This April, one of Inman’s most popular recurring theme months returns: Back to Basics. All month, real estate professionals from across the country share what’s working for them, how they’ve evolved their systems and tools, and where they’re investing personally and professionally to drive growth in 2022. It’s always smart to go Back to Basics with Inman.
Last week, Realogy Leads Group, an organization within Realogy that focuses on delivering high-quality referrals to Realogy-affiliated brokers and agents, announced winners of the highest honors awarded at its annual Realogy Advantage Network LEAD Conference for 2022: the Masters Cup and the Champions Cup.
This year, Century 21 Redwood Realty in southern Maryland and the Washington, D.C., metro area won the Masters Cup, which celebrates the top Realogy-affiliated broker for points earned in home marketing, conversion, customer service and overall referral management of referrals from Realogy’s partners.
Century 21 Redwood Realty | Credit: Realogy
The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Native American Group in Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, Virginia, won the Champions Cup, which celebrates the top-performing broker based on overall conversion rate from Realogy-partner companies’ referrals to closed sales.
The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Native American Group | Credit: Realogy
The brokers from this year’s winning teams, Dr. Susan Jenkins of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Native American Group and Nick Pasquini of Century 21 Redwood Realty, spoke with Inman about some of their secrets to success with converting those referral leads. Here are some of their top tips.
Recruit the best team
Nick Pasquini | Century 21 Redwood Realty
“It’s really a combination of maintaining the best people [and] building the best team,” Pasquini said.
To successfully convert referral leads, brokers need agents who like working with these types of leads and can embrace them. It’s also important to build a team of people committed to the industry and the work, Pasquini said, to know they’re dependable.
When looking for new team members, Pasquini prizes character traits like grit, determination, dedication, market knowledge, customer service skills and professionalism.
Foster great culture
Dr. Susan Jenkins | Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Native American Group
Dr. Jenkins said her company would not be able to support the success it has in lead conversion in the last year without the firm company culture she’s instilled by following Christian values and the golden rule.
“You’ve got to really surround yourself with people that will support you, believe in you and give you opportunities,” Dr. Jenkins said.
For her team, that’s often translated into creating homegrown agents, Dr. Jenkins said, by using company funds to put agents through real estate school and help aspiring agents transition from other professions into real estate.
Be consistent
Maintaining a certain level of motivation and accountability is important to getting those lead conversions, Pasquini said. With consistent efforts every day at being the best one can be and staying accountable, those leads can more easily turn into closed sales.
Off-load ancillary tasks onto support staff
Dr. Jenkins has a number of administrative support staff, from transaction coordinators to videographers so that agents can focus on servicing their clients.
“Multitasking is not a blessing — it’s a curse,” she said. “You become basically, at best, maybe a level three at everything that you do. But if you’re singularly focused on a specialty market, as in just real estate, negotiating, presenting and talking with the buyers and educating the buyers, you’re going to excel at that.”
Leverage technology
Deploying technology effectively has also helped Dr. Jenkins and her team bring leads to conversion. Tools like Salesforce, HighNote and Ylopo help the team follow-up with and nurture a lead as it moves through its lifecycle.
“So we’ve put in place different technology, either through automation or artificial intelligence, that touches that client on numerous different points either by automated drip email campaigns, or using some type of automated text campaign or having our staff and admin call the client just to do a check in with them, another additional concierge service.”
