Now’s the Time to Fill Your Funnel

Business continues to churn in most areas, but with in-person showings down, your agents might find they have extra time on their hands. That doesn’t mean they can take their foot off the gas. No one knows when the business will return to “normal”, but you’ll want to make sure your brokerage and your agents are doing everything they can now to put themselves in the best position for when that happens. That means engaging and getting in front of potential prospects in your community and starting conversations now. This way, once the market does open up, your team will be top of mind. Here are 5 things you should be doing to fill your sales funnel:

1.Direct Mail.

Now is a great time to take advantage of direct mail. People are home and have more time than ever to look at their mail. Adjust your postcard message to be sensitive to the times. Let them know you are open for business if they need you and as a member of the community you are all in this together. Many vendors are even offering COVID-related design options to acknowledge and thank frontline workers. Sign up for a scheduled mailing program to send a piece out every month to your sphere, farm an area or take advantage of calendar milestones. Worried about your expenses? Direct mail is a very cost-effective way to reach a large number of people and with options like Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) through the U.S. Postal Service, you can save a lot of money off standard postage.

2.Email and Text.

This is a great cost-effective way to send a brief message to the contacts in your CRM to stay top of mind. It should be more personal than a direct mail piece. It can be as simple as checking in, sharing an article, sharing property of interest or simply sharing a story or a positive anecdote to make someone smile – these days everyone can use an extra smile! Make sure your CRM is up to date and is properly categorized so you can better target appropriate messages to the right groups. Set up your CRM to send automatic text or emails for birthdays and anniversaries. Let people know you are thinking of them. It goes a long way. And if you don’t have a real estate CRM with these capabilities, now might be a good time to research options.

3.Up Your Social Media Presence.

With people unable to go out, they have more time to spend scrolling through social media. Now is a great time to maximize your presence to increase your chances of being seen. Share a positive message. Share content on things to do while social distancing. Share interesting facts or history of your neighborhood. Video a walking tour of your neighborhood. Post home improvement ideas. If you are hosting virtual career events, first time homebuyer or home-seller webinars, promote them on social media. Again, the agents that were active and visible during this time are going to be the ones who will benefit from any pent-up demand when things return to normal and a consumer needs to find an agent.

4.Hold Consumer Seminars.

While many real estate plans may be delayed or put on hold, the plans have likely not gone away. While people are home and have the time and are looking for things to do, host first-time buyer seminars or home-seller seminars online. Educate them now and position yourself as the expert, so that when they can buy or sell, they will call on you to help them do it. Make sure you have a professional looking presentation deck, create a postcard or emailable invitations and promote the events on Facebook to drive attendance. You can follow up with them afterward with any additional handouts or flyers. By capturing their information during the registration process, you can continue to keep in touch with them afterward until they are ready to make a move.

5. Keep in Touch with Your Support Networks.

Now more than ever, staying in touch with your support networks is important. These might be business networking groups, professional organizations or other support groups. Keep up those relationships. Check in regularly. Make sure your networks know you are still open for business if they happen to speak with someone looking for help buying or selling. Not only can your networks be a great source of referrals, but also a resource for ideas on how to market or stay in touch with the community during these times. Think about collaborating on a joint online event. Consider organizing a food run to a local hospital or other frontline workers. If for no other reason, keep in touch with your networks for your overall well-being. Use them as a social outlet to swap stories, share challenges or simply for moral support and motivation to keep you propped up and going as you keep your agents going.

How well is your funnel equipped? At Weichert, our affiliates have access to a variety of tools and resources to help them in all these areas. Our Approved Suppliers offer a variety of direct mail libraries and services and our myWeichert smart tech platform provides a sophisticated CRM with a variety of email and text communication options. From social media services and templates to professional looking consumer seminar materials designed and ready to go, our affiliates are well equipped to stay in touch with their communities. Plus, we have an awesome peer-to-peer network and service teams that are in constant communication with each other, so no one ever feels alone or wondering what to do next. Think those are things your real estate business could benefit from? Contact our team today for more info or register for an informational webinar. www.weichertfranchise.com

This blog is originally posted here: https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/nows-the-time-to-fill-your-funnel/

Making The Most of Working Remotely

With remote working suddenly becoming the new normal, you might be still be trying to navigate how to be productive and effective as a brokerage leader. Here are five ways to keep your team motivated and your business moving in the right direction.

