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Lead Conversion: The New Rules of Competition

THE NEW RULES OF COMPETITIONThe transition of consumer purchasing behavior from off line to online has grown steadily, presenting a growing challenge to brokers who must reinvent how they win business and please consumers.

LEAD CONVERSION 8



INTRODUCTION The transition of consumer purchasing behavior from off line to online has grown steadily over the past decade, presenting a growing challenge to brokers who must reinvent how they win business and please consumers. In this chapter we explore the emergence of Internet lead-generation as a new brokerage opportunity. We outline the opportunities and steps brokers can take to implement their own lead generation programs, as well as the best practices, tools, and systems to run them successfully.

Relationships that start online can be challenging to develop. Many agents with pre-Internet-based business models often cannot or will not succeed with these new client opportunities. They resist incurring the costs that come with the opportunity, such as the coaching and learning necessary to create and mature relationships outside their personal sphere. The complicated relationship between an agent and broker and the changes that take place when the broker owns the source of business adds to their resistance in many cases.

In light of this growing consumer trend, brokerages are constantly seeking new ways of creating and maintaining client relationships that start on the Internet. Even small brokerages and teams with limited resources are using Internet marketing and lead-generation systems today to increase revenue, attract high-performing agents, and generate higher-quality prospects at a lower cost.

CHANGING ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPSBroker Management

A traditional brokerage will have to adopt new management practices and business models to leverage lead-generation. And it will have to start with the organization’s leadership and its senior brokers, who generally built their sales careers with traditional repeat and referral business based on the following professional understandings:

• Most agents do best with family and friends.

• Most agents will not invest in their businesses.

• Revenue and market share are best addressed with head count.

• Internet leads are poor quality and, sometimes, even a waste of time.

Agent-Broker Relationship

A sophisticated Internet lead-generation program is more likely to see success in a broker-centric model rather than an agent-centric model. In an agent-centric model the agents are responsible for their own lead-generation, business development, and client management. The cost to the brokerage is low and the rewards for the agent are high. In a broker-centric model, the broker identifies ideal clients, generates the leads, manages which agents work with which clients, and retains the client relationship after a closed transaction. The broker takes on the risk and responsibility but enjoys greater control over deal flow and, ultimately, revenue and profit.

When a brokerage owns the deal flow, it

NOTE TO READERSThe Swanepoel Trends Report predominantly focuses on identifying key new trends and innovations that are reshaping the real estate industry. When we introduce new trends that are not widely understood or currently being used, we take a deeper dive and provide a step-by-step implementation guide, best practices, and case studies to empower our readers. This chapter provides readers assistance in implementing and optimizing an effective lead-generation system.

NOTE TO READERSThe Swanepoel Trends Report predominantly focuses on identifying key new trends and innovations that are reshaping the real estate industry. When we introduce new trends that are not widely understood or currently being used, we take a deeper dive and provide a step-by-step implementation guide, best practices, and case studies to empower our readers. This chapter provides readers assistance in implementing and optimizing an effective lead-generation system.

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may be able to generate equal or greater profits with fewer agents. This requires a mindset that shifts away from traditionally equating headcount with prestige and profitability. Many agents express (sometimes loudly) that they want leads generated by their brokerage, but at the same time they often prove unwilling to adhere to the stricter requirements attendant with the accountability and performance required to convert Internet-generated opportunities into business. And, perhaps more importantly, some agents resent working hard on company-generated leads for less compensation.

Real Estate Sales Agents

A traditional key for success in real estate has always been an agent’s sphere of influence, their networking skills, a business built through family, friends, community involvement, and staying in touch with that network. By contrast, the agent who successfully works with Internet leads interacts with far more prospects than a traditional agent, and must use technology to prospect, nurture, and convert those leads on a daily basis. They have, or be willing to, build good habits for interacting with a large number of contacts who do not already know, like, and trust them. And that requires working more hours at more routine tasks in order to build that trust and credibility. The agent who leverages Internet lead-generation needs to possess some specific disciplines:

• Consistent follow up and responsiveness.• Great phone skills for building rapport and

appointment-setting.• Sharp attention to detail with a willingness

to use technology.• Accepting coaching and accountability.• Flexibility to accommodate appointments

and showings.

