Join us for this Keeping it Real where you’ll learn how to reconnect with your neglected past clients, sphere, and lead nurtures so more people call you without spending a lot of money.
You’ll learn a simple process to export all your contacts into one file - properly de-duplicated and scrubbed - so you can email them a re-connect message about the latest local real estate news. You'll get a copy of this message on the show.
Then, you’ll put everyone on a “36 touch” plan so you’re top of mind as their go-to real estate agent. You’ll even be able to track who engaging with you so you can follow up.
The strategies you’ll learn to do this are inexpensive and simple. As a bonus, not only can you reconnect with your database, but you can also work the databases of other agents in your market for a referral fee – a low-risk way of generating high-quality leads for yourself.
Join Frank Klesitz this week to learn everything you wanted to know about how to get the most business from your #1 asset – all those emails, phone numbers, and mailing addresses sitting in your Gmail, Outlook, mobile phone, and CRM(s).
Kevin Kauffman and his business partner Fred Weaver have 25 agents on their real estate sales team in Phoenix. They sold 306 homes last year ($110 Million).
They originally set their agent splits based on what’s taught in the Millionaire RealEstate Agent book. Their bottom line, however, was only 10-20%.
After reflecting on that, they decided to actually increase their agent splits to 60/40 and70/30 (in favor of the agent), while cutting all the fixed, hard costs their agents saw as “low-value,” but in fact were very high cost to them.
Kevin says his agents are happier than ever, keeping more money, and his business is now more profitable than ever. This is a topic we wanted to dive deeply into with you!
Join Frank Klesitz and Greg Harrelson for this insightful Keeping it Real.
We talk about the optimal way to pay your agents if you have a real estate team. Kevin shares how he did it, how his numbers work, and why it was the best move for their agent/team model. This is a hot topic with a lot of opinions - this is an exciting discussion!
To hear even more from Kevin:
Join Kevin's Facebook Group
Listen to Kevin's Podcast
Watch Kevin's Youtube channel for Realtors
Dan Noma is on the show this week to share how he created EasyStreetOffers.com to help homeowners know all their options when selling their home.
It's working - he sold 1,800 homes last year with this simple message in hyper-competitive Phoenix, which is ground zero for all the iBuyer disruption.
Dan uses direct mail, Facebook, TV, and phone calls to let homeowners in Scottsdale know he has multiple buyers ready to go for their home.
When homeowners call to learn more, he asks them to send in photos of their home (or an agent goes on an initial discovery meeting to get the photos), which he submits to his institutional buyer relationships for a real, actual offer right away. The offers are very competitive, not low-ball investor offers.
Now armed with those offers upfront, and an accurate CMA, his agents guide the seller on the next steps best for them (i.e. you can sell it yourself, take the instant offer, or list it with us).
Join Frank Klesitz and learn how to tweak your seller lead-generation message for the best response (get an instant offer), and how to actually help those sellers when they call from your Guaranteed Offer messaging. Dan fills you in on how to partner with institutional buyers who will make very competitive offers too, so you're honest and authentic in your message.
Spring Bengtzen’s real estate team of 27 agents – located about 20 minutes outside of Salt Lake City, Utah – has already sold 259 units as of August 2021. If things continue in this hot housing market, they will likely sell around 450 homes by the end of the year.
Spring got her operational costs down considerably by hiring an international team of virtual assistants, so she can invest more resources into her agents and the customer experience (5-star agent communication, which is the #1 complaint of homeowners working with an agent). She’s also working on the ancillary side of things, like opening a title company, to stay competitive.
It was only five years ago she was ready to leave the business entirely and go back to being a hairdresser – barely making any money with a very small team. Since then, she’s been watching Keeping it Real and implemented the systems(and philosophies) of our guests. Spring shares what she’s learned about seller lead generation, recruiting, hiring agents, selling homes, and streamlining your operations. She also just transitioned her brokerage to ΓEA⅃ this summer. You’ll hear her thoughts on that decision, too, with the recent explosion of brokerage options in the space.
Join Frank Klesitz for this Keeping it Real and learn how you too can model what Spring’s doing to grow your real estate business!
Are you thinking about hiring your first buyer or listing agent? Maybe you've increased your real estate agent recruiting given the demand for real estate this summer?
If that's the case, join us for Keeping it Real this week to learn the optimal way to onboard a new real estate agent to your team or brokerage.
Frank Klesitz will interview Greg Harrelson (our guest this week) on how he gets a brand new real estate agent with minimal resources up to speed so they are selling homes within weeks.
This is a great interview if you're a brand new agent - you'll learn how to get yourself up to speed! This is a step-by-step instructional interview with the exact steps for a new real estate agent to take.
In this episode learn how Steve Kozlowski from Irmo South Carolina, was able to take his business from only 16 deals to 60 in just 12 months by shifting his business.
