Month: June 2015

Recently I conducted a  boring little exercise.  I sat down and read through 200 Zillow reviews. It wasn’t scientific, it wasn’t very organized I just jumped around from market to market reading good and bad reviews from a variety of different agents/teams.

My purpose? Lots of people can sell real estate (at least one deal), but what does it take to be highly recommended? More importantly what are the words people use to describe agents they are most likely to recommend?   I wanted to identify these words, look for patterns, and consider what technology can help a sales agent exhibit those qualities.

Survey Says…

Here’s the short list of words and patterns I saw most commonly used.

• Details / Detail Oriented
• Organized
• Knowledgeable / Local Knowledge
• All the extras
• “Kept me calm”
• “Overcame Hurdles”
• “made it very easy”
• Professional
• Always Available

If you’re currently involved in any form of sales profession none of the above should be a surprise.  The people want a pro; not an amateur.  People want someone who is confident in the process, knows what they are doing, and is a shoulder to lean on. The home buying/selling process is not very complicated, but it’s not simple either.  Shit happens; there are potential deal killers around every corner, and the best RE pro’s are often the ones who are seen as able to overcome adversity with ease.

So now that we know the qualities of a highly recommended sales agent; what can we do to make sure we exhibit the above qualities?

Build Complete and Accessible Database Profiles: 

Details and organization basically go hand in hand.  These two even have a lot to do with whether or not an agent is perceived to be professional.  There is a LOT of tech out there that want’s your money, and just as many opinions on whats best as there are agents.  I’m not going to make recommendations so we can focus on how to use the technology properly.

Profile Descriptions: Stupid simple, and highly underutilized.  Here’s an example… Find a contact in your phone you haven’t spoken with in over 1 year.  Now can you answer…

• Who is this person?
• How did we meet?
• Married? Single? Kids?
• What type of home do they live in?
• When did they last buy/sell?
• Where do they work and what do they like to do?

The more distant the relationship the harder it is to answer these questions.   The longer between the time you last spoke the harder it becomes to remember. Start throwing hundreds of online leads into that database that we’ve never spoken with, and suddenly things get very tough to keep track of.

This is why when we discover any form of attribute about a person that would be relevant in a future conversation business or personal we need to take the action of adding it to their “description” in our database.  (Fact: All CRM’s on the market, and your iphone have this feature. no excuses).  Descriptions also don’t have to be limited to just words.  They can be pictures, social media profile links, etc.

Get It On Your Phone: Note taking is a tedious process even with the best tech.  Some naturally are great at it, and others struggle. (I do) Accessibility however is what evens out the playing field.  We can write down every little thing we know about a person, but what good is it if when they call us we can’t find it?  Or it’s just too much to read?  Again this is where mobile technology is making us all faster, and better at what we do.  We must make sure that whatever notes/descriptions we have on leads or past clients are accessible on our mobile device otherwise it’s worthless.

Communication Logging:

Want to look like an unorganized ass? Forget to call someone back.  Again the higher the lead volume, the further the distance, the harder it becomes to keep track in our heads.  This is why technology that allows us to log any, and all communications is extremely important.  Sometimes we can automate the process other times it requires a manual entry.  Either way the important thing is again that we have a system for logging, and that the information is easily accessible.

Josh Cunningham from Rokrbox came to our office recently, and discussed how his very organized team of ISA’s handles outbound calling for our clients. One thing his team does that really stuck with me was after every single call they log what they need to talk about next.  That’s a tiny detail that can make a big impact.  Half the reason we scan our brains to remember what we talked about before is so we can speak in the present.  Pick up this tactic, and make it a habit.  Make sure that you not only log communications you’ve made, but you’re also scheduling future ones with a topic or goal in mind.  This allows us to avoid dialing a prospect only to say “soooo just wanted check in…”

Use RPR!

