Bookmarking Talent: How to Use Books to Recruit
Recruiting valuable people to your team can take significant time and effort. But if you hire the right people, the payoff is well worth it. Gary Keller says, “You are going to be overworked while you find that person to bring into your business. But you are going to be overworked forever if you don’t hire someone.” There are a few things you can do to help ease some of the intensity that comes with looking for leverage. And one happens to be a KellerINK specialty.
How, might you ask? Books, of course. Knowledge is power, after all.
1. Gifting with some strings attached
Sharon Cummings, a Team Leader in Allen, Texas, has objectively the coolest bookshelves around. On those bookshelves she always has dog-eared copies of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent and The ONE Thing for a single purpose. To gift. As Team Leader, one of her main responsibilities is to recruit new agents to her team, and she’s come up with a winning strategy. When a potential recruit walks into her office, they almost always comment on her unique bookshelves. This opens the door to multiple lines of conversation that end with her gifting them something of long-term value — a used book.
How is a used book so valuable?
Because she takes the time to flag and highlight parts of the book that she found most useful in her career as an agent. “If they're somebody who's becoming an agent and I can see that they're going to have great potential, or somebody who's struggling to get into the top 20 percent, I'll write a note and say, ‘I can’t wait to see you {insert their personal goal here}’, sign it and give it to them right on the spot,” says Sharon on her process. It’s always well-received because who doesn’t love a signed book?
2. The gift (basket) that keeps on giving
Leska Gilbert, an agent in Kannapolis, North Carolina, has another unique approach to recruiting and generating leads. Her city hosts an annual event called College Night Out that brings together community businesses and college students from the surrounding area. Leska and two other agents decided it was a great fit for their goals to connect with locals who might be interested in becoming an agent, buying their first home, or even investing in real estate.
She takes it a step further and creates a themed gift basket to give away with books on the subjects included. Leska says gifting things with long-term value, like books, is a great way to capture leads. She tells us the measure of success isn’t about an immediate ROI, it’s about “creating for the future: future real estate agents, future investors and future homeowners.”
3. A little competition between friends
Wendy Papasan, of Papasan Properties, came up with a win-win for getting Your First Home into the hands of potential first-time home buyers while also inspiring her team to set more appointments. She challenged her team to a Coffee Conversation Competition. The steps are simple:
- Identify your goal and the prize. Don’t overcomplicate it! The person who sets the most appointments (and gives away the most books!) gets a monetary prize for their efforts.
- Share the details with your team — invite your support team, too!
- Set the appointment and bring the book. This is the most important part! The appointments can be anywhere, but for Wendy’s team they scheduled coffee chats.
- Gift the book and let the conversation go from there. You’ll be amazed at the results! Books are great conversation starters - and amazing gifts.
However you decide to add books to your recruiting approach, we want to hear about it! Share your ideas on our Facebook page and don’t forget to check out our blog for more bookish articles and research.
A good way to always have books on hand is through our subscription service, which you can sign up for here.