Having The Right Tools For Your Agency

Successful brokers are always searching for the right tools to automate systems, save time and increase productivity and income, which doesn’t occur until each system is firmly entrenched in your overall brokerage procedures. The tool may be a new recruiting and retention software for accountability, a CRM system that better fits your growing brokerage or high-quality, easy-use digital marketing materials.

Consider Your Goals 

Before considering any new tool, keep in mind your updated brokerage business plan and the goals you intend to achieve this year. Ask yourself what tools will put you ahead of the competition? How can your agents’ productivity be transformed? What will improve the buying and selling experience for clients? Any systemized tool needs to work exactly as planned to either help you, as broker, improve productivity or your agents reach higher performance figures in less time, all while ensuring improved client satisfaction.

New Tools Take Time 

Getting a new tool up and running is an incredibly time-consuming task. Time for a busy broker is already a precious commodity, but it can feel as if it’s at a premium when attempting to incorporate a new tool seamlessly into your current system, which may take weeks or months.
Think back to the difficulties of setting up your own brokerage and what it took get software and systems set up. You’ve no doubt learned from your previous experiences and know the effort it takes to incorporate any new tool. The steps from research to use may flow like this:

• First, extensive research into each digital tool under consideration is essential.
• Second, speak with customer representatives to ensure each potential tool has the capacity to do exactly what you want it to do. Get hard answers to questions, such as: Are changes to the web-based software able to be made to accomplish your specialized needs? At what cost and in what timeframe is expected?
• Third, you need to know that the technology or other tool will work as expected, so a trial test of one or two of your best options is important before you make that purchase.
• Fourth, you must set up the system, implement the tool chosen into brokerage procedures, work out any kinks in the system (and there will be issues) and train those using the new tool.

Don’t Have The Time? Stop The Guesswork 

While there are brokers out there who can do this successfully on their own, it can be a real challenge for the average small independent brokerage owner. If you want to compete and stay ahead from a technology standpoint, an affiliation with a larger real estate brand can really help and offer a solution. They have teams of resources working through this every day. So while you are focused on running your brokerage, they are researching, vetting and testing out the next best thing to make running a real estate business easier and more productive. Weichert, which offers its affiliates proprietary digital tools, is a great example of how affiliation helps take away the guesswork in many areas. Its years of research into systems that work mean that all the tireless research and functional testing of new tools is unnecessary on your end. Plus, Weichert provides the training needed to make the best use of their technology inside a proven system for success.

Weichert’s numerous tools position you at the forefront of your area and assist with:

• Lead Generation
• Mobile-friendly CRM
• Online Marketing
• Personal Branding
• Agent Recruiting and Retention
• Marketing and Training—scripts, forms, courses and more 

Build Momentum Before Tool Launch 

Whether you choose to go it alone with a new tool or system or affiliate with a company like Weichert that offers time-tested ones, know that you need to build momentum in your brokerage around agent tools prior to the roll out. Create a bang around the launch to keep agents interested in what it can do for them, as most will be skeptical that its use will improve their work. Pick a super user (that may be you) to train all users to fully unlock all the features of the new tool so all have the chance to achieve success.  Above all, keeping your arsenal updated and fresh is important in maintaining your value as a brokerage to retain your agents.

Why work harder than you should? Contact Weichert at 1-877-533-9007to learn how their cutting-edge tools can help you exceed your business goals in less time.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/right-tools-agency/

Need A Lead Magnet? Give Them Something They Want.

As a broker, you have carefully built your brand through targeted advertising and marketing. You have strategically calculated a marketing plan to funnel quality leads in a variety of markets to your agents to help them close more transactions. Your website, social media presence and other digital marketing is part of your overall plan. But how much time do you spend chasing these leads? The time you have invested should not outweigh the amount of leads generated.

Buyers and Sellers Want More

Today’s market is different than even five years ago. Buyers and sellers want more value out of a brokerage. Specifically, they crave quality information. No longer are buyers and sellers content to sit back and roll with the fact that an agent has years of experience in real estate and has closed a certain of number of sales in their neighborhood. Instead, they want specific information presented to prove that agent’s expertise. More importantly, prospects expect a high value from the material they receive.

