Forget disruption, the real estate industry is in a state of distraction right now. With a global pandemic, a housing inventory shortage, and a looming US election, there are plenty of external factors that can lure your eye away from the business of working your business to its best.
So let’s take a short break to refresh some best practices and evergreen skills so you end the year strong and hit the ground running in January!
Deliver on the influence within your SOI
They’re your family, friends, old schoolmates, previous business associates, softball buddies, and more. These are people that know you and trust you, and because of that, you have some influence on them. But influence doesn’t mean you can tell what to do, it simply means they’re likely to pick up the phone when you call, to return an email or text, or to engage with you on social media.
But there is an elite group within your SOI–your golden Geese. Your golden geese are your “raving fans.” They have influence on other people. They are the folks who, without blinking twice, immediately tell their friends to call YOU to buy or sell real estate. Once you identify your golden geese (you need to know who they are), make sure to “take care of them.” And be brutally honest with yourself–most people do not have 200 golden geese on their list!
Convert new leads faster and with less friction
The window of opportunity to receive and convert a new lead is smaller every day. Consumers expect a hands-free, immediate gratification experience, and real estate is no different. So find and close those gaps where you might lose those leads, getting them into your workflow quickly and painlessly. When prospecting, the best times of the day to call leads are 8-9 am and 4-5 pm.
Texting can also help engage your leads quickly. A best practice is to send a minimum of 30 texts a week with a link to your properties for sale. It is proven that more of your texts will be opened and read when a picture shows up. So text your buyers a property link and watch your engagement shoot through the roof! Real Geeks customers can use this texting tool as part of their Real Geeks CRM. Real Geeks clients can drive traffic back to their Real Geeks IDX website and the lead activity is tracked in the CRM. The last thing you want to do is drive traffic to a site you can’t control, so stop losing business to the portals and your broker’s website.
Even though automation is the key to a faster response, don’t forget to be human. Take notes about your leads, capture what behavior you can. What are they looking for, what is their time frame, their dog’s name, why they are looking to move? The key to successful online lead generation is building relationships. Get to know your leads, and help them get to know you!
Maximize your listing performance on Facebook
Along with your more personal and community-centered posts, it’s a best practice to share your listings on social media seven times a week. Share a minimum of one property each day and make sure you direct message anyone who gets tagged in the post.
Real Geeks users have a listing share button located on every property detail page of their Real Geeks website.
In addition to listing information, be sure to share valuable, local market data that demonstrates your knowledge. Real Geeks users can leverage the “What’s my home worth?” tool on social media daily, and we recommend sharing on Facebook and Linkedin. This will help you build your brand and collect free seller leads.
Anyone can follow these best practices. The key is for the agents to take a systematic approach to execute these simple hacks on a weekly basis. Over time, these simple strategies compound and your business grows!
Learn more about how Real Geeks can help.
