From $9 Million to $100 Million: Alabama KW Broker's CINC Story

Successful agents and teams are constantly on the lookout for effective strategies to propel their business growth. In our recent conversation with industry veteran Adam Beams, he discusses the power of diversifying your lead generation as you grow and the role of technology in expanding into new markets.

He shared shares his journey from a single agent to building a successful team, highlighting the  impact of CINC. Moreover, he shares practical insights on timely follow-ups, avoiding common mistakes, and utilizing automation to nurture leads and convert them into clients.

Finally, he touches on the impact that good training and customer service have made in his experience with CINC as an online lead generation and conversion platform, setting us apart from others in the space. 

See the full video and transcript below for more on Adam and how he uses CINC to increase his business.

Transcript

Adam Beams: I've been in real estate since 2016 with Keller Williams. Started out as a single agent, did about 9 million my first year. At an average sales price, of about 175. I had two business partners that we were friends at the time.

We decided to build a team. We were looking for a platform, and everybody else was on BoomTown. So we jumped on BoomTown and had a horrible experience and met a buddy of mine, Jason Abrams. He met, he recommended CINC to us. So we jumped on CINC and we haven't looked back. So we went from individual agents doing probably I did nine.

Probably about $25 million to building a team that did over a $100 million last year. We've, since then we've expanded into four different market centers across Alabama.[00:01:00] I bought two market centers, so I've got three different brokerages now. And honestly, I attribute a lot of that to CINC.

I mean, it really gave us the platform to work off of and build, get recognized. So it's been phenomenal.

Richard Kaiser: And Adam I mean, I think what we've heard about right here is you've got a really cool experience in terms of the rapid growth that you guys have been able to experience. I think one of the things in the market is there are certain lead sources that you can grow with, and then there's certain times where in order to grow so quickly I guess inorganic channels like ppc, lead generation, right?

Can really kinda help fuel that. Can you, I know there's some people have philosophy, Hey, I just want to do things with sphere, or I just want to kind of mess with pay after closing. Can you kinda speak to your philosophy in order to be able to grow as quickly as you have. How you think about different lead generation channels?

Adam Beams: Yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, with Keller Williams, we're trained to focus on our sphere. That's the cheapest lead, [00:02:00] right? But at some point that sphere base, it runs out.

Another thing is what we found is that, is our main focus, is our sphere and our church bases, But when you're wanting to grow a business you've gotta have some leverage to attract new agents.

And so what we tell people is, look, CINC is our platform that we work off of as far as lead generation. It is not, it doesn't encompass the whole team, but it's a major part of it. And it's a bonus. So we utilize it to. With the growth, you know, it's, you get leads once you have 300 people in your database.

So it, it's something that we can hold people accountable to. You know, seeing the back end on who's really hungry and who's willing to work and being able to route those calls to the right people it gives you a better return. The back end of this thing is beautiful, so it's really worked good for us.

One of the other things you were talking [00:03:00] about is expanding into, in different markets. And I know there, there are some unique challenges there whether getting recruiting agents right in those markets and also starting from the ground up, can you speak to your experience and how you've been able to leverage CINC and in developing those new markets?

Yeah, so expansion is not something for the faint of heart. And you better know your game. You better know your cost of sale, you better know your platform and in order to really do it, and we've, hey, we've screwed it up. So we've always fell forward. You know, success is a curse.

Failure is a blessing. And through this, you know, having a platform that you know how it operates and is, you can pick it up and put it in a different place and it works the same way every time. That's, that is, you gotta have that. Two having a hub that is managing [00:04:00] multiple sites and having one person that can look in the back end of your platform and see who's working and who's not working and manage that with one click of a mouse is really nice.

Being able to know what your cost per lead is across the whole state is beautiful. We wouldn't, the way we decided, first we had to identify talent right before we expanded. And we had to have the money for CINC. If we didn't have six months of money put back for CINC, we weren't launching, even with good talent.

Another thing is even when we've gotten low on agents in different markets, it's beautiful. Cause I can go in and convert a lead and flip a referral over and pay for the whole system with one referral. So, it's been great. Expansion, you better know your game and know your numbers and we, you know, we've been able to do that with you guys.