Tempt Prospects with A Giveaway

One way to stop chasing listings and build your brokerage into a lead magnet where prospects come to you is through the value of a giveaway, such as a short, easily accessible video, e-book, infographic, quiz, guide, handout, resource or checklist or free home inspection for new listings. Create a giveaway that builds value and tempts prospects to give up their name and contact information to get the free material. The material should be well written and designed and present your brand as an authority to build long-term trust and add monetary value in the eyes of your prospects.

Create A Relationship

The point of the giveaway as a lead magnet is to alter your prospect’s mindset to be predisposed to use your services. The topic of your materials should be clear-cut, easily read in no more than 5 minutes and address a distinct topic that provides specific answers. The prospect should feel a relationship with your brokerage after reading the material that prompts her/him to act.

Know Your End Goal

To decide the topic of your material, you must know the end goal, such as increased revenue or list building. The market segment you are going after is also important. What real estate pain point are you addressing in your giveaway that will turn prospects into hot leads for the desired target market? For instance, luxury sellers may be interested in top-notch staging tips and resources. Speak to the desired pain point and prospects will more readily give up their contact information.

List Building Management

A well-calculated giveaway campaign can bring in hundreds of leads. It does no good to attract leads and build your marketing list if you don’t have a good CRM system to organize your marketing efforts. Is your CRM up to the task? Review your current system to see if it stands up to others on the market for functionality and number of contacts. Now may be the right time to upgrade your CRM system if you’re just not getting the value out of it that you need. Weichert, for instance, offers a CRM system to its affiliates that is directly tied to the best practices and processes we teach for lead generation and follow up. It is integrated into our national lead network and provides efficiencies in lead handling that are unsurpassed in the industry.

Lead Magnetism Doesn’t Happen Overnight.

Brokers know that there is no silver bullet when it comes to generating leads. A variety of tactics executed regularly is what works to improve your lead generation in less time. But it’s hard when you are doing it all on your own. That’s why franchise affiliation is often a great solution for brokerages. By plugging into their resources, you are able to leverage their expertise and marketing materials to be able to compete effectively in all of these ways, including having a CRM to properly manage and close incoming leads.

For more information on how Weichert can turn your brokerage into a lead magnet, contact Weichert® today at 877-533-9007 or go to https://weichertfranchise.com .

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/real-estate-lead-generation/need-lead-magnet-give-something-want/

Five New Year’s Resolutions for your Brokerage

The New Year came fast and is already in full swing. Did you make any resolutions? It’s important to maintain your focus on where you want to be in 12 months. Continue to take the lead and decide what direction you want to move your brokerage toward this year. Just as in your personal life, January is a good time to set goals for your brokerage to help you stay motivated and to reinvent yourself a little bit.

To improve your bottom line and keep your agents in the forefront of their market, consider ringing in these five New Year’s resolutions for your brokerage:

1.Create Buzz Around Your Brand

Think about your marketing plan for the year. After all, marketing should create buzz around your brand and should be well thought out and budgeted into your business plan. Use the amount of an average transaction commission as a base for determining how much you can comfortably spend this year. You want the most impact at the least cost.

Whether that’s an ad highlighting your listings or a glossy ad in a regional or national magazine showing off what sets your real estate brokerage apart from others, your spending needs to build awareness, bring business in and grow your brand. As marketing is so crucial to business growth, Weichert® advises having a well thought out brokerage marketing plan in place each November for the following year.

2. Track Numbers Differently

Every successful broker knows their numbers. Do you? It’s important to track sales, of course, but following the numbers of all your agent activities—new listings, buyer consults, open houses conducted—shows patterns that may suggest a change is needed to increase income. Keeping your agents accountable for their activities using hard data like this leads to better performance.

3. Introduce A New Technology Application

Technology is ever evolving and is an indispensable part of the modern real estate enterprise. Try introducing new technology to your agents that can make showing listings easier in real time. For instance, Periscope is a live-streaming video application launched in 2015 that can be used from any smartphone to simply broadcast virtual open houses for those purchasing from a distance. Best of all, the app is free to use.