Training and Coaching

Brokers who invest in Internet lead-generation often consider the investment in training and coaching more important than the technology itself. While classroom, webinar, and one-on-one role-playing are all important, agents generating

leads through the Internet need to develop the specific skills necessary to successfully capture and work those leads. And that includes learning the importance of using the tools in their Customer Relationship Management (CRM)—not just for accountability but for productivity.

Compensation Plans

If the brokerage or team is going to invest in the technology and systems necessary to generate Internet leads, agents need to “buy-in” to the program. And that means that brokerages and teams must adjust their compensation plans to address company-generated business. They need to emphasize the total income Internet-leads ultimately generate rather than the amount of the commission split. Most brokers and teams charge a referral fee for a closed transaction from an Internet lead they an agent, in some cases up to 40 percent and in others charging a set monthly fee to contribute to the cost of the systems and advertising. An agent’s contribution can determine the number of monthly leads he or she receives and the monthly or lead fee can be credited to a commission on a closed transaction.

Issues with Independent Contractor Status

Due to the added management requirements for effectively converting Internet leads, brokers may wish to consult an attorney specializing in independent contractor issues as they design their requirements for agent participation in Internet lead-generation programs. Dictating the working hours and specific activities required to convert those leads may fall into a grey area of independent contractor law.

The Growth of Teams

Real estate sales teams are well suited to leverage Internet lead-generation because they exercise strong central control in managing staff- and agent-specific functions. Teams can be organized into specialized units that are trained, managed, and compensated for performing specific roles. Large teams may utilize inside sales agents (ISA) that scrub leads and set appointments, buyer’s



No discussion of Internet lead-generation in real estate would be complete without a conversation about Redfin. Founded in 2004 when product engineers invented map-based search, Redfin has built what many consider to be the finest real estate Web platform in the business. The company has attempted to revolutionize the real estate brokerage business by rebating sales commissions to customers and deploying employees as agents, who are partially compensated based on customer reviews.

According to Redfin, ninety percent of its 17,000 closed transactions ($9.1 billion in sales volume) over the past 12 months were generated from Internet leads. Clearly, a well-honed online lead-conversion process is the foundation of Redfin’s business.

“Redfin agents have a sense of ownership over every contact and value every person they interact with,” said Mark Reitman, Redfin’s regional director for the central U.S. In keeping with that philosophy, the company refers to its agents as customer advocates rather than real estate salespersons.

The company has a tiered system for responding to website leads. The CRM identifies those consumers who demonstrate behaviors that indicate they might be ready to talk to an agent; e.g. 10 visits

to the site to view a listing. Support Agents answer questions and determine whether the consumer is a real opportunity. Then Tour Coordinators make sure consumers are not working with another agent, determine whether they are preapproved for a home purchase, and schedule appointments.

Redfin has an extensive agent-training program. New agents spend three days at the firm’s Seattle headquarters in a real estate boot camp where they learn the firm’s systems and tools and how to work with clients. Back in their home office, agents are assigned to a geographic area and a team leader and begin to shadow a more experienced agent. They are then assigned new leads based on previous success and an assessment of how many clients they can successfully handle at one time. They are assigned a “comfortable” number of clients to work with based on their abilities and the current commitments on their calendar, which is fully visible to management and support staff.

Mark’s advice to brokerages thinking about online lead-generation: “It’s one thing to generate leads, you need to have a system in place to respond in minutes.”

