There are 160 million individuals in the U.S. workforce.

Of the 160 million, about two million are real estate agents (1.25%).

Among the 2 million agents, the average agent completes about 4 transactions per year, and less than 50,000 agents are high-performers (i.e. complete 25 or more transactions per year).

It’s safe to say that not everyone is cut out to be a real estate agent.

Among the existing agent population, your chances of hiring a high performer is about 1 in 40.

Among the broader workforce, your chances of hiring a high performer is about 1 in 3000.

I’ve often heard real estate hiring managers boast that hiring agents is like “shooting fish in a barrel.”

As Seth Godin recently noticed, most anyone can shoot a fish in a barrel.

The hard part is getting the right fish in the barrel in the first place.

The real estate industry is full of low performing agents because many of the wrong people were coaxed into the barrel (they are usually the easiest ones to attract).

If you truly want to build a high-performing team or office, it makes sense to spend the time, resources, and effort trying to identify the recruiting prospects who have the highest chance of success.

Any other approach is too expensive and exhausting.