Canada native Didi Rasmussen moved to The United States about five years ago. She and her husband recently opened their own Indie brokerage – Gemba Real Estate.
Having experience with other cheaper or free broker-wide one-size-fits-all solutions, in her transition, Didi felt it important to have an all-in-one platform to provide her with a steady stream of online PPC real estate leads and a good system that she and her team would actually use to nurture and convert those leads to close.
After researching various lead generation and conversion systems like Ylopo, KV Core, and Follow Up Boss, she landed on CINC to streamline her business.
Since making the transition, her business has already done as many transactions in the first quarter of 2023 as she did in the prior 3 quarters of 2022.
Didi recently sat down with us over Zoom to share with us what has been working for her and her brokerage.
After we moved, I used Pro Agent Websites to get a website with a CRM attached that was around $50-60 a month. If all you’re looking to do is get a website out there with IDX to send your clients to, it does the job. However, it won’t help you manage or nurture your leads. It’s good, just not for growing. At that time, when it came to lead generation, it was all do-it-yourself. Well, the ads I produced never generated anything because I didn’t know how to do it effectively. Essentially, I was wasting my time making ads that nobody clicked on. Basically, I got what I paid for.
I also tried a few of the programs where you pay a referral fee, like Opcity, UpNest, and Ojo. But I found that I was doing a ton of work and making probably one-quarter of what agents with that kind of transaction volume should be making because the commission was always lower since these providers typically charged between 25-50% of the commission. Now, my focus is on nurturing leads that come in that aren’t looking for a discount agent.
Back in Canada, I was with an agent for fourteen years with a big-box brokerage, and when we moved here, we bought a franchise. At the time, they were beginning a partnership with booj. In my experience, booj never worked well, which is why I bought my own website and CRM that I mentioned before.
Just before we left that brokerage, they were shifting to kvCORE. I did think about using kvCORE because I know it’s a powerful website, but with multiple huge companies now all using it, I wasn’t convinced the lead quality was going to be up to par.
Sphere of Influence is great, but it’s limited. You’ll reach a ceiling. If you aren’t consistently following up with those people, they fall off your radar after the deal is done. That’s where a good CRM serves to remind you to reach out for a birthday or because of a recent login.
One tool I’m really excited about to reengage sphere of influence leads is CINC’s HomePulse home value report seller lead nurturing feature, where you can send your past buyers or sellers a report with their home value as it changes. If they see their home value increase, it may prompt them to initiate a conversation with you when the next big life milestone approaches, making them ready to move again.
On the flip side, it gives you, the agent, a reason to reach out and actually provide value rather than sending a random email that ends up getting deleted before it’s even opened. Suddenly, your next call isn’t a cold call anymore because they want to talk to you; they want to hear about the value of their home.
Maybe you reach out, and you find out that they’re all set, but your timely email reminded them that their brother wants to buy and he needs an agent. When you provide that value, they’ll tell other people.
Source: The Close
I was primarily interested in what they offer to simplify business for me. For example, I don’t have time to be adding and changing specific things in my Google and Facebook advertising campaigns. Sure, I could do it, but it’s not what I’m focused on. I wanted to get a system to keep everything streamlined in one place. With CINC, everything is done for you, and it’s built for growth.
Since I want to add agents, the quantity (and quality) of leads coming in was a huge deciding factor for me. With as many leads as I have coming in, I can show potential agents that I’m giving them stuff to work. Right now, I’m getting a minimum of 20 leads per week, so I can’t even imagine the amount that will flood in when I inevitably increase my ad spend.
Another thing I was looking for in a system is one that would make it easy to see at a glance what my agents are up to and keep them accountable. After all, it’s hard to know how to help your agents if you don’t know what they are or aren’t doing.
With better visibility, you can address things and coach people up before any issues arise. Not only that, but I know CINC has the right training in place to help get my agents working the system effectively. I recently attended CINC University, and I would 1000% recommend attending if you have the opportunity. I collected so much information in those three days. Plus, it was a huge confidence booster for making dials.
When I signed up for CINC, I was getting everything ready to open this new brokerage. I had a lot going on at the time, so I set everything up and left it alone to generate leads in the background. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of leads coming in and the quality. Off the top of my head, I’d say roughly ninety-five percent of the leads coming in are looking to either buy or sell.
I’ve also really enjoyed CINC's AI real estate sales assistant (Alex) because she’s engaging with leads without me having to do anything. Alex is smart, so she keeps reaching out until the lead engages back, and then I get notified immediately so that I can take over the conversation.
CINC is a 100% thing. I’m already paying for it on the front end, and the leads are coming in, so I just have to convert them. I want to use CINC to take my time back, to stop working in my business and start working on it so that I can grow it and ultimately take myself out of production. The goal is to get agents and be able to hand off the leads to call.
CINC CRM's lead routing Pond feature is one that I didn’t even know I was looking for until I discovered it at CINC University. It allows for a lead to get assigned to an agent first, but if that agent does not make contact in a set amount of time, the lead will get automatically reassigned to the pond account.
Once it reaches the pond account, the lead routing stops so that other team members can "make moves" on that lead. To me, this is a great way to foster a team environment because it’s a good, fair system that’s, again, a helpful tool for growth.
From past experience, when you round-robin or assign an agent a lead to nurture and work with, but it doesn’t work out based on issues with timing, compatibility, or whatever it may be, you end up losing that client. The brokerage loses the client. Or it feels overly competitive or unfair because one agent is staring at their phone all day and therefore getting all the leads.
With the Pond, I find that you have more immediate responses because anyone available can start talking to them and nurture that relationship until an agent is able to pick up and start showing them homes. It helps to foster a team environment and leaves accountability to the agent.
It’s not about me. It’s my job to find out what it is they really need vs. what it is they were looking for. Find out what’s going on in their life that’s prompting them to look at real estate. When someone has been looking, and they register on your site, there’s always something to get out of that conversation. Even if they can’t afford the $6 million listing they clicked on, you can find out what does fit their budget and their needs.
Source: didirasmusen
The biggest difference in out-of state buyer leads is their level of motivation to get into something quick. And their perception - Real estate in Georgia is “cheap” to a lot of people.
Whether they’re coming for a job transfer or starting a new chapter, when they find out it’s a hot market, they realize they might need to be a little quicker in their decision-making.
Even if they land in a rental, at least with CINC, I can keep up with them and nurture them accordingly so that I’m top of mind towards the end of their lease.
People who are already here don’t have the same motivating factors to move. It’s more of a want than a need.
I have more leads that come to me that I don’t have to chase. CINC has certainly added to my business. Already in the first quarter of 2023, I'm approaching the number of closings that I had in three quarters of last year.
And it’s still only me! I can only imagine what it would be like to have 5-10 other people working these leads. It would be phenomenal. I feel like I haven’t even tapped the tip of the iceberg of CINC’s potential.