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Best Ways to Follow Up With Real Estate Leads

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So you’ve got your lead generation set up and the leads are flowing in. You’ve been dedicated to generating as many leads as you can, and have spent good money on them. But how are you following up with your real estate leads? Are you putting as much effort into lead follow-up as you are with lead generation?

You already know that the initial response time is important. To tell you that you need to contact a lead within the first 5-10 minutes would be like beating a dead horse. This has been written in the real estate lead follow-up Bible. So you know when to contact them. But how do you contact them? What’s the method behind the madness?

Diversify Contact Channels

So what’s the best way to follow up with real estate leads?

Is it through phone, text, or email? This is a trick question. The answer is: all of them!

If you’re only making one or two contact attempts via phone before trashing leads, you are losing out on so much opportunity! One of our best performing Action Plans in the BoomTown Sharing Library incorporates 6 phone calls, 5 texts, and 5 emails over the course of 2 weeks to maximize your chance to connect.

call-leads

Some people may be averse to answering phone calls from an unfamiliar number. Others just prefer to communicate on their own time and terms through text or email. There is less pressure with these communication channels than phone calls that may put people on the spot.

So don’t give up on a real estate lead because they don’t answer or return your calls. Be sure to set up an e-Alert, and diversify your follow-up strategy!

Persistence Makes Contact

This is not to say that phone calls aren’t effective. Of course they are! In fact, a three-year study conducted by InsideSales showed that at the first call, the chance of making contact is under 30 percent. By the 6th call, the chance of making contact rises to 90 percent!

However, of all the companies studied, approximately 40 percent of sales people make the first call attempt. This number dips dramatically, as only about 15 percent of salespeople attempt the third call, and less than 5 percent attempt a sixth call.

Think about how much opportunity that agents can be leaving on the table! This is why we preach The 6 Calls to Success in our trainings. We recommend all our clients to make at least 6 call attempts. By just making a few more call attempts, agents can experience up to a 70% increase in contact rates.

real-estate-leads

Process Makes Success

The key to maintaining consistent and successful follow-up is to train your team on processes, systems, and scripts. Establishing a clearly defined step by step lead nurturing process is the lynchpin to making the most of your lead generation efforts


5 Steps to a Scalable Lead Generation Process


As mentioned before, our Action Plans allow agents and brokers to create custom processes for tailored lead follow-up. For example, you can create a follow-up plan specifically for new leads, or for leads who are 6 months out. This can include a variation of to-do’s to call, email, text, and even to set leads on email drip campaigns.

Sample Follow-Up Plan For New Leads

Day 1

  • Call
  • Goal: LPMAMA
  • Text
  • Set up e-Alert

Day 2

  • Send email
  • Call
  • Before calling, check if e-Alert was opened or favorited listings, etc.

Day 3

  • Text

Day 4

  • Call or leave voicemail

Day 5

  • Email

Day 6

  • Text
  • Sample script: Do you prefer to be contacted through calls, text, or email?

Day 7

  • Call
  • Sample voicemail script: Hi (lead name), this is (your name) with (Team/Brokerage name). I’m just following up on my call from the other day and was hoping this was a better time to reach you. Please give me a call or shoot me a text when you’re free. My number is (555)-555-5555. Talk to you soon!

Day 8

  • Text
  • Sample script: Hey {VisitorFirstName}, I’m working on my schedule this {TimeOfDay}, would you like to set-up a showing for any of the homes you’ve seen?

This plan goes on for 14 days of follow-up, and the full version can be found in the Sharing Library. This is where BoomTown clients share their best follow-up plans, ranked by response rate. The BoomTown communities provide a platform for users to share best practices, mastermind strategies, and compare successes.

Practice Makes Perfect

A lot of brokers and team leader think that once they establish a process and set up technology for their teams, their agents will naturally follow the process and use the technology. Unfortunately, they often don’t.


Best Approach To Training A Real Estate Team


Training shouldn’t just be one session at the start of a new job or when learning a new skill or technology. Leaders should think through their staff’s entire learning journey, and account for changes in strategy, new tactics, and new features to include in ongoing trainings.

Incorporate ongoing training and professional development into your company. Accountability tools, such as the ones found in BoomTown, can show you which agents may be struggling in certain areas. With this data, you can work to solve individual problems and issues so that your entire team is on the same page with processes, technology, systems, and scripts and can work together as a well-oiled machine.

real-estate-closing

The post Best Ways to Follow Up With Real Estate Leads appeared first on BoomTown!.


Why Warm Calling is 99% Better Than Cold Calling

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Cold calling is usually not well-received by most people. I mean, when’s the last time you welcomed a call from a telemarketer? There’s a better way to call and connect with people.

Warm calling leads by tailoring your message to their interests and behaviors increases your chances of making a positive connection. Instead of facing the daunting task of cold calling a giant list of prospect, shift your focus into warm calling segmented lists. You can accomplish this through something we like to call “smart prospecting.”

Smart Prospecting For Real Estate

Cold calling can often be a waste of time. Not only are success rates low, but they can cost your business 60% more. Smart prospecting allows you to fine tune your efforts without spending excess time or energy blindly calling every single lead in your database.


97% of Cold Calling Is A Waste of Time


With the right real estate technology, you can filter and segment your database into smaller, workable lists to maximize your best opportunities.

Your business may have a different client demographic than your colleagues’. Maybe one of your agents specialize in Neighborhood A, while others focus on clients looking above a certain price range. When you are generating leads from multiple sources, your agents need tools that can segment the database according to their needs.

4 Steps to Warm Calling Through Smart Prospecting

1. Segment Your Database

As we’ve previously mentioned, attempting to attack a giant database without any plan or process will leave you feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. Where do you start? When do you stop? There’s no method to the madness. You are just taking several shots in the dark, and that will not lead to many successes.

Screenshot 2017-04-20 00.30.55

With BoomTown’s segmentation and tagging tools, you can sift through your database to narrow down leads into specific categories. Now you can easily pull up a list of leads you haven’t contacted yet, leads searching in a specific area or price point, or a list based on particular actions taken on your website.

2. Warm Call Your Leads

Once you have your database filtered into segments aligned with your business priorities, you can start calling your leads with tailored messages.

Imagine the following message from a real estate agent:

“Hi, is this Roger? My name is Brad and I’m calling to see if you’re interested in buying a house.”

Roger will likely respond with “I’m not interested” or “I’m just looking.” Not only are success rates of cold calls low, but they typically cost your business 60% more. Now, let’s examine a more tailored approach:

“Hi Sarah! This is Brad from XYZ Real Estate. I noticed you were looking at 3 bedroom homes in the Wagener Terrace neighborhood of Charleston. I’ve got a few listings that match what you’re looking for. If you’d like, I can show you a couple houses this week. What do you say?”

In this example, the real estate agent knows the name of the person he is calling instead of asking who’s on the other line. Also, the agent knows what Sarah is looking for and goes “over and beyond” to offer assistance.

lead category cards

A system like BoomTown tracks user activity and document their search histories, so you can gather information and “research” to prepare for warm calling. BoomTown offers insights such as these to help you better connect with your leads:

Insights from BoomTown:

  • What area they are searching
  • How many bed/bath
  • When they are searching
  • What price range
  • What device they search on (mobile, desktop, etc)
  • Which homes they favorite
  • Who is back on site after a hiatus
  • Who is actively searching right now

3. Set Up Email Drips

Just as you can tailor your messages over the phone, you can tailor your email drips to provide relevant information to leads in certain categories. For example, the BoomTown system includes the lead categories of New, Hot, Qualify, Nurture, Watch, and Archive. You can set all “New” leads on a drip that welcomes them to your website, and follows up every few days. Your “Nurture” leads can be put on a drip that only sends listings and helpful tips every 2-4 weeks.


BoomTown Pro-Tip!

Sort your leads based on ‘Last Visit’ so that the most recent visitors filter to the top of the list. This is an easy way to check if your lead categories are still accurate, starting with your most active leads.



4. Use The Right Tools

A lead management CRM like BoomTown simplifies the task of calling your leads. Not only does it allow you to break them down into bite-size, workable opportunities, but the system also provides the tools to help you contact and stay engaged with leads.


Smart Prospecting Tips in Real Estate


Integrations with phone dialers allow you to contact more leads in less time. Making sure all your leads have scheduled to-do’s keeps leads from slipping through the cracks. And then, once you close the deal, our new transaction management integration allow you to track your deals for complete reporting.

Best Practices For Warm Calling

Texting

While calling leads is still highly successful, recent statistics show that only 5-10% of people pick up the phone. Even with email, one can expect a 20% average open rate. However, 90% of people open and respond to texts within 5 minutes.

texting open rates

While our NOW mobile app incorporates Text Templates to save your fingers from overtyping, our clients see best results when text messages are personalized to some degree. Send a text referencing the area or neighborhood that person in searching in, or mention something relevant to their search criteria. While automation is a great tool, you should still show that you are attuned to your clients needs.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Practicing with written scripts is a great initial way to train agents on what to say and how to handle objections. Scripts act as training wheels to help agents get comfortable on the phone. However, depending too heavily on scripts can make your agents sound like they’re reading off a teleprompter and give off a very impersonal vibe.

Example Questions:
Have you thought about your budget?
Are you only looking in Lafayette, or are you open to other neighborhoods?

By asking more open-ended questions, you open the door to having longer conversations and making more meaningful connections. Combining these warm calling tips with the smart prospecting tips above, we have seen a success rate of contacting 50% of all registrants within 2 weeks. Warm calling allows you and your agents to have educated conversations with leads rather than cold calling them in the dark.

warm calling CTA

The post Why Warm Calling is 99% Better Than Cold Calling appeared first on BoomTown!.

How a Real Estate CRM Helps with Lead Follow-Up

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Knowing a consumer’s preferences along the way to a decision creates an environment prime for well informed conversation. Versus “going in blind.”

So if real estate CRMs are the dating app equivalent of the real estate world, then what happens after a lead swipes left?

You gain the ability to craft conversations which lead from clicks to closings. Not clicks and supposing.

Real estate CRMs put the organic back in what could be very robotic conversations and provide predictive follow-up paths.

Follow along to learn how real estate CRMs are used to optimize on micro moments and improve lead follow-up along the entire client path.


Tailor Follow-Up to Your Real Estate Team

The first steps when you begin working on follow-up in a CRM is to establish a process. And this process will begin according to your team structure and/or distribution model.

Systems such as BoomTown are easily customized for several structures and these can be changed whenever it needs to be switched up.


Quick Videos to Help Choose Your Team Model


Agent on duty, shark tank, ISA, round robin, etc. No matter your style, our system will accommodate for a seamless process.

Once this is settled, you can move on to the next steps which deal with directing the leads within a real estate CRM.


