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Longtime CINC client Brooke Sines knows what it takes to grow and run a successful team. She has grown from performing as just a top individual agent to building separate RE/MAX teams in both Grand Rapids, Michigan and Charlotte, North Carolina. She joined CINC Rev 2022 to share her online lead and CRM best practices as a team leader.
Real Estate Buyer Lead Management
The Basics by the Numbers
When I think about buyer lead numbers, I’ve found each agent can handle 25 to 35 “live” leads per month. A “live” lead is someone that you've actually connected with; you know they are a real person looking to buy and/or sell a home.
Any more monthly leads than 25-35 per agent is money down the toilet. If your agents are not hitting that number, you need to increase the lead count for your realtors so that they have enough to work with. Leads that are not considered live are those sitting in your database, or older leads you have not yet connected with. Those leads are great to continue pursuing and marketing towards.
As a team leader, I use that as a great training tool for a new agent to pick up the phone and start practicing.
Real Estate Lead Follow Up Best Practices for Teams
Lead By Example, and Inspect What You Expect
These two phrases are incredibly important. Set a weekly time to call and follow up with your buyer and seller leads each and do it as a team. If you don't have a team and you're an individual agent, have someone as an encouragement partner to work alongside you.
Doing so creates engagement and accountability. It also lessens anxiety over lead follow up, wastes less money, and prevents lost or forgotten leads.
For example, Brooke's team gets together every Wednesday morning from 9am to 9:30am. They practice roleplay and scripts with one another. After roleplay, they go through their CINC platform and determine who needs to be called that week.
Schedule a weekly time in your team calendar, and don’t forget it or book over it. If you have someone that wants to see a house during that time, you need to get in the habit of sharing with the client.
For instance, you could say, “I'm sorry, I actually have an appointment at that time. I can meet you before at ___ or after at ___, or another day that may work for you.”
This also helps to avoid becoming a pop-tart agent or too available to your clients.
Real Estate Lead Follow Up Thoughts and Tips
You should be calling at least 100 buyer and seller leads per week. Avoid the roller coaster of getting a closing or writing an offer, being super excited, and then finding out later that the deal has fallen apart.
You don’t want to end up in a situation where you don't have any closings coming up or any other leads because you haven't been working your pipeline.
In addition, you need to lean on the success manager from your online lead generation partner. They really want to see you succeed.
Brooke also recommends joining your online lead generation provider's Facebook pages; they are great resources. When you join, not only are people looking for referrals, but you also can ask questions.
It’s a great opportunity to talk to people about their best uses with the platform, whether it's an individual agent or as a team. “Remember, there are no bad leads, they may just not be ready yet.”
Real Estate Lead Follow Up Roleplaying and Scripts
Roleplay, Roleplay, Roleplay! And Scripts...
One of Brooke's favorite script tools is very simple: “Have I done something to upset you?” This is a text that she sends out to the leads that she's touched base with but haven’t been responding.
Maybe they have talked to her at one point and told her what they're looking for in a home. Maybe she's even shown them homes, but all of a sudden they're not responding. She'll send, “Hi, [client]. Have I done something to upset you?”
She's used this for years. Recently, Brooke had a client who she had set up on a search, and he was coming to town to take a look at homes. After four texts without a reply, she sent him that message. And you know what happened? Her phone started ringing immediately, “Oh my goodness, no, Brooke, you did not do anything to upset me, I have just been slammed with work.”
The next time you're trying to reach someone, send them that text; no one wants you to feel like something you’ve done has made them upset with you. It works.
Also, if someone says they've already purchased or decided not to move, ask them who else they know that may be looking to move, or someone who has had a life change lately. Babies, divorces, and kids going off to college are just a few reasons that motivate people to make a move.
You can also ask them if they'll be looking to move in the future. Sometimes this can lead to some friendly conversation because a lot of people will say, “Oh, I just moved, I never want to move again.” You can get a quick laugh out of them and start a relationship, add them to your database, monthly newsletter, or send them invites to your client appreciation events.
In real estate we need to be adding people to our database daily.
Remember to be persistent. Persistence pays off so much with online leads. It is very common to reach out to the same person at varying days of the week, hours or time frames and not receive a response until the 7th or 8th time you reach out. When they finally answer, they may be ready to talk and motivated to make a move.
Real Estate Seller Lead Follow Up Tips
A seller tool I highly recommend is entering the home data into your CRM as a “pocket listing” when preparing for a listing. If you don't know how to do that, ask the help desk or your client success manager; this is a great tool.
You’ll be able to address a client and say, “Hello there, I have already over 79 leads that may not be buyers for your home specifically, but people looking for a three bedroom two bath home in the Morrisville area for up to $350,000. These are people that you can start marketing your listing to right away.”
Go in with a list of leads, but do not share the leads with them. If you enter your prospective listing as a pocket listing, it will conduct a reverse search and find how many clients or how many leads are passively looking for a home in that area, in that price range, with that number of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.
It's a highly effective tool that many are not using.
Also, many leads come in looking for their next home. So keep in mind that many buyer leads are actually seller leads, too. Make sure to ask if they have a house to sell and if they need a realtor recommendation in their area to assist in selling their home.
Remember, as realtors, you can make a fantastic recommendation and interview agents in another area to refer the client to and possibly be able to make some additional income. Brooke has a team in West Michigan and in Charlotte, North Carolina, and her team paid out over $167,000 in realtor referral commissions last year. There is great money to be made in referrals.