CASE STUDY #1

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CONDUCT A SELF-AUDIT Investing in new programs and systems, especially those that touch so many aspects of a team’s operation, requires establishing baselines for costs per lead and costs per conversion. Determining which baselines are needed and how to ensure that they are successful depends upon many factors and the answers to questions such as:

• What information does the brokerage have about online leads generated in the past; e.g. price point, location, and property type?

• Does the brokerage track the sources of business at a detailed enough level to be useful; e.g. website, sign call, Zillow or realtor.com, personal referral, or relocation?

• What are the organization’s current methods and programs for agent accountability?

• Is there a CRM in place that agents use for client and marketing communications?• What are the existing agent and broker attitudes toward Internet lead-generation?• What are the past results of lead-generation programs?• What is the current technology infrastructure? What is missing?

PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING A brokerage’s documented lead-conversion performance serves as a useful benchmark for setting program performance goals. That information is critical in planning and goal-setting, which must clearly articulate the costs and expected benefits of the program. New programs can have hidden costs in all departments, and Internet lead-generation is no exception. For example, the training department might be expected to create scripts and lead role-playing sessions for office brokers, but if the skills are not available internally, resources must be made available to hire outside training.

agents that show properties and write offers, listing specialists that go on appointments with potential sellers, and transaction coordinators who handle contracts through closing.

Compensation plans can be adjusted to the role each team member plays. Buyer’s agents kept busy showing houses and writing contracts might be on a split of less than 50 percent, but overall they’re doing far more deals because they do not spend time prospecting. ISAs can make good incomes based on nurturing client opportunities before handing them off to an agent to show and close.

In the past, husband-and-wife teams generally ran a basic repeat and referral business. Today’s teams are evolving into more business-like operations that incorporate multiple team members with each member fulfilling a specific function or task. Some teams close hundreds of transactions per year with Internet leads accounting for a significant part of their business. For this reason, real estate coach Tom Ferry anticipates many thousands of teams will be formed in the next few years.

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STEPS TO IMPLEMENT AN INTERNET LEAD-GENERATION SYSTEM



IMPLEMENTING TOOLS AND SYSTEMSExisting Brokerage Website

Brokers should evaluate their existing website for its suitability as a lead-generation and -capture platform. If it lacks sufficient capability for lead-capture and the tracking of paid advertising traffic, it will likely be ineffective and underperform. A specialist may be needed to evaluate existing website capabilities.

Lead-Generation Website

Lead-generation websites are one of the most popular forms of business-generation technology in real estate. They are designed and intended to handle high-volume lead-generation and conversion, and all of the products in this category center on a property search experience as the primary traffic attractor. In turn, the traffic fuels the lead-capture and conversion opportunities that power the concept.

Some brokers may be best served by starting their programs on a proven platform rather than modifying their firm’s existing site to accommodate high-volume lead-generation and capture. These websites are usually sold with a managed advertising campaign to ensure a solid flow of traffic to the site; in some cases it is required and included in the fee. Some vendors incorporate advertising so they can deliver on their commitment and satisfy broker and agent clients.

All of the products in this category come with some form of lead conversion CRM that differs from traditional CRMs in two ways. First, they are designed to manage a high volume of leads, and second, they contain varying degrees of automation and “lead intelligence” that provide better prioritized lead follow up. In addition, the integration capabilities and interoperability with the entire lead system is a key differentiator of these products. The advertising management, website, property search, lead management, CRM, and marketing automation components are all designed to work as one tightly integrated system, which makes these platforms highly efficient and effective in converting online traffic into business.

CRM Tracking is an essential component of any marketing and sales process as important lead-generation business decisions can only be made if conversion rates are known. As lead volume and the corresponding cost for generating those leads increases, brokers must address two fundamental problems: how to distribute leads to agents and how to track the program’s subsequent performance and ROI.

Lead-management systems are a specific class of software designed to increase and administer the conversion of leads pulled in from a variety of sources. These systems streamline the processing of a high volume of inbound leads and their distribution to agents for follow up, replacing the manual efforts that tend to be difficult to track, organize, and control. In many cases, using these systems improves response times and increases sales-conversion rates.