Hear how he was able to shift from a buyer-dominated business into a seller-dominated business and how in the last week alone he took 4 FSBO listings.
JP Wells is a sales manager for a team of overseas telemarketers who make 600+ dials a day each to find someone who may be thinking about selling their home.
Once they speak with a homeowner who is interested in getting an offer on their home, they pass the lead to a licensed agent for a conversation.
Join us for this Keeping it Real where we’ll dive deep into the numbers of prospecting homeowners directly over the phone. While we are not attorneys, we’ll discuss the legalities we are aware of (DNC, TCPA, state licensing requirements) along with what calling lists work best, how to append phone numbers, hiring and training a virtual assistant to make the calls (with general pay ranges), the proper scripting, and what metrics one should hit to have a reasonable chance of success where you make 4x+ back in commission income.
If you have a CRM with a lot of archives in it, it’s also great idea to have them call all the people who haven’t bought or sold a home with you. You can also put them on Home Value email updates when you get permission to stay in touch over the phone.
Join us for a deep-dive on outbound prospecting for seller leads when hiring a virtual assistant to do most of the heavy lifting for you.
JP’s Scripts:
Circle Prospecting
FSBO
New Buyer Leads
In this episode of Keeping it Real with Greg Harrelson of Century 21 The Harrelson Group and Frank Klesitz of Vyral Marketing features Ashlee Nath. Discussing, “Getting Started as a Brand-New Real Estate Agent in 2021,” you’ll hear tips on how to hit the ground running as a new agent and strategies approaching the market in a new way, even if you’ve been in real estate for decades.
Nath began her real estate career as a home stager and transitioned into becoming a transaction manager, and then determined that she could be an asset as an agent, and decided to take the test for her license through Kaplan online in three weeks. She didn’t plan to rush through, but while doing it realized that she could be learning scripts and reaching out to clients to let them know she was in school. For others that would like to get started, Nath suggested that soon-to-be agents can learn scripts, start conversations, and set up their social media. “They can start learning scripts before they have their license,” said Nath.
Nath was strategic in building her client base. She chose to start with Instagram as a lead generation tool and searched for people posting near her in Colorado Springs. She’d make comments and like their posts and start following people, and they would do the same. She would like up to 200 items per hour. “I started focusing all my time and energy on social media,” explained Nath. “I learned everything from webinars!” Nath would look at someone’s Instagram page and make sure they were a local who had posted recently and had interests similar to hers and then she would send a personal message, using their name and referencing something from their profile which sparked her interest. To her the key was that she “made it beneficial for them as well as me.”
Over time, Nath learned what was good to post live vs. as a story, and found that an 80:20 ratio, with 80% of posts relating to her life as a mom and 20% of posts involving real estate was a good mix for her audience. “I want them to see I’m a human as well as a realtor,” Nath said. “You were proactively recruiting and prospecting,” Klesitz said,“reminding listeners that Nath “would make 50 attempts a day to reach out to people in Colorado Springs.”
According to Nath, her main message was not about real estate, it was about creating local relationships and “getting to know people in my community.” And, it worked. She doesn’t spend as much time prospecting on Instagram now because she is really busy with referral business and past client repeat business.
Nath also used Facebook but does not consider it her main source of social media. She posts home listings in groups and on local buy, sell, trade pages, but only shares a price and size range rather than exact details. The reasoning is that then the viewers had to click links to her unbranded Real Geeks property landing pages which required registration before showing home photos. Once she saw the leads sign up on Real Geeks, she would engage them in conversation. She felt they were warmer leads since they were already looking at homes. This strategy alone resulted in her selling 10 homes her first year.
Nath said she used a landing page on her Real Geeks’ website and would post a short description and link the page to 5-10 local groups a day. She did not post to the same group every day, but rotated between 15 groups. Of those 15, Nath said 5 had the largest audience and better traction, but that posting to all made it more comprehensive. Klesitz noted that in doing so, Nath uses Facebook as an inbound strategy, whereas she uses Instagram as an outbound strategy. Harrelson and Klesitz were impressed as they calculated that she generated 150 free leads off Facebook where ten of those turned into deals, giving her close to 7% conversion through organic posting. Harrelson appreciated her approach in using forced registration when the leads came to her page. “They volunteered their information, now that’s a qualifier,” said Harrelson, adding that the qualifier brought conversion. Harrelson reminded that every Real Geeks user could generate leads using the property pages on social media. “Property pages have share buttons that make sharing it simple,” he said.
In addition to social media, Nath said she built her database from looking through her phone, checking who had come to her home for dinner and who she knew from volunteering at her kids’ schools. She contacted people she already knew to have more face to face “let’s go get coffee” interaction and was involved in “Mom groups” which allowed her to meet more people and grow her sphere of influence. “It’s all about keeping those relationships and nurturing those people,” Nath said. Even if they didn’t need her services, she knew, “they may know someone.”