CRM Lead Segmentation

In the BoomTown system, once a lead has registered, our unique algorithm will inform certain suggestions for the assigned agent or user. These suggestions and the recorded movements and preferences are where our predictive CRM begins to inform your next steps.

To get an idea of the process here, think about a lead who has just walked in the door. They proceed to look around your lobby, feign interest about a few listings taped to the window and proceed to say they may buy soon.

This is the in-person equivalent of what your real estate CRM is doing online. And in BoomTown’s case, these leads will be sorted by relevance and purpose.

You can also create custom categories according to your own knowledge and conversations coming into the relationship. Think new home buyer, second home buyer, commercial buyer, seller leads, moving-up properties, relocation opportunities, and so on.


Create Action Plans

Based on the categories you create and the CRM helps to determine, the next step is to create action plans based upon those groups.

These are what most would refer to as a follow-up plan, when in reality, the entire process is follow-up until you are at the closing table.

It is important to note, not everyone wants to be communicated to in the same way. Make sure to take advantage of text, email, phone calls, and in person visits.

If you or your ISA can learn right off the bat what type of communication is preferred, you are already ahead of the game.

Then for each category you can create a follow-up plan in each communication method. If you are a BoomTown client, the Sharing Library is a fantastic resource where the most successful follow-up plans on the BoomTown system are posted.

If you haven’t made the jump to BoomTown just yet, check out this article to help with email scripts for online leads. Read here.

Your action plans should be a series of messages spaced out at certain intervals depending on the intent of the lead.

And don’t forget the ability to share videos within text or email. BombBomb is a fantastic resource that whips together video responses in no time.


Cause and Effect of Predictive CRM 

Remember the micro moments mentioned earlier? The BoomTown CRM helps to predict the stage of buyer because of those handy micro moments. And Google has done a lot of research into the power of these variables. Read about it here

As a result of these moments, you will be able to maintain a check on the temperature of your leads at any given time and switch up the action plans to address new needs and preferences.

For example, if a buyer changes their tune and falls off the face of the earth and you don’t hear from them, try a “Are you still interested?” follow-up plan aside from giving them a call.

Or set them up on the handy e-alerts.

BoomTown’s e-alerts have an amazing response rate for real estate industry standards. This is largely due to their simplicity and ease of use.

When you can, it is easy to automate the process for leads who are farther out from buying, or for those leads who recently completed a transaction, but may be a repeat client.

Email Scripts and Follow-Up Action Plans:

7 Emails to Use for Real Estate Leads

Follow-Up Plans for Social Media Leads

Repeat Client Follow-Up Plans

Getting Seller Leads and the Listing

“Don’t Want to Buy Right Now” Leads

How to Build Marketing Campaigns for CRMs 


Track Your Own Movements

After you master the art of using a real estate CRM for follow-up, make absolute sure to track your progress.

This is easy in BoomTown with our transactions tracking and dotloop integration. But no matter the system, everything should be tracked to measure success, and whether or not it is working for the specific category.

Maybe a certain category would respond to texting over email, or video over straight text? You’ll never know unless you A/B test and track your progress.

Which again, is super simple with the real estate CRMs since they should shadow the entire follow-up process through closing each transaction.


Real Estate CRM Follow-Up On the Go

Your real estate CRM has to be readily available on mobile. There are too many situations when we are out of the office, not to readily take advantage of leads coming in through a mobile app.

These CRM apps are an extension of the full CRM and allow you to create quality follow-up experiences at the drop of a hat for all of your incoming leads.

Now no one falls between the cracks!

If you are interested about BoomTown’s Now app or the full capability of our real estate CRM, don’t hesitate to reach out!


 real estate CRM follow-up

 

The post How a Real Estate CRM Helps with Lead Follow-Up appeared first on BoomTown!.

5 Things Successful Real Estate Agents Do Daily

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Sorry, there actually aren’t any secrets. Becoming a successful real estate agent takes hard work. However, it doesn’t have to be that hard. There are ways to work smarter, not harder, and still achieve the results you want. Here is what some of the top real estate agents do on a daily basis to achieve and maintain successful businesses.

Start With a Morning Ritual

Many real estate coaches recommend beginning every day with a morning ritual. Whether it’s meditation, prayer, yoga, exercise, or simply making a cup of coffee, a daily ritual gets your mind in gear to take on the rest of the day.

Start with the Hot Sheet to get up to date on the local market. With BoomTown, you can see those new listings, status changes, price updates and more, right in the CRM. Then, review your calendar so you know what’s coming up, and can prepare for the day accordingly. Tom Ferry suggests practicing scripts and role playing to warm up instead of jumping in and talking to real people on the phone right off the bat.

Time Block Your Schedule

“If it’s not on your schedule, it doesn’t exist or doesn’t happen.”

Time blocking your schedule for specific activities helps you maintain a process for staying on track without becoming overwhelmed. You should be blocking time on your daily calendar for these activities:

Active prospecting
Follow-up and responding to leads
Showings and appointments

Some agents have shared that they only schedule their showings and listing appointments during certain hours in the afternoon, keeping their mornings open for follow-up and prospecting.

Make sure you don’t miss a beat even when you’re at a showing or appointment. Push notifications sent through BoomTown NOW, our new mobile app, alert you when new leads come in. Have some down time? Make a few quick follow-up calls and check off your to-do tasks. Don’t let work pile up while you’re out in the field!


Success is in the palm of your hand. Check out BoomTown NOW


Time blocking also helps you know when to stop, so you can maintain a healthy work-life balance. By sectioning your tasks into dedicated time slots with solid start and end times, you are better focused on the task at hand.

Smart Prospecting

We’ve talked about smart prospecting before. Many times before, in fact. This is because BoomTown’s tools and features are geared toward helping agents work smarter, not harder.


Smart Prospecting Tips in Real Estate


Don’t just hack away at a gigantic database. Divide your database into smaller segments, customized to your needs. Categorize leads by their price range, search area, leads you haven’t contacted yet, or those active on your site.

Once you’ve created your workable lists, you can reach more leads faster with tools like an integrated phone dialer. The Opportunity Wall in BoomTown bubbles up your top opportunities to the surface, and Best-Fit Leads helps you match leads in your database to specific listings that fit their search criteria.


Why Warm Calling is 99% Better Than Cold Calling


Check Status of Transactions

Even after you “close” a deal, there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done to complete the entire transaction. It takes a lot of organization to make sure a transaction is running smoothly, and that everyone involved, including lenders, transaction coordinators, title and escrow companies, are all on the same page.

With BoomTown’s new transaction management integration with Dotloop, you can monitor ongoing transactions, check their status, see what tasks still need to be done, and track future closings in your pipeline.

Be More Successful with NOW

It can be challenging to balance your “growth activities” like lead generation and prospecting efforts with “out in the field” efforts like showing homes and going to your appointments. But with a mobile app like BoomTown now, you can be just as responsive and productive out in the field as you are in the office. Win more business, create more opportunities, and close more deals with BoomTown NOW.

The post 5 Things Successful Real Estate Agents Do Daily appeared first on BoomTown!.

7 Reasons You Need To Use BoomTown’s Mobile App

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While there are plenty of other CRM systems with mobile apps, we at BoomTown have spend time and dedication to figure out what it is that agents really need in an app, and how to help them be more successful.

Our features are intentional, and every action we made within the app serves a purpose. BoomTown NOW aims to make you successful by helping you win more business, make more connections, and close more deals.

Here are 7 reasons you need to use BoomTown NOW…well, right now.

1Freedom To Leave Your Desk

Do you feel like you are losing out on leads any time you step away from your desk? Are you unable to give your full attention to your clients at your appointment for fear your leads are either piling up or being lost to another agent?

Put those days of worry and anxiety behind you. BoomTown NOW lets you focus on what’s important in the moment. Push notifications alert you to new leads, updates on active conversations, and keeps track of your to-do’s.

Get the flexibility to leave your desk, with the peace of mind to not carry it with you!

 

2Respond Faster And Win More Business

Everyone knows that “speed to lead” is crucial when it comes to calling leads. The more responsive you are, the more likely you are to be the agent the lead chooses to work with. But it can be tough to be speedy when you’ve got other responsibilities and clients to attend to.

BoomTown’s mobile app keeps all your conversations in one place, so you can keep them going without missing a beat. Immediately respond to brand new leads, reply to ongoing communications, and re-engage past leads who are showing interest.

3Increase Productivity To Make More Connections

With a mobile app like BoomTown NOW, you’re equipped to stay on top of your tasks and be more productive. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you can view, complete, or schedule to-do’s with a simple swipe.

This combats the trouble the many agents face trying to juggle the many facets of lead follow-up. If your follow-up “strategy” is sporadic and inconsistent, you’re not likely to see much success. After all, it’s the connections you make at the beginning that eventually turn into closings.

BoomTown NOW provides the tools you need to stay productive and make more connections within your database of leads. Respond to questions, set e-Alerts, and see your tasks that are due today, past due, and upcoming. By staying on top of your tasks, you don’t lose track of leads or conversations, so nothing falls through the cracks.

4Get Proactive With Lead Insights

Just as in the desktop version of the CRM, BoomTown’s mobile app also provides real-time insights into your most active leads. Get actionable insights on the leads who are most likely to engage in conversation.

Has an archived lead come back to search on your website? Did an unresponsive lead just favorite a property listing?

With Insights, your top opportunities are bubbled up to the surface so you know who to contact, when, and why. By being proactive, you can create more opportunities and increase your chances of conversion.

5All Connected Through One System

No matter where you log a call or schedule a to-do, everything is automatically synced into the CRM. No more re-entering notes from mobile to desktop, no more searching through communication history on a different device, and no more looking at different pieces to figure out the puzzle.

This means any notes you enter on the NOW mobile app will show up on the desktop CRM, and vice versa. And with its simple and sleek design, the NOW app is intuitive and easy to use.

boomtown-integration

6Save Your Thumbs

We know how tired your thumbs can get to be constantly texting, dialing, responding to emails, and scrolling through social media (we won’t tell your boss). Our mobile app makes it easy to tackle all your business needs with just a tap of your finger or a simple swipe.

We even include pre-set text templates so you have to type out similar messages every single time! With BoomTown, you can save time, save money, and now, save your thumbs.

We give BoomTown NOW two thumbs up.

boomtown-app

7Reach Your Success With BoomTown

Get back the time you waste searching for opportunities or waiting to get back to the office to respond to leads. Make the right moves wherever you are by taking immediate action with the tap of a finger.

No more missed opportunities. BoomTown NOW gives you the confidence to get more done, close more deals, and achieve your goals.

The post 7 Reasons You Need To Use BoomTown’s Mobile App appeared first on BoomTown!.

How to Measure If People Mention You on Social Media

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The average person spends nearly two hours on social media every day, so social media is one of the best places to grab consumers’ attention. 83 percent of consumers say online reviews influence their perceptions about companies and 80 percent report that negative online comments changed their purchasing decision.