Richard Kaiser: And I think to [00:05:00] follow up on that. When you have the additional markets and the platforms there it sounds like you guys do have a recommended system that works for the high, the people who work at the right way. How do you how do you leverage the system and just in general, how do you hold people accountable and train people up on using what you've seen work from a process and technology standpoint?

Adam Beams: Well, I mean, we use switchboard, Sarah. We know that the speed to the lead is the kicker in this. And we know that the average person searching on online lead. You know, online lead systems, they're on five to seven different platforms. So the person that jumps on that call the quickest has got the highest probability.

I always tell people, Hey, you either answer really quick or you get to chase 'em for 11 to 12 days. So, which one do you want? And so, that Switchboard Sarah, that you guys offer is we've got on each one of our platforms. We love it. And being able to, if somebody's busy with a client, it's no big deal.

We'll route it to the next [00:06:00] person. I'm on one of the platforms and I have a really hard conversation if I get the privilege of speaking to that client. Because if I get the privilege of speaking to that client, that means that I've got 10 people or five people, depending on which area, aren't doing their job. So that conversation's not real nice.

Richard Kaiser: One of the other things if you've got people in the market is, okay, how do I make sure. My agents are prioritizing their time well. In terms of going back, you know, you've got so many calls you're gonna make, how do you make sure you're calling the right people in the database?

Can you speak to how you guys leverage filters and mining the database to make sure you're aligning your team's activities to the most valuable leads.

Adam Beams: Yeah, so we do 12 days of pain. That's what we call it. Each person only gets a hundred people in their in their bag or their bowl or whatever we want to call it.[00:07:00]

They get a hundred people. And so if you gotta contact that person 12 days in a row or until you contact, you have a communication with them. And so, you can't just keep buying leads and handing leads off and people not working 'em. People say all the time these are, you know, if they don't answer right away, then they're bad leads.

We've converted people that have been in our pond for over a year. We've sold houses to Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, all the explicit words that we get. They're real people. And it it's a matter of holding those people accountable to make the calls. The leads are good. It's just the follow up.

We always say the fortunes in the follow up. So each one of our agents is supposed to be doing two hours a day. And we know based on looking at the back end, they're not consistently doing that. And I coach agents as well. And it kills me. You know, statistics show where like 85% of the leads that are sold aren't even contacted one [00:08:00] time.

I've got agents the other day that sat down with the lead system and it wasn't CINC. And then they're talking about, well, I'm so surprised they answered the phone. I'm like, I'm so surprised you called them because you hadn't been calling your leads. So, it's amazing.

People pay for stuff and don't work it.

Richard Kaiser: The other thing we hear is, hey, talking to an online lead's a little bit different than talking to somebody who was referred over to me or somebody who came in through Zillow. You've been doing this for a while.

Can you speak to the mistakes you see a lot of newer greener agents make in terms of following up with online, like what separates great follow up with an online lead versus, versus average ho hum follow up?

Adam Beams: Yeah, as far as the follow up, what I've always done is I'll make notes and that's one of the big things in your platform, making notes.

And so having the, that specific information they give you to [00:09:00] follow up with 'em, cuz it shows them that you listen. And people get so scared. I'm like, Hey guys, look, they can cuss you out. They can hang up, or they don't answer, or they talk to you. And a lot of it's just mindset.

But I, I think that the follow up is, you know, the younger agents that we see, they don't like to have conversations they want to text. Which, that's all good. But texting it doesn't equate to a conversation. So I think it's knowing who your client is and knowing how they communicate and making sure that follow up.

We asked specifically in our question, "Hey, listen I wanna make sure I utilize your time the best. What mode of conversation would you like me to text you, call, you, email you? What's your preferred follow up?" So making sure that we ask specific cause if you wanna know, you have to ask the question.

So utilizing the notes and following up consistently is, you know, it's the name of the game.