Nath uses gifts to stay top of mind with past clients and contacts, delivering about 300 gifts each month through what she refers to as monthly pop-bys and events. She shared an example of a personalized art card + flower seeds that was sent and explained that at Thanksgiving mini bundt cakes were hand delivered by their real estate team with the message, “we’re nothing bundt thankful for you.”
Harrelson mentioned that she’s created a formula and that “she came across the formula naturally.”
“She chose something that fit her personality style.” He described it as authentic, intentional, simple, and consistent. “She created a routine and she delivered value,” he said explaining that it works as she, “leads with the give and lets the take come in some sort of reciprocity.”
In this episode of Keeping it Real, Frank Klesitz of Vyral Marketing and Greg Harrelson of Century 21 The Harrelson Group interview Jon Carbutti on the topic of “How to Start Your Own Independent Real Estate Brokerage”. Jam-packed with actionable advice, you’ll find this Real Geeks training will have you considering the advantages and challenges that come with creating a team and/or brokerage, and accepting responsibility for its success.
“You gotta be a little bit of crazy to start your business,” admitted Carbutti, “to be your own broker. But the right kind of crazy, the right kind of risk taker. You've got to believe in yourself and you’ve also got to have a written plan.” Listen to the story of how Carbutti went from being a top producing real estate agent to a business owner, broker, trainer, and leader of a top producing team. This Real Geeks training will show you why Klesitz, Harrelson and Carbutti agreed that “not everyone should become a broker,” but it also may inspire you to build a team.
Carbutti purchased his brokerage from his father in 2010 and recalled that he had no idea what he was doing at the time. “No one told me I was getting into the human resource business at the time,” he said. Carbutti also found that the company was filled with agents who didn't respect the son buying the business, as many of the agents had been with the company longer than he had. This required him “to step up and take a leadership role” and shift his mindset from being the top producer to being the leader and broker.
“I used to think nobody could do it better than me, and I was wrong.” Carbutti revealed. “I used to think I was the best at listing presentations, somebody else couldn’t possibly do that.” However trying to do it all and micromanage everyone else on his team was not a successful solution. He had to learn that other team members needed success and could be responsible for listing presentations and didn’t need to be micromanaged. He learned that you need to hire the right people to make systems work and that risk is a critical element to success. “Definitely do not... hire the wrong people,” urged Carbutti. “Don't be desperate to fill the seats.”
Carbutti shared that he was able to make these changes by gaining accountability through working with a coach. “I've always been a doer,” explained Carbutti. “Even if I didn't know what I was doing, I took action and I implemented.” He said that in the beginning of running his business, he “created a lot of monsters” because he started relationships based on money and thought profitability was based on volume. However, Carbutti had to reconsider his approach because his business model wasn't working. He added that he realized he needed to be a leader for his team and not mix roles, once he understood that “The agents that are in production can feel threatened by the sales manager.”
Klesitz asked Carbutti about his biggest mistake and Harrelson and Klesitz both nodded and related strongly when he said, “signing a lease with my Dad.” Harrelson added that building lease arrangements, family linked or not, is “one of the biggest challenges as the owner of the brokerage.” Harrelsoon warned anyone thinking of signing a building lease to think it through. "Be careful and be cautious," Harrelson said, “It's one of the hardest things to unwind if things start going south.”
One of Carbutti’s successful first steps was running radio ads. “Nobody in my marketplace was doing it," he said, so he signed up for three spots a week and a morning show and the phone started to ring. He shared that conversion from listings to signed contracts is over 85% from his radio ads. His call to action on the show is to call or “Google us,” Carbutti shared, explaining that it makes it easy for clients to connect.
Carbutti also shared that he’s often surprised by what interests his clients, so he tries to be consistent on all sides because it all works together and yields results. “A lot of these buyers coming in are actually sellers disguised as buyers,” he said. Then he told a story about a couple that needed help with a transaction and how he wasn’t sure how it was going until the end when the client turned to him and said, “By the way, I really like your videos…” Carbutti said he went back and reviewed the clients’ record and found that the couple had been in their system for 3.5 months, but had never responded to emails or calls, even though they’d been actively paying attention to his messaging. He then said that particular client has done six transactions since!
Moments like those teach Carbutti that he doesn’t know everything about client behavior, real estate, or how to run a team. He uses a recruiter to hire and train and says his role is to inspire and attend huddles. Talking about his teammates, Carbutti said, “I want to know the name of every single person that works at my company and I want to have a relationship with them.” It’s very important to him that his agents feel they are a part of the team. “They understand that at the end of the day, we have their back,” explained Carbutti.
