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Brad Williams, Elite Team Leader at LifeStyle Real Estate in Charleston, South Carolina gained early exposure to the industry, helping his mom in the business for years before becoming a top producer himself.
A move to Arizona opened Brad's eyes to the power of team dynamics and lead generation. Joining a top team, he witnessed firsthand the success that came from leveraging internet leads.
Today, back in Charleston, Brad's thriving team continues to expand with a recent office opening in Myrtle Beach. Their commitment to consistency, effective scripts, and building relationships, supported by CINC, has propelled their success.
See the full video and complete transcript below for more on Brad and how he uses CINC to close multi-million dollar real estate transactions.
Transcript
Brad Williams: I have a competitive background, played sports, played college baseball. When I was a freshman in college 2005, mom was in real estate. She was rookie of the year with Coldwell Banker. So I used to go into the office from time to time.
This is like 15 - 17 years ago. I went used to go into the office. It would help her. So back in what? That's 19 years ago now. My goodness. All right. So the first time I ever went into the real estate life office was 19 years ago. I'd help mom on Friday, some part-time here and there through college, extra spending money.
I graduated college. I moved to Charleston. We live three hours away in South Carolina, near where I went to college. That was about 20 minutes away. So I could drive to her real estate office, which was somewhat local and got some experience. Moved to Charleston. Couldn't really find a job that, you know, I thought was going to pay well. I was a young ambitious guy, or at least I thought I was. I was probably not at that age, but ended up going into business with her. She said, why don't you move back home actually, which is Fort Mill, South Carolina. I'm not from Fort Mill, but that was the market center that we worked out of was Fort Mill, and once you move back home, come on board with me and let's start a team.
That's when teams were the, that was the 1st teams. There were like, no teams when we started back then. And I got my license in 2012 if I remember correctly. So this is about my 11th or 12th year license. And there was really no such thing as a team. And there was also a really no such thing as an internet lead.
We were with Keller Williams, which was a crush. We crushed it. And there was like not really leads back then. There was one girl who was in the office and she was about, if I remember, she was 26 years old or so, and she was making like steady six figures every year. And people were like, how is she doing that?
And then somebody said, she's buying internet leads and the whole office said that's cheating. That's cheating. And I thought that too. I thought, yeah, that is kind of cheating. It's like she doesn't know these people like this is just random people. That was like the mindset because it was all about shaking hands and who do you know?
And can you get a referral? Those type of things. That's where the business was at then 10-12 years ago. Well, so I saw what she was doing.
Long story short, I ended up moving to Arizona with a female. And ended up on a team out there because I didn't know anyone. I thought, let me join a successful team that I see individuals and agents who I'm similar to who I'm like, and let me do what they're doing.
So I ended up on the top team in the state in Arizona, they then ran off of BoomTown, which I know it's a competitor. I've known about BoomTown and CINC and everything. So then I was in Arizona for a year and a half and it really opened my eyes to what a team is, what lead gen is, database, web page marketing.
I mean, it was an eye opener, honestly, like compared, I thought it was who do you know, shake hands, let's get a referral and these guys are over here pumping out the lead. So I'm like, wow, I did so well. I did 22 deals in my first six months with them, which was a lot. Stayed there like a year and a half, came back to Charleston.
I was feeling pretty defeated when I got back to Charleston, I mean, I had, like, ended my relationship with my ex at the time, you know, I walked away from. I had just become a top agent, just become a top agent through the leads and everything that the team had, and it was gone. So, I got back to Charleston.
I thought, am I going to be back? Am I going to be a regular agent again? Do I go back as an independent agent? Or do I join a team, get leads, do all that over again. So I interviewed with some of the top teams in the area and I ended up with the company that ran off Commissions, Inc. It was probably your biggest player until not long ago.
Within the first 12 months, I was the agent of the year for that entire company and I, had learned how to convert like that's really what it takes. I mean, if you can get me good leads, I can convert them. I know what to say. I know how to say it. I know how to win people over. And then after two years, I felt like I had maxed that company out.
And I said, let me, I had a chance for to take over a girl's CINC database because she couldn't afford it anymore. So that's how I got, yeah. This is how I was born. I bought her out. We switched over the web stuff to me. This is back in 2019. And since then I've been a top team in Charleston since the very first year.
Actually I'm taking another team's CINC site in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and I'll be going in there July the 1st. Yeah, we've grown CINC's probably 40% of our business a lot. I mean, maybe 30-40%. It's a lot because we've recently closed a $4.45 million deal, a $2.85 million deal, the $2.85 million deal was a girl who's been in real estate for one year. She's great. She does a great job and she's going to be awesome, but she's only been in real estate for one year. The lady asked her that over the phone was a 1031 exchange buyer. So how long have you been in real estate? And Katie told her I've been in real estate for a year.