4. Use A New Marketing Tool

It can be time-consuming to keep up with the latest marketing tools, but it’s important to remain competitive. We all use hashtags in our social media posts, but how do you know if your choice of hashtags is effective? This year, try Keyhole, which provides analytical details on various hashtags, including impressions, demographics and sharing.

5. Better Project Management

Recruiting, training, checking budgets, answering agent questions, reviewing contracts and many other tasks must be completed to keep the office efficiently running. Simplify big projects and tasks with Todoist and save time. Used on over 10 platforms—web browsers, mobile devices, desktops, inboxes—and with lots of special features, projects and tasks on this application can be scheduled, broken down into manageable parts, and even shared and delegated to your office manager to keep you both in check.

There you have it, five New Year’s resolutions to implement into your real estate business plan for 2018. Use of these resolutions can help you increase sales through smarter marketing, keep your agents accountable and productive, and, best of all, save you time.  And if you are looking for one centralized solution to help you implement these types of resolutions, consider a franchise affiliation.
Affiliations with a national brand such as Weichert® can offer you help with branding, tracking your numbers and have teams dedicated to researching and implementing new technology and marketing tools, so you can spend time managing other aspects of your brokerage.

Final Thoughts

New Year’s resolutions can be hard to keep, but your ability to set and keep some around your business goals are an opportunity to reinvent pieces of your business in the New Year and take it to new heights. At Weichert, we know something about reinventing real estate brokerages, it’s what we help owners do.  For more information about becoming a Weichert franchise and its benefits, contact a member of our team today at 800-533-9007 or weichertfranchise.com.

A Healthy and Happy New Year to us All!

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/five-new-years-resolutions-brokerage/

Training New Agents: How To Tap Your Best Resource

As a real estate broker, it’s expected that you know a lot about the business. The success of your brokerage is directly tied to your knowledge and experience. From picking a commercial location from which to run your business, to hiring new and seasoned agents, to marketing, you run it all. You keep abreast of changes in financial and real estate newstrain and carefully study market hot sheets each morning.

What New Agents Don’t Know

But how do you impart your sales and marketing skills and expertise to new agents who may be eager, but still have a lot to learn? These fresh-out-of-school agents have a general real estate education, but don’t know the first thing about what it takes to work in the business—generating leads, doing a CMA, writing a contract or even basic marketing.

By now you know what new agents consistently need to learn and can coach them on those topics. While teaching them real estate best practices can be a drain on your time, you understand that new agents can only be producing agents with the proper training. Taking the time to educate new agents toward success means they have a better shot at being the 13% who succeed, rather than the 87% that fail within five years in the industry*.  But if you don’t have a dedicated trainer, where do you start?

Create Q&A

A question-and-answer format is a fun way to train agents new to the business. Create answers to the most often asked questions you’ve heard over the years. Keep your answers clear, simple and to the point to make it simple for agents to grasp the concept and easily act. Questions to answer may include:

• How do I get prospects?
• What kind of prospects should I go after?
• How do I generate leads?
• What can I do to set myself apart from other agents?
• How do I negotiate my commission?
• How do I run and analyze a CMA?
• How do I market my listing?

Make Training Accessible

Share your expertise with new hires in an accessible YouTube video or other digital platform. To make the information easier to learn, shoot a short video for each question. Doing a training video, for instance, is a good delivery method that frees up your time. You can create the material, upload and use it to train many agents with no extra work on your part. Just create updates as information changes. If you are lucky enough to be affiliated with a large real estate brand like Weichert, you may have access to some of the best real estate marketing tools in the industry like an online, e-learning center, which provides a wealth of material on important training topics.  Best of all it is available 24/7.

Motivate For Longevity

Knowing how to attract and funnel leads, how to acquire listings and how to write a contract are all key parts of any real estate business. But, as all brokers have experienced, agents often have slow times or difficult buyers or sellers. Think back to what it was like when you were just getting started as an agent. What was that bit of wisdom, quote or daily affirmation that you’ve never forgotten and still use today? Share what keeps you going each day with your new agents to teach them the art of motivation. It will help keep them in the game for the long haul.