Inspired by Carbutti’s methods on team building, which seems to be a cross between a team and a brokerage, or “teamerage, ”Harrelson said, “We shouldn't be trying to build a brokerage. We shouldn't be building a team. We should be following the pattern of Jonathan.” Klesitz agreed, adding, “A brokerage is an extension of your character,” which is what Frank says explains Carbutti’s success.
Our guest Linda McKissack was arguably the first real estate agent to stop selling houses as a lone rainmaker. She built a real estate team when the concept was foreign to the industry and invested the proceeds into rental property and brokerages to build a multi-million-dollar passive income stream.
Today, she owns over 110 long-term rental properties, 16vacation rentals in Branson Mo., 6 commercial buildings, 4 real estate franchises… and it all started from building one successful real estate business with the power of leverage.
You’ll learn on this show…
If you’re interested in “What’s Next” beyond selling homes for a one-time commission. This will be a smart business discussion on the “air-game” it takes to build real estate assets (brand, database, systems, people, culture, rental property, etc) to complement the “ground work” of earning commissions to pay for your lifestyle while investing the difference in passive income streams.
In Keeping it Real: How to Hire Virtual Assistants for Your Real Estate Team with Dave Friedman, Frank Klezitz and Greg Harrelson explore options for hiring virtual assistants to enhance productivity in real estate. Learn practical advice on growing a team through training and utilizing overseas talent and resources in the Real Geeks training.
Friedman explains how he grew his business and sold over 400 homes in 2020 with the help of his hybrid US and overseas based teams. Having created a business which is 93% team generated,Friedman’s insight and expertise in using virtual assistance overseas is unmatched. Listen in to hear real examples of ways to train, teach, and create systems that will streamline your business through the use of virtual assistants in this video.
Keeping It Real LIVE with Frank Klesitz of Vyral Marketing, Greg Harrelson of C21 The Harrelson Group, and Lindsey Jackson of Real Geeks examined Facebook lead-generation ads and what makes each work!
“I went through the top 100 real estate agents,” Klesitz reported, “looked at what they were running and took note of themes.” In doing so he was able to see a clear picture of what works and doesn’t work in today’s market. Accessing the Facebook Ads Library as a tool is a game changer. It can be accessed at: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/
This episode details current ads, targeting methods, and landing pages that are generating leads right now, and explains why they worked so well. ROI and actual cost per lead type are discussed, allowing agents to have the info they need to plan and run successful Facebook marketing campaigns.
Discussing ways to retarget audiences, Harrelson also explained the basics of the advertising he runs. “For the best conversion,” he said, “I’ve been running seller leads ads. Harrelson does this by creating specialty community Facebook pages, rather than using the main company page. Jackson explained that ads can be very market dependent and that it’s best to have 20K people in each audience, if possible. She also shared that more expensive homes meant more expensive ads in most cases, due to increased competition.
Harrelson agreed about the competition and the need to adapt advertising to the market. He urged agents to not be complacent and said that even he didn’t have “magic ads,” which means his team is always testing to see what works best in a given market. Harrelson suggested paying attention and accumulating an audience of people who didn’t fill in the form (known in retail as cart abandonment) to retarget.
Generally speaking the group agreed that it was better to have the lead taken to a lead capture page with a sign up form rather than a general website page. Jackson shared that funneling leads in through a property detail page where a lead signs in through a Facebook login, results in a highly effective campaign, “especially when you’re on your phone,” she said. These ads create a pattern which has the lead returning to the site on a daily basis. When A/B testing, Jackson said that the aggressiveness of the copy is a key area for testing. Klesitz introduced the idea of dynamic creative, where the ad or ad image is chosen based on performance.
Jackson said ad fatigue is real and that you have to constantly be testing new ideas for ads. Homes with pools work really well, she explained, “but just make sure that it matches.” For instance, if you’re advertising pool homes, don’t share a picture with snow, show a home with a pool.
Klesitz shared his view on the 4 tiers of advertising.
In discussing the metrics, Harrelson knew that it cost him $2.40 for each seller lead in his custom audiences. “When you’re capturing seller leads online, you’re capturing them very early in the funnel,” he said. Adding that most people give up too soon on seller leads because they are trying to speed the process too quickly. Using a non custom audience results in a high cost per lead, between $3.50-4 per lead. More competitive areas will have more expensive leads. Currently Jackson said the least expensive cost per lead is Florida and the most expensive is in San Clemente, California.
Harrelson believes 1-3% is normal for agent ad conversion though his reporting shows that 14% is possibly convertible from all of the ads. Real Geeks clients can use the Facebook tool or reach out to RealLeads@RealGeeks.com to have advertising set up for you.