1.Communicate. Communicate.

Communication is more important now than ever before and it’s what will be memorable once things are back to normal. Make sure you have a regular plan of communication with your team as well as your clients. Those one-on-ones are more critical than ever. Virtual sales meetings are great morale boosters for the whole team and enable you to show off your leadership. Use them as an opportunity to communicate changes in state and local protocols and share best practices. Make sure a key point of these meetings includes sharing progress on goals and milestones reached. It’s important that you continually motivate now more than ever to keep their spirits up and their fires lit.

Don’t forget your clients, too. Make it a point to post on Facebook, send emails, newsletters or host virtual events to let the community know you are still open for business. Real estate needs are still active, and transactions continue to take place. Even though business can’t take place in the traditional face-to-face sense, let them know you have the technology and virtual ability to still hold consultations, make offers and do business. Promote virtual events like consumer seminars and virtual open houses.

2.Make Sure You Have the Right Tech

From having the right equipment to having the right software, make sure you have everything you need to conduct business comfortably. Invest in a good headset, wireless mouse or keyboard. Find the video conference software that works best for you to effectively stay in touch. Applications like Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Meet and Slack are all popular and effective. Make sure you have a good real estate CRM and marketing tools for your team so they can communicate effectively with their spheres, prospect and market. Having strong tools will enable them to be more productive with any downtime they may be experiencing. Weichert for example, enables all it’s agents and offices with myWeichert which features a powerful CRM complete with automated follow-up and lead gen tools.

3.Embrace Video

Even if you are uncomfortable, learn to embrace video. You may not be able to interact with your agents or clients face to face, but it’s still important that they see your face. Don’t worry about being perfect and polished out of the gate. With everyone in the same boat, there will be a lot of imperfection out there and everyone is OK with that. This is the perfect time to dabble and the more you do it, the more comfortable it will become. Letting your agents see your face can make a huge difference in motivation, productivity and general well-being. We still need that human connection, even if it’s virtual. And it will be good for you as well.

And no matter how business transpires, one thing will not change: clients will continue to want to do real estate business with people they trust. Letting them see your face and still being able to look people in the eye will help instill that trust and confidence in you and your agents. Super important.

So, find an area with good lighting and create a good camera position. If you don’t have a good background behind you, no problem! Get creative by hanging up a sheet or invest in a divider screen. Then organize your talking points, hit the on button and smile!

4.Make Sure You Have a Plan and Stick to a Schedule

Now more than ever, it’s important to schedule your time. When you work remotely, days easily start to blend into one another. Make sure you structure your day. Have a scheduled start and stop. Get ready like you are going into the office. Make sure you take breaks. Schedule those one-on-one’s, sales meetings, online client meetings, recruiting events and consumer seminars on your calendar for each week. Remember, what gets calendared gets done. Make sure you are scheduling virtual open houses, direct marketing and other activities that you would normally do. Just because you aren’t in the office, doesn’t mean they still can’t happen. They just might need to happen differently, but make sure you have it on your calendar to do.

5.Make Sure You Have a Support Network

It’s easy for nerves to get frayed and for stressors to get to you. So, make sure you have a reliable support network to talk to, bounce ideas off of and vent. That type of interaction help you maintain your sanity and keep you motivated while you continue to motivate your own team. When you are part of a franchise, this can be one of the most valuable aspects of affiliation. Our current franchisees are finding tremendous support from our service team as well as each other in navigating the most challenging of circumstances.

