Applying Pearson’s Law to Recruiting and Retention

Accelerate results for your company and your agents through this powerful maxim

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

This quote is known as Pearson’s Law, and is attributed to Karl Pearson, an academic in statistics who was studied by Albert Einstein and was world-renowned for his insights. Pearson’s statement about performance has proven true for over 100 years, and is particularly notable because it employs two separate elements—tracking and accountability—that are especially valuable in maximizing improvement.

By applying Pearson’s Law to recruiting and retaining agents within your real estate business, you will dramatically increase your performance as a broker and manager. Here is how you can do it.

Recruiting

Are you making a purposeful effort to recruit new agents, or are you simply open to the idea and passively waiting for the right people to cross your path? The first part of Pearson’s Law is about measuring recruiting activity and results, and both of those numbers will be better if you are actively reaching out and following up with potential recruits. Start this immediately by time blocking recruiting into your schedule, then set goals for calls made, conversations held, appointments set, appointments kept and new recruits signed. You should also separate your activity and results tracking into two categories: co-brokes and new agents. Then, record your results for each on a pre-printed tracking form. Following this simple blueprint will ensure that you are doing your part up-front to successfully expand your agent roster.

The second part of Pearson’s Law—reporting your results back—is important to make sure that you follow through on your plan. If you are a manager, make sure that you share your activity goals up front with your regional manager or broker, then schedule weekly or monthly follow-up meetings to review your results. If you are a broker/owner, choose a peer either inside or outside of your company and do the same. Whomever you are using to hold yourself accountable, they must be someone who you respect and who will hold your feet to the fire if you miss your activity goals. If they do not, you risk losing focus and missing out on the accelerating impact that Pearson’s two-part rule identifies.

Retention

While there are a lot of elements that go into agent retention, (e.g., personality, empathy, problem-solving, etc.), actively helping your agents grow their business and earn more income earns a lot of loyalty in real estate. To that end, you should use your role as a broker or manager to help your agents implement Pearson’s Law for maximum performance.

Start by knowing what activities your agents are doing to purposefully earn new business. Every agent will be different, but each one of them should have some defined activities designed to immediately create new listings and new sales. Have each of your agents share with you what those activities are (or help them create them if they don’t have them), then implement the second part of Pearson’s Law by scheduling weekly or monthly follow-up meetings to review the results. Do not be a pushover if their activity misses their goals; your agents need your guidance, and accountability only works if you reinforce the value of consistently making the efforts necessary to drive new sales.

It is important to note that Pearson’s Law does not discriminate based on current level of production. It is equally valuable to both new and superstar agents, and this exercise should be used with every agent in your company regardless of their experience or volume.

Simply restated, Pearson’s Law says that tracking results matters, and that reporting results to someone else matters further still. Use it in your own recruiting efforts and in managing your agents for increased production and retention, and your business will enjoy accelerating improvement in any market.

For a FREE copy of Sherri’s exclusive “Recruiting Skills Assessment” to review your recruiting activities and inspire new efforts, click here.

Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 20 years of experience in real estate, Johnson offers coaching, consulting and keynotes, and is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour and the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. She is also an RISMedia 2020 Real Estate Newsmaker as an industry Influencer. Sign up for a free 30-minute coaching strategy session or visit www.sherrijohnson.com for more information.