Today marks the final installment into our series on the seven components of a business plan. This time, we are going to talk about processes and procedures.

All business plans must incorporate a client relationship management system, also called a CRM. There are many CRMs available, such as Top Producer, Firepoint, BoomTown, or TigerLead, that you can choose from. Personally, we use Firepoint, because it can take your business take you from a small group to a large team.

You also need to figure out your marketing plan. Where do you get your leads from? It doesn’t matter if you choose Zillow, Realtor.com, or pay-per-click leads—you still have to map out your systems. Many people jump into using Facebook advertising. However, this is actually the least profitable lead source for agents, simply because it is so common and easy to use.

After your CRM is established, start reaching out to the people in the database.

After your CRM is established,  start reaching out to the people in the database. Set up a system that will tell you how often to call your past clients, your friends and family, and your hot, warm, and cold buyers.

If you have any additional questions about this, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

One of the keys to success in our business is education.

If I can name one thing that a real estate agent should do, it’s to make sure that you get an education.

I’m not talking about getting your real estate license. When you get a real estate license, you take a course, you take a test, and then you forget all about it.

I’m talking about learning how to sell. I don’t mean selling real estate. No one in real estate sells houses. You need to learn how to sell your own skills and expertise. Nobody on my team has sold a house to a client because the client picks the house.

We sell what we do for the client. We sell how we can do that better than anyone else.

You need to learn how to sell your skills and expertise.

Selling is helping people realize that where they think they want to be might not be where they actually want to be. Selling is about overcoming self-imposed objections.

If you’re going to be a professional agent, you need to learn your craft. This is not something to be taken lightly. This is not a hobby. Anyone who wants to be the best should learn from the best.

Thankfully, we have a group of mentors here who have helped us, taught us, and brought us along on the journey. If you want to learn how to sell houses at a very high level, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

As a real estate agent in this market, should you have a website? A lot of agents ask me if anyone even needs a website in this market anymore.

My answer is this: your website is your calling card. It's where people go to find out whether you're legitimate or not. They want to see whether you list and sell homes.

I encourage anyone who is serious about the real estate business to either join a team with a great website or a company with a great website. It's hard to buy a $50 solution to a website and still be seen as legitimate in the marketplace.

Your website is your calling card.

In short, when companies like mine spend tens of thousands of dollars every month on websites, it's hard to compete if you have a cheap, $50 website. Every website manufacturer out there will tell you it's possible, but it's simply not.

If you're going to be a real estate agent and take the job seriously, I suggest you spend the money on the tools to do the job right. If you have any questions about how we do it and who we use or if you're interested in joining our team, give me a call or send me an email. I hope to hear from you soon!

Today we are excited to discuss with you our strategy to getting more clients. We are in the house selling business, so what do we have to do? Expose ourselves to more and more people every week.

The goal for everyone on our team is to meet 40 new people each week that we have never talked to before. Some people might ask why we are giving away our strategy. Simply put, we don’t believe that our competitors are willing to put in the work we put in to talk to this many new people each week.

You want to meet more and more people all the time.

Last year, we talked to 2,000 people we had never talked to before. When you do that, it’s hard not to get new business buying and selling houses. You want to meet more and more people all the time. If you aren’t expanding your network, you won’t succeed in this business.

If you have any questions for us or want to learn more about expanding your list of contacts, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

A lot of agents ask me what I would do if I was first getting into the business, so I wanted to drop by with some important tips for brand-new agents.

If I was entering the business today, the first thing I would do is ask myself where I'm going to get business. If you don't have a ready answer for that, you need to put things on pause and figure it out.

Getting business and leads is the hardest part of this business.

When I first got into the business, I spent the first month and a half in the phone book calling the A's and asking if anyone wanted to buy or sell a house. I didn't sell a house until I got to the B's! It took a month and a half to get a sale because I had no book of business.

Getting leads is the hardest part of this business.

If you ask yourself where you're going to get business from and you don't know the answer, I'd highly recommend investigating a team. On our team, we love new agents because we can teach them. Old agents tend to come with old habits. New agents who have been in the business for less than a couple of years do great on our team and they sell tons of houses, and we love them.

Newer agents are able to sell a ton of houses with us because we have a book of business for them. They walk in and they instantly have leads–which are the hardest thing in this business to get.

If you have any questions about developing business and getting leads, give me a call. I'd love to talk with you and help you advance your career.

Giving gifts is a great way to show clients how much you value them. I wanted to share some of my favorite ideas with you today. Clients appreciate anything of value that you give as a gift with heartfelt sincerity.