Essential to a well-planned and -executed lead-generation and conversion strategy is a CRM that organizes contacts and communications. It serves as a central hub for marketing campaigns and lead records while providing visibility into how those campaigns are performing.

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PUT IN PLACE BEST PRACTICESFollow Up and Nurturing

Once new contacts are registered in the CRM, a decision must be made as to whether the agent or a central marketing coordinator should communicate with that contact. Therefore, contacts need to be categorized by source, urgency, time frame, property type, and location.

Most new leads should receive a welcome email and/or a text message designed for engagement. The messages should be short, to the point, and prompt a response from contacts in order for the team to begin understanding their needs, motivation, and time frame. Both the initial and subsequent emails and texts should be centered on a call to action, usually in the form of a question such as, “Would you like us to customize your search for homes in Happy Hills?”

An aggressive lead follow up plan should include calling contacts until an appointment is set or enough information is obtained in order to put them on a longer-term nurturing campaign. Proper contact categorization is important to ensure leads receive appropriate, high-quality content during follow up and nurturing.

The Importance of Content

While it would be easy to simply send a monthly newsletter or a regular blast of new listings, the emergence of the “attention economy” requires that a brokerage or agent continuously engage and re-engage a prospect if they want to turn a high percentage of leads into clients. Therefore, content must be relevant to the prospect’s interests and come frequently enough to keep the brokerage or agent top of mind.

High-quality content takes time and money to develop and is not usually produced by a low-level staffer, or perhaps even worse by each agent. Breaking through the clutter requires a plan, and to that end there are many proven email-marketing plans, including:

• Advice for Buyers: Financing, negotiation strategies, home-shopping tips.• Advice for Sellers: Pricing, staging, photography, marketing plans.• Community Information: Schools, events, shops, dining, tax information.• Market Reports: Property type, subdivision, neighborhood, community.

Quality content can be distributed in multiple places to enhance overall brand awareness and lead conversion. However, in order to fully leverage that content, it should appear on Social Media, not just the brokerage’s website. If agents have websites and Facebook accounts, brokers and team leaders should encourage them to incorporate relevant content on their sites and accounts as well.

The Importance of Agent Reviews

No matter how aggressively and effectively consumers are pursued through online and email marketing, eventually they will do their own research before choosing an agent. For that reason, agents receiving online leads must have a robust online presence that incorporates the reviews and testimonials that are critical in helping consumers develop trust and a relationship with agents.

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CREATE TRAFFIC TO ATTRACT LEADS Brokerages can employ a number of methods to generate traffic to company websites, and the following are the most frequently used techniques:

Paid Advertising

The most common form of paid advertising for driving traffic to brokerage and other lead-generation websites is Google Adwords (google.com/adwords). Adwords allows brokers to target Google search traffic based on keywords used in searches, such as “Austin homes for sale,” or more niche traffic such as “home value for 123 Elm Street.” Other search engines like Bing and Yahoo also offer paid advertising but are not as popular as Google among consumers.

Organic Search Traffic

Creating the content people search for online can be a great way to generate organic traffic. Although these methods require time and effort, they can pay a return over time by increasing traffic to a broker’s site. Organic content might include market reports, community overviews, and lifestyle and property videos. It can also include search results pages featuring listings in popular neighborhoods, foreclosures, condo buildings, or nearly any specific property type. The more specific the information, the better the website’s ranking will be.

Portal Advertising

Portals like Zillow, Trulia, realtor.com, and Homes.com have become key resources for consumers searching for housing and housing information. Advertising on these portals can jumpstart some brokerage lead generation programs, especially among smaller brokerages where advertising listings is a relatively inexpensive proposition. However, because many brokerages have policies that send leads from listings directly to listing agents—“my listing, my lead—using listings to scale a firm’s lead program for agents can be tricky or impractical in a brokerage context.