Realtors Property Resource is a freaking kick ass tool!  One of those qualities we talked about before “Local knowledge” RPR takes care of a big portion of that, and it’s available on your mobile device. I’ve heard from colleagues that RPR is a pretty underutilized resource, which frankly blows my mind.

Nothing is going to replace actually having local knowledge of what it’s like to live in a particular area, but again having all those stats and details in your head about every house on the block isn’t easy to do.  When speaking with a past client or current prospect how quickly can you give them all the info they need?  Again the key here is a balance between deep knowledge, and accessibility.  Every time we have to say “let get back to you on that” we set ourselves up to leave the conversation, which is always a deal killer.

I’m not going to go into details on RPR tactics for this post, but I will simply recommend that you…

1. Take the time to explore RPR’s tools
2. Practice using them
3. Practice using them with a script!

We already practice handling objections, but how often have you sat down to practice with your phone “oh that house on 123 street? Let me pull those numbers for you”  The same way a pro mechanic can pick up a tool, and start using it like it’s supposed to is what your clients expect of you when it comes to tools like RPR.  Fumble with it, and you’ll look foolish.  Get the info they wanted quickly, and you’ll look like a star.

This applies to all of the things we’ve discussed above. Practice, practice, practice not just what you’re going to say, but what your going to do while on the phone or in person. Go through the motions, build the reports, pull the data, and you no doubt you’ll continuously find ways to improve your process.

image courtesy of wikipedia.

The real estate industry has recently discovered a revolutionary communication tool….The text message! I’ll resist the temptation to waste space with snarky comments about how agents are behind the times on tech, because frankly I don’t think that is what’s responsible for this late adoption. What had to happen to get agents to start using text messages in their prospecting was a much slower social evolution.

Even at my age (30 sob) I had a relatively reserved etiquette on when texting was appropriate. However seeing just how damn efficient text messaging makes communication allowed me to overcome any of those reservations, and I think that’s what has finally happened for the highly personal business of real estate. The use of text messaging for prospecting is pretty obvious place to start, and is gaining traction quickly, but what else is out there?

Quick and Effective Feedback

Text alerts have been around for awhile, but they are continuously growing in popularity in instances where users wish to prioritize the alert they are receiving.

Imagine if Amazon tried calling you? From an unknown number? How many times would it take for you to pick up the phone just to hear “Your package is here.” Even worse what if they left a voicemail? Ugh. Everybody hates deleting those.  Email notifications serve the same purpose, but these days even light email users have more messages than they can effectively sort through.

Real estate is a service based business.  Clients rate, and recommend their providers based on how well they feel they have been serviced.  Like other service industries response times and feedback matter.  If a client asks a question they want the answer quickly.  They also want feedback on the things they did.  “I just submitted my paperwork. Did you receive it? There are other buyers out there, and I really want this house. Did you get it? How about now?”

The higher the pressure is in the situation the more the customer will request feedback for reassurance.  The question for the real estate industry is… How can we use text messaging to improve that?

Create your own Mechanical Turk.

In the late 18th century a machine called “The Turk” was constructed that could play chess. Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin were among the famous statesmen who played the machine, and lost. The secret however was that while the machine could move pieces across the board; there was no mechanical brain inside. The operators were actually some of the best chess players in the world.

To this day we still remember The Turk. Why? In a day where we try to make our automated tasks look as though they’re being performed by humans, the opposite fascination also occurs when we see a machine do something that only a human should be able to do. People love technology that’s helpful as much as they love people who are helpful.

Thanks for the history lesson, but what does this have to do with real estate?

As mentioned before quick, and effective feedback is very important. Text messaging accomplishes this, AND offers increased flexibility in WHO can communicate with a prospect.   A very simplified example being that a client has the agents phone # saved, but not the office or transaction coordinators. Transaction coordinator needs a client signature, but can’t get a hold of the client so guess who gets blamed? The agent.