There’s a lot at stake, so it’s important to monitor your online reputation on a regular basis. Here are some ways you can search for real-time social mentions and sentiment.

Set Google Alerts

Google Alerts allow you to keep tabs on mentions about you, your business, your service, or your website. You can set alerts for specific keywords, or simply your name or your company name.

With Google Alerts, you can:

Monitor Your Brand – Alerts let you know what your clients are saying about you. Monitoring your brand reputation is important, and this way you can be made known to both the good and the bad.

Monitor Competition – It’s not a bad idea to stay knowledgeable about your competitors as well as your own brand. You can get the pulse for their business and if they get any positive or negative reviews.

Monitor the Industry – Alerts can also help you stay up-to-date on general real estate industry news. Find out about market shifts, new technology, or housing trends.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics not only tracks your website traffic, but can also be used to monitor social media progress. You can set it up to show which social media platforms your website visitors are coming from and if any other websites link back to your content.

Social Search Tools

IceRocket
IceRocket is a free tool that lets you instantly search blogs, Twitter, and Facebook for specific terms. You’re not required to create an account and the tool is simple to use. Type your name or company name in the search box and select the channel you want to search, or choose ‘search all’.

Topsy
Topsy is a powerful search tool specifically for Twitter. Topsy offers several options, such as social search, social analytics, and social trends, to allow you to keep up with mentions about you, your competition, and general discussion about real estate.

Buffer
Buffer is a great tool to schedule posts on your social media channels. Buffer also provides multiple features for analytics and reporting, such as tracking interactions on your social posts and measuring engagement metrics like comments, clicks, likes, and shares.

A Dedicated Person or Set Schedule

Social media management is one of those things that can easily fall through the cracks if you aren’t making a dedicated effort to keep up with it. The best way to stay on top of your social media monitoring is to have a dedicated person on your team in charge of the task. This could be part of an admin’s duties, or you could hire a virtual assistant, or even a full-time social media manager, depending on your business’ specific brand and needs.

Whether you hire for the role or not, it’s important for whoever is responsible for your social media to have a set schedule for when to check for any mentions of your business on social media, and respond accordingly if necessary.

Create a Hashtag

A fun and easy way track mentions as well as encourage engagement is to create a hashtag for yourself or your business. Encourage your clients to use this hashtag whenever they mention you so you can keep track. This is also some great free marketing!

The post How to Measure If People Mention You on Social Media appeared first on BoomTown!.

Want to Convert More Leads? Accountability is Key

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Having a clear, inspiring purpose and executing on that purpose every day is essentially what creates job satisfaction. Job satisfaction means more productive, happy agents, and more happy clients. In a real estate business, when a team has a clear purpose, roles are defined effectively, and measures are put in place to keep everyone on the same page, conversion numbers will rise. But, creating a culture in your company that drives everyone to do what they’re supposed to do, happily, can take some work.

Lead Generation Real Estate Plan

Step 1: Start with Clear Goals

The fastest way to unravel accountability measures is to not clearly define what goals you want your team members to work towards. This should take some serious thought and reflect the unique purpose of each role. Do you have a strong business plan in place? If not, it might be time to take a step back and define your company plans as a whole, then work backwards in defining how each role supports that plan and what goals your agents and team members should have in place.

While you have an overall company business plan, take some time to create a business plan for yourself and team members. These plans, and corresponding goals for your real estate team, will serve as the backbone of your culture of accountability. If you or a member of your team falls short of a goal, it’s much easier to pivot and address problems if you have a strong foundation in place.

[Start with Tom Ferry’s Free Business Plan Here!]

Real Estate Lead Generation

Step 2: Track and Measure Performance

Alright, you’ve got the goals, now it’s time to maximize everyone’s time. But what’s the best way to go about measuring performance and following up with those that aren’t keeping up?

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”
– Charles A. Coonradt

From activity reports to an intelligent CRM with accountability tracking, it’s critical to have a strong system in place to help you track and measure team performance. Begin by placing your business plans in an easily accessible place where everyone can monitor and manage their goals.When it comes to daily, weekly and monthly steps, you need a system that works for the entire team.

BoomTown’s Accountability Dashboard gives you a bird’s-eye view of your entire business. Real-time reporting allows you to track your team’s progress to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

BoomTown’s Accountability Dashboards

You can drill down to response times for new leads, track outgoing calls and email campaigns, and create comparisons to help you see overall team performance. This makes it simple to see exactly where things are working and what or who might need some improvement. When you can be proactive about these types of situations, leads don’t fall through the cracks, and conversion rates improve dramatically.

[Good Question: Why Does Technology Matter in Real Estate?]

Real Estate Lead Generation

Step 4: Keep Your Team in the Game

Figuring out what motivates your agent first, and then deciding what type of accountability practices you should enable is key. Some team members may respond better to more frequent check-ins, while others do better with more autonomous time to complete tasks.

This really does come down to the specific team member, but remember, accountability is all in the approach.

And how about some friendly competition? Even something as simple as writing everyone’s numbers on a whiteboard can motivate team members to work harder. Making goals visible sets expectations and holds people accountable to those expectations. The element of friendly competition increases personal motivation while also improving team communication. Whether it’s in the form of lighthearted smack talk, challenging each other to do better, or confronting issues, motivated agents under a culture of accountability contribute to building a higher performing team.

“On top performing teams, peers immediately and respectfully confront one another when problems arise. Not only does this drive greater innovation, trust, and productivity, but also it frees the boss from being the playground monitor.”

– Harvard Business Review

 

By rewarding strengths and providing constructive feedback in weaker areas, agents will start to view accountability as something that increases their productivity, fosters a better company culture, and pushes them to reach their full potential.

Real Estate Lead Generation

Step 5: Lead by Example

Creating a true culture of accountability can only be achieved through strong leadership. Perhaps you struggle with taking a step back from your day-to-day to manage and regulate agent accountability. Or perhaps you don’t know how to hold yourself accountable to your own goals and strategies. Either way, practice makes perfect, and demonstrating that you are holding yourself to a standard of accountability is critical to motivating your team to do the same.

It’s difficult to achieve a healthy balance in your business, but many have walked this path before, and you need to be the leader of not only your business, but also a model of accountability if you are going to ask others to do the same. Once you have the right mentality, a strong plan, and the right tools to power your strategy, your team will be aligned and accountable, and conversion rates will rise. 

Business Strategy

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3 Simple Automations that Free Your Agents from Tedious Tasks

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There is one currency more valuable than money – time.

Agents today are busier than ever. Technologies like BoomTown help streamline day-to-day operations by automating tasks that can take up hours of valuable time.

Here are three automations that are worth the hype.

 
Smart-Drip

Smart-Drip Email Campaigns

How It Saves Time

Traditional drip campaigns were an invaluable advancement in automated marketing, and BoomTown’s Smart Drip took something good and made it brilliant. You save hours each week by automating your email communication with leads. While you’re saving time, Smart Drip sends better, more effective emails.

Why Agents Love It

Smart Drip emails are personalized by first name as well as time of day. So rather than a generic:

Dear {John},

Your lead will receive a personable message along the lines of:

Good morning John, hope you’re having a great Wednesday morning!”

Smart Drip emails are optimized to send at the best possible time. If a visitor normally frequents a site to search for homes in the evenings, Smart-Drip will schedule those emails minutes before that time.

If a Smart-Drip email is scheduled, but you happen to reach out to that lead ahead of time, the Smart-Drip will record that communication and temporarily disable the automatic emails – avoiding any awkward repeat communication. Talk about brilliant.

Additionally, Smart-Drip uses a proprietary algorithm to measure how your campaign is performing. It scores it for you, allowing agents to make tweaks and improvements for a better performing campaign.

“Smarter than any email drip system I’ve ever seen, Smart-Drip immediately enabled me to stop paying $600+ per month to have emails sent every 4 days and our agents are already seeing improved responses from leads, leading to higher conversion rates. Your only challenge in using Smart Drip is to make sure that you dig into it far enough so that you don’t let a single Smart-Drip app go unleveraged!”
– Hinton Dillard, Dillard & Company Realty Group

 
Real Estate Lead Generation

Text & Email Templates

How It Saves Time

Why reinvent the wheel every time you chat with a lead? With the BoomTown mobile app, you have pre-set text templates ready to go so you don’t have to waste time typing them out. Additionally you have pre-set email templates on top of the Smart-Drip automation.

Every agent knows, “speed to lead” is critical.
 

Why Agents Love It

The templates are clear, concise, and friendly. You can tweak them to match your own personal brand or style, but most agents find that it’s the perfect balance of professional with a personal touch. Here are a few examples:

  • Buyer Option #1:
  • Hi (insert-name-here), it’s Megan with The Real Estate Group. I wanted to email you some listings. Any specific neighborhoods you want to browse?

  • Buyer Option #2:
  • Hi, this is Megan with The Real Estate Group. I’m setting up my showing calendar for the week, would you like to see any specific properties?

    “No” response: No worries! Do you have an idea as to when you would like to start visiting properties?

    Double “No” response: Whenever you’re ready, I would love to chat. In the meantime, here are a few neighborhood guides to nail down where you would be interested.

  • Buyer Option #3:
  • Hey (insert-name-here)! What is your availability over the next few days? If you have any time, I can set up an appointment to browse a few homes to get a better idea of what’s out there.

  • Confirm Showing Option:
  • This is to confirm your showing on (MM/DD). If you have any questions, call me at (###) ###-####!

“They don’t reinvent the wheel, they make it easy to do your job. Once a lead signs up, the system helps to alert you when the prospect is using the website. You can see everything a client is looking at, you can text them pre-done templates in text messages directly from your computer, and set up automatic emails, and so much more. You can have a client signed up for years before they are ready to buy, but once they start showing interest BoomTown notifies you.”

– Alex from Turner Real Estate Group

 
Lead Generation Plan

NOW Opportunity Wall

How It Saves Time

We’ve talked about features that save you time with hot leads, but that is only half the battle. Some agents spend countless hours digging for new leads, and vetting old leads to see if they’re ready to buy. The NOW Opportunity Wall is a virtual “hot sheet,” that presents to the agent in real time, a prioritized list of high-quality leads based on their behaviors on the site.

Why Agents Love It

Everything is in one place. Newly registered leads, leads that are returning to your site, leads that are currently online, or showing high interest in a particular property are all aggregated by priority. So you can say, “I’m going to spend 1 hour every afternoon on the NOW wall” and communicate with hot leads only, and allocate other time for nurturing cold/warm leads. BoomTown understands time is money, and the NOW Opportunity wall was built purely to save agents time and make sure no opportunity falls through the cracks.