All of these portals offer brokers and agents the ability to appear next to other agents’ listings in specific ZIP codes. For example, advertising with Zillow Group places a so-called Premier Agent (not the listing agent) next to listings on Zillow, Trulia, and other Zillow Group sites. Realtor.com’s Connection for Co-Brokerage program allows agents and brokers to purchase leads by contract—typically a fixed number per ZIP code per month.

Leads generated on the portals are usually more expensive than pay-per-click (PPC) leads, but portal leads are often closer to making a decision to buy or sell. Those leads are more likely to have been shopping for an extended time on various websites before contacting an agent to view a property or to get a pricing estimate on their house.

Retargeting

The targeting of recent website visitors with online ads is a new technique for lead acquisition and brand marketing that is gaining popularity. This technology utilizes tracking mechanisms such as Web cookies to have advertisements “follow” visitors of a specific site as they browse the Internet.

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Facebook

Facebook’s advertising platform allows brokers and agents to target specific geographies, demographics, and users’ homeownership status using information derived from proprietary data Facebook has collected or licensed. This hyper-focused targeting makes advertising more effective since messages can be crafted to specifically fit a geography and demographic.

Innovative Real Estate (IRE; iregroup.com) is a 13-year-old brokerage based in Denver with 170 agents in three offices that will close over 2,000 transactions in 2015.

“We invested early in Zillow and built systems around those leads,” said Scott Nordby, IRE’s owner and employing broker. Today, in addition to the company’s Zillow Group spend, nearly one-quarter of its agents also purchase ZIP code advertising with the portal giant.

When leads come in from Zillow Group they are “shot-gunned” to the four or five agents whose profiles match the potential customer’s criteria. Whoever accepts the lead, keeps it, and then automatically creates a search on the brokerage website based on property location and

price. In this way prospects are immediately exposed to company branding and information. Agents then follow up and document their activities in the brokerage’s CRM; at the same time the company’s email drip-marketing campaigns kick in.

In the IRE business model, all agents are trained to work with Internet leads. Training is extremely important and all agents learn the Ninja Selling System (ninjaselling.com) developed by The Group Inc. New agents are assigned mentors and when they become more experienced, a non-competing broker regularly coaches them.

CASE STUDY #2



Long Realty is a 90-year-old independent brokerage with over 500 agents located in Tuscon, Arizona. The company prides itself on innovation and leveraging technology to create new ways of doing business. About five years ago the company invested in a lead-generation program powered by ZipRealty, but it recently re-launched its own lead-generation website on the BoomTown platform (boomtownroi.com). Today, it has a dedicated team of agents who work the online business opportunities created from its website (arizonhomesearch.com).

“To make a highly converting team, you need three things: (1) Technology, (2) Focused agents who embrace the model, and (3) Coaching; if there’s no one to coach and mentor, a lead program is just a waste of

time,” said Kevin Kaplan, Long Realty vice president of marketing and technology.

BoomTown’s CRM is critical to the success of the Long Realty team. Online leads are distributed directly to the agents on the dedicated team in round-robin fashion. The CRM gives visibility into agents’ follow up and sales activities and they use it to track consumer behavior and determine the best opportunities for follow up and conversion. “People come for the leads, but stay for the tech and systems,” Kaplan said.

Long Realty also collects and distributes leads from its more traditional virtual office website (longrealty.com). The firm recently added sold and pending listing data to the site to attract even more consumers.

CASE STUDY #3

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User Targeting

An even newer technique makes use of Facebook’s Custom Audiences and Google’s Customer Match services, which allow marketers to target their ads to specific email addresses they upload. Similar to retargeting, this approach allows marketers to craft ads to entice specific consumers who already have a relationship with the company, even if that relationship is weak.