We always send a handwritten card to every single client. It’s been a game-changer for us. We also send a handwritten card to every agent we deal with now, and we’ve also started giving a gift card to every agent. The way we see it, we worked a deal with them, and our goal in life is to work a deal with every agent and have everybody come out of it happy. We give every client a gift card as well.

“

We want to give clients a gift that

provides value and stays with them.

”

The other thing we do for our clients is give them a Cutco knife. We made an investment of about $20,000 into Cutco last year, and we give one to each client because we value the relationship, and we want to give them something in return that provides value, and stays with them. Some give a gift basket, for example, but that just doesn’t stay with you.

Likewise, a gift card to a restaurant doesn’t last. Right now, if someone buys or sells a house with us, we’re giving them a cruise. They're spending a lot of money, and it gives them a chance at a vacation after the big transaction. Some can afford vacations and some can’t so we like to give that opportunity to everyone.

If you’re looking for more ideas for gifts, please feel free to give me a call. I’d love to help.

Did you know that tech trends have an influence on real estate? Some of them may surprise you.

Virtual reality headsets play a part in real estate now with 3D videos that can be used for home tours. You can use the headset to virtually walk through a house! I’ve got friends across the country who are testing this now with clients. It looks like it might be a game changer for showings.

Drone technology has also taken over the world in the last couple years. Now you have to have a pilot license for drones, but there are companies around Roanoke that use drone videos. This will change the way you see a property.

One of the most intriguing trends we’re seeing is smart homes. Personally I have the Nest thermostat, and I can control my house and my office temperatures from my phone. Video cameras have become much more popular in homes as well, which give you a real-time view of what’s happening during a showing or open house. You can also hear what you’re saying, so we need to be careful about what we do and say in a house.

If you want to learn more about how technology is changing real estate or have any real estate questions, don’t hesitate to call or email us today!

Reaching your Clients through Video

A lot of people ask us, "Why video?" when they find out how we market ourselves to our past, present and future clients. Well, it just so happens that the 2nd most used search engine in the world is a video site. That's right, we are talking about YouTube. Everybody has got a smart phone now and people like video. Being able to show a house through video can show the property in a much better light than pictures can. With video, you are positioning yourselfwhere the consumer is and where they are looking. Not all video is helpful, however. Consumers enjoy watching videos and TV shows about homes and home improvements, but the information they get from those shows is inaccurate and wrong.

When we do videos with our marketing partner, Vyral Marketing, we are giving out short, educational videos that add value and give information about current events to our clients. Are they going to watch these types of videos every day? No, but when they are thinking of buying or selling, they are going to find these videos. The real point of the videos is to get the message across to the consumer as they are looking, so you can position yourself as an expert in the area. 

If you have any questions about how to insert video in your marketing, please give us a call. We'd love to answer any and all questions you might have.

What does Zillow's buyout of Trulia Mean for You?

Today we want to touch on a recent topic that has been in the news. If you have been paying attention to real estate news recently, you already know that internet home search giant Zillow has recently bought out their biggest competitor, Trulia, for $3.5 billion. We know that a lot of people in the real estate world are concerned about this. They know what the internet did to the travel agency business and are afraid that the same thing will happen in real estate with this buyout. 

We tell our agents not to worry about this. Real estate is local, travel agencies are not. They were selling trips, not houses. Travel is a hobby, a luxury if you will. Real estate is something that people will always purchase and always need. Real estate agents have that distinct advantage of being local. We have feet on the ground, know the market and inventory. As long as we as professionals know our craft, our inventory, and what we are doing and can do our job in a competent manner, we don't think any of these sites are a threat. They only become a threat when we don't know our job and rely on them to do our job for us. 

If you have any questions about the buyout or anything else real estate related, please feel free to give us a call. We'd love to sit down with you to discuss your career. 

Avoid Becoming Overwhelmed this Selling Season

As real estate agents, we tend to be reactive instead of being proactive. It isn’t until we are buried in leads that we decide to purchase a lead management system. As the market begins to heat up, I encourage you to get your software platforms in place and find out what contact management system you will plan to use.

This allows you to track your leads – the last thing you want is business, which you pay for, coming in with no way to manage it! Hiring help during this influx of business is also a great move. Your first hire should be an administrative assistant – this person will help you bring in the leads, qualify them and find the good from the bad. However if you are unable to pay for additional employees, stop paying for leads. You don’t want to gain the reputation of someone who can’t handle the public’s inquiries.

If you have any questions about team dynamics or lead management, feel free to call or email me. Thanks and have a great day!