This document provides guidance to realtors on creating and managing six essential contact lists to succeed in real estate: 1) sphere of influence, 2) past clients, 3) "A" leads, 4) "B" leads, 5) "C" leads, and 6) business development contacts. It emphasizes the importance of follow-up communication through newsletters, notes, calls, emails and gifts to maintain lists. Realtors are advised to check their progress against business plans and goals, focusing efforts on generating new leads and improving lead conversion rates through targeted outreach.
1. 6 Powerful Lists Every
Realtor Needs To Succeed
If you've got these and work them right,
you'll close deals!
Pranav Pandya
Franchise Development Manager
RE/MAX Gujarat
2. The 6 lists every Realtor needs to succeed
1.Your sphere of influence
2.Your past clients
3. Your “A” leads
4. Your “B” leads
5. Your “C” leads
6. Business development contacts
RE/MAX Gujarat
3. Who is in each list?
• Sphere of influence: friends, family,
past colleagues outside real estate.
• Past clients:! *
4. Who is in each list?
• A” leads: anyone buying or selling in the next 90 days, is preapproved and
motivated.
• “B” leads: anyone buying or selling in the next six months, is organized,
serious and seems loyal.
• “C” leads: open house contacts, website leads and anyone “thinking” about
real estate.
5. Who is in each list?
• Business development: builders, lawyers,
accountants, referral agents, etc.
• This list includes people you talk to about
frequent, repeat business.
6. What to do with each list?
• What’s the reason most agents never do business with past clients?
• FOLLOW-UP
• So, the crazy, insane, ultra-classified secret to successfully using lists is …
7. Send Them Something Occasionally
• Newsletters
• Personal notes
• Phone calls
• Emails
• Gifts
• Appreciation party invitation
• Letters
• Postcards
8. When do I drop people from the lists?
• Spend one to two hours each day on lead generation and cultivation.
• Drop leads when they tell you they’ve gone elsewhere.
• Drop leads when you determine they’re wasting time or aren’t serious.
• Don’t fear losing leads — generate new ones.
9. Customer service and your lists
• The whole real estate business is based on customer service and how good
you are at providing it.
• Remember? “The customer is always right.” ?
• Make people remember you. Make people want to remember you. If you do,
those lists will grow and grow.
11. Annual business plan should include:
• A budget, with both business and personal expenses included.
• The stated gross income required to meet the expenses in the budget
(estimated).
• The number of transactions required to generate that income, and the
number of prospects needed to reach the transaction goal.
• A marketing plan designed to reach that number of prospects, in order
to accomplish the deals needed to meet your income goal.
12. Check in on your budget
Budget goal
Spend for first half
of 2014
Revised budget for
2014
13. Plan for spending wisely during the second half
of 2014
I will invest in...
• Leads
• Marketing that is working
• New ways to generate leads
• A lead capture website
• Software to help manage my
business
• Other
I will cutback on...
• Marketing that is NOT working
• A website that does NOT get
leads
14. Lead generation
Current leads per
month
Needed leads per
month (Use the Lead
Calculator to help...)
Goal (In the second
half of 2014, I will
generate...)
15. Plan for spending wisely during the second half
of 2014
Buy _______ leads per
month
Advertise on real estate sites
Cold call _______ FSBOs
and expired listings
Knock on doors in my farm
area
Send ________ print mailers
Set up social media campaigns
Other _________________
16. Lead Retention
Number of contacts in
your CRM/
Contact Manager
Conversion rate goal
for Leads/Contacts
• Example: With 100 leads/contacts,
having a reasonable goal of a 3-5%
conversion rate will lead to 3-5 new
clients.
Lead retention issues
• Where can your lead conversion
improve?
• I sometimes lose my leads’
contact Information
• I don’t always follow up with my
leads right away
• My email marketing is ineffective
or inconsistent
• Other
17. Plan to re-engage your leads/contacts
• To re-engage my leads/contacts, I will...
Make ________ phone calls
Invest in a contact management system/ (whatever suits your business best)
Set up daily/weekly/monthly email drip campaign(s)
Send print mailers
Connect with my leads on social media
Other ______________________________________________________
18. Progress chart
Goal Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Generate _____ leads per month.
Respond to new leads within _____ hour(s).
Re-engage _____ inactive leads per month.
Send _____ email newsletter(s). (recommended 1 per month)
Add all contacts to email drip campaigns.
Send print mailers/postcards to _____ leads.
Knock on _____ doors in farm area.
Add _____ friends/followers/connections on
Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn
Additional goal…
My reward for completing my goals:
We’ve officially reached the midpoint in the year—the time when real estate professionals check in with their annual plan to gauge how they’re progressing toward their goals.
It’s also a good time to ensure that your annual goal is still achievable and determine what steps you can take to get there.
Your annual business plan is a roadmap to success, and like any roadmap, it doesn’t show the potential potholes and roadblocks you may face along the way. Since this road isn’t set in stone, however, you have the flexibility to tweak your plan as the year rolls along.
How is your budget looking? Calculate how much you’re spending versus how much you’re taking in. If you need to scale back on spending, that means that so far your income isn’t quite what you hoped it would be.
Look for places—other than marketing—to make cuts. Marketing is the device that will bring in the prospects you need to meet your goals in the second half of the year.
While most top agents are lead-generating machines, the majority of agents generate less than 20 leads per month. Unless you have a massive sphere of influence that you reach out to on a continuous basis and get tons of referrals from, those 20 leads per month will lead you to the poor house.
If you’ve fallen behind in loading up your pipeline, use Market Leader’s handy Lead Calculator to help determine the number of transactions you’ll need over the next six months to hit your annual goal. The calculator will also let you know how many leads you’ll need per month to close that number of transactions. Don’t be surprised if the number is large—you will be playing catch-up.
Next, determine other methods you can use to generate new leads. Perhaps you’ll need to buy leads for the rest of the year. If money is tight, consider getting back to basics by calling on expireds and FSBOs or knocking on doors.