CAPTURE LEADS The following are a few common lead-capture methods that brokers may utilize in their lead-generation systems. The following two are used most often:

• Property Search: Lead-generation programs primarily utilize property search as the attraction that gets consumers to enter their contact information. This can include specialized property searches, including searches that show sold information through a virtual office website (VOW), a notification system that alerts consumers of new search matches or price and status changes to properties they are interested in.

• Property Detail Pages: Some lead-generation systems focus on advertising basic information about properties for sale, and utilizing lead-capture to reveal additional information such as property videos, additional photography, the street address, price-change history, or sold information.

Special Offers

One way to capture buyer or seller leads is to offer an eBook, whitepaper, newsletter, or a special report from an ad on your website or Facebook page. Special offer landing pages should be specifically designed to capture consumers’ email addresses and other relevant information such as their home address and their interest in buying or selling. As with all new contacts, brokers and agents should follow up and nurture them through a CRM until they are ready to meet.

Home Valuation Offers

Many lead-capture initiatives geared toward homeowners make a “what’s my home worth” offer. If consumers receive an automated value estimate of their home instantly or by email, an ISA (often unlicensed) or a licensed agent should immediately contact them to assess their interest in scheduling an appointment to refine the automated value. If the lead cannot be reached immediately, a series of calls, texts, and emails designed to create engagement should be executed over 10 days to 10 weeks with the help of a CRM.

If the consumer doesn’t respond in the first two weeks, an agent may make a personal visit to determine whether the homeowner is interested in selling. Otherwise, put the contact on a long-term email-marketing program with updated home values and market reports for their community.

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RESPOND TO AND MANAGE LEADSOption 1: Use an Inside Sales Agent

ISAs are members of the sales team responsible for initial response and the overall management of Internet leads, however their primary job is “speed to lead.” Nearly every agent, team, or brokerage that is successful in converting online leads is committed to contacting new leads within minutes of registration or requesting information. Secondarily, ISAs are often responsible for qualifying prospects, sorting them into appropriate timeframes for response and nurturing longer-term leads.

They are typically compensated on a salary or hourly basis with sales commissions or bonuses for closings they help execute. However, many teams and brokerages believe the ISA should be a licensed real estate agent in order to meet the requirements of local license law.

Option 2: Use an Outside Sales Agent Service (OSAS)

In contrast to in-house staff, new services like Rokrbox (rokrbox.com), GoFirstFive (gofirstfive.com), or Zillow Concierge provide trained call center personnel who focus on the initial consumer contact. They typically respond to leads on behalf of brokers or teams on a contract basis and are compensated either on a per-lead basis or through a monthly fee based on the lead volume they handle. In the case of Zillow Concierge, these services are packaged with specific Zillow Group advertising programs.

These services make a number of attempts to reach the contact and schedule an appointment with an agent. It is the agent’s role to keep the assigned appointments and to offer a buyer representation, show a home, or conduct a listing presentation. Agents are also responsible for post-appointment follow up and, if necessary, initiating a longer-term follow up plan.

Benefits and Caveats for ISA and OSAS Models

An ISA or OSAS can help agents stay focused on client service and selling real estate rather than the grind of lead nurturing and follow up. Their function ensures quick response time to new leads and a consistent follow up over many weeks and months. However, establishing this role in an organization where agents previously received their own leads can cause dissension with agents who do not understand or agree with utilizing a third-party intermediary. Therefore, many organizations pay for the ISA or OSAS by adjusting the split for agents who accept and convert leads. This can also cause problems when the brokerage or team adds the sales agent to an existing lead-distribution system and lowers the split the agent previously received. Educating agents that they will receive higher-quality leads that are closer to transaction will help win buy-in to a new system.

Option 3: Assigning Leads Directly to Agents

Leads can be directly assigned to agents based on rules or criteria established by the brokerage. Drawbacks to this practice can include a lack of immediate response and follow up. As a result, expectations must be set and agents held accountable for improving response times and closing rates. Common models are “Agent on Duty,” “Broadcast and Claim,” “Round Robin,” and “Assignment by Specialization.”

