If your goal is to introduce someone to a new idea, simple beats complex every time.
During the recruiting process, candidates will be drawn to ideas and concepts that seem simple. As we learned last time, this feeling of simplicity (what psychologist call “cognitive fluency”) is driven by familiarity.
If something is perceived as familiar, it feels simple and easy to engage. It’s attractive.
So, here’s the challenge: To recruit new-to-real estate agents, you need to take something that is very unfamiliar to candidates (starting a business, operating as an independent contractor, working in a completely new industry, etc.) and make it feel commonplace.
To show you how to do this, we’ll take a page from Steve Job’s playbook. When he introduced the iPod in 2001, he had very similar obstacles to overcome.
Three Clicks to Simple
Jory Mackay, in the popular CrewBlog, recently retold the design story of the iPod.
When Apple was working on the first iPod, Steve Jobs applied a rigid test: If he wanted a song or a function, he should be able to get there in three clicks. And he insisted the clicks be intuitive.
Despite all of the complexity inside of the iPod, Jobs knew that for us as consumers to feel instantly comfortable with it, the device had to be insanely simple. That meant being both familiar in its look and use (even though we’d never seen it before).
Not only did the clickwheel feel simple because the action is prototypical, but using the interface wasn’t at all tasking on our working memory.
Simple things have a low psychological barrier of entry. We’re able to use them without any training at all.
If you doubt the brilliance of this accomplishment, go try to follow the menu system of the basic laser printer in your office. It’s less complex than an iPod, but most people can’t figure out how to adjust a setting without calling the IT department!
Steve Jobs was once quoted,
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
You can certainly argue Steve Jobs moved a few mountains during his lifetime, not just with the iPod but also with many other products and ideas.
Making Your Recruiting Process Simple
Jory spends much of his article (it’s a very long article) explaining how to design things that are simple. I’ll list out some general ideas here, but will delve into them more during our next WorkPuzzle.
Steal from the past. Prototypical elements are the basis of simplicity. This means having a deep understanding of what your users expectations are. Look at your competitors products or website. What are the common elements? What do people expect to see (or read, or hear) when they come to you? Define those elements and leverage them to make your product feel instantly familiar and easy.
Create your own product placements. Everything you do, from your website to your logo or your Twitter background conveys a message about you and your brand. Each of these elements is also a unique opportunity to create visual familiarity around your company.
Be ‘same-same, but different.’ Same-same but different means something similar enough to what you want (or are used to), yet has its own unique selling point (that makes you want it more). In terms of simple, use those prototypical elements that are so important, yet adding novelty and uniqueness so that your version will stand out in our memories. A little deviation can be a good thing.
Apple’s first marketing brochure proclaimed in 1977: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Here’s to making your recruiting process a little more sophisticated….
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