Richard Kaiser: And I think going along with [00:10:00] leveraging the database and the notes. So there's a component of you've gotta be able to call and still follow up there. One of the other things, right? We know a lot of the team leaders and brokers there is, it enables them to duplicate efforts of their agents through some of the automations and nurture, all that's to get back to a phone call. Can you kinda speak to your experience of what you've seen work well in terms of automations being able to help kind of your team's efforts

Adam Beams: Before, you know, we used drip campaigns a lot that you guys have set up. And then what's it been three years, three and a half years since y'all have had your AI really up and running hard?

That AI is phenomenal and I've really seen that it turns that cold call into a little bit warmer follow up. Our agents are saying, Hey, listen, it's not taking me near as long to get a face-to-face meeting. So that's been really helpful is the AI. And anytime every anybody asks me about it is, I mean, [00:11:00] that's a no-brainer. Anybody I ever talked to, man it's, that's a slam dunk. You gotta do that.

Richard Kaiser: And I think the other thing you were talking about in your different markets there I don't know how much you've seen this in the markets you're in Alabama, but we know particularly in the south, the overall trend of. People moving at a much bigger distance, particularly like out of state people coming down to the south. Can you speak to how working with out-of-state leads to out-of-state buyer leads? Like how that's changed, how you've leveraged CINC and working those types of leads.

Adam Beams: Well, so my hub, my sales hub is out of Tuscaloosa, which we have University of Alabama. My brokerage KW, Auburn/Opelika, obviously Auburn University. I also have KW Montgomery, which is a huge military base. And so, all three of those. It's crazy the reach that we get through the platform.

You know, we talked about sphere. That's people we're doing life with. We know 'em. People from New York, [00:12:00] California, Atlanta. I mean, they're coming in from everywhere. Especially, Lake Martin. I mean, used to, I wouldn't answer my phone call, you know, from these long distance numbers and stuff and now they're leads constantly.

I thought it was spam, but we're getting tons of leads from that for sure. There's one thing that, that we hadn't talked about and really differentiated the whole thing with BoomTown and you guys.

BoomTown, they onboarded us and I thought, man, we're about to make a ton of money. And it went pretty well for the first 30 days. We were trying to figure out everything. As soon as we were onboarded, it was like we couldn't get 'em on the phone. And I'm telling you, we were set a drift out at sea with no way of getting back. And we raised concerns with them, and raised concerns with 'em. And, you know, they threatened to, I think it was $7,500 fine to cancel the contract and all kinds of stuff, but, The one thing that [00:13:00] differentiates you guys - the training that they offer at CINC - it's been phenomenal. Anytime we need a class, our rep is there on spot and we've had a couple little glitches early on. Everybody took care of it, and it's been great. We couldn't ask any better as far as customer service. You guys are leaps and bounds better than anybody else we've used.

Richard Kaiser: We appreciate it. Jenn, any additional questions you had on your end?

Jenn O'Connell: Just more just curiosity. We had a webinar recently about diversifying your lead gen spend, and I'm just wondering what worked best for your team and why you would recommend maybe diversifying that lead gen spend?

Adam Beams: You know, as far as that, honestly, Jonathan early on I'd call him and just say, "Hey listen, our leads are not performing like they were. Can you guys look at changing stuff on the back end?" [00:14:00] And they said, "yeah, absolutely."

When we first signed on with BoomTown, all of our leads were Facebook, social media, and there were just junk. And that was one thing I told Jonathan early on. I was like, look we gotta get some good stuff. And so the Google look where, you know, all that stuff.

I left that up to them. I said, look, we just need performance. So y'all do whatever it is you want to do on the back end ad spend wise. But if we're not getting it, we're gonna have to flip it around. And that's one thing they've always done. And anytime it's dropped off. I mean, it's just a call, and I had my agent say, "Hey, I don't know what you did, but tell 'em to keep doing it."

So another thing is we had Vulcan7. We had, you know, Cole Realty Resource. We had this, we had a Mojo Dialer. And about two years ago, Gary said, Hey, listen, y'all need to really look at where you're spending your money. And all of our [00:15:00] agents said, Hey, listen, if y'all are cutting stuff, if you cut CINC, we're leaving.

Everybody wanted CINC. So that's pretty strong coming from the agents.