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Agent on Duty

In this model, new contacts and leads are assigned to an “on-duty” agent. That agent is usually responsible for first contact and subsequent follow up for all leads—online and offline—that come into the team or brokerage during that time. To be successful, this model requires agents be available for calls, respond to contacts, and continue to follow up until they reach a contact.

The downside to this model is that many otherwise competent agents are not prepared for either quick response times or consistent follow up. Most agents are focused on the business in front of them rather than future opportunities with leads with whom they do not already have a relationship. Many simply are not good at the detailed logging of calls and other activities that make up an effective nurturing campaign.

Broadcast and Claim

Some lead-management systems offer the ability to broadcast a new lead to a team of agents. In this scenario the agent who responds first gets the lead. This strategy can improve response time, however a potential drawback is that some agents will “horde” leads.

Round Robin

In this model leads are assigned to agents in a round robin fashion who are then responsible for all follow up and nurturing. Some lead-management CRMs allow a manager or broker to weight assignments based on individual agents’ abilities or availability. The Agent on Duty, Broadcast and Claim, and Round Robin lead-distribution models typically do not require additional personnel to implement.



Assignment by Specialization

In this model, leads are assigned to agents who have been specifically selected to cover a geography, price point, property type, or some combination thereof. This allows them to focus on working with particular types of clients and become more effective at closing them. There are some lead management CRM systems that allow a hybrid model that combines specialization and round robin techniques.

CONVERT LEADSFirst Response—Speed to Lead

Whether an ISA or a sales agent handles the first response, new leads and registrations should receive a follow up call, text message, or email within five minutes. The best follow up is a phone call in which in which the agent thanks the lead for visiting the website and offers assistance, such as setting up a custom search or helping them get more information about the value of their home.

Opinions are mixed about using text messaging as the first contact because, until recently, many people believed that texting someone who didn’t ask to be contacted was inappropriate and would likely leave a negative impression. But younger people, who have been texting since grade school, do not have similar texting boundaries and may prefer a short text to a phone call or email.

Visitors who ask for information on a portal website expect immediate follow up to their inquiry. If not received, they will quickly send the request to another agent. People who register on an IDX site are far less likely to expect an immediate call, but it is good practice to engage them quickly in order to form a positive impression of both the site and the broker behind it.

First Call When Made by Agents

The objective of the first call should be to establish a basis for a relationship, not to create the relationship itself. Agents should seek to understand how they can offer support by asking questions related to the source of the call. Some experts believe that the first call should be about the use of the website or about the property on which the contact inquired, rather than exploring the contact’s overall needs and wants.

First Call When Made by ISA or OSAS

When the first call is made by someone on the team who isn’t an agent or by an outside call center service, the goal is either to set an appointment with an agent—regardless of the prospect’s timing or motivation—or to gather enough information to decide when an agent should get involved.

Contact Follow Up

The goal of subsequent calls should be to uncover the contact’s timing and motivation. The ISA or sales agent use regular phone calls, emails, and/or texts to make contact with the lead during the first two weeks. If a direct connection cannot be made, a nurturing email campaign with interesting or educational material should be initiated.

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Scripts—Agents

The use of scripts is controversial for many traditional agents who do not believe their relationship-building skills can be canned. Nevertheless, agents can learn new patterns of interacting with potential clients through role-playing and scripts.

Most agents can quickly recognize hot opportunities; prospects who are ready to meet for a listing appointment or go view properties. But the secret to improving their overall conversion rate of online leads is to master interactions with those contacts who are not ready to transact. Scripts can help them gauge interest, ask the tough questions, and determine next step.