Automation is supposed to make things easy, but creating automation is actually quite complicated. I see agents goof up all the time trying to make themselves look like superheros using automated response tech.  This is where the mechanical Turk can really come into play.  Why wait or rely so heavily on tech to create that quick response time when a human could do it more effectively?  Get your transaction coordinators, assistants, interns, and other support to help you provide fast, effective feedback in a consolidated system.

• “XYZ Realty: Your Offer Has Been Sumbitted”
• “XYZ Realty: Your Home Is Live On The MLS!”
• “XYZ Realty: Contract Changed Your Signature Required”

These are just a few of the possibilities. Some of these things could be setup to happen 100% automated, but why wait?  Any person who has access to the information could be using text messages to communicate the information to the client, and templates can help insure that the personality of the brand remains consistent.  Think of all the little things that go on in a real estate transaction that occur without the client’s presence. Think of all the things you ask of them, and how often are you able to give them a very satisfying “thanks you’re good to go”.    If your transaction coordinator or assistant does this stuff already then leverage the high open rates of texting to help them get the message across even faster, and keep your brand present during the transaction.

Clients know and love technology as much as we do.  They’re also not stupid.  They know we run a business, and they know we’re not a superhuman.  What they care about most is that we’re doing everything possible to service them. Whether it’s an automated system, a human sending a text, or a personal phone call as long as it gets done, and they’re in the loop we’ll be the person they recommend.

A very special thank you to my favorite NPR podcast Planet Money for enlightening me to the Mechanical Turk, and being the inspiration for this post.  Click the link to listen to the story, and see how Amazon turned an army of people into a better web experience. 

Getting hungry is  easy, but figuring out where to eat is where our time gets eaten.

The more options you have the more difficult of a task it becomes.  As real estate pros continue to invest in online lead generation the number of things they can do continuously grows.  Committing yourself to a set amount of time with a goal for prospecting is a great best practice, but in order to get the most out of it we need to get smarter about who we prospect, and how we do it.   This is where using technology to create prospecting lists can make our lives easier, and ultimately yield more results for our efforts.

New leads are the typical default for most people. They haven’t had a contact yet so we start there, and see what happens. Speed to lead is incredibly important, but as I mentioned in a previous post the number of opportunities in our database is typically greater than our newly generated leads.   This means we should probably focus on nurturing, and following up with our database in order to maximize our success. (success being in person showing & listing appts.)

Another way to think of prospect list creation is prospect prioritization.  Use information to prioritize one person over another.  Blindly calling all of your leads or picking  a random point in the database to begin a power hour isn’t the worst thing in the world, but with a large database and growing market demand we frankly can’t share our valuable time with everyone. (your time is super valuable right?)

How Do I Prioritize My Leads? 

If our goal is to get contracts signed then we must first ask a few questions of our database…

1. Who is actively shopping?
2. Who is furthest along in their search?
3. Who have I already qualified as a buyer/seller with potential?
4. Who is the best fit for my service and offerings?

Answering these questions in the past was either difficult or down right impossible, and we’ve all heard the phrase “buyers are liars”.  In fact most internet leads work pretty damn hard to prevent sales people from identifying these things about themselves as a way of deterring unwanted sales pressure.  Thanks to online real estate shopping, and smart data segmentation tools like BoomTown’s Lead Central (why yes I do work there) we can not only discover answers to questions like these, but actually create dynamically updated lists of leads for us to prospect.

Here’s an example of a great follow up segment you could create.

This bundle of boxes above is the end result of creating an advanced filter. Here’s how it’s done in detail…

1. Select Categories: Nurture, Watch, Hot.
2. Communication settings:
   1. Leads I’ve called and texted.
   2. That I’ve conversed with successfully.
   3. Latest Communication: Exclude last 5 days.
3. Activity:
   1. Last Visit: In the last month
   2. Neighborhood: James Island.

Done! In about 30 seconds with a few clicks I just took this client database of over 75K+ down to 30 results. These leads in my segment are active on site, in potential categories, I’ve talked to them before, haven’t followed up in over 5 days, and they’re actively shopping in a specific neighborhood.