But she said, I like you. And how can we ever learn if people won't give us a chance? And I thought, wow, you know, that's amazing. So that girl. I mean, almost a $90,000 paycheck came in that one deal. And then the other day it was $120 something, $130,000 paycheck.
Nich Pape: And both those were CINC generated leads.
Brad Williams: That was both within the last 12 months. It's from CINC.
Nich Pape: Yeah, so not too bad. Not too bad.
Brad Williams: I was gonna say I teach conversion. I'm not super huge on filters and this database does this and the database does this. To me, a leads a lead. You guys provide a good web page. You can set up a search if we can stay in front of them.
If you know what to say, if we can truly win them over, they're not going anywhere else, but I know CINC performs at a high level on the back end and we probably use about 25% of what it does and that's okay. Because maybe I could be better at that I don't know.
Nich Pape: Well, there's a fine line on, not rocking the boat, right?
And yeah, I mean, he's conversion and that's all it is. Give me a name on a notepad and we can make it happen. The way I always, you know, and we've chatted about it, if you're good at the 20%, that CINC really does well, which is gets you leads and shows you who's active, that's all you need. Everything else is nice.
Nice to have not need to have.
Brad Williams: That's what I believe too. Yeah. That was a mouthful. So that's my story.
Richard Kaiser: How large is the team right now? And I guess what are you guys doing production?
Brad Williams: I just got my ninth agent. So I'm 10. But I'm also opening in Myrtle Beach. That's what I'm doing.
I'll have three come on immediately. But my mom, I got her to get a CINC account years ago. So she's the broker in charge and owner of our company. And we have 22. So we have 20, 20 agents on CINC. Plus more coming.
Nich Pape: Is the site under your mom's name?
Brad Williams: She has her own and I have my own. I have a larger account and more lead gen than she does.
And I've had my account longer. I've got more leads in there. She's Yeah, she's got her own platform. I have a team. My team runs off of mine. She has an independent agent group and some of those agents have access, depending on how full time they are.
Richard Kaiser: What have you seen work really well for you and your team? Even someone coming in with a year of experience and closing a multi million dollar deal.
What, have you really what are some differences that you see really work for you guys that maybe other teams aren't doing with internet leads?
Brad Williams: The script and the way you talk to the people, you have 15 to 30 seconds before they're going to decide whether or not they want you out the phone or they're going to talk to you.
And if while you're, if you're long winded in the beginning, if you're too salesy, if you're talking about the deals, the house, the sale, then they're doing like this Hey, I'm Brad. They're like, hurry up. So I can tell you that I'm gonna let you off the phone. That's what we don't want to do. Want to engage them, make them say something, pull it back, engage them again, bring them back.
And it's really, I've developed my own script. It's really, you get them to, are you local or out of, hey, can I speak to Mike? Hi Mike, it's Brad. I'm not gonna take a lot of your time. I'll bring down their wall with that a little bit. I'm sure you're busy. I noticed you're on my website. You're browsing, you're just browsing because the number one objective is I'm just looking or I'm just browsing.
I understand that you're just browsing. How's your home search going? Put the ball in their court, no matter what they say. Good, bad, ugly, both. Cool. Are you local? Are you out of state? That gets away from the sales thing. Then you can find, start finding out more about the transaction. If I'm out of state, what's got to happen out of state to get you here to Charleston?
Do you own a home? Are you selling before you come to Charleston? When's the last time you were in Charleston? It's less salesy. It identifies timeframe more and that's what we ultimately need because until we know the timeframe, we can't get the sale anyway. So let's talk about what's between our first phone call here.
To get into the finish line. What do you have to do in between? Let's talk about that together and that's way less sales. And that's why people work with you because you're not a salesman. You're like facilitate the transaction and you know what you're doing.
Richard Kaiser: I think on top of that, the other thing you mentioned was you guys are opening up an office in Myrtle beach. I know they're unique challenges in, in doing that. It sounds like you're leveraging right CINC to start to build the leads there. Can you kinda speak to some of the challenges in opening a new office and then also how, you're leveraging CINC to be able to get the office kind off the ground?
Brad Williams: Yeah. A couple challenges I'll face is I'm not gonna be there full time. It's two hour, two hours away. It's a short trip, but I'm gonna need boots on the ground. I am speaking with another agent who's currently doing about 15 million on her own. And she's probably going to come on board as like some type of manager for me there.
And so I will, that'll be a challenge to get them up and running with the culture and expectations. And she hasn't really worked leads before, but she's starting to see her business slow down a little bit because interest rates aren't 2.9% anymore. And she's thinking I know you sell higher price homes than I do.