There is of course, an easier way to train new agents that works around the clock every day, so you don’t have to–that is affiliating with a company who invests and provides you with these training resources. Weichert® realizes the relationship between education and success, and offers a full suite of training programs for new agents. These include an online university and ongoing interactive training sessions to get agents up to speed fast and keep them current with best practices.  Call Weichert® at 877-533-9007 to learn more.

*NAR Survey 2014

https://weichertfranchise.com

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/real-estate-coaching/training-new-agents-tap-best-resource/

Tips For Coaching New Real Estate Agents

Bringing new real estate agents into your brokerage, can be an exciting part of growing your business. For a new agent that is eager to grow and open to new ideas, real estate coaching is essential in order to teach them how to create and cultivate leads and sharpen their sales skills to achieve their desired results. Some of these new agents will be young, working in real estate for the first time. These young agents can be a great source for reaching first time homebuyers and connecting with Millennials.

But let’s face it, whether they are new to your brokerage or new to the industry completely, they are going to need training and supervision to be productive and understand your unique systems for marketing and selling.

Fast Track To New Agent Productivity

To increase new agent productivity, ensure retention, and produce strong agents, brokers need to quickly train and reinforce best sales practices and proper systems in their new recruits. However, it can be a challenge as a broker to conduct individual training sessions, while trying to also manage a company. To achieve both goals, have a formal plan that includes an active and diverse set of training strategies. In addition to helping your new hire, these practices will become word of mouth for your brokerage and new agents will want to join you over others if the word is out that your training is the best in the area.

Here’s a few tips from the professional coaches at Weichert:

Assign A Mentor to All New Agents

Some brokers do a few individual trainings, but expect the new agent will primarily learn the ropes from an already established agent. Seasoned agents often appreciate the extra help to further grow their business (and share commissions), while also imparting their knowledge and expertise as a new agent mentor. For consistency, set a timeline of goals for new agent productivity that includes occasional meetings with you. During each goal review meeting, discuss these results and how the new agent can improve. Setting these mutually agreed upon goals really is important to both you, and your new agent.

Consider Supplementary Online Training Systems

Some brokers who do not have good internal systems may bring in outside real estate trainers. While this can be effective, it is also an additional brokerage expense. As a less costly approach there are web-based coaching programs that you can investigate as a supplement to other personalized methods. These are cheaper than hiring a personal coach, but typically are very generic treatments of processes that may or may not be suitable for your business.   The ideal situation is training that perfectly describes your business model, your processes, and your tools. Weichert training for example, provides online courses, scripts and other tools through their online University that directly support the proven processes and systems that Weichert gives their affiliates. They are highly specific and relevant to the operational model that has proven to be so successful for Weichert affiliated brokers.

Build a Formal Training Program

Many brokers create and present extensive real estate coaching agent programs which they have built over many years. It’s good to have something formal that defines how things operate inside your agency, and best practices as you see them, but this, too, can require a great time and resource investment to cultivate. One of the benefits of franchising is access to this type of sophisticated training. Weichert affiliate agents, for instance, have access to Weichert’s “Fast Track” training and live sales training sessions to quickly get new agents up and running with the tools and systems needed for long-term success in the business.  Weichert agents and managers also benefit from ongoing weekly webinars and local mastery sessions which provide ongoing live training opportunities given by experts on many different topics critical to agent success.

If you need to grow this yourself however, we recommend that each time you hire a new agent you chisel away at this kind of training material and enhance your training tools so that eventually you’ll have a living, working, comprehensive training program.  Or you can plug into a system that is already developed for you through affiliation.

Final Thoughts

Real estate coaching for new agents doesn’t have to be difficult. It doesn’t have to drain the broker’s time or the company’s revenue.  The best training programs are ones that achieve a balance between your time and expenses, and that contain multiple sources of training material, including hands-on coaching and online training. The best training is also the one designed to complement and support a proven blueprint for both agent and broker success.

Getting and training new agents is the lifeblood of your success as a broker. You can do it yourself, or you can get a big assist from a franchise brand, such as Weichert.

Speak with the Weichert franchise team today and begin to understand how effective a recruiting, coaching and agent training process can be for your brokerage.

Visit https://www.weichertfranchise.com for more information.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/tips-coaching-new-real-estate-agents/