If I asked you—as a brokerage owner or team leader—what are your top five differentiation points, could you answer clearly?

What makes your company different from every other company in the marketplace? In other words, what’s your value proposition?

If you can’t answer that, no one else in your market can either.

Some of you might rush to say, “Well, we have the lowest commission plan in the market.” But that’s a terrible value proposition.

If a commission plan were all it took to recruit agents, then the brokerage with the lowest commission would have the most agents. But that’s rarely true.

Why?

Because commission plans are not the single greatest motivator for agents.

The #1 motivator for an agent to join your office is this: Will you help them grow their transaction count?

If your value proposition doesn’t clearly communicate how you’ll help agents do more deals, you’re going to lose—every single day—to competitors who can.

So here’s my challenge to you:

Take some time to...

I've heard this so many times over the years: "My market's different, Jim." When it comes to recruiting, people say, "We're in a tiny market, a rural market, a niche market, or a very cliquey market. People here don’t make moves like they do in big cities. Recruiting doesn’t work here."

Let me tell you something: I come from a small town with a population of 25,000. I’ve worked in big cities, small towns, medium-sized cities, and even cliquey ones. Here’s the reality: the numbers behind recruiting aren’t something I’m making up. These are national statistics.

The average agent in America moves every five years.

Look at your entire database of agents in your market and think about this: every single one of them will likely move in the next five years.

Statistically, some will move sooner, some later, but overall, they’re going to move.

The question is: where are they going to go?

Think about your own career. Did you stay at one company forever without ever making a move? Probably ...