How, what are you doing? So if I could introduce lead flow to her. It should help bring her average sales price up. I think this will be good for her, too. But she's never. That's gonna be a challenge. She's never done it. So I gotta teach her. How do I train people from far away? To be able to do it my way, like I just told you and master it. I mean, zoom only does so much.
I really need to be in front of these people and help them. So that's gonna be a challenge. But I can do that. I'm willing to do that. I ask everybody every day. I've been saying it since I started 35 to 50 calls a day in CINC five days a week. We'll get you $100K. If you learn how to, if you learn how to do it on a consistent basis, just 35 to 50 calls a day because and now I also say 30 of them aren't even going to answer the phone.
That's fine. That just get your tally mark, move on to the next one. 5 to 7 people are going to answer the phone. If you can have literally one or two that you're like, should I call them back? I should follow up with him. If you have one that's seven, that's 5 to 7 If you have 2, that's seven to 14.
If you get just five, I believe at the end of the month, you got 20 people that you're following up with. All you need is for two of them to buy. You need 10% of those to work out. So it's just a numbers thing. Get through it. Stay headstrong. It's fine. Make your 35 calls.
If you're making 100 calls or you're under the impression that you need to make 100 calls a day, that sucks. The leads are probably not any good. You're hammering the phones. If you have good quality leads, you don't need to kill yourself. You need to be consistent. That's all there is to it. You need to be consistent.
Set aside two hours a day where you can make 35 calls. That's all.
Richard Kaiser: I think you mentioned on there with that other agent started to feel it from interest rates. I know the people we've talked to have had a wide kind of variety of experiences, right? As the markets shifted with the interest rates. Can you kind of speak to how you guys have been handling it? It sounds like you guys have had some recent successes.
What have you, like, how have you guys. If anything, change your approach in the current market?
Brad Williams: We haven't, and that's what's been so good is because we live in Charleston, South Carolina, which just ranked yesterday, just ranked the eighth hottest real estate market in the country. Myrtle Beach is not far behind it so what we're doing differently is nothing.
CINC brings us out of town, out of state buyers that are relocating. We're not because interest rates aren't 2.9% anymore and they're higher. We're not seeing as many people move locally, sell their house because they don't want to get rid of that 3% interest rate and go to the next one. But somebody who's coming from Jersey to Charleston or Jersey to Myrtle Beach, they're moving.
It don't matter if they're gonna buy a house. That's what we're getting. So interest rates aren't playing as big of a role when you're doing a ton of people relocating.
Richard Kaiser: And how we've heard different things, right? Other people we talked to further out west, right? Like in California, they've had a bit of a different experience.
I know, down in the south, we've seen this happening more, particularly if you're in a place like Charleston on the beach. How does that, like, how is the conversation different, particularly like in an internet lead coming locally moving within Charleston versus somebody out of state moving into Charleston?
How's that conversation a little bit different?
Brad Williams: My secret question is the icebreaker question is, are you local? Are you out of state? If you can get them there, the conversation will really open up. If they're local. I'm saying great. What part of Charleston are you in? Awesome. You own that home?
Are you renting? Okay. And then I'm just listening. Do you like that area? I'm not asking, but do you need to sell your home? Can I come out and sell your home? That is too much. Just put it in your back pocket and come back to it. Okay. So are you're renting or you need to sell a home? Okay, fine.
What area do you like? Do you want to stay in that area or do you have your eyes on a favorite neighborhood? Just asking questions. And then the same thing for if they are out of state, when's the last time you were here? How much do you know about the area? Do you have a favorite? And then you find out about, then you can come back to are you selling your house?
Have you had an agent price it? Do you know what you can walk away from the table with? Do you know what you could take away from the table and put down on your next mortgage? Have you talked to a lender and told him what you're going to walk away from the table with? Just make them think about things they probably haven't thought about.
Help facilitate that. It's the same conversation. It really is. It's the same conversation. Just because they're out of state doesn't mean they don't have a house to say, I want to talk to the out of state of people about that too. Even though I can't help them, I want to know all about it so I know how I can help them here when I need to help.
Nich Pape: Do you ever use PROLINC to help those folks if they don't already have an agent in their mind?
Brad Williams: I think I've done it once or twice, but not a ton. No, I just somebody on my team will know somebody or I'll throw it out on the Charleston realtor page. But I could
Nich Pape: Yeah, yeah, just asking. We figure most people have connections in most other major areas. But PROLINC fills in the gaps, right?
Brad Williams: Definitely I know what it is. I know how it works.
Richard Kaiser: Nich, I'd ask you, you, work with a lot of different real estate teams. Maybe something Brad's being shyer on, what is something you've seen that Brad and his team does really well that a lot of other agents maybe don't, do.
