In times of uncertainty, anxieties are heightened and it’s natural to take a step back and say, “will my business weather the storm?” As in other aspects of your life, it’s important to focus on preparedness and not panic, when it comes to your business. Stay calm, stay aware, and take the necessary steps that you can now in order to put yourself in a better position 6 months down the road.
First, get organized. Schedule some time to step back and get a birds-eye, 1,000-foot view of your business. Look at your goals and take inventory of your processes. If you want to understand where you need to adjust or change course, you first have to have a clear finger on the pulse of your business.
Leads, leads, leads. Nothing new here, as agents have been searching for better lead strategies for years. What’s different now is that you may have to get more creative if there’s a dip in seller or buyer leads in your market. Tips for strategic and creative lead generation In tough times, the good are separated from the great. A perfect example of how to land in the latter category is to know everything you can possibly know about your market. Front and back, left and right. You need to have every data point on the tip of your tongue, ready to use in conversations with potential sellers and homebuyers. Share your expertise via content marketing! Stick to your geographic farm, compile all of your knowledge and observations, and share them with your leads via blogs, Facebook, videos, and email newsletters. Being strategic and numbers-driven is always good business practice. And it’s particularly critical during a shifting or uncertain market when transactions may slow a bit and budget becomes a top priority. So what metrics should you be tracking? We like to break it into two groups: personal performance and return on investment (ROI).
The agents that thrive in any market are the agents that stay diligent and hold themselves accountable. Times of uncertainty call for extra caution and precision with budget. Take a look at your business plan and your goals for the remainder of the year, and then spend some extra time working on your budget. Look closely at your finances from the past few years, and set specific goals for your revenue and profit (while trying to lower your expenses.) The reason tracking and measuring your expenditures is important, is so that you can understand which efforts have a positive ROI. You may be spending a relatively high amount of money on lead generation or marketing efforts — however if those outputs lead to enough closings, it’s worth the investment. Track all of your expenses as diligently as possible, (with as much detail as you can), and you’ll be able to boost the right investments and cut corners in the right places. If you’re a broker or team leader, you need to measure the ROI of your agents. Here are a few questions to ask: It’s all about conveying the trends that are to come. Accepting an offer is a major decision, and there is even more on the line when the offers are lower than they were hoping for. Work on your “counseling” skills, which will come in handy when counseling anxious sellers to get off the fence and accept an offer. Be prepared with projections to show them that if they wait, more than likely the offers will go down. Avoid preemptive and reluctant buyers and seek out the leads that are motivated to buy now. Top Communication Tips:
We all wish we could be the superhero that tackles all of the tough tasks on their own. But the truth is, achieving top-tier success in real estate is nearly impossible without technology in this day and age. By partnering with the right real estate technology, you can completely streamline your business, automate busywork, and develop a healthy pipeline of leads to drive your business even in the toughest of markets.
Do you have time to follow-up with every new lead that registers on your site as quickly as possible? Probably not. Your time is better spent with hot leads, having conversations, meeting with clients, and showing houses. However, lead generation, qualification, and follow-up are critical for fueling a thriving pipeline. That’s why it’s essential to leverage technology. Be strategic about the tools that you’re using, by (A) choosing the right ones for your business, (B) utilizing them to their fullest potential, and (C) measuring ROI.
With Success Assurance, you can focus your energy on more dollar-productive activities. Leave the rest to us. When a new lead registers on your site, a lead concierge will reach out to them for you, in as little as 90 seconds. And then deliver them to you, transaction-ready. This process allows you to maximize your ROI and leverage real experts to nurture your pipeline. Better yet, it allows you to focus on the dollar-productive and fulfilling tasks that you got into this business to do — build relationships, stay in front of your sphere, and close more deals.
Real estate agents generate leads everyday. If you’ve been in the business for a few years, you probably have several hundred, if not thousands, of leads sitting in a spreadsheet. How do you know which ones are still active? Still searching?
A real estate CRM can tell you who is actively looking for a home and how often. You can even filter and segment your leads by who is active. Think about the time saved right there. Hours of prospecting reduced to a fraction of a second. Coupling this with a phone dialer, you can turn lead generation into one of real estate’s easiest exercises. No more time blocking hours for routine grunt work. You can focus on tasks that have a higher ROI, like showing houses for clients. Which statement do you think will have a longer, lasting impact? 1. Hi Jack, I saw you were looking to buy a house. How can I help you today?
2. Hi Jack, I noticed you were looking at homes in Lawton Harbor. It’s a beautiful neighborhood! Would you like to see some homes there today?
Number two sticks out, right? The best real estate CRMs — working with your website — will tell you what properties leads are looking at (and how many times). This allows you to send personalized communication bound to convert. BoomTown clients, for example, have seen a 450% increase in lead responses (based on our CRM tools). It works particularly well for leads who are 6-8 months out. If you notice them looking at one specific property over and over (recorded by the CRM), then you can send them a quick text, saying, “Want me to schedule a showing for 1234 Bend Street this Saturday?” Good real estate CRMs will expand on this behavior. They will match new (or updated) properties to your leads, using the data behind their home searches. It’s similar to how Google will offer better websites based on how you search. Then all you have to do is send out a group text or email, asking if anyone wants to see these “new” properties. Lead insights allow personalized communication. That communication creates better conversions. More conversions equal more money. Well-performing teams have a business process. It’s a workflow for handling new leads and existing clients. Example: Brokers often tell agents to respond to new leads within the hour. But how do you know if agents are actually contacting new leads within the hour? Holding agents (or yourself) accountable to a process isn’t easy. But a real estate CRM makes it effortless. By asking your team to contact leads through your CRM, it’ll leave a record of their actions. You can then pull up reports and see what they’re doing. It’s a good base for one-on-one discussions. You can drill into how often they try to contact leads, when they contact them, and if there was a response. It allows you to improve agent performance, which creates better ROI for your business. Ultimately, it’ll allow you to recruit and retain the best agents. Without a crystal ball, we just have to wait and see how things shake out. In the meantime, do what you can to prepare for a shift. You’ve made it all the way through this article, so you already have a head start on the competition! Frontload on business planning and strategy-building for the year ahead, so that if and when you start to feel the effects of an uncertain market, you’re fully prepared and ready to pivot. Be smarter with money and budget than you ever have before. Now is the time to stretch your dollars, maximize your ROI, and save as much money as you can. Get Creative Finding Leads
Be a Trusted Expert
Become a Data Scientist
Personal Performance
The Trick to Increasing Lead Conversion
Focus on Your Return on Investment
Focus on Relationships & Communication
Know Your Leads
Streamline Your Business with a CRM
1. It’s Like an Assistant (But More Powerful)
2. Prioritize Who to Call
3. Better Lead Communication (that Drives Conversions)
4. Improve Agent Performance
In Conclusion