so that we can be part of the solution rather than simply sit back and bemoan the problem.
 
Ultimately, the new recruit wants to wake up every morning feeling energized about the day ahead; secure in the knowledge they’ve made the right decision by co-branding with your company.  That decision should be rewarded every day by a management team that wakes up each morning pledged to finding innovative new ways to support their daily activities.

Bio
Wherever the heavyweights of national and international real estate convene, you’re likely to find Michael Saunders—founder and chairman of Michael Saunders & Company—helping to set the agenda.  With principal offices in Sarasota, Florida, Ms. Saunders presides over one of America’s most prestigious independent real estate brokerages—comprised of more than 540 sales associates and 155 staff members.  Michael Saunders & Company is ranked as the 75th largest brokerage in the nation according to the 2008 Power Broker Report, compiled annually by RIS Media; and is included among the 35 most influential Realtors in luxury real estate in the United States.

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