Klesitz shared his favorite 3 seller lead ad calls to action:
As the segment concluded, Harrelson reminded agents to take notes and choose one action to take and do consistently. He believes doing this each week could make a huge difference in an agent’s production for 2021, even if the changes are small.
April’s first Keeping It Real Training offered by Real Geeks and hosted by Greg Harrelson and Frank Klesitz explored direct mail strategies for lead generation in affluent real estate markets. Featuring Brett Jennings, a real estate agent and team leader in the Silicon Valley, this episode provides direct answers to the question, “How can I generate seller listings now?”
Establishing credibility through sending direct mail to property owners and following up with phone calls, targeting mapped school areas, and circle dialing were all ways Jennings suggested staying in front of sellers. “All will sell at some point,” he said.
Recalling the words of his mentor Tony Robbins, “Wealth exists in the gap between ideas and their implementation,” Jennings explained that exploring that gap has been the key to his success. He sells real estate in a very affluent area, Silicon Valley, and has found that consistency as a team effort has allowed for predictable results. He targets an area of at least 2,000 homes and defines it by school district boundaries in his MLS. Using Remine or Realist, he then downloads the contact details of those homeowners and sends hand addressed, stamped letters to each. He mails one to himself so he knows when the letters are received. After they’ve been received, typically 3-5 days later, his team begins calling as follow up. This technique has allowed Jennings and his team to secure listings in a low inventory market.
Jennings said the direct mail campaign works alongside his digital efforts. Every lead also is set up to receive a monthly Corefact postcard, monthly e-market report, and he has seller alerts set up for his CRM, showing pending and sold homes within 2 blocks of the property owners’ address. In addition Jennings uses HomeBot for his entire SOI and reports a 70% open rate using that tool. Jennings said his focus is to become known in a variety of ways. “Not just digital, but do digital and print to make you unforgettable,” he said.
These techniques alone are not the cause of Jennings GCI jumping from $3.9 million to $12 million, however. He had a plan to scale and said he only did that through hiring a “rockin' admin,” scaling lead generation, scaling to 50 quality agents, and scaling quality support.
Listing Realtors Property Resource (RPR) as another tool, Jennings, Harrelson and Klesik discussed how this could be used to print out market updates for all buyers and send personal messages congratulating them on their increases in home values. The note could also provide the “most universal offer to sellers” which is the idea that you have a buyer. Jennings suggested leveraging your most committed buyers by finding out from the agents on the team who the buyers are and what types of homes they need.
As you mail to your farm areas, Jennings advised to intentionally choose a hand written font, even on the envelope. He explained that using a service such as Addressable, which uses a real robot pen to write addresses, can achieve a 50% open rate for mailings. Jennings then shared that his team accentuates results with mail and a followup call in a 3 tap system, “either call, mail, call or mail, call, mail,” he said. He also recommended using a short url for zoom to make it easy for people to get on a video call, such as zoom.name.com.
Jennings acknowledged that this approach is large scale and cost-prohibitive for soome, but encouraged agents to look for partnerships on the mailing. He suggested including a 2nd page with a referral to a financial advisor offering a seller tax implications webinar, and having them cover a portion of the postage.
Explaining that letter frequency mattered due to message fatigue, Jennings said that in his market, “the ideal cadence is every 3-4 months,” and explained that this way, “if you call behind the list, you may get advance news of seller plans so you can add them to CRM.” Harrelson and Klesitz agreed, with Harrelson adding, “Never do direct mail unless you're willing to prospect behind it.”
Harrelson spoke from experience saying he’s found that sellers take a letter and “put it in a property folder to access in 6 months,” and encouraged agents to do multiple things, as Jennings does, not only direct mail. Speaking of Jennings, Harrelson said agents needed to be more like him, "He's not a dabbler. He's a doer, he's a get-it- doner. He goes deep." Klesitz suggested more tools for agents to use if they need to find buyers, explaining that institutional buyers are available through multiple companies, including Offerpad, and Opendoor. Klesitz also mentioned Homelight as a trade-in way to access equity and then sell the property as an "Exclusive Partner."
In wrapping up this episode of Keeping It Real, Klesitz mentioned his “Magical Seller’s Email” and offered it to agents. He recommended personalizing it and emailing the letter to an entire database as a way to get conversations started. Download it here.
This Keeping It Real episode shows you best practices for staying in front of potential home sellers.
Utilizing these concepts and tools with your Real Geeks CRM is sure to increase your seller leads and grow conversion in 2021. Let us know what works for you and reach out if you have techniques you’d like to share in Real Geeks training. We’d love to have you on LIVE event!
This Keeping it Real got deep into “The Optimal Economic Structure for a Small Real Estate Team w/ Anthwon Thomas.” Hosted by Greg Harrelson and Frank Klesitz, the episode talks about the realities of agent splits, staff compensation structure, marketing budget percentage, and setting up an overall economic model when planning for a small team. More importantly, you’ll be inspired as you hear the passion, commitment, and joy evident in Thomas and Harrelson as each shares the journey of becoming a leader.
