It was the AI platform that originally caught my eye…

But my conversation with founder Sean Soderstrom brought up something even more interesting:

They don’t use AI cold email tactics to promote their AI-powered platform.

That led to some killer insights that go way beyond AI and into the psychology of earning attention.

If you don’t know Sean, you should, he was…

* Dir of Expansion & Regional Management at Compass

* Co-leader of McKinsey’s North American Residential Real Estate practice

Now the founder of Courted.io - a platform that aims to help brokers recruit agents, retain talent and stay ahead of the market.

Let’s jump into the…

Non-Obvious Insights from our Conversation:

Down Markets Cause LESS Turnover in Agents, Not More.

“The rate that agents move between brokerages each year [is] fairly consistently between 15 to 18% of agents switching companies each year.

But statistically speaking…fewer agents move in a down market, which I was surprised by because…People always said more [agents] move in a down market.” - Sean Soderstrom

A good reminder to question assumptions and look for hard data (if you can get your hands on it).

Knowing that fewer agents move in down markets gives you better insight into agents’ mindset in tough times. Which allows you to create better content or outreach if you…

Give Agents Unique Insights About THEMSELVES.

Sean broke down their early growth strategy like this…

“Let’s go tell them something that they don’t know about themselves. That’s hugely valuable. So what our team does takes more time, but they’ll screenshot…a cool summary of what’s happening in [the brokers] office [or area] and send that to them.

[something] like ‘Here are the 5 agents that are going to be moving [brokerages in your area]. And…here are the 5 emails that you should send to them. If you want to just copy and send this…”

So instead of mass content marketing, they go one-to-one. Their team…

* Generates unique insights using their own AI platform

* Puts those insights into one-to-one, ultra-custom cold emails

* Email content speaks to the pain of losing agents or the gain of attracting agents

But the reason it’s worked for them as an outreach strategy is that element of “This will tell you something you didn’t know about yourself”

It’s the same reason quizzes & persona tests go viral on social media (your aunt might be filling one out on Facebook right now).

It’s also the reason we see trends like this on YouTube..

“Every Hidden Advantage of [___] Explained” -

If you can break your audience down into types and explain the hidden advantages of each, you can accomplish several things in one piece of content…

* Use a unique hook that feels personal…so you grab agents’ attention

* Give each type a reason to feel good about themselves…so you deliver a self-esteem boost

* Show how you help each type succeed… so you create demand for your offers

Want to Recruit Agents? Stop Sending Mass Email.

“Maybe there’s an AI way of doing it [cold outreach], but there’s too many emails in this industry. So we don’t promote for our customers to send mass emails because especially in agent recruiting…[there’s] not an infinite number of prospects.

When you’re focused on a segment you really want to go after, it’s about building relationships.”

Sean is a fan of the Ninja Selling approach, even quoting Larry Kendall’s ‘Give Ask Receive’ as the basis of their outreach system.

They don’t send cold emails pushing their service, they lead with unique insight the prospect can’t get anywhere else.

And they don’t ask for a prospect’s time until they’ve given something valuable and built the relationship. Sean thinks about it almost as one-to-one content marketing, a really interesting concept!

Want to join the conversation?

Hit Reply and shoot me some thoughts, or if you read this on the Substack app, leave a comment.

Want to go deeper? Click on the audio file for the full chat, or search Real Estate Thought Leaders on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Steal This:

Look for ways you can tell your audience something they didn’t know about themselves.

Do you have access to unique data?Could you run polls or surveys of your audience? Do you have specific ways you serve different types of agents?

Even if you just have opinions on why certain lead gen tactics work better for certain personality types, that’s a great start to a video or podcast episode.

Quick Links & Resources

Courted.io

Connect with Sean on LinkedIn

Massive thank you to Sean for giving freely of his time while being in the hustle stage with Courted.io. Check out what the platform can do, and if you want to bring Sean on a podcast or video show to talk recruiting and agent trends, he has hard data and unique insights to share!

-Matt

Agency Founder & Author of MicroFamous

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