The Opportunity Wall gives an agent to-do’s based on analytics and aids us in converting more leads to clients. It’s a cheat sheet for which leads you should be following up with and when, based on their site activity. e-Alerts are what drive leads back to our websites over and over again to ensure we are getting the back-end analytics to populate the Opportunity Wall and Hot Sheet. The Hot Sheet allows us to reverse prospect and easily find good property matches for our leads to keep us top of mind and show we are constantly working on their behalf (even when BoomTown is really doing that work for us).” – Erin McCormick, Director of Marketing

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The Most Important Part of Your CRM

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What did you have for breakfast 10 week ago?
What was in the news that day?
Who did you talk to and what did you talk about?

 

… Can’t remember? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! It’s not easy remembering small details from days/weeks/months in the past. But if you want to be successful in real estate, remembering little details about your leads can make all the difference.

 

The average buyer cycle is about 10 weeks. Most online leads take even longer than that, so you’ve got months (possibly even years) of conversations that you need to remember in order to keep your leads coming back to you.

 

This is why your lead profile is the most important part of your CRM.

All in the Details

There’s a new listing on the market and you want to get in front of the right leads as soon as possible. What’s your next step? You could call of your hot leads one by one … sift through old emails and texts … rely on your memory of past conversations. Or, you could pull up your lead database on your CRM and filter through in seconds to find the best fit leads for this specific property.
 

Your lead profile is where you keep detailed notes about the lead and what they want. It’s also where you log your calls, emails, and texts. Leverage these details to save time and increase your chances of matching a lead with the perfect house.

 

BoomTown Lead Profile

 

Be the detail-oriented agent that your clients will trust.

After every conversation with a lead, you should be logging

  • What you talked about
  • Date/Time
  • What you need to talk about next
  • When is a good time to follow up?

Having this information at your fingertips while you’re “on-the-go” helps keep you up to speed for all of your appointments. If your CRM has a mobile app, be sure to utilize it immediately after you visit with or speak with a lead, so you don’t lose track of what action steps should come next. The BoomTown mobile app actually logs these calls automatically in your lead profile, so you have a complete “communication history” ready for when you need it.


Test Drive the BoomTown Mobile App


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6 Tips for Balancing Family Time with a Busy Agent Lifestyle

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A healthy work-life balance. We all strive for it, yet so often we’re pulled in a dozen different directions. Have you ever found yourself choosing between disappointing your family, or falling behind in your business? Not to mention sacrificing “me time.” Sometimes it can feel like you are racing against the hours in the day, trying to please everyone.

 

Real estate can be a particularly gnarly beast when it comes to work-life balance. Being available for one conversation can mean the difference between closing a deal or losing it. So how does one manage it all? We caught up with top real estate producer, and work-life balance expert, Haro Setian, to bring you some simple tips for improving your work-family balance.

1Don’t Use Your Personal Phone with Clients

Balance is all about establishing boundaries and then actually sticking to them. Keep conversations with clients separate from your personal cell phone, and instead have either a dedicated office number, work cell phone, or Google Voice number for all client interactions.

 

Cell phones have become (whether we like it or not) completely intertwined in our lives, many of us rarely going anywhere without it. So if your personal phone is constantly buzzing with client communication, it will be impossible to “unplug” from work in the evenings.

 

2Aim for a Listing-Focused Business

If maximizing family time is a priority for you, aim for building a listing-focused business. Of course the ease of this varies from market to market, so we don’t recommend avoiding buyer leads, (especially if you live in a buyer’s market). However, seller leads tend to require fewer hours of work in order to close a deal, so if you want to save time while getting the same payoff, shoot for more listings deals.

 

“They say that the average listing takes 6 hours of work to close, and the average buyer deal takes 16 hours of work to close.”

 

With that in mind, consider investing more of your time and resources in seller leads and get a greater payoff without sacrificing the hours that you could be spending with your family.


How to Get Seller Leads in Real Estate


3Be Direct with Clients from Day One

Haro recommends starting every client relationship with a one-on-one consultation to establish wants, needs, and expectations. Being direct from the very beginning about your availability and process will set the tone for the rest of your interactions.

 

“At the end of the day, people do what they do because we allow them to. If we tell them we’re not going to respond after 7 and then we text them and email them after 7, we are essentially saying… ‘Well, I didn’t really mean that.’”

 

Clear and direct communication right from the gate will guarantee two things:

  • Your client won’t take advantage of your time or expect you to be available outside of your pre-established hours.
  • You will understand exactly what they are looking for. So, if it is a buyer lead, you will likely only have to show them a handful of houses before they want to close. Once you get to that 8-10 mark and they still want to keep looking, consider sitting back down to re-evaluate and make sure you are both on the same page.

4Prioritize & Schedule Family Time

Just as we prioritize and schedule our tasks at work, our family time requires just as much forethought. Consistency is key. Be clear about your commitment to being present for certain parts of the family routine. This could mean being home for dinner by 7 every evening, driving the kids to school every morning, or being in charge of bedtime. Whatever it is, do your best to stick to it so your spouse and kids have something that they can count on.

 

Understand that the control you have over your time will vary depending on where you are in your business. If you’re a new agent, just starting out, there are sacrifices that you and your family will inevitably have to make. This is a tough industry, and the “daily grind” can be intense. You’re going to have to work those long hours, and put in time on weekends.

 

Be patient and be mindful of how you are spending every hour. Good communication will take you far. Make sure you are checking in with your spouse, and “unplugging” when you get home so that you can be attentive.

 

Here’s how Haro schedules family time

  • Take an annual family vacation, and plan it a year in advance
  • At least twice a month go on a date with your spouse (Pro Tip: Plan something for Saturday morning. Breakfast dates are cheaper, and it’s easier to find a sitter!)
  • Do a quarterly weekend away with your spouse, or the whole family (If $ is tight, consider a “staycation.” Pretend that you are tourists in your own city and totally unplug from work)

5Hire an Assistant

“I think every agent should make a goal to do as much business as possible to hire an assistant.”

 

If you are not in a place in your business yet to hire a full-time assistant, consider starting out with a part-time assistant, or a virtual assistant. An assistant is an investment, and if you hire the right person, your return on that investment will be more business, more efficiency, and more time. Having an assistant, or being a part of close-knit team will allow you to take those vacations without having to answer calls from clients every few hours.


Should Real Estate Agents Hire a Virtual Assistant?


5 Make Sure Your Process is Efficient

Maximize your time. Got a 20 minute drive to the office? Practice your cold call scripts. Working with a buyer lead? Make sure you know A-Z upfront exactly what it is they’re looking for so you’re not wasting time showing a house they’re never going to buy.

 

“I got really good at scripting, and working with buyers, and so I have a really efficient process.

 

Automate everything that can and should be automated. With a smart CRM you can automate Smart-Drip email and text campaigns to send personalized and timely communication to your leads without having to do the grunt work. The BoomTown NOW Mobile App lets you see all of your hottest leads in one spot and allows you to aggregate leads by priority. Have a free hour between appointments? You can jump on the Opportunity Wall and call every lead who has recently visited your site.

 

One of the biggest perks of the real estate industry is the flexibility of essentially being your own boss. So don’t let tedious tasks get in the way of the free time you deserve. It’s a pretty simple formula. Less time spent on tedious tasks equals more time spent closing deals, growing your business, and enjoying time with your family.

The post 6 Tips for Balancing Family Time with a Busy Agent Lifestyle appeared first on BoomTown!.

Text Templates for Getting Homebuyers Interested

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Speed to lead is critical for turning leads into closings. And texting is one of your best tools for contacting those leads quicker and with higher response rates. In fact, by using text engagement instead of email, our clients saw a 450% increase in lead responses.

 

A 2018 Ellie May Study shows us that texting is on the rise as a preferred method of communication from consumers. The study also confirms that texting response rates (vs. email) are higher and quicker.

 

Texting Consumers Prefer Communication

 

Does this mean you should ditch emails and phone calls? Definitely not. It means you have three solid strategies for converting leads! The key to a successful communication plan is variation. We recommend utilizing all three, and adjusting your communication to fit your lead’s preference.


Resource: 7 Emails You Should Send to Real Estate Leads


For now, let’s talk text.

 

The Anatomy of a GREAT text…

  • 1. Personalized
  • 2. Short & Sweet
  • 3. Includes Links
  • 4. Consumer-Focused – Not Agent-Focused
  • 5. Ends with a Question or Call-to-Action

Reaching Out to New Homebuyer Leads

“Introduction Texts”

 
Option 1. “Hi [First Name], this is Joanna with The Real Estate Group. I’d like to email you a few listings. Any specific neighborhoods you’d like to browse?”
 
Option 2. “Hi [First Name], this is Joanna with The Real Estate Group. I’m setting up my showing calendar for the week, would you like to see any specific properties?”
 
Option 3. “Hey [First Name]! What is your availability over the next few days? I can set up an appointment to browse a few homes if you’d like a better idea of what’s available.”
 
Option 4. “Hey [First Name,] how long have you been searching for a home? I know it can be quite a process, so I’d love to help. Let me know the basics and I can send you what we have right now!”
 
Option 5. “Hi [First Name], thanks for registering on our website. How can I help with your home search?”

 

“Post Call Follow Up Texts”

 
Option 1. “Hi [First Name], thanks for registering on [website name]. I tried to give you a call, but I missed you. Are you looking for listings in a specific neighborhood?”
 
Option 2. “Hi [First Name], this is Joanna with The Real Estate Group. I left you a voicemail, but I’m happy to chat via text as well. Would you like to set up an appointment to browse a few homes?”
 

 

“Confirm Showing Texts”

 
Option 1. “This is to confirm your showing on (MM/DD). If you have any questions, call me at (555) 555-5555!”
 
Option 2. “Hey [First Name,] this is to confirm your showing on (MM/DD) at (address). If you have any questions or need to cancel, call/text me at (555) 555-5555!”

Nurturing Leads Takes Time

Yes, speed to lead is critical. But once you’ve made that first touch, be patient. Persistence and meticulous tracking of your lead communication attempts, will lead to more closings in the long run.

 

The lead that you reached out to 12 times in 2017 may not have been ready to buy quite yet. But it’s 2018 and they’re ready to take the plunge…who do you think they’re going to call? Yep, you.”

“No Response Follow-Up Texts”

The frequency in which you follow-up with your “no response” leads is up to you. Some agents have great success with heavily persistent follow-up (4-8 contact attempts within one day), whereas other agents take a less aggressive approach. We recommend a little trial and error to find what works best for you and your market. Just remember to be professional and friendly.

 
Option 1. “Hi [First Name], this is Joanna from Real Estate Group. Properties are selling quickly in this market, so let me know if you’d like to set up an appointment to look at my available listings.”
 
Option 2. “Hi [First Name], this is Joanna from Real Estate Group. I have some new listings that fit your search criteria. Let me know if you’d like to look through them!”
 
Option 3. “Hi [First Name], this is Joanna from Real Estate Group. I’m sorry we haven’t been able to connect. I’m available via phone (555) 555-5555 and email joanna@realestategroup.com if you’d like to chat about what you’re looking for.”

