This is the second post in a two-part series about new agents. In part one, we learned about Adele in Zelda, two new agents with different philosophies. Adele struggles to stay organized, and Zelda utilizes a contact relationship management (CRM) and the advice of her colleagues to get ahead. Read part one: “How new real estate agents can succeed.”
Let’s follow up and see how our two agents, Adele and Zelda, are progressing as they move into the third year of their real estate careers.
Years three to five
Adele
In years three to five as an agent, Adele recognizes that she overestimated how successful she would become in a short period. But she is determined to avoid becoming part of the 80 percent of agents who leave the business. Adele finally organizes her contact list in a single Excel spreadsheet, so she can get a better idea of who she already knows.
She begins researching CRM options, but finds the choices to be overwhelming and keeps putting it off. Instead of building her own website, she has a profile page on her broker’s site. She uses Facebook for the majority of her marketing efforts but finds her posts aren’t being viewed often enough.
She continues to complete between five and seven transactions annually, which is far from her goal. Every year Adele vows to improve her organization skills, but these tasks keep falling off her priority list when things get busy.
Zelda
Throughout years three to five, Zelda successfully identifies her niche and starts marketing herself more aggressively toward younger adults ready to buy their first home. She has built rapport with this demographic, and her past clients have provided her with some referrals.
Zelda hosts seminars for people who are interested in purchasing their first home. At the seminars, she offers her prospects valuable information on the homebuying process, and she even includes door prizes.
Her “First Time Homebuyer” seminars have been an enormous success. Although the leads take some time to ready themselves to buy, Zelda is reaping the benefits from the foundation she laid down early in her career.
She uses her CRM to plan events, send out invitations and follow up with those who attended. Her email marketing campaigns run like clockwork, and she keeps detailed notes in her real estate CRM about all of her contacts, which allows her to have more specific conversations with them the next time she reaches out.
Zelda’s prospects and past clients appreciate the value she delivers. They feel she sincerely cares about helping them and readily refer leads to her. In years three to five, Zelda’s transactions continue to increase. She closes between 25 and 35 homes each year.
A look into the future
Adele
With over five years in the real estate industry, there are many aspects of Adele’s career that are still underdeveloped. Most of the advice she hears from more successful agents is that she needs to be using a real estate CRM, keep in touch more effectively and build an online presence with an agent website. She sees the value in these tasks and regrets having put them off for so long.
Although she has worked hard and prospected faithfully, Adele’s contact list is far smaller than it should be. Many of the past clients she’s worked with have moved on to use another agent simply because they’ve forgotten Adele’s name.
She realized that if she had been more diligent about keeping in touch, she would have secured repeat business from these past clients.
Years into the business, Adele finally gets organized with the help of a real estate CRM, and she can’t believe she waited so long to get started.
She groups her contacts according to priority, starts sending out a monthly e-newsletter, assigns contacts to specific drip email campaigns and uses task reminders to help her remember when it’s time to get in touch.
Adele often tells her colleagues that if there’s one thing she regrets, it’s that she didn’t get organized sooner. She lost some quality leads through the years, but she is now on track.
Adele still isn’t making the commission that she had hoped for, but with her new strategies and real estate CRM, she’s finally on the right path.
Zelda
Zelda has become something of a local celebrity in her town. Through her home seminars, summertime barbecues and sponsorship of sports teams, it seems like everyone in the area knows Zelda.
Referral business has been booming, and as her career has developed, Zelda has been able to market herself primarily as a listing agent.
Because Zelda took care to automate as much of her business as possible, she can invest more time in client meetings, events and even some much-appreciated personal time.
Because Zelda is so well-connected in town, she’s seen as an expert on all things homeownership. When a prospect or past client is in need of a landscaper, contractor or interior decorator, they call Zelda looking for a recommendation.
Zelda keeps a list of her preferred vendors in the business directory of her real estate CRM. As a result, many of the vendors she recommends do her a favor by making her their recommended agent.
In several years, Zelda’s income has skyrocketed. Thanks to regular referrals, being remembered and repeat business, she closes over 90 transactions annually.
Are you going to live happily ever after? Please share your secrets (or fails you have overcome) to become successful in the comments section below.
Candace Green is the Marketing Manager at IXACT Contact Real Estate CRM. You can follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.