I can predict almost with absolute certainty how healthy a real estate agent’s business actually is based off of how dialed in these three systems are. So in this article, I wanna share the 3 systems that every successful real estate agent needs. We’re talking about lead generation, lead conversion, and client retention. I totally blanked out the last one. These are really important indicators of how well and smooth your business is going to run, so I’m excited to dive in.
And, hey, if you stick with me to the end of this article, I’m gonna be sharing a way that you can actually work with me live in a free training that I am rolling out to agents everywhere coming up soon, so stay tuned. And, hey, if we haven’t met yet, and I am obsessed with helping real estate agents grow their business and create the life that they dreamed of.
If you exchange your thoughts later, it is definitely fine. But it does help me not only stay in touch with you, but support other agents who are looking for information just like this. So thanks a lot. Alright. Let’s dive into these three systems that are going to be super important to your success as a real estate agent.
Number 1
And the first one, of course, first and foremost, the MVP of all real estate businesses, lead generation. Every real estate agent needs to have clarity. And I’m talking absolute clarity. Not only on where their leads should be coming from, but also the activities that results in those leads. Here’s what I mean.
A lot of times, especially when we get busy in real estate, it can feel like business just kinda comes out of nowhere. Like, we get a referral on the fly or we get a signed call. And at some point, it starts to feel like it just kinda runs on autopilot. But as soon as you think that that’s the way your business is running, you are headed straight for a lowland business. Now a lot of the real estate agents who get busy with deals, they tend to just let the prospecting slide because let’s face it, no agent truthfully loves prospecting.
Business when we’re already busy closing current clients. Right? New business when we’re already busy closing current clients. Right? And it’s a fair conundrum to find yourself in, but understanding where your leads need to come from and what activities we need to do consistently to generate those results is what helps your business stay on that upward slope going up into the right.
We want to focus on sustainable, predictable growth over time, and your lead generation system is what results in that. Now regardless of what your experience level is in the industry or where you’re located, all real estate businesses have to have a focus on 2 different worlds in terms of lead prospecting. The first one is their database marketing plan. The second is going to be generating leads proactively. Now these are 2 different forms of prospecting, but both have to work together in order to have smooth, predictable business and a really healthy, mature pipeline of leads.
Let’s talk about database and network marketing first. Now this is one of the things that every single agent needs to start on. And if I were to go back to my 1st year in real estate and just kick myself in the pants for not doing the one thing I should’ve been doing, I should’ve been focusing from day 1 on my database and network. Now my husband and I, we’re a husband and wife duo and we really focused on finding right now leads in our 1st year instead of looking at our network and putting the systems in place to generate more referrals. What it really came down to is we just assumed that our database was not going to show up for us, and we were kind of afraid to put ourselves out there and mess up in front of our friends and family, like the people who we already have that know, like, and trust factor.
But what that also did was that stunted our growth from growing our network with new clients as well. And by new clients, I mean, like, like, new business relationships, contacts that you should be adding into your database over time. Now if I were to go back, I would have immediately done that and gone all in. And still today, once we figured it out, it works really well in order to get our referrals up, increase our brand awareness within our existing network. And it really helped to make conversion with certain prospects even easier, especially if they were a, either referred to us or past clients or friends and family or even business relationships who had followed us on social media for a while and knew that we were serious about what we did.
Now let’s talk about the other side of prospecting, where as we’re looking at like prospecting for new business. Now this is gonna be a big bucket where you are going out. It’s outbound activities trying to get you face to face with people who overwhelmingly are just having the first impression with your business at that first contact. This looks like open houses, cold calling, door knocking, internet leads, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So whatever flavor of the moment of prospecting that you might be trying out, that is going to be the type of lead generation where you’re getting in front of people who, for the first time, it’s the first time they’re meeting you and learning about your business.
Now while it’s really important to have these types of prospecting systemized in your business as well, You wanna understand that a lot of times, these might have longer term nurture, depending on the lead source. And they’re going to be a little more difficult to convert because, like I mentioned, it’s the first time they’re learning about you and your business, so they don’t have that warm, fuzzy know, like, and trust factor with you just yet. Now that is also why we wanna focus on the database and marketing strategies that you want in your business because that’s going to help you warm up those leads over time and turn them into raving fans when they are ready to make the sale. So all that to say, you should understand that there are 2 different types of lead generation that we’re doing here and both need to be really dialed in with systems.
But I will tell you now, most agents need a minimum of 3 solid lead sources where they’re generating consistent leads from, maximum 7. Now generating a predictable pipeline of business is just one part of it. Right? Like it doesn’t matter how good you are at generating leads if you’re really bad at converting and retaining them. So that leads us to the next system that you really have to have dialed in, which is lead conversion.