If you are using a CRM software, you may have the capability of seeing real-time prospect information. For example, “Sally Homebuyer just registered on your website.” or “Mark Homebuyer is looking at your website after being gone for a while.”

 

Greg Dallaire, top producing broker and owner of Daillaire Realty, recommends the following texts to use in congruence with insights from your CRM.

 

“CRM Insight Texts”

 
Back on the Site “Hi [First Name], saw you were back looking at homes on my website after being gone for a bit. Has your time frame moved up or still a ways out? Also we gained access to a few more loan programs recently if you are interested.”
 
Dropping the Ball “Hi [First Name], hope we haven’t been dropping the ball. Are you back in the market and searching for homes? Would you mind giving me an update on your housing situation?”
 
High Interest, May Need Info “Hi [First Name], were you able to find all of the info about (address) that you were looking for? Did you have any questions on the home or would you like to take a look at it?”
 
High Interest, Send from MLS “Hi [First Name], I had a note from my site that you looked at (address) a few times, so I wanted to check in and make sure you found all of the info you needed. Did you want me to email you a full spec sheet or did you have any questions on it?”
 
High Interest, Time Frame “Hi [First Name], is everything still going well with the home search? Any change in your time range for purchasing? Noticed you looked at (address) a few times. Did you find all the info you were looking for?”

Texting is a powerful tool to add to your lead communication plan. At the end of the day, it is important to remember that your leads are trusting you with their personal contact information. This is a privilege! Use it respectfully and strategically.


Improve Your Lead Follow Up. Click Here


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Here’s How to Get it All Done this Spring Season

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The stage has been set for a competitive spring season in most markets. In the whirlwind of these busy times, it might start to feel like you’re stuck putting out fires left and right and tending to the squeakiest wheels without focusing on a strategy or engaging a holistic approach to managing your business. Don’t let the overwhelm get you. And don’t get bogged down in admin tasks and marketing campaigns that could be put on auto-pilot. Here are the best ways to stay organized, keep on top your prospects, and leverage the right tools to do the heavy-lifting.

Lead Generation Real Estate Plan

Have a Smart System for Lead Organization

Segmenting and categorizing your leads (making your monster-of-a-database manageable) will help you sort your leads quickly and allow you to target specific groups for your marketing efforts.

This will save you SO much time this spring, and make your marketing much more effective.

Start by creating categories to bucket your leads in based on similar situations:

  • hot buyer
  • long-term buyer
  • unqualified, etc.

This lets you sift and sort your contacts with ease, and put groups of prospects on automated campaigns to keep them engaged.

Brandon Brittingham of Long & Foster, says that using technology to segment his database was a game changer:

“You can take 1500 leads and scale it down to 10 based on the segmenting. And that’s made our conversion rate go up significantly. It’s made our efficiency go up significantly. And I mean just the power of segmenting. What we can do with that– it’s crazy to me the amount of information that you can drill down to be so specific, which in the long run will create better conversion. But also that turns you into a full CRM. It kind of turns you into having knowledge of the consumer almost on an intimate basis before you even talk to them. Again, I think that’s an absolute game changer. And pairing that with the drip campaigns and custom drip campaigns. You can create a dataset and market specifically to them through segmenting”

In BoomTown’s system, you can leverage custom tagging to help you drill down even further into specific demographics. These tags are based on the type of response you’ve received from a lead, and should focus on answering “where/who” a lead is, and not just “what they want. Game changer!

When you apply the right categories and tags to your leads, your database becomes infinitely more manageable. You gain insight into what is happening with your leads, how your clients are being serviced, and who is getting things done. You can also quickly communicate with large, similar groups of leads, and automate your marketing efforts for those that are further out in the process. Hello, auto-pilot!

Real Estate Lead Generation

Revisit (or Create!) Your Drip Plans

Now that you have all leads segmented with clear categories and helpful tags, each specific group should be on a drip campaign. (Automated email or text messaging marketing plan). When your database is powered by a predictive CRM, and you’ve organized your leads appropriately, you can create follow-up plans that are also automatically triggered based on lead behavior.

Create campaigns that are relevant to different segments of your audience like:

  • a neighborhood update for those searching in the same area
  • comps and market updates for your seller leads
  • emails to help generate referrals from past clients
  • birthday and anniversary check-ins

Customizable templates in a real estate CRM allow you to tailor emails and text messages with a lead’s information and create a message to address their needs and keep them engaged.

If a new lead registers on a BoomTown site and designates a price range of neighborhood of interest, they will automatically be set up to receive e-Alerts and receive notifications on your behalf alerting them to properties that come up and are relevant to their search.

BoomTown’s CRM also powers automated text messaging. This powerful feature has show a 450% increase in responses from leads. Yep, that’s what happens when you combine the power of automated marketing with the responsiveness of texting.

drip text messaging

Not only is this taking the work off of your plate, but since your CRM is tracking every action, you’ll easily understand how a lead’s search is progressing and what level of engagement they’re showing.

Lead Generation Plan

Get the Tools to Manage Leads On-the-Go

When you’re out in the field and on the go, to-do lists are often out the window and your work style shifts to “on the fly.” This is a recipe for things slipping through the cracks, so take advantage of that powerful smartphone. Leverage scheduling features and reminders, or better yet, a mobile crm app.

BoomTown’s mobile app has the tools to help you work your leads from anywhere, and prioritize your workload in the field. Here’s what you should look for in a mobile app:

  • Alerts and reply options to Increase your responsiveness
    • BoomTown has a “Critical First Hour” tab to let you know who needs your immediate attention. Once the first hour has passed on these leads, they are moved to a “Waiting on You” section. This makes it simple to scroll through the list when you’re out in the field, pull up the communication history on any lead, and take immediate action with the tap of the finger.
    •  You can quickly call, text, or email leads based on the way they reached out to you, so you’re guaranteed to follow their preferred method of communication and deliver an amazing experience.
  • Prioritized tasks to keep you productive.
    • The BoomTown app is also designed with a To-Dos feature that allows you to schedule tasks and reminders, hit snooze, and mark as completed with a simple swipe. If you’re scrambling for more information, all lead names link to their unique and informative record so you can get up to speed in a snap.
  • Predictive Insights to Eliminate the Guesswork
    • When smart, actionable insights are available from your phone, you can take action whenever you have a moment, wherever you are. Look for technology that provides push notifications, or real-time alerts so you know immediately what’s happening with the most active leads on your website who are likely to initiate or re-engage in conversation.

If you don’t have the tech options you need, try to carve out time each evening to get your tasks noted in your phone so you can have access to any notes and to-dos when you’re out and about, and can start working through your list when you have a free moment. It might be worth including your daily and weekly goals and worksheets in a google doc on your phone too.

Real Estate Lead Generation

Find the Right Technology Partner

Competition moves quickly. If you are not thinking about how to structure and leverage your database for multi-channel marketing, it will become steadily more difficult to compete in the future. BoomTown takes all the pieces and elements into consideration in every feature of our system.

Just as people will partner with real estate professionals to help them buy or sell a home, partnering with BoomTown is a smart move to help you navigate real estate marketing and grow your business.

Forecasting Real Estate Sales

The post Here’s How to Get it All Done this Spring Season appeared first on BoomTown!.

The Secret to Avoiding Prospecting Fatigue

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Losing steam from seemingly endless lead prospecting?

 
Prospecting is critical for generating business, but it can be totally monotonous! Especially when you’re trudging through a database of hundreds (or thousands) of leads, with the same script, call after call.

 

The secret to avoiding this burnout is simple. Smart Prospecting.

Here is how to implement a smart prospecting plan in 3 simple steps.

1. Sift Your Database

Implementing a method to the madness will streamline your process, saving you time and increasing your chances of successful conversations.

 

The way that you organize your leads depends on your technology. If you’re using a CRM, take advantage of their segment and tagging capabilities. If you are using a simpler platform (even just an excel spreadsheet), figure out how to manually tag your leads as you enter them, so you can sort and prioritize. The more information you have on your leads the better. Many agents sort by; price range, neighborhood, activity on your site, previous communication, etc.

 

smart prospecting

2. Make a Plan of Action

Now that you’ve appropriately segmented your database, you can quickly see your “hottest” leads. Start with them.

 

How many hours per week can you spend prospecting? Break it down into time blocks per day, so that you know, “from 2:00-3:00 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I need to sit down and call these leads.”

 

You are more likely to get it done if it’s on your schedule!

 

Remember to keep detailed notes about each conversation. Track every single phone call, email and text. You’ll be glad you have these notes 6 months down the road when your “just browsing” leads are ready to buy!

3. Use Tools to Save Time

Speed up the tasks that you have to do manually (phone calls), and automate the rest (drip emails and texts).

 

Consider using a Dialer tool to speed up your cold-calling process. That means more leads called in a shorter time frame.

 

dialer real estate software

 

The best agents know that you should be preparing today for tomorrow’s leads. This is where drip campaigns come in. Implementing a “long game nurture plan” keeps your “lukewarm” leads engaged by sending personal emails (property listings, market updates, etc.), without you having to do the actual work. “Set it and forget it.”

 


Improve Your Lead Follow Up. Click Here


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5 Business Benefits of a Real Estate CRM

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Real estate CRMs don’t have to be for the tech-savvy folk anymore. In the past, they would give people heartburn. “A CRM – how do I use this?” These days, however, things have gotten a lot easier. Yes, there are tools to learn and processes to build. But imagine converting more leads. Retaining better agents. And measuring your success.

 

It’s one thing to feel good about your business. It’s another to see the $$$ grow. So, I’m going to show you what incentives a real estate CRM brings and how it impacts your business. By the end, there won’t be any fear in using a CRM — since the benefits speak for themselves.

 

1It’s Nearly a Virtual Assistant

Have you ever thought of a day where you don’t need to remember anything? There’s no to-do you forgot or lead you missed.

 

A real estate CRM covers the bases of an assistant. When you generate leads, a CRM can automate the follow-up communication. It can set reminders on your calendar to call the homebuyer (or seller). And it can route incoming leads to agents, equally.

 

Check out this real estate CRM tip:

 

 

Enjoy tips like the one above? Get more sent straight to your inbox, weekly.

 
It may be a little work to set up a process in the CRM, but it’s the same as if you hired someone. Except without the extra costs. Plus, it acts like a storage device. You can keep notes on homebuyers and set follow-up actions for later in the year — which is helpful considering most leads are 6-8 months from buying.

 

2Prioritize Who to Call

Real estate agents generate leads everyday. If you’ve been in the business for a few years, you probably have several hundred, if not thousands, of leads sitting in a spreadsheet. How do you know which ones are still active? Still searching?

 

A real estate CRM can tell you who is actively looking for a home and how often. You can even filter and segment your leads by who is active. Think about the time saved right there. Hours of prospecting reduced to a fraction of a second.