Quick note on the neighborhood piece: We don’t have to use one, but this is a huge indicator to “Who is furthest along in their search?”.  Online home shoppers tend to start broad then narrow in on a neighborhood; from there they find specific houses they want to see, which turns into a showing request.

The nice thing about this segment is that it filters leads dynamically (leads appear and disappear as they meet the criteria).  It also curates itself, because we excluded people we’ve talked to in the last 5 days. What that means is that if you call 5 of these leads they’ll fall off the list. Meaning we can actually work towards a very satisfying zero. The next day if different leads meet the criteria the list will fill back up.

The important thing about all of this is we’ve prioritized, we’ve hedged our bets on making a successful call, and we’ve created a segment we can come back to again later.   This saves us a ton of time, and allows us to avoid making excuses.

What you’re seeing done above is just an example, and there are endless possibilities that can spin off from here. This is the future of real estate prospecting. Less time, more results.  Now what if we have an in house ISA team calling all new leads, and setting our agents appointments?  Not only can they use segments like these, but the agents can still use them to insure they don’t drop the ball with active shoppers.  This increases production for everyone, and gets more out of our database.

In my last post I drew some ugly graphics that pointed out the flaws with the real estate sales funnel, and made some  vague recommendations about building a database.  Now let’s get into some of the gritty details of what you should really be doing with all those names, phones, emails, and addresses.

First let’s wrap our heads around a concept that is absolutely crucial to getting ahead of the curve.

Were not buying leads, we’re building a list of subscribers to our content.

Real estate is a sales oriented business, and that’s why most RE pros think like salespeople.  They wan’t to make money today, and are more concerned with closing that next deal than how they’re going to retire.  We judge leads on their willingness to close today.  The smarter folks have figured out that this level of hotness in a lead is not frequent, and they create processes to nurture, and follow up over the long term.  This is an excellent practice, but when we slick our hair back and get 100% into sales mode some inefficiencies start to occur.

We over focus on response vs engagement, and our brand suffers.

One of my hero’s David Ogilvy once said that 90% of advertising was totally ineffective. I’d lean more towards 99%.  Getting leads to respond to emails/ads/FB posts/etc.  is incredibly difficult no matter how many tricks you add to make them feel like it’s really you taking time out of your busy day.   When we focus solely on response we tend to get typical response rates. 0-10%.  This is great for uncovering new sales opportunities, but the long term result is the other 90% of our database slowly decays, and eventually dies.

My recommendation is to do what any major brand does, and add some more marketing to your follow up mix that is designed to keep users engaged with your brand, and not just ask for the sale once a month.   Here’s how you do it…

Mass Content Distribution (not just email)

Here’s a great way to think about Mass Content Distribution; it’s unapologetically marketing.  We’re not trying to pretend that it’s us sending a one off email, because frankly to make it suitable to send to a large audience requires dilution of content to the point where it just becomes white noise.

Mass emailing our database can largely resemble  the newsletter.  A concept most old school RE Pro’s are very familiar with.  Now when it comes to the content here are some key things to remember…