As a passionate entrepreneur seeking a life in real estate, Thomas spent hours preparing for his career as an agent, but more importantly as someone who could lead a team. In the beginning it was just him, but from the day he hired his assistant, he knew he would be a success. He knew it, because he could see it. Thomas had prepared by watching hundreds of hours of training ahead of time, in the form of Keeping it Real episodes and related Real Geeks training. This coaching helped Thomas internalize the message, “Whether I was going to fail or succeed, it was a win for me,” Thomas said.
Klesitz and Harrelson were amazed at his drive, and Harrelson recognized it as a key to Thomas’ success. Harrelson says: “Anthwon minimized his risk by maximizing his learning,” he said. Thomas attributes his success to his supportive wife and the knowledge gained as he internalized the role plays shared in those video trainings. I had to have focus and the belief that I was a winner, and a competitor,” he said.Thomas went on to explain that success is about working smart, “It’s not about how intelligent you are, it’s about how many times you were being intelligent,” he shared.
With a business based in Lafayette, Indiana, Thomas shows that “you can still be profitable in any market” as his small team consisting of three sales agents, a director of operations, closing coordinator and virtual assistant generated 120 deals last year in a market with a median sales price under $200,000. Thomas himself is no longer closing deals, and instead serves in a management role, helping his agents stay focused on prospecting and closing deals.
Part of Thomas’ success lies in keeping costs low (marketing budget was $53,000) and morale and expectations high. His company has published standards for work efficiency and production for their agents which include:
Thomas finds that his system provides clarity, incentivizes, and works well for his motivated team, and shared that the agents hold one another accountable. “When we bring agents on the team,” he explained, “We future pace them… We let them know what to expect.” Believing that the amount of contacts you have per day will be the number of closings you have per year, Thomas provided insight into why his system works. Even knowing this, Thomas felt building systems and processes was the value he could best contribute in his business, so left transactions to his agents.
Impressed by Thomas’ system, training, and team, Harrelson and Klesitz discussed how approaches may be different, but that success happens with consistency. Harrelson shared that his team approach is unlike Thomas’ in some ways. For instance, Harrelson requires no minimum sales standard, but guides individual agents based on their own goals. “My job is to help them accomplish what they want to do,” Harrelson said. Harrelson encouraged agents seeking to grow a team to make their first hire an assistant and suggested they convert 50% of time saved into lead generation time. When growing their businesses, Harrelson and Thomas took different approaches. Thomas reinvested his time into building a business. Harrelson reinvested his time into listings. “Both of us probably did it right, based on our vision of the model,” Harrelson said.
Thomas explained that he didn’t do everything perfectly in the beginning. Talking about his failures, Thomas acknowledged, “Even though I sold homes, I didn’t lead correctly. The first agent I brought on didn’t stay with us long. I needed to prove myself a little more and make sure I was gliding, not grinding, everyday.” He realized he had to be more of a team player and changed his process so he could deliver more value and add more support, Thomas explained saying, “At that point things started taking off.” Harrelson agreed, “I’m a big believer in leading by example,” he said. Harrelson shared that he doesn’t have his own office, though he does make use of a conference room, because his goal is to build and teach his team. “I want to be with agents,” Harrelson said, talking about his leadership style.
“The reality is if I need to sell a home today, I can,” Thomas said, adding that his role and value is in building out “a strong bench of great players” to contribute to the team’s success. Thomas believes in accountability. He shared that his son checked in with him everyday when he was getting started at building his business with the question “Dad, did you follow or execute on your obligations today?”
Explaining that leading a team is about feeling led, Harrelson said, “Let your passion and your heart take precedence in your decision. The economics will magically disappear.” A true leader puts in the effort required to see the dream through, Harrelson explained as he shared a story about ditch digging. “It’s not about being a resource,” Harrelson said, “It’s about being resourceful.”
If you’re planning to grow your team in 2021, or anytime in the future, you’ll want to watch this amazing episode. Internalize these practical tips and insights to ease your transition and have you seeing success from the start!
This month’s Keeping It Real hosted by Frank Klesitz and Greg Harrelson summed up Brendan Bartic’s “Bulletproof Real Estate Lead Follow Up Plan.” Discussing the value of each lead as a person, and the need to nurture individuals on their home buying journey, Harrelson suggested a standard for agents to aspire to with clients. "If we courted all of our new leads like they were a new relationship,” he said, “it would be amazing!"
Before discussing the details of follow up, Bartic stressed the need for agents to understand that a lead is someone that has interest at some point. "Every single person that comes in has to ‘be processed or nourished 100%’," Bartic said, though he added that all need to be nurtured in different ways.