 

BoomTown’s real estate CRM easily filtering active leads:

Best Real Estate CRM lead filtering

 

Coupling this with a phone dialer, you can turn lead generation into one of real estate’s easiest exercises. No more time blocking hours for routine grunt work. You can focus on tasks that have a higher ROI, like showing houses for clients.

 

3Get Insights into Leads & Deliver Personalized Communication

Which statement do you think will have a longer, lasting impact?

  1. Hi Jack, I saw you were looking to buy a house. How can I help you today?
  2. Hi Jack, I noticed you were looking at homes in Lawton Harbor. It’s a beautiful neighborhood! Would you like to see some homes there today?

 

Number two sticks out, right? The best real estate CRMs — working with your website — will tell you what properties leads are looking at (and how many times). This allows you to send personalized communication bound to convert. BoomTown clients, for example, have seen a 450% increase in lead responses (based off our CRM tools).

 

It works particularly well for leads who are 6-8 months out. If you notice them looking at one specific property over and over (recorded by the CRM), then you can send them a quick text, saying, “Want me to schedule a showing for 1234 Bend Street this Saturday?”

 

Good real estate CRMs will expand on this behavior. They will match new (or updated) properties to your leads, using the data behind their home searches. It’s similar to how Google will offer better websites based on how you search. Then all you have to do is send out a group text or email, asking if anyone wants to see these “new” properties.

 

Lead insights allows personalized communication. That communication creates better conversions. More conversions equals more money. BoomTown calls that success.

 

4Increase Agent Performance

Well-performing teams have a business process. It’s a workflow for handling new leads and existing clients. Example: Brokers often tell agents to respond to new leads within the hour. But how do you know if agents are actually contacting new leads within the hour?

 

I’ve seen teams lose good agents because they believe the lead quality is bad. Turns out, it was just because the agent wasn’t contacting the leads in a reasonable amount of time. But they blamed it on the broker and lead generation team.

 

Holding agents accountable to a process isn’t easy. But a real estate CRM makes it effortless. By asking your team to contact leads through your CRM, it’ll leave a record of their actions. You can then pull up reports and see what they’re doing. It’s a good base for one-on-one discussions.

 

BoomTown Real Estate CRM Lead Health Check

 

You can drill into how often they try to contact leads, when they contact them, and if there was a response. It allows you to improve agent performance, which creates better ROI for your business. Ultimately, it’ll allow you to recruit and retain the best agents.

 

5Measure Return on Investment (ROI)

For a large part of the blog post, we’ve talked about lead generation. Now, it’s time to chat about transactions. Closing the deal is where the work pays off, literally. Measuring this event is key to growing the business and to growing revenue.

 

Knowing what’s in your sales pipeline and which transactions are ready to close is paramount. From there, you can predict what your earnings will be for the month. You can increase your lead generation efforts if transactions are low. And you can see which agents are performing the best, i.e. bringing money into the business.

 

All of this is easily accomplished with a real estate CRM. Knowing where money is coming in and what you’ll have at your disposal moving forward allows you to operate a smarter business.

 

With this and the other benefits of a real estate CRM, I hope you see the impact it’ll have on your productivity. Saved time adds up to $$$ saved. Better conversions creates more $$$. This goes on and on. A good CRM may cost money, but the return investment is worth it.

 

The post 5 Business Benefits of a Real Estate CRM appeared first on BoomTown!.

How to Choose the Best Real Estate CRM

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If you’re shopping for a CRM based on features and price, stop. People are like moths attracted to light. We love shiny new features, and we love a good deal.

Is that healthy for your business? No. Definitely not. Hell no.

It’s how you get stuck with a real estate CRM containing bloated features. Ones you’re paying for, but not using. It’s how you frustrate team members. For example, agents don’t need dashboards if they’re not generating leads.

Choosing the best real estate CRM starts with 4 main categories. These should be the checkboxes you cross off as you shop for a CRM.

 

1Does it Create Tech-Enabled Agents?

The best real estate CRMs enable agents. Think in broad terms here. Enable agents to contact hundreds of leads in an hour. Enable agents to find ready-to-close opportunities. Enable agents to prioritize based on ROI (i.e. tasks more likely to generate $$$).

Tech-enabled agents are able to close 183% more deals. They see more responses from leads and convert on a faster timeline. Imagine taking a homebuyer from a 6-month window to 3 months. Go from getting 5 responses to 22 responses (from unconverted leads).

As you look at real estate CRMs, ask if they:

  • Handle all aspects of lead nurture. Can the CRM automate the communication? That way, you don’t have to email and call every single lead yourself.
  • Filter and categorize leads based on readiness (or likelihood to close). A good real estate CRM can match leads to properties and suggest they look at it.
  • Give insights into website visitors. Can the CRM tell you which leads have visited the website in the last 30 days? Those could be hot opportunities to prioritize.

 

2Is Workload Reduced?

Technology like a real estate CRM should reduce work. Not add to it.

Yes, it might be a new process. In the beginning, it’ll take time getting acclimated. But in the end, you should be able to dump off routine, grunt work. Example: Responding to new leads. A CRM can automatically send an email you’ve programmed (versus you doing manually). Think about the time saved.

In real estate, time is money. Look for communication tools and the CRM’s ability to organize leads/tasks. Agents should be sharing their knowledge, not finding people to share their knowledge with.

BEWARE – Some real estate CRMs will have lots of features. They’ll promise to save time. But you need to examine how easy the system is to use. Does it take 20 minutes setting up CRM tools? Or does it take 2 minutes?

If the CRM isn’t easy to use, you’ll only add work for yourself. You’ll be busy trying to figure out a new software. And that’s something no one enjoys.

 

3Can it Work with Other Tools?

There’s no “all-in-one” tool for a real estate business. Anyone promising it is fooling you. A real estate CRM can do a lot, but you’ll still be using other software like showing apps and office management tools.

This is where you’ll want to ask about integrations. Can the real estate CRM work in sync with other tools? If so, which ones? A good example: BoomTown integrates with dotloop. A real estate CRM with a transaction management software.

You’ll want to make sure the CRM is flexible to your business. Not the other way around.

 

4Does the CRM go Beyond Organizing Leads?

For real estate agents looking to move beyond spreadsheets and rolodexes of leads, a CRM is a natural next-step. But we’re past 1999.

The best real estate CRMs do more than organize leads. They match leads to properties. A CRM should recognize that Jack Catterton is looking for colonial-style homes around ~$300k. It should see Jack is interested in San Diego properties. Then it should take that data and see what homes are available, and tell you: “Jack would be a good fit for these 27 properties.”

This allows you to look like an expert without having to ask homebuyers 20 questions. When a new properties hits the market, it allows you to instantly find homebuyers who would like it. That’s something especially helpful for large MLS markets.

 

Pricing and Features Aren’t Everything

Starting your real estate CRM search with the 4 questions (seen above), will help you find the best system. And though I said not to begin the search based on features and pricing, they still matter.

If you’re a small team, beginning to generate online leads (outside of referrals), you won’t need a large CRM with tons of features. You’ll need something basic that handles your current needs. Don’t feel obligated to get the “big, awesome machine.” Not everyone needs a designer laptop. They just need a regular one.

Evaluate what your pain points are and make the sure the CRM addresses those. As you grow and surface new needs, you can then upgrade the CRM.

If price is a concern, evaluate the ROI (return on investment). Paying cheaper is still throwing money away if the CRM isn’t helping you close deals. Look at the benefits and the $$$ it’ll bring back to your pocket versus how much it costs.


Want to See the Power of BoomTown’s CRM? Click Here >


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Google & Facebook: Digital Strategies that Actually Work

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We don’t have to tell you how important it is to have a strong digital presence. Among nearly all generations of home buyers, the very first step is to look for properties online. In fact, 74% of buyers across all generations (and 92% of home buyers 37 and younger) frequently search the internet for their home in 2018. In addition, there are over 2.20 billion monthly active users on Facebook, with five new profiles created every second. That’s a lot of buying power.

 

Google and Facebook are easily the most impactful tools for digital advertising. BoomTown teamed up with our Google and Facebook Partners at BoomTown UNITE 2018, to share their insight on digital strategies that actually work .

 

Meet your panelists:
Tyler Johansson – Google Partner
Raya Khayat – Facebook Partner
Dotty Bell – BoomTown Digital Marketing Team Manager

 

Full-Funnel Strategy

Always have the “full-funnel” on the back of your mind when you run an ad campaign. Building brand awareness and getting exposure (top of the funnel), will align with Facebook Live and videos, whereas converting a lead (bottom of the funnel) will align with maybe a carousel ad, or a lead ad.
 

Raya: “There are two levers to the success of any campaign.

  • Targeting – Making sure you’re targeting the right people. Either by using advanced targeting (custom and lookalike audiences), or just targeting geographically and making sure you have a broad reach.
  • Creative – Users scroll at the average speed of 1.7 seconds on the user feed – this is extremely fast! Even if you’re targeting the best leads, you don’t want them to just keep on scrolling. We recommend engaging video. You have to catch them within the first 3 seconds.”

Behavioral and Advanced/Lookalike Targeting

Raya: “The lookalike audience is basically, you send in a list of your current leads, and the Facebook algorithm will find leads that “look” like them, with the current behaviors and behavioral traits that they have. You can definitely control that reach and frequency within our tools, to make sure that you’re not overwhelming them. The frequency that I recommend is 1-3 times.”
 
Keep the content fresh. Once you see that the ad has landed with your target audience, swap it out with a new video, or switch it up to a carousel ad or go live. You don’t want to hit you audience with the same ad over and over and over.
 
Always be Testing! Content works differently for different teams in different markets. We recommend that you test as much as possible. Try all different types of advertisements and see what works best for you.

Partner with Your CRM to Maximize Your Advertising Spend

If you have already begun digitally marketing for your business, you’ve likely explored Search Engine Marketing (SEM) through Google Adwords (Pay-Per-Click), as well as optimizing your website to get more organic traffic through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In conjunction with Facebook advertisements, this is the bulk of your digital strategy. So how can you maximize the money that’s in your ad budget and get the lowest cost per lead (CPL)?
 


Learn More About Lead Generation with BoomTown. Click Here


Tyler: “When you’re just getting started out it’s not a bad idea to try to self-manage, get educated, and have a useful conversation with a partner such as BoomTown. But then you get to a certain size where the cost of those mistakes, or just the cost of your time, where your time is better spent bringing in the revenue and making the sale. It’s probably better at that point to look for outside help and leverage BoomTown and their partnerships to say… “help me invest my dollars.” Really that’s where the difference lays, when digital marketers take that leap, and they start to see digital marketing as a driver of revenue, rather than a cost source.”
 
Raya: “You guys already have so much on your plate, with calling leads, nurturing them – I think the stat was, 26 times to call – it’s a lot of calls, it’s a lot that you’re already doing. I consider BoomTown to be this additional hand… it’s this 1 + 1 = 3 approach.”
 