1. No cherry pie recipes: Steve Harney with Keeping Current Matters has been a champion of this concept.  Remember what you are is a Real Estate Professional. Your clients expect, and want to hear your thoughts on REAL ESTATE.
2. Create a path for engagement: This is where things get confusing for most.  Our sales instincts tell us to say, “sooo uhh if ya need anything CALL ME NOW!”  What we need to understand is that our content needs  a path back to the shopping experience.  Are you talking about a how XYZ market has jumped 3% over the last month, and inventory is moving quickly? Then you should be linking back to an experience where users can start shopping for those homes. That sounds really simple, because it actually is. More shopping engagement = an increased likelihood of a request for your services.  Think of this as a top goal for newsletter content.  Get people off the fence, and back in the market place. This will create more opportunities for us to call/text/email personally with a sale in mind.
3. Build your brand with information: Back to point #1.  A number of websites can send users new homes on the market, and price reductions.  What they can’t do is provide that detailed local knowledge of a local professional.  People buy with salespeople who are convincing, but they recommend sales people who are knowledgeable.
4. Never let them off the hook: Sold them a home? Listed their property? Great! Now what’s your strategy to keep them engaged, keep your brand top of mind, and insure that they’ll stay with you forever? This is again where our sales mentality drops the ball, and brand marketing comes into play.  Might be cliche, but Coca-Cola is a great example of this in practice. They’re not focused on trying to get you to buy or try a coke. (at least not in the states) They’re focused on making Coke a part of your life, your association with refreshment, and keeping you loyal.  Now we don’t all have multi-billion dollar budgets for TV ads, but we do have access to systems that enable us to continuously market our brand over the long term.  This can’t be done with a drip campaign aimed at just 1 lead. This must be done by making a commitment to create wonderful content using points 1-3 above, and distributing that content for the long haul.

Building a list of subscribers gives us a continuous, reliable, and less competition sensitive flow of business.  That dream you have of selling this business and pursuing your passion for whatever starts right here.

If you’re reading this, and thinking “damn that sounds like a lot of work, and I really need to close a deal today.” then frankly you’re just not at this level yet.  If you don’t have technology that enables you to create, segment, and market to a list of subscribers then you should probably first go work for someone who does. This is where the real estate industry is heading.

The barrier to entry is being raised higher with technology, and those who aren’t ready to invest in the resources and strategy needed to do so will either work for someone else (which isn’t a bad thing folks) or just be pushed out completely.  Take the first steps by evaluating what your total database looks like, what you’re doing to keep them engaged, and how you’re actually bringing them to the market; not just staying in touch.

I’ve reluctantly decided to join the ranks of people who say that the “old way” of doing things is wrong, and I’m right blah blah blah. If you’re hoping to learn something from this post with very little reading here it is….

Over time your database will contain more opportunities than your lead generation can produce. Structure your business accordingly.

Start shopping for any piece of real estate software with a connection to sales, marketing, or CRM and you’ll inevitably find a (much prettier) version of this graphic.

A funnel! Leads come in, you talk to some, and you close a few. Now to be fair this is a fairly good way to represent how online ad campaigns are structured. However this is a horrible example of how real estate professionals should be thinking about reaching their sales goals.  I’m convinced this graphic is responsible for stunting the growth of many teams when it comes to increasing sales volume.  Here’s why…

1. Get 100 leads, 10 appointments, 1 deal.  This creates a horrible habit from the beginning. Yes you only got 10 appointments, this month, but what about when you call those 90 back next month? That’s what should be happening, and often doesn’t. The very idea of trashing leads is extremely harmful, and wasteful.This creates a common problem I’ve observed since day one of entering the RE software industry. There’s never enough leads, and even teams with very high conversion rates of 5%+ have an incredibly difficult time scaling their business due to “lack of lead volume”.
2. The funnel comes to an end.  Again another terrible habit to start.  The idea that when the transaction is complete the lead has exited the funnel. This is a fantastic way to think if you like working your ass off with nothing to show for it.

If you’re goal is to generate more business with less effort, grow a brand, and create an asset you can sell in 20 years then your sales cycle should never come to a point, but rather continuously build a base.

Brian Ostrowiak Ugly Graphic™

This horribly asymmetrical bunch of shapes is what the reality of real estate sales with online lead generation should look like.  Things to take notice of…

1. The middle is greater than the top: Continuously generating leads from online sources will eventually leave you with more leads to follow up with than you can generate on a daily basis. (that’s a good thing!)  What this means is that in order to expand a team we don’t just need to constantly grab at more “new” lead volume. We can get new people started right away working with existing prospects. The vast majority of online leads are not ready to buy today, but they will be some day. This is why those with the best systems for lead follow up will always be ahead of those who can simply generate interest.
2. The Closed/Past client base expands: The more people you help the more opportunities you have down the road, and the sturdier your business becomes. Plenty of coaches have been preaching the gospel of past client follow up for years so I won’t bore you with a repeat of what they’ve said better than I.