Nich Pape: Yeah. I think it's, I think it's sticking to the basics. And doing it really well, like you said. I mean, he said it perfectly. We have what we have are like success playbook that we give to all clients. I'm like, Hey, if you want to be successful with CINC, follow these steps. And it basically boils down to what's your script and are you calling for about two hours a day?
And that's it. That's what it boils down to everything else is super nice to have. It's really nice stuff, but the things that's going to make you money is the dialing, having a decent script and figuring out who to dial right appropriately.
Brad Williams: I probably have at least three, three from CINC this week closing. I don't know, 30 or 40 grand this week, at least maybe more than that.
Richard Kaiser: I'm curious, how do you manage. I guess holding your team accountable to doing right the two hours of calling on a daily basis or just making sure while you're talking with us, right? The team's still being productive out there.
Brad Williams: Yeah. So I recruit people who I don't take just anybody. I recruit people who know what the expectation is.
And I made that clear during the interview. I'm not a hard nose or anything like that. I truly believe that If you want it that you're going to work, and I think I recruit people that want it. So it's not like I have to constantly say what did you do today? What did you do today? I tell them I'm not going to be a micro manager.
Here's the problem when you start complaining is when I'm going to tell you don't be sensitive because I'm not going to be all over you about this. But when you start complaining, I'm gonna go look at your call summary. And I'm going to see, you know, what you've been doing.
And if you're not out showing houses and busy and like what else are you doing? So if you aren't selling, then you better be calling. And they know, so it's not a, again, no micromanaging. We're all friends at this point. Like I have great culture, like our average sales price is like $650.
We'll do at least 50 million this year here in Charleston.
That's just my team. The company is definitely going to do probably closer to 100.
Richard Kaiser: Any other CINC stories or anything else you wanted to call out?
Brad Williams: I mean, there's so many. There's so many. There's just we will close a deal from CINC and then they'll refer us to their friend especially the people who are moving from out of state so it happens often happened this week. Videos work.
I would say definitely implement that into because you're a phone call. You're just a voice. But if you feel like you had a good connection with them, maybe follow up with the video. And I don't know if you guys offer video marketing that is implemented into your like email and stuff like that, or if a team can put something like that in place, but that's going to help.
Hey, nice chatting with you. Wanted to put a name with the face. I went ahead and customize your search. Be sure to check your email for new listings and price reductions. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks. Like just them seeing you and being short and brief is. That's what happened. The lady get was rough on Kim on the team.
And she, Kim just started not too long ago. She was pretty rough on her asking her how long she's been in business, which doesn't happen a lot, but these are good stories because when people ask you that that's an objection, like when you were new, like that's tough.
So I asked her how long has she been in business and where's she from originally? She hadn't been in Charleston for two years. But she followed up with the video and the lady said, "Oh my gosh, you're the best. I love you and I can't wait to meet you." And she's under contract and closes this week. And her daughter referred her daughter, who's also under contract and closes in like two more weeks.
I believe in CINC. I think CINC does a good job. It does a lot more than we do, but we're doing, we're doing enough to where I want a Myrtle Beach account.
I mean, CINCs really helped me grow my business. I mean, rather than shaking hands at the supermarket and going to these networking events and growing organically. That takes time. But people who are registering on leads are typically 6 to 8 months out.
We know that, you know, and they refer you to people so you can build your business faster, and people always bash on leads. And I say, like, why don't you do everything you're doing now, but supplement it with some leads. Wouldn't that be great if your business doubled? It's just, I don't understand why they don't think that, but I just,
I've always been a fan of leads.
Nich Pape: Yeah. I think something that grabbed my attention last time that you and I chatted when we were setting this up was like, there's not enough friends and family out there for the business that I want. Some people are okay with friends and family, but for what I want, there's not enough friends and family.
Brad Williams: There's not, I want more.
Nich Pape: That's awesome. Yeah. Love that mindset.
Brad Williams: I mean, that's that's why you need to start a database.
Everybody needs a database. So even before you start a team, you need a database. That's what you need to be able to offer agents is inbound leads, incoming leads. So when you can do that, then it'll change the game for you. Don't go say let's start a team. Let's get four people, and then we'll get some leads. It don't work like that. You got to get those leads going asap.
Richard Kaiser: And I think it's really your story the high performing agent on a team who wants to go off on their own, right?
Brad Williams: You really have to earn credibility. You got to sell first. You got to, it's just like at the restaurant before you're the manager, you got to be the dishwasher and cook and server and everything. Like you got to. That's what it takes. You can't just start a team.
I mean, I guess you can, but it's gonna be a lot harder to just come out, get your real estate license and convince people that you're that great when you don't have the transactions under your belt, so you got to build your credibility and then you can totally do it.