Furthermore, if you work with a CRM partner like BoomTown that has a digital marketing team, consult with them on the cost-per-lead (CPL) you’re looking for. At BoomTown, we work closely with you to reach your business goals. We can give insight into similar CPL’s in your area, as well as recommendations for how to allocate your budget.

Facebook Pixeling (What is it?)

Raya:
“Facebook Pixel, in short, is a piece of code that you place on the back end of your website. It tracks your funnel – going from the ad on Facebook or Instagram, when they convert on your website, and the steps that they take once they’re on your website. You can track people that actually view your properties, add to carts and products, or just search for different types of things.
 
The piece of code “fires” when someone takes an action. Facebook tracks it, but it also optimizes. Let’s say you want to optimize for people viewing your property. You can tell Pixel that that’s the ‘event’ that you want to optimize for, and then our algorithm will find the people that are most likely going to view the property based on the signals it gets from the website. Data that we learn from the system and your website, to optimize and get better leads are more efficient CPLs.”

Best Performing Ads for Real Estate

For real estate professionals, Facebook Live, video, and carousel ads are the best performers.

  • Facebook Live: This is one of the best strategies for top-funnel marketing, which means getting brand recognition and getting face time with your leads. It personalizes you and helps leads feel connected to you as a trustworthy agent. Additionally, Facebook live has 10x more engagement than regular videos.
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    facebook live real estate

     

  • Video: While Facebook live videos should be at the top of your list, don’t ditch regular recorded videos on Facebook! “Video is still one of the best things to use, because it’s super engaging, and your making sure that you’re really capturing peoples’ attention.”
  •  

  • Carousel Ads: Carousel ads are one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website. This is for the bottom of your funnel, when leads are ready to convert. They are scrollable, engaging, and paired with good copy and photos, they can be invaluable.
  •  

Recycle Content Across Platforms

Content takes time. Every video or advertisement that you create was time out of your day, so why not get the most possible use out of it. While you need to continuously add fresh content onto one platform (don’t bore your audience with the same ad week after week on Facebook), you can share across platforms to maximize exposure.
 
Share on Instagram, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, your personal Facebook page, email blasts, the blog on your website, etc. This is improving your organic search on Google as well.
 
Additionally, keep a personal library of your content so that you can recycle anything that is still relevant down the road.

The post Google & Facebook: Digital Strategies that Actually Work appeared first on BoomTown!.

What is a Real Estate CRM?

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Do you ever feel like keeping track of people is hard work? And does it seem like your efforts aren’t quite paying off?

 

Imagine your phone without the Contacts list. No phone number, no email address, and so on. It’d be hard to remember everyone. Today, though, all we have to do is say, “Siri, call Bob!” Technology enables us to complete tasks with ease and in less time.

 

But an address book can only assist you until you’re managing dozens of client relationships. This is where a real estate CRM benefits agents and brokers. CRM software levels up your communication and service abilities. It’s almost like cloning yourself, so you can be that “individual expert” for all your clients without draining your mental stamina.

 

Let’s go into some details …

 

1What is a Real Estate CRM?

By definition, CRM stands for customer relationship management. It usually refers to software that is a contact and communication tool. It allows you to manage multiple relationships, but also handles the day-to-day work involved with those relationships. Examples include task reminders like to-do’s. It can send emails out automatically. Or it allows the more deeper tracking of your sales pipeline, so you can measure revenue (i.e. business/commission income).

 

In real estate, a CRM enables you to service individual people throughout the entire home shopping experience. From the moment they register as a lead on your website to the moment they sign their name on the bill of sale. That journey always has a few bumps, as you know. A CRM helps coordinate all those steps and free up your workload (via automation). It smooths out those bumps.

 

2Advantages of a Real Estate CRM

Let’s break down the advantages by agent and broker. Depending on your job role, you’ll care more about specific CRM features.

For Brokers:

  • Accountability – Make sure your co-workers are getting work done. Example: If you’re spending money to generate leads, then you’ll want your agents calling and emailing those people. A CRM allows you to track their activity. Did they call/email their leads? Are they closing deals?
  • Brand & Service Consistency – Let’s say you have built a reputation in your market. In a real estate CRM, you can establish the protocol and build the communication agents have to use (for lead follow-up, for example). This makes sure everyone is operating on the same page and not going off-script.
  • Opportunity Finding – By leveraging filters and lead categories, you can prospect your database for “hot” opportunities, i.e. ready-to-buy shoppers. You can even nudge people out of “trash” categories with email nurture plans. And good CRMs allow you to track where leads are in the sales pipeline, mapping out your revenue potential.

For Agents:

  • Ease of Use – Imagine texting 100 leads in 5 minutes. You can use templated messages and emails to simplify your follow-up tasks. You don’t have to organize your day, since the CRM will help lay out your to-do’s.
  • Save Time – Using the example from above, imagine the time saved from not having to write 100 text messages by hand. You can get back to your other work quickly, like showing houses.
  • Never Forget – A real estate CRM will remind you who to call and when. There’s no more jotting down notes to yourself. The software handles it all.
  • Prioritization – Have you ever felt like you were being pulled in a million directions? CRMs can prioritize your lead follow-up, since they’ll identify who is more likely to act on a real estate property.

 

3How to Achieve ROI with a Real Estate CRM

There are plenty of free CRMs on the market, but they’re limited in ability. Oftentimes, agents and brokers will need to shop for a real estate CRM, weighing options. Whichever CRM you choose, it’s important to think about ROI. How will you make up the investment?

 

The answer is NOT to have big goals. You want small, achievable goals that build momentum. Real estate CRMs are built to handle a lot of business aspects. Tackling all those at one time is extremely difficult. Instead, start at your most critical pain point. Example: If you’re having a hard time closing deals (i.e. winning leads) or having issues with “lead quality,” then examine your lead follow-up.

 

Build out template emails, text messages, and phone scripts. Plug them into the CRM and have it automatically communicate to your leads. Then you can measure if you’re seeing progress. Don’t worry about the other features until you’ve graduated from your initial goal.

 

And lastly, the biggest hurdle to seeing any ROI with a real estate CRM is getting people to use it. Yes, adopting and using a CRM is more difficult than you think. If you’re a business leader, create rules for your co-workers. Everything goes into the CRM. Because if it doesn’t, there’s no way for you track ROI. All you’re doing is spending money without a clear picture. The best rule to use is: If it isn’t in the CRM, it means it doesn’t exist or you haven’t done your job. Typically then you’ll see your teammates adopting the product a lot faster.

 

4More Resources

If you’d like more resources about real estate CRMs, check out our articles on the 5 Business Benefits of a Real Estate CRM and How to Choose the Best Real Estate CRM.


Check Out BoomTown’s Real Estate CRM. Click Here >


 

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The Best Mobile Apps for Real Estate Agents On The Go

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Calling all road warriors: we are channeling our inner Shannon King, and we’ve got some mission-critical apps for taking care of business when you’re out and about. Whether you’re in the car, waiting for a client or anywhere in between, these apps will keep you productive, efficient, and on top of it all.


Swap Your Crazy Inbox for Streamlined Field Notes

Situation: Sifting through that massive inbox and trying to find files, or action items is something that’s better left for the office. So when you’re not in the office important tasks can get sidelined.

Solution: When you’re combating inbox overload, it’s time for the Cloze app. After you set it up, it integrated with you email accounts (and your calendar, social media accounts, and Evernote) and starts creating handy dashboards. These dashboards include a daily agenda that aggregates your email inbox, contacts, calendars and to-do lists. It’ll even surface emails if they have mentions of specific follow-up activity you need to act on for a specific day. Not to mention it makes it a breeze to track related documents and files, and provides you with a clickable history of contact communication.

Maximizing Voicemail, Minimizing Effort

Situation: Have you ever needed to get in touch with a client, only have 3 minutes before your next appointment, and wished you could just leave them a message?

Solution: Well this is where Slydial comes into play. Simply dial 267-slydial, then after the prompt, dial your client’s phone number, and you’ll be directly sent to their voicemail. One, and, done! Now, you are able to make it to your appointment and your client receives the information they need in a timely manner.


Situation: And what about those tempting voicemails you would love to listen to, but the client you’re with might find it rude if you step away?

Solution: YouMail. A free app which offers a number of voicemail solutions. One of which transcribes your voicemails and texts them to your phone. You can then take a quick glance without taking significant attention away from the task at hand.


 

Have you given smart prospecting a second thought? Take a closer look.

 


Safe Travels: Driving and Responding to New Leads

Situation: It can be tempting to try and work while driving, but it’s critical to keep your safety in mind.

Solution: DriveSafe.ly is an app that will read your text messages and emails aloud as you drive. Just activate the app as you enter your car then toggle the app off as you exit.


Situation:  Feel a little unsure about a property or a new client? You can never be too cautious when meeting new people or traveling somewhere alone.

Solution: MyForce  can act as your mobile bodyguard. If you ever feel uneasy about a location or situation you only need to arm the app to place it in ready mode. If you feel threatened, with a click of a button, you can alert MyForce of your location. They’ll instantly listen to the audio from your mobile device should you be in a situation where you can not speak with the operator. Because you’re pre-registered, emergency personnel are aware of your description, emergency contacts, and known medical issues.


Track and Manage Expenses with Ease

Situation: You try to remember to grab receipts and save them to sort through once you return to your desk (whenever that may be!), but you usually leave yourself with a confusing mess.

Solutions: Track your mileage with Milog, a mobile app that keeps a record of your mileage for reimbursement or tax purposes.  They make it super-simple to log your miles and sort out trips so there’s no more estimating and calculating (and losing money!).

As for those pesky receipts, use your phone to scan receipts and the Expensify app will code and report the expense for you. It also keeps tabs on your spending, making it easy to itemize deductions when tax time rolls around. One click tells the app to track business miles through the GPS technology or odometer readings, which automatically records them for any kind of deductions or reimbursements.


 

Don’t Know What to Do With Down Time?

The BoomTown Library is Full of Quick Videos for Real Estate Tips & Tricks.

Start browsing. 

 


Go the Extra Mile to Turn Leads Into Listings

Situation: Trying to convince a prospective client that you’d make a great listing Agent?

Solution: Why not offer a free floor plan sketch? With Magic Plan, a free mobile app, anyone can create a floor plan drawing within minutes! Magic Plan measures a floor plan from the pictures you take then converts them into a PDF, HPG and DXF drawing.


Situation: Once you’re the listing agent, you know how important great photos, and even more so a high-end presentation can be. But how do you achieve this on the go?

Solution: Use Animoto to create photo stream videos set to music that can be used on listing pages and social sites. Have some time on your hands while the inspector is around? Your clients will love the video of their new house that Animoto helps you create. Make sure you use a picture of your Agency sign so their friends will know who sold them the home when they share the video.


