Most agents spend most of their time prospecting because they know that without prospecting, there well be no leads and no leads means no listings are sales.  Okay, something might ‘fall in your lap’ from time to time but you can’t take that to the bank.

However, imagine if you could mostly automate your prospecting which is your most essential but time-consuming dollar productive task.

A consistent pipeline of quality seller leads is the holy grail of real estate success and for years, different systems have promised the seductive offer of leads-on-autopilot, but from what I’ve seen, few actually deliver.

Consistent leads on autopilot comes from marketing, follow up and a proven ‘Real Estate Funnel’ that attracts, nurtures and converts leads to listings and sales.

When you think about it, the only time we’re making money is when we’re in front of a seller or buyer so where are our sellers and buyers?

Our clients are mostly online and prefer to do most of their consuming of goods and services online so, at least we know where they are. It’s correctly ‘packaging’ your message that makes all the difference. The challenge is getting them to opt-in so we have the opportunity to share our story and make a connection. A healthy opt-in success rate depends on what you’re offering in return for a name and email and the opportunity to build a relationship.

I’m also convinced consumers (who don’t know us) see all agents as the same who will (give or take) produce the same result. If a seller doesn’t really know us or what we stand for they’ll jump into bed with the agent who has the lowest fee, so it’s critical to communicate our point of difference in the market, what we stand for and what that means to our potential selling client. In other words, why do they want to hire us to help them sell?

Generating leads is not just about social media marketing. Online marketing opportunities are everywhere.

Does your website make it easy for a new visitor to reach out and connect or message you and is this easy to find when your page first comes up on all devices?

Do you come up in Google’s first three organic business listings when sellers search ‘real estate agents in (your area)’?

Do you have an automated system that continually requests 5-Star Google reviews and does your system make it easy for your clients to quickly post a review that goes straight to your Google Business Profile?

If that sounds like a lot to plan and execute, the good news is that a new breed of tech platforms can take care of everything and the days of ‘Frankensteining’ different tech platforms together in the hope they can talk to each other are thankfully long gone.  In fact, these days, most of the set up can be done-for-you, and instead of paying numerous monthly subscriptions for a bunch of tech platforms essential to your marketing success, it all comes ready to go in the one hub for a fraction of the price!

Defining your Call-to-Action

A Call-to-Action is marketing speak for how you direct a potential client to take the next step to reach out and connect with you.  Do they respond to your email, send you a text message, point their phone camera at a QR code, call your mobile or complete a form?

Over the last year, we’ve been testing the best Call-to-Action methods to increase listing appointments and asking a potential seller to schedule a time in your calendar that works for them is working best when it comes to quality leads.

For a funnel to work effectively and deliver you the best results, you want all your new contacts and their conversations coming into the one hub whether the initial contact comes from email, text, phone call, FB messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, your web chat widget or Google search lead. Only then, can your funnel reality do its thing.

If your mission is to get in front of more qualified sellers, what could be more effective and efficient than giving a potential seller the option of clicking a link that’s sets the appointment in your calendar and creates a Zoom call link as well?  Again, everything can be automated and you can use that link is in all your communication.

You also need a system that automatically tags incoming leads and automates quality and consistent follow-up via email and text messaging.

Remember, your success is dependent completely on the number of contacts you can attract and retain in your system and the quality of your follow up. That’s a ‘Funnel’

A good Funnel converts contacts into relationships and, as I’m sure you’d agree, walking into a listing presentation where there’s an established relationship is better every time!

If you need more sales, you simply need more relationships and a system that makes it happen.

Thank you Ray Wood for this article. For those of you that know Ray, know that he’s an expert in the CRM space, a master at online marketing and a wiz at social media marketing. 

Ray and I are working on an exciting project that we are extremely excited about that will help agents with automation encompassing everything real estate.

More information soon.  Watch this space.