Bartic uses giveaways, radio ads, workshops and seminars, and traditional signage and advertising, alongside online advertising to attract and capture leads. Retargeting has been particularly successful for his team (who closed 230 transactions in 2020), and Klesitz suggested agents search The Bartic Group use the Facebook Ad Library (linked in the resources section below) to understand effective advertising language and images.
Once a lead comes in, Bartic’s team segments that person into one of two database categories, “met” and “haven’t met”. Describing online leads as “top of funnel,” Klesitz had Bartic and Harrelson share their nurturing processes. Harrelson suggested that understanding a person’s motivation was important. “Do they really want to buy a property?” Harrelson asked. “Yes. Then they’re a good lead… Let the timeframe dictate what you’re going to do to incubate that opportunity so you’re still at the top of the mind whenever that time frame comes.”
Bartic further explained that as every lead represents a person with family and friends who could later be referred, his team responds as such. “We are looking at just trying to get into relationships and look at not every single person, not just as a turn and burn ‘Hey, I got this lead. They need to buy in the next 30 days. If not, I’m on to the next’.” Instead, Bartic evaluates whether the person’s needs can be “met” now and needs immediate engagement or if the person is considered an “unmet lead” and needs to be nurtured through automation.
Harrelson and Bartic agreed that the relationship is very similar to courtship and, in most cases, requires time investment and multiple, consistent touches. "If we courted all of our new leads like they were a new relationship,” Harrelson explained, “it would be amazing!" Bartic agreed. “We have to court them over a period of time for that relationship to occur,” Bartic said.
Klesitz delved into the financial aspect of lead generation, asking Bartic for real advertising spend numbers in Bartic’s Denver area. Stating that his team spends $5-8 per general Facebook lead and that specific ads such as making an offer on a home, are about $15. Google adword PPC leads are closer to $40 per registration form completed. Bartic’s cost per lead numbers are determined by how much is spent on advertising, divided by how many people opted in.
Bartic shared his process for training his sales teams on follow up by referencing his flowcharts (linked below). “We’re going to call them [leads] immediately… right out of the gate,” Bartic said. “If they answer, then there’s a path that we’re going to take that allows us to move forward with them. If they don’t answer, we hang up immediately, and then we call back a second time. In the industry we call this a “double tap.” The key to that call is that it is ‘unbranded,’ with no company or call details being shared in the voicemail as that often causes people to call back.
Bartic went on to describe his F6 lead follow up plan where the agents put in 6 days of consistent effort with daily calls for 6 days. If there is no response then the lead is placed on a weekly automated contact list using a Mojo dialer. Typically Bartic said they see interest from a lead on the 5th or 6th call attempt where guilt is often used to get leads to respond and engage by asking the lead to call and let the hard working agent who wants to help know if there is no interest. Often, his team finds they’ll get a response.
Bartic describes another technique called the ‘nudge text’ saying, “People respond to it like butter.” The nudge text results after no response is given to a voicemail. The voicemail is followed up with one text. When that text doesn’t produce a response, a second “Did you get my last text” message is sent 6 minutes later. Bartic explained that the nudge text is phenomenal at producing a response from a lead.
Once a lead is engaged, other tools are used such as customized market reports and hand written notes (addresses are looked up through a service). Bartic explained that it’s important to use the lead’s name in all contact, from the personal note to the custom home search alerts. "We know that the personal touch part is critical," Bartic said. Using these techniques, lead response grows and percentages change. He shared that if only 1 call is made the response rate is 1-3%, but after implementing F6, that rate changes to 73%. "We have to go deeper, not wider,” Bartic reminded.
Bartic feels that, "People jump off the phone way too early,” rather than recognizing every call as an opportunity to build a relationship. He said that he’s had people who've never bought or sold a home with him refer ten people to him.
Overall, Bartic wants agents to know not to give up too early. "It takes time to convert internet leads," he said. To Bartic the lead always has potential, even when wrong information is given. "That's not a dead lead to me,” he said, “it's an 'I gotta do more work'." Harrelson and Klesitz agreed that gaining details about each lead and creating that relationship, is most important and helps agents stand out. "We've got to bring some of that personal connection back into our lives," said Harrelson.
It’s a new year, and Cindy has cracked the code on how to maximize her business opportunities! Through great marketing and lead gen strategies, she has created a successful model where multiple businesses feed one another. From property management to vacation rentals to home sales - learn how she has utilized creative property marketing and open house strategies to dramatically grow her business.
We want to thank Todd Tramonte and Dr. Cynthia Tant for sharing their knowledge with us and the real estate community! It’s important for us now more than ever to band together and support one another through these uncertain times.
You can follow us and get updates on more upcoming events on Facebook, Keeping it Real, Twitter, or now on iTunes as well.