Mobilize your Entire Business for On-the-Go Success

Situation: task-oriented apps are super helpful, but what about making it easy to run your day from your phone?

Solution: A CRM app that can handle it all. BoomTown’s native CRM app was designed by agents for agents with all the tools and features you need to handle it all-from anywhere.

  • Keep your conversations going smoothly without dropping the ball
    • Critical First Hour categories help you know who needs your immediate attention. After the first hour, conversations are moved to the Waiting On You section. Easily look up communication history for all active conversations.
  • Push notifications alert you the instant a lead takes an action, so you’ll always know who to contact, when to reach out, and why.
  • Take immediate action with a tap of the finger. Call new leads right away or respond to existing leads the same way they reached out to you, whether by email, phone, or text.(mass texting too!)
  • Stay on top of your tasks so nothing falls through the cracks
    • Easily check off your to-do’s scheduled to be done today- click a name to go to the lead record and complete the task.
    • Need More Time? Hit snooze to postpone tasks for an hour, a day, or a week.
    • Past Due tasks provide a chance to catch up on unfinished tasks from the past seven days, and upcoming tasks provide a preview of what’s coming up for the next 7 days.
  • Easily manage everything. All actions, conversations, and response times are tracked and logged back in the main CRM to provide an accurate picture of accountability.

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CRM Strategies Top Real Estate Teams Leverage

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Like any powerful tool, a CRM is only as good as the person using it. It doesn’t matter how many hundreds or thousands of capabilities the CRM has, if the user doesn’t know what they’re doing – it’s about as useful as a phone with no battery.

 

Think about your CRM for a minute. Technology (especially robust platforms like CRMs) can feel overwhelming. So first let’s take a step back. Before we tackle some top strategies, consider these questions:

  • Do you understand the full capabilities of your CRM?
  • How much training have you/your team had with the CRM?
  • What are your frustrations with it?
  • Are there things you wish it could do that it doesn’t do?
  • In what ways does it make your day easier? More difficult?

Make Sure You’re in the Right Relationship

Ideally this research will happen before you make a commitment with a CRM, but even if you’ve already invested time and energy into your CRM, you want to make sure it is the right one for you and your business. This takes more than just a Google search. Online comparative research is a good place to start, but we encourage taking it a few steps further. Here are a few ways to really get to know your CRM and discover if you’re a good match.

  • Demo as much as possible.
  • Make a list of features that are (1) essential, (2) nice-to-have, and (3) nonessential.
  • Establish a budget. Remember that a CRM is an investment, and if used properly the ROI is worth it.
  • Try to find customers of different platforms (through forums or networking), and ask them about their experience. What are their pain points? What do they like/dislike.

Take Advantage of Training

Aside from being on the right system for your business, this is perhaps the #1 most important strategy for getting the most out of your CRM. Do not underestimate the value of being well-trained! You can buy the most expensive, top-of-the-line tools, but if you don’t know how to use them, they’re a waste of your time.
 
What sort of training is offered from your CRM provider? Start there. Maybe they offer on-site training at their headquarters, or in-house training at your office. They might offer webinars, a virtual training series, or one-on-one phone calls. Take advantage of all of these capabilities, as it will be invaluable for your team.
 
One of the biggest mistakes that we see at BoomTown is when teams go through the initial training and onboarding and then they’re done. CRMs are very robust. They have a lot of capabilities and it can take a healthy chunk of time to conquer the learning curve and feel confident on the system. Schedule time within the year to make sure your team is up to speed with the newest features.

Training can be fun! Some of our most successful clients have BoomTown training nights periodically throughout the year. They get the team together and turn training into a game with food and prizes. This is a great way to keep the team up-to-speed on the system.

Be Diligent About Tracking & Measuring ROI

It’s not unusual for people to get a CRM just because they think it’s what they “should do.” Then, they take advantage of about 20% of the functionality, and use it as a virtual Rolodex. You don’t need an expensive contact list. There are iPhones and Excel spreadsheets for that. A CRM is meant to elevate your business in ways that simpler systems cannot. So be diligent about measuring your ROI so that you know you’re getting the most out of your CRM.

 

First, define how you measure success. It could be number of transactions, number of leads generated, number of hours saved by automating busy work. It could be a combination of all of the above! A good CRM will have tracking tools that will give you clear insights into all of these aspects.

 

We are big believers in “time is money,” especially in real estate. As an agent, you are always one conversation away from landing a new client. So having a few hours of down time for prospecting each week can result in $$$ over time. If your CRM has automated marketing capabilities, you can send emails to leads without even lifting a finger. BoomTown’s Smart Drip campaigns can save agents up to 36 hours a month.
 

Remember! You know how we mentioned before that a tool is only as good as the person using it? When considering your ROI, really think about the investment of time and energy that you’ve put into the CRM as well. Are you taking advantage of the full functionality? Additionally, give it a little time. In real estate success can be a slow rise while you build your lead database and farm your area.

Stay Organized

Ah, yes. Age old advice you’ve been hearing since grade school. And it still rings true.

 

 

With a real estate CRM, the most important thing to keep organized is your database of leads. We recommend segmenting and categorizing your leads into workable lists. Not only will this help keep your database manageable, but it will save you time while you’re prospecting. Set up a schedule to stay on top of organizing your database! This could be quarterly, or even once a month. Scan through and make sure that all of your leads are tagged appropriately, and that no opportunities have fallen through the cracks.


Is your CRM a mess? Time for a little spring cleaning.


Connect Everything to Your CRM

To get the most ROI out of your CRM, use it like your “home base,” or central hub for your business. Ask a representative from your CRM provider about their integrations. The more of your technology systems that are synced with your CRM, the more seamless your day-to-day operations will be.

 

BoomTown integrates with some of your favorite platforms, so you can use all of your best tools and keep everything organized. Take a peak at some of our integration partners to get a sense of how “syncing systems” can boost your productivity and profitability:

Use Your CRM’s Accountability Tools to Improve Performance

When you commit to a real estate CRM, you are investing money with the expectation of getting more back in return. If agents don’t properly reach out to their leads (or follow up with them on time), that’s money out the window. Don’t let high quality leads that you are paying for fall through the cracks.

 

Depending on your CRM, you should have tools to help measure agent performance. Whether you are an agent on a team, or a broker in charge of a team, holding agents accountable for staying on top of their leads benefits everyone involved. The BoomTown CRM makes it super simple to see each agent’s report, as well as the team as a whole. Use these accountability tools to motivate agents to do their absolute best, and to give them a heads up when they’re falling behind.

 
BoomTown Real Estate CRM Lead Health Check

The post CRM Strategies Top Real Estate Teams Leverage appeared first on BoomTown!.

Are CRMs Worth the Investment?

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If there’s one major theme in the real estate industry right now, it’s technology. With new tech companies popping up left and right, the consensus among most brokerages is to embrace it. But before you move forward with a CRM for your business, consider the investment that you’re making and whether or not it’s worth it for you right now.

What is a Real Estate CRM?

CRM traditionally stands for Customer Relationship Management, however the role of the CRM has grown and expanded, and many real estate technology companies offer a platform that extends beyond maintaining client relationships. The idea is to assist you in managing your leads “from click to close.” From the moment a lead registers on your site, you have tools to help you close the deal. From speeding up your follow-up, to improving the quality of your communication, to automating busy work so you can expand your sphere, the CRM acts as a second set of hands for your business.

 

 

How Can a Real Estate CRM Improve my Business?

The bottom line is that CRMs are robust. They are built from complex software, with nearly endless capabilities. Different tech companies will highlight a laundry list of features (some will be important to you, and some will not). Be sure you don’t get lost in a sea of micro features. Consider the overall benefit and top-level value for your business. Using BoomTown’s CRM as a model, here are just a few ways a CRM can improve your real estate business.

  • Hold Agents Accountable: For brokers, the accountability tools in a CRM can be invaluable. Track agent performance by making sure they’re staying on top of lead follow-up and prospecting.
  • Capture More Opportunities: With an organized database of leads (tags and segments), it is easier to keep track of where your leads are in the pipeline. Agents are alerted when follow-ups are needed, so no lead gets left behind.
  • Generate More Leads: With a team of expert digital marketers, your brand is highlighted in the best quality advertisements on Google and Facebook, generating high quality leads.
  • Reduce Busy Work: One of the most important benefits of a CRM is that it can automate busy work, like emailing and texting new prospects. This frees up time for agents to expand their sphere, spend more quality time with clients, or even just take a vacation.
  • Be Smarter with Prospecting: At BoomTown we like to encourage “Smart Prospecting.” This means organizing your lead database into workable lists. You’re not just blinding scrolling through a rolodex of numbers, you’re working with targeted leads and you know what they want.
  • Sync with Other Tools: There is no “one size fits all” tool in real estate. The best CRMs will offer different packages that can better fit your needs, but even then, there are other tools outside of the CRM that you’ll likely still want to use. This is why it’s important to have a CRM that integrates with other technology. BoomTown seamlessly integrates with companies like dotloop (transaction management software).
  • Improve Agent Experience: At the end of the day, real estate is all about providing an excellent customer experience. A good CRM will assist agents in providing this experience, but will go even further and improve the agent experience as well. A CRM should be intuitive, easy and enjoyable to use. And the provider should include excellent training as well as customer support.

Is the Investment Really Worth it?

It’s all about that ROI! In order to be a good investment, the benefits need to ultimately outweigh the cost of your CRM. This can be measured in a few different ways.

 

Income from leads
If your CRM provider is helping you generate leads, keep track of the CRM-generated leads that turn into closings. Once you have that quarterly or annual data, consider that income in comparison to what you’re paying for your CRM. Remember two things when it comes to lead generation. (1) Quality lead generation doesn’t happen over night, it requires a little bit of a time investment, and (2) leads can only go so far. Agent follow-up and working the leads is important for closing the deal.

 

Time Saved
You’ve heard that time is money right? We believe in that mantra. Agents are busier than ever, and with technology that automates some of the grunt work, more time can be allocated towards generating more business. As an agent, you are always one conversation away from landing a new client. So having a few hours of down time for prospecting each week can result in $$$ over time. If your CRM has automated marketing capabilities, you can send emails to leads without even lifting a finger. BoomTown’s Smart Drip campaigns can save agents up to 36 hours a month.
 

Scaling a Business for Growth

If you want your real estate business to grow, technology is essential. As your book of business grows, so to will the need for more agents, potentially an ISA, assistants, lender partnerships, and even a marketing department. With a CRM your business can operate with one central hub, keeping everyone aligned, connected, and accountable. Not only will you save money over time by reducing admin costs, but you also reduce the need for dozens of different gadgets and tech platforms that only perform one unique task.


Want to See the Power of BoomTown’s CRM? Click Here >


The post Are CRMs Worth the Investment? appeared first on BoomTown!.

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