Now your lead conversion systems are going to look a little different depending on the lead sources that you are prospects from. This is also why it’s really hard for any, like, real estate coach or guru to give you a one size fits all approach because that’s part of the beauty of real estate. All of our businesses are going to be built a little bit differently, meaning that it’s your job as a business owner to fine tune the way that you wanna follow-up with these prospects. Now depending on the maturation rate for your different lead sources, meaning depending on how long it takes you to get from clients to close, you’re going to have to have some follow-up strategies really dialed in here. So for example, in the Market Authority Academy, we talk quite a bit about really solid follow-up strategies that don’t make you feel sales y, spammy, and let you stay top of mind with a prospect whether they’re ready to buy within 90 days or whether they’re ready to buy 12 months from now.
Now not all agents are going to be at the place right away to where they need to use something like a CRM to automate these follow-up campaigns. But at a certain point when you are generating a certain number of leads through system number 1, you will need to leverage automation in order to keep this follow-up going. Because one of the most important indicators of a healthy real estate business is whether they are able to convert different clients along all spectrums of that journey. Right? We know that we have some right now clients and some clients who require a little bit of nurture.
That is why it’s so ready. It’s so important to have a varied approach ready and dialed in for this different kind for these different kinds of leads that you’ll be generating. The second portion of your lead conversion, of course, is the consultation. Now I can say without a doubt that the one thing that has really impacted our conversions over the years is our ability to set really great consultations with either buyers or sellers and in order to do it, like, earlier rather than later. Meaning, I don’t care if a buyer or a seller is not ready to make a move for, like, 12 months.
If I get a lead, I’m going to be setting a face to face appointment because we know overwhelmingly that most buyers or sellers will hire the 1st agent who they meet. Particularly when you are doing any kind of digital marketing and generating leads online, that is going to be likely the first impression that that client is going to have with your business. And so if you can really solidify that face to face connection with them, you are that much more likely for this second lead system, your lead conversion to actually follow through and be successful. Now, this process again is going to look different for every single agent because every single agent has something different to offer their clients, whether you have taken the time to recognize what that actually is or isn’t. Now back to the Market Authority Academy, from that example that I mentioned, I’m working with real estate agents to have a really fantastic consultation.
In order to do that, they have to understand a couple of different things. Number 1, they have to understand what value they bring to the table. Right? So what are their unique experience levels, their skills, their interests, their belief systems that they can actually use to create an incredible client experience for that buyer or seller.
Number 2
Number 2, you have to understand the buyer or seller. Because in order to make those skills and interests and experience relevant to them, you have to understand what they want, what they need, what their pain points are, where they are in the cycle of homeownership as a whole. And in order to do that, it requires a little bit of research, a little bit of fact finding, and a little bit of storytelling so that you can actually explain when you’re sitting across the table from that client how you are prepared better than any other agent to solve their unique problems. Along with this, you need additional methods of that that Wow client experience, for example. So how are you going to make sure that first meeting is gonna go off without a hitch? This is a entire experience that can be walked through a workflow and really written out in such a way to where it’s very predictable and you are generating the same results time and time again.
Number 3
Now after you’ve completed system number 2, right, and you have your full proof plan to converting the lead and then turning them into a client for life, we then have to make sure that we keep them in that happy place where we are looking at system number 3, client retention. Now your client retention system is going to look like a couple of different things. You really wanna make sure that you’ve dialed in the wow client experience, which is kind of what I was just alluding to in the last point. But the wow client experience is going to take that client from, like, prospect who’s a little afraid of going forward with this big transaction of a home purchase or a home sale and get them to a place to they where they are a raving fan and more of like a friend than just a business contact who only needs you when they’re looking to buy or sell.
That is definitely worth a watch, so you’ll wanna check that out next. But the next step that you’re wanting to understand as well is your annual marketing plan. Now just like back in system number 1, where we are generating new business and nurturing existing contacts in order for our lead prospecting, our annual marketing plan is going to help tie that all together by taking some of those newer leads and putting them into our network so that we can stay in touch with them, train them how to refer us over time, and create like a referral generating machine out of our network. The annual marketing plan is what helps you do that. Now in order to have a really dialed in annual marketing plan, you have to have a couple of different touch points with your network that are going to be, like, touch points that will just help include your brand awareness over time and have a little more of assertive touch where you get that face to face interaction that will help you develop relationships.
Because again, if we take a high level look at this, we’re not messing with the thing that has always worked in real estate, which is real estate businesses, it’s a people business. It’s built on real people and real relationships. And so our annual marketing plan has to help us do that whether we are marketing ourselves on social media or in person or through email or a mix of both, which is what it should be. Now I know with this kind of information, we can get into the weeds really quickly. And it can be overwhelming, especially if you haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about this stuff just yet.
And that’s why I created a brand new training that I am offering live for agents everywhere, and we are offering that really soon. Now space is limited for this event. All the details in order to reserve your spot and register for this free training are are going to be below in the caption. So check that out. I would love to invite you to spend some time live with me and learn about how you too can implement these incredible strategies for your business.