Scripts—ISAs

ISAs must follow scripts and engage in role-play on a regular basis because they are the first point of contact in fostering a relationship between a lead and an agent. If the brokerage chooses to use internal ISAs and does not have a history of teaching and role-playing scripts, using an outside training source should be considered. Many training and coaching companies offer ISA training programs, webinars, and seminars.

ISA Hand-Off to Agent

Regardless of when the hand-off from the ISA to the agent occurs, both parties need to clearly understand and adhere to the rules. Standards must be set for the hand-off as prospects will be wasted if ISAs set appointments and agents subsequently ignore the lead. Building a consistent flow of information regarding opportunities can take place in a CRM, but the effectiveness of one-on-one communication cannot be overlooked.

Documenting Lead Information

Agents and ISAs working with Internet leads must document their calls in a CRM, recording information about the contact’s motivation, timing to buy or sell, price range if they are looking to buy, and whether or not they are currently working with another agent. The brokerage should set a standard for qualifying and tagging contacts—“A-B-C” or some other nomenclature—to establish how and when the follow up should occur.

Communication Plans for Leads

Based on how a contact is categorized, sales agents or ISAs should initiate an action plan for follow up. For prospects who are likely to transact in a relatively short time frame, contact should be weekly with emails of properties that match their interest and other relevant and timely information. If the prospect is a number of months, or even years away from transacting, the brokerage’s digital marketing programs should be initiated to ensure the lead receives regular, but not intrusive or annoying, communications.

In addition, the brokerage needs to decide under what name the email-marketing communications will be sent. If the ISA is on the brokerage team and will be interacting with prospects over a long period of time, then his or her name could be used for emails, newsletters and, of course, phone calls. The downside is that a prospect may believe they are developing a relationship with the ISA and may have difficulty transitioning to a relationship with a sales agent.



Weekly Schedule for Converting Leads

Agents who will not adapt a regular follow up schedule are unlikely to successfully convert Internet-leads in the long-term. Coaching and accountability can help those agents adhere to a structured routine that prioritizes activities according to day of the week and even time of day. Some successful Internet agents prospect every morning for one to two hours or until they reach a goal such as a certain number of contacts made or appointments set. Other agents find they prospect better in the evening when they are likely to reach more people. Teaching agents to carefully manage and track their time can be the difference between a lead-generation program’s success and failure.

TAKEAWAYMeasurement and Accountability

Controlling the flow of new leads is crucial. Leads should come in at a steady pace and in a manageable volume. If too many leads flow in, agents simply cherry-pick the best ones and ignore the rest. On the other hand, with too few leads they can easily become discouraged and neglect daily prospecting activities.

Losing a lead can be more damaging than never having generated it in the first place. Leads will only stay warm for so long, regardless of the prospect’s timeframe, and your brand’s reputation in the lead’s eyes will suffer if agents neglect their follow up and nurturing duties. Many successful teams and brokerages find that 20 to 30 active leads at any given time is the right number for most agents. By active we mean that the consumer regularly searches for properties and engages with the agent.

Managing the Team’s Activities

It would be foolish to generate a large volume of Internet leads and simply hope that agents will perform all of the activities necessary to manage and convert them. Therefore, clear expectations and active accountability measures must be a part of the

process. Either the broker or a designated manager must set and manage the team’s response-time performance, follow up, and nurturing activities. This assessment will need to take place weekly or daily to prove effective, especially as the lead flow increases.

Evaluating Results

As a company uses its lead-generation platform it can track conversion rates across the system to measure and improve performance. Key measurements are lead volume, lead-to-appointment rate, and lead-to-transaction rate. Firms can use these metrics to help an entire team improve its performance.

Eventually, enough data will exist to enable a mature lead-generation platform to evaluate the costs of different advertising platforms and campaigns for different lead sources. These types of measurements help the company become more effective at finding and exploiting lower-cost traffic sources or determining when and where to pay a premium for high-quality leads.

Losing a lead can be more damaging than never having generated it in the first place.

SWANEPOEL T3 GROUP

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