I don’t think a new graphic is going to change the world, but I do hope this changes the attitudes of RE pros who have tunnel vision on new lead acquisition. Keep it simple. Build a database, market to that database, leverage that database as your competitive advantage, because frankly it is.

Buyer demand is high, and supply is low. Investment in RE technology is reaching new heights, and the RE teams are becoming more sophisticated. These events have come together to force evolution in the RE Sales process.

Eight years ago simply generating demand became a real challenge. Lead generation has always been a top of mind subject for RE professionals, but a strong market assured that with a little effort there were plenty of buyers and sellers to be found. As the recovering market increases in temperature; RE pros find themselves with new problems to solve.

Now we’re asking…

“How do I separate my A buyers from my C buyers?”

“I’ve only got so many hours in a day; How can I find time to prospect?”

“How do I increase my average price point?”

“How can I go from 100 transactions with my team to 200?”

The first logical step many take is to expand on their current successes such as increasing ad spend, and team size. However they quickly discover what growing pains feel like for any company. Increasing spend on existing campaigns will eventually yield diminishing returns, and hiring quality new people is never an easy task.  This is where a forced evolution occurs.

The RE follow up best practices in a nutshell are based on two things.

1. Number of Contacts: Call the lead X number of times.
2. Frequency of those contacts: Call the lead X times over X amount of time.

Example: Call a new lead once per day for 14 days.

This plan is stupid simple, and it works very well.  However problems occur when we try to scale. The majority of these problems stem from a lack of available resources or resources that aren’t as effective as we might be on our own.  More leads means more people are needed to execute a Contact + Frequency plan, and the more team members we hire the more of a task it becomes to ensure they execute the plan effectively. (Can we clone ourselves yet?)

Most people get their start in real estate as a lone wolf, but everyone knows building a team is where the big money is. This is why in order to scale a modern team we need to consider that while one approach helped us as an individual succeed, we need to think differently to achieve a higher level of success.  This is where I encourage a transition to a Timing & Relevancy based sales strategy.

1. Timing: When a lead shows strong buying signals follow up.
2. Relevancy: Give them a message that is significant to them right now.

Example: This lead has viewed 30 downtown condos, been onsite 4 times in the last 3 days, and just opened a property email one hour ago. Call/text them, and explain how seeing the place in person can really make a difference vs comparing floor plans.

The above strategy is not a massive departure from what we are used to just an evolution. We don’t give up on making our contacts, but as our lead/opportunity volume exceeds our ability to follow the recommended number of contacts, and frequency we start to prioritize. The key difference here is the presence of a BECAUSE.

• I’m calling BECAUSE they’re active right now.
• I’m calling BECAUSE I know something special about what they’re looking at.
• I’m calling BECAUSE this lead has a higher chance of buying than another.

The technology is already there. We don’t need to waste our time guessing when to call or guessing what to talk about. Viewable online activity practically writes itself as a conversation starter.  What we need to focus on is getting to the next step, and understanding what the consumer needs for that to happen.

Now I can feel the Glenn Gary’s out there thinking that they can sell anyone, and that all leads need a contact every X number of days.  You’re right they all should be contacted, and they all can potentially be an opportunity, but do you have the resources to do it? I see teams with multiple outsourced ISA’s armed with dialers hammering away outbound calls, and is this effective? Yes. Enough volume, and effort will get results, but is drilling through the whitepages the most efficient way to make money? I doubt that’s the case.

Don’t abandon your principles, and don’t ignore the fact that most agents aren’t making nearly enough attempts at contact as an opportunity.  Simply consider that you probably got into real estate to be your own boss, set your own hours, and make great money. Use technology that helps accomplish this, and as you expand your team consider if the strategy can be replicated this way many times over. Odds are you’ll need to evolve too.