So, while working remotely for an extended time can be a unique challenge, we are fortunate to live in an age where there is much available to us to keep business moving forward. The important thing is to have a plan, assemble resources and have the right support in place to help you succeed. At Weichert, our franchisees have an abundance of support to get through situations like this one. From online real estate marketing tools and sales materials, to coaching on how to conduct business virtually, to technology that allows for ongoing communication and business continuity. If this sounds like something your business could benefit from, reach out to us today at www.weichertfranchise.com 

This blog is originally posted here - https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/making-the-most-of-working-remotely/

Why Continuous Training Is Critical To Real Estate Success

As you already know, many states require real estate agents and brokers to continue with their education year after year. If you are experiencing a slow-down in business, this may be a perfect opportunity for you and your agents to get your CE credits out of the way early! Take advantage!
Aside from the legal requirements, however, there is no denying that both agents and brokers stand to benefit a great deal from maintaining their pursuit of a well-rounded base of industry knowledge and up-to-date information on the latest tools and techniques. The industry and the world is constantly changing. So those sales techniques from 1995 are no longer going to be as effective. From marketing and branding to legal changes, sales techniques, new technology, and beyond, there is tremendous value when you can offer agents opportunities that continue to evolve their skills. This helps them stay on top of their game and stand out from their competitors.

Improved Skillsets

One of the reasons that buyers and sellers are so attracted to younger agents is that they are typically immersed in digital marketing and technology. Agents should use downtime to learn a new digital sales skill or lead gen technique. Have them give video or webcam use a try. Try their hand at writing a real estate blog, record a podcast, create a squeeze page, boost a Facebook post, create a digital newsletter. The more that agents can show the public how much they know about real estate, marketing, branding, technology, legal requirements, and the local market, the more buyers and sellers will be eager to hire them, which is great for your bottom line. But are you able to train them on all these topics, or do they have to go out and figure it out on their own? If it’s the latter, you are missing out on a valuable opportunity to play a role in their continuing success. Not only that, the more you develop your agents in the right activities and techniques, the more productive they will become, which is also good for your brokerage.

Agent Recruitment

As a broker, recruiting the highest quality agents is always top-of-mind. It should come as no surprise that good agents only want to hang their license with a broker that is as equally invested in helping them succeed and grow. In fact, inviting agents that you wish to recruit to training classes that are being sponsored by your brokerage is a great way to entice them. In addition to classes held by your brokerage, make it known that you are willing to provide more personalized training and share any educational materials you create. Show how you are invested in your team. One of the great things about affiliation with a brand like Weichert, is that training resources are readily available, which makes it easy for you and your agents to plug in and stay current. With a constant stream of webinar classes, personalized coaching, and Weichert’s online University, it cuts down on the time you have to spend developing content. Plus, in the case of Weichert, our training is all tied into a proven formula for real estate success for both agents and brokers.

Agent Retention

Just as you can use classes and educational resources to attract new agents to your team, your commitment to ongoing coaching and training is a powerful glue for agents already working in your brokerage. Increase relevance by reaching out to your team and collect input on what subjects they feel they need help with the most. If you don’t happen to be the expert on the subject, then you must find either an in-house expert or look for an online course that is relevant. Maybe there are underutilized tools within your brokerage for which you’d like to increase engagement. Supporting your agents with guidance that helps them be more productive increases your value as a broker. Again, an affiliation with a brand like Weichert gives you the structure to work with.

The Solution For Keeping Your Agents Up to Speed

Although results-driven real estate brokers understand that there is tremendous value in pushing their agents to increase their knowledge base and skill sets, many brokers struggle to supply them with the educational tools and training that they need. After all, it can require a great deal of time and money to generate training content on topics like legal changes, market conditions, marketing, branding best practices, social media, technology, sales techniques, scripts, etc. That is exactly why many brokers find it valuable to partner with a nationally respected brand like Weichert, that can provide training and coaching support as part of their core offering. You can offer it to your agents, without the time investment, which increases your brokerage’s value. Furthermore, brokers gain educational resources for themselves to help them develop further as a broker, a business manager, and a leader, making it a win-win for everyone.
For more information how aligning yourself with a franchise like Weichert can benefit both brokers and agents, go to www.weichertfranchise.com.

This Blog is originally posted here - https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/why-continuous-training-is-critical-to-real-estate-success