Keep your foot on the gas pedal, the year isn’t over yet! In this episode, “Enter the New Year with a Listing Inventory” these leaders in the field of real estate, share the strategies they’re implementing to finish the year off strong and enter 2021 with a full listing pipeline!
Some of the things we cover include:
We want to thank Lisa Chinatti, Greg Harrelson, Kevin Mills, and Jeff Quintin for sharing their knowledge with us and the real estate community! It’s important for us now more than ever to band together and support one another through these uncertain times.
You can follow us and get updates on more upcoming events on Facebook, Keeping it Real, Twitter, or now on iTunes as well.
There’s no doubt that 2020 has been full of ups and downs for all of us. As the year comes to a close, this is the time to reconnect with your clients and follow up with them on their real estate investments. There’s gold in your database, you’ve got potential sellers to nurture so that you can list more homes.
So brush up on your follow-up skills and tune in to this episode. Bill is a master of communication and continues to keep up with market changes, technology, and smart communications to provide his clients with the knowledge they need
We want to thank Bill and Jason for sharing their knowledge with us and the real estate community! It’s important for us now more than ever to band together and support one another through these uncertain times.
You can follow us and get updates on more upcoming events on Facebook, Keeping it Real, Twitter, or now on iTunes as well.
Single-agent, Buster Levin, has cracked the code of balancing technology and human interaction to make meaningful connections with his clients. Learn about the tools Buster uses to follow-up with his database by land, air, and sea so that no one gets overlooked.
Here are some of the things we cover:
- Staying organized by segmenting your leads based on urgency
- Leveraging workflows to nurture your leads and maximize conversions
- How to drive traffic to your lead gen website
- Understanding the lead conversion times based on lead sources
- How to “make today a masterpiece” by staying focused and setting attainable goals
In this episode Al Lewis shares with us how after a 30 year career as an Illinois broker, then moving to Florida to retire he soon found himself back in real estate! In a new market, he doubled down his efforts, built a small team, set up a new system to start building his database, and started closing deals all over again!
Here are some of the things we cover:
– Leveraging email, text, and live chat to build relationships with your clients
– Building a database from scratch
– Hiring and training an efficient team
– Having an exceptional work ethic and a positive mindset to succeed
We want to thank Al and Jason for sharing their knowledge with us and the real estate community! It’s important for us now more than ever to band together and support one another through these uncertain times.
You can follow us and get updates on more upcoming events on Facebook, Keeping it Real, Twitter, or now on iTunes as well.
See you at the next event!
In this mastermind session, Greg and Todd will discuss the attitude, approach, and expectations you need to breakthrough before the end of the year! With just four months left in 2020, it’s time to figure out what will help you take your business to the next level or get you back to where it was when the year started.
Here are some of the things he will discuss:
- Daily activities that create immediate results
- Leveraging people and technology to scale faster
- The mindset needed to keep it together through disruption, distraction, and chaos
Join us for the live, 100% educational Keeping it Real event. We encourage you to come prepared with as many questions as possible. You don’t want to miss this!
In this episode, we take "An Inside Look at How Todd & Jason Built Their High-Producing Teams" with Todd Tramonte, Ian Daniels, Jason Simard, and Jamie Wicks.
The Todd Tramonte Home Selling Team and the Sims Realty Group, share the systems and processes they’re using to achieve a high ROI and convert leads at a high level to produce amazing results!
What makes this episode so unique is that Todd and Jason both interview their ISA’s and dive deep into the tangible results of their follow-up campaigns, agent workflows, maintaining production, lead sources, PPC lead generation, and much more.
We want to thank all our guests for sharing their knowledge with us and the real estate community!
In this episode, Regina will share how she efficiently handles 60+ transactions annually with simple affordable systems and a strong work ethic. Regina is an incredible mastermind partner because of her relentlessness, flexibility in implementing new strategies, and willingness to share her knowledge with the real estate community. Here are some of the things
Regina we will cover:
- How she started off in real estate
- How she manages her time to be as efficient as possible
- Her social media and direct mail strategy
- The systems and processes she uses
- The strategies she is implementing during the COVID-19 pandemic
In this episode, we follow up with one of our favorite guests, Lisa Chinatti of Westford, MA, on her journey from being a single agent to building a team. In just her 3rd year of business, Lisa has gone from 8 to 492 transactions.
We also cover:
- How Lisa opened her own brokerage
- The systems Lisa’s team uses to generate and follow up with her clients
- How to recruit and retain talent
- The importance of culture when building a team
- The skills needed to be a great leader
- Learning and growing from your mistakes
- and much more!
We'd like to thank Lisa for sharing her story with us!
In this episode, Jeff and the team dive deep into "How to Convert More Leads Into Sales".
We also cover: