Growing quickly with sophistication and business ingenuity over the last decade, real estate teams now make up a significant percentage of all production volume in the U.S. They’re driving a healthy shift throughout the industry.
Unfortunately, common brokerage systems often lacked the ability to let teams brand themselves independently, disperse leads on a team-by-team basis and offer database independence. Teams were faced with disconnected, expensive systems and had to figure out their own lead gen process. Broker-provided vendors were outpaced by the growth of the team model.
Technology finally built for teams
Inside Real Estate, which powers over 200,000 agents and 4,000 of the nation’s top teams and brokers, has a strong pulse on the unique needs of teams. The company pioneered solutions designed specifically for the team business model, notably kvCORE, which enables teams to function independently as a “brokerage within a brokerage”.
What are the team features they hear about the most? Here’s a rundown of the top functions being used and demanded by top teams across the country:
#1 Data Ownership (and Privacy)
A concern of every agent today should be data ownership. Teams execute their own marketing outreach, build branded websites, pay for leads, earn listings, and orchestrate focused efforts to earn business for their members. Thus, teams need to be able to function independently within a larger solution and be provided feature autonomy. Everything from a team’s proprietary action plans and workflow to how it brands websites should stand-alone and afforded autonomy from the office enterprise. And of equal importance, the solution should allow for data portability. A lot of agents are nervous to put their sphere into systems for fear of losing their leads if they were to leave. Agents joining a team need to be assured that their data is private, and can go with them should they choose to part ways.
#2 Unique Team Branding
Tied directly to the importance of independence in brand, lead source, and sales tactics, the best platforms offer independent web solutions for teams. Team websites are powerful drivers of brand and leads, and should stand apart. Look for a solution that gives you flexible team branding and customization options. Additionally, they should facilitate lead generation that ties into routing and lead-claim rules specific to the team. Team members should be able to, at the very least, be highlighted in profiles, if not stand-alone pages that break-down sales histories, current listings, and career backgrounds.
#3 Agent Accountability and Performance Tracking
Team leaders need to know how their agents are faring. Solutions that can parse performance data for the overall team and each of its members should be prioritized. Metrics to look for include lead response time, follow-up activity, and conversion rates to specific sales measurements.
Cassie Grant, the Director of Sales for the Top Charleston Agents Real Estate Team with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Carolina Sun Real Estate in Charleston, S.C., uses kvCORE’s automated accountability settings to monitor how each agent follows up with leads. “Our team is very structured, and we have a very specific way that we require all new leads to be handled. Being able to look at this information at a glance in kvCORE makes it incredibly easy for us to manage our team effectively,” said Grant.
#4 Independent Lead Generation
Teams often come into being because of the success of their leader(s). That success is often built upon a knack for fostering relationships, sharp sales acumen, and innovative lead generation strategies. In turn, software platforms should allow for team-specific lead generation and source integration. Teams are essentially a “business within a business,” and therefore require the flexibility to build it as needed. This ensures a team’s ability to independently monitor growth, make data-driven financial decisions, and function with freedom.
#5 Lead Source Performance Tracking
The more connectivity, the better. Team leads should adopt software that can digest a broad menu of lead types and sources, organic and paid, and have visibility into reports showing lead source performance. Whether it’s social media, display advertising, open house lead captures, home valuation forms, website leads, or any other source, teams need to track how each of these channels perform to ensure optimal ROI on their marketing spend.
One level deeper, with today’s modern solutions like kvCORE, you can track how each agent on your team performs with different lead types. One agent could be more successful with social media leads, while another crushes it with open houses. This gives team leads the ability to route leads to the right person for the optimal result.
#6 Lead Routing
While most real estate business and sales platforms that incorporate marketing tools will come with lead routing features, teams should demand a solution that can accommodate how they choose to distribute new business within their team. Many teams work as a unit and cover each other if they can’t follow up in time. Individual hierarchies within teams matter, and often differ from the overarching rules of the brokerage, which has to deal with a much larger number of agents, performance standards, and operating parameters. Plus, look for speed, flexibility to create your own rules, and mobile capabilities.
Inside Real Estate believes in empowering teams, and the team business model, with the modern technology and solutions they deserve. They address the needs of teams that are operating independently from another platform solution with their standalone version of kvCORE. Or, teams can leverage economies of scale through their brokerage to get CORE Team Add-on for a fraction of the price.
Learn more about kvCORE Team solutions here.