Inventory is key to a healthy housing market, and for some time this has been a real pain point for brokers and agents across the country. Seller lead generation can get expensive, and with a 1-3% conversion rate for most services, that’s a lot of time and money spent on leads that just aren’t going to convert.
But with ingenuity, AI, and combining high-tech with high-touch, you can start to solve this real-world problem — and even increase sales volume by 50% year over year under the right circumstances.
Which is exactly what Coldwell Banker Prime Properties has done at their Saratoga, N.Y., office.
This past year, Coldwell Banker Prime Properties made a strategic decision to start using the CBx Technology Suite consistently because they understand the value of the product suite that Coldwell Banker developed to leverage the power of big data to help identify likely sellers, win the listing, and locate prospective buyers.
CBx Seller Leads helps to solve the inventory problem by using AI to predict which homes are most likely to list and machine learning to help its predictions get even more accurate. Over the last year, the conversion rate for leads to listings across all claimed leads rose from 5% to 6.5%. Some places, like the Albany market where Coldwell Banker Prime Properties also operates, are seeing conversion rates upwards of 25%.
But even high-value leads are only high-value if you work them and win the listings. No matter how high-tech your lead source is, it’s the high-touch work that’s converting them.
Where old meets new
Old-school methods, like excellent customer service, calling contacts or knocking on doors are just as important a step as data. It’s easy to forget these tried-and-true methods amidst the newest trends, but technology alone isn’t going to get your team’s sales numbers to double — you’ll need to think about how to approach technology strategically. Combine the old and new, and you have a winning roadmap for success.
CBx Seller Leads, for example, uses data, analytics, AI and machine learning to provide high-value leads and at the same time creates a workflow that makes it easy for agents to act on these leads. No matter how good a lead is, if an agent doesn’t work it, someone else will. These capabilities have an impressive track record of success. Within the first year, the success rate of predicting homes that will go to market in the United States increased by 50%. On average, CBx Seller Leads convert at a rate that is three times the industry average.
The Saratoga office of Coldwell Banker Prime Properties didn’t see their eye-popping numbers overnight. But they saw the potential right away. So they implemented a hybrid approach of old plus new. Prospecting activities turned high-tech, when Coldwell Banker Prime Properties paired it with leads generated using the AI in CBx Seller Leads. And to make things more interesting, Prime implemented rewards for agents who are able to set up an in-person meeting with a lead from CBx. It never hurts to add incentives.
The vital element of brokerage support
Just as Coldwell Banker Prime Properties gives its agents plenty of support when it comes to using CBx Seller Leads, they also provide ample support when it comes to using the Suite’s other products: CBx Buyer Locator, the latest tool that predicts where buyers are coming from, and CBx Listing Presentation, an AI-powered tool that allows agents to create compelling, data-driven listing presentations. Before agents go on a listing appointment, their company administrators can help agents with their listing presentations, while their marketing department uses the CBx Buyer Locator platform to target Facebook ads to users right in their predicted locations.
Agents feel confident walking into a listing appointment when they combine the marketing advantage of Coldwell Banker with powerful CBx data. Caitlin Cucchiella, an agent who joined Coldwell Banker Prime Properties just over two years ago, was excited to use the technology suite to her full advantage. She was able to quickly land listings, sometimes competing — and beating out — well-established agents who were less inclined to use new technology.
“When going up against other competitors, I can say that showing where buyers are coming from through the CBx Buyer Locator is a massive competitive edge. Another brokerage I was competing against told the sellers that the buyer would come from New York City, without any data to back it up. The CBx Buyer Locator data actually showed that buyers would be local — coming from within a few different counties close by — allowing me to counteract the competitor’s statement and win the contract.” The CBx Tech Suite helps agents beat out the competition with AI-powered insights that others don’t have.
Brokerages like Coldwell Banker Prime Properties that leverage the entire CBx suite while matching it with the necessary old-school follow-up are seeing results. That’s because our Coldwell Banker tech is developed by real estate people. It’s not just tech for tech’s sake. CBx solves real problems and generates real results.
Learn more about the CBx Tech Suite and affiliating with Coldwell Banker.