The Pioneer Playbook

Transcription

1 The Pioneer Playbook Best Practices & Success Stories from Top Keller Williams Agents, Teams & Market Centers Nationwide Published by To learn more about The Pioneer Playbook, or to get extra copies for your Team or Market Center, please visit

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3 Table of Contents What Is The Playbook? Lead Generation Best Practices Why focus on Internet lead generation? How do you get traffic to your Web site? Having the right perspective is key Immediate lead response recommendations Mastering short-sale lead generation Lead Conversation Best Practices Convert more leads with the 10 Days of Pain Five tips to avoid call reluctance & reach new prospects Where To Go From Here

4 What is The Playbook? Simply put it s the way hundreds of Keller Williams agents, Teams and Market Centers are managing their business today using the power of the Internet to capture, cultivate and convert more leads into closed business. Specifically, this Playbook includes a sample of the best practices used by more than 90 Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers who are utilizing the RealtyGenerator system from Market Leader. These Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers have created and are managing a pipeline of business that will fuel their growth and success for years to come. Here s a snapshot of the success they re collectively generated: 90+ Keller Williams Market Centers & Teams 815 Keller Williams agents More than 61,000 prospective buyers & sellers generated & being managed On average more than 75 prospects per agent More than 2,700,000 listings viewed on Keller Williams Web sites 520 closed deals on $195,500,000 worth of real estate Approximately $11,700,000 in Gross Commission Income 4

5 Of the 61,259 prospects being managed by Keller Williams teams and Market Centers thus far: 10,092 (16%) were from paid sources (the rest were generated for free) 7,576 are from personal networks 750 are from CraigsList 13,455 (22%) are actively engaged with their agents 1,359 are hot prospects with near-term close opportunities And how active are those leads? They ve saved more than 30,000 properties in their My Homes section on their Market Leader agent Web site They ve viewed on average more than 45 properties via their Market Leader agents Web site Approximately 90 percent of our business comes from RealtyGenerator. It s given us the competitive edge we were looking for in our market. This system is exactly what I was looking for in a lead generation & customer management solution for our company. - Jennifer Honan Keller Williams Mountain Properties Vail, CO What specifically are these Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers doing to increase their income and success? The following pages will give you a glimpse at some of their best practices. 5

6 How to use this playbook This playbook includes invaluable practices pulled directly from some of Keller Williams most successful Teams and Market Centers. It s divided into two sections lead generation & lead conversion. The Pioneer Playbook and the practices referenced here are an ever evolving and expanding guide. Use it as a starting point to jumpstart your own success with more leads, more business and more success online. To learn more and to join these Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers capturing more business from the Web, check out Keith Riddle, Owner Keller Williams Spokane Spokane, WA RealtyGenerator is by far the single best investment I have made in my real estate career. It has been, and continues to be, hands down the best real estate lead generation tool that I have ever used, or researched. I have been a RealtyGenerator client now for almost 5 years, and my business has continued to increase every year even as the market has continued to decline. RealtyGenerator not only has advanced my personal sales, but it has also allowed me to build a 20 agent team that I am proud to say is one of the top 5 top producing teams in the Pacific Northwest! Because of RealtyGenerator, I have reached nearly 200 sales per year. RealtyGenerator has helped put my Team at the top of our game, and the top of the market. RealtyGenerator is so much more than just a lead generation tool. It brings lead tracking and agent accountability to a whole new level. 6

7 Lead Generation Best Practices Why are Keller Williams teams so focused on Internet lead generation? Because more of your prospective customers are online! More than 87 percent of North American home buyers and sellers are using the internet and this is where buyers and sellers are found. Over the past decade North America has seen a 146.3% increase in Internet users and we have seen an increase of 444.8% in internet users across the globe. As for the real estate industry specifically, a National Association of Realtors study shows that 87% of all buyers used the internet to search for homes. Generating new leads via the Internet isn t a one-anddone kind of thing. Keller Williams Teams are continually evaluating, modifying and staying on the cutting edge of new trends to keep lead volume high. Successful Keller Williams teams and Market Centers are constantly doing the following: 1. Identifying Key Sources of Traffic 2. Capturing Consumers 3. Cultivating Leads 4. Converting Leads 5. Evaluating Results This is a repeating cycle, with evaluation and changes made constantly based on consumer trends, to exponentially increase lead capture and conversion. 7

8 How do you get traffic to your Web site? Successful Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers generate leads from a variety of sources to their Web site, generating new qualified home buyer and seller leads on a daily basis. These leads often come from seven primary sources: 1. Organic Traffic - unpaid listings on sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN 2. Portals - Real estate search sites that direct people to you such as Realtor.com, Zillow.com and HomeFinder.com 3. Listing Syndication CraigsList, vflyer, Oodle and more 4. Referral Traffic - friends and colleagues that send people to your Web site - word of mouth 5. Social Media - Facebook, Twitter and other social sites that bring people to your Web site 6. Offline Traffic - mailers, flyers and sign riders that drive people to your go to your Web site 7. Paid Advertising - Pay Per Click and other services that you pay to have search results on Google, Yahoo or MSN Want to learn more about Internet lead generation strategies, including how specifically to take advantage of the above channels? Become an Internet Marketing Specialist! Created by Keller Williams owner Ben Kinney, the Internet Marketing Specialist Designation and certification program is custom-designed to help KW agents and teams make more money from the Web. Learn more at 8

9 Having the right perspective is key! The most successful Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers know that Internet lead generation is another form of long term investing it takes a plan and discipline to and call leads for 2-24 months to realize your true return on investment. Buyers only care about one thing, themselves! When a buyer goes online they only want to see a list of properties so make your IDX search feature the largest button on your homepage! Most of the time an internet lead provides just a name and address - Your goal with every contact is to gather one more piece of information until you know enough to get the appointment. Most of the time leads are being contacted by multiple agents - so your persistence and message better stand out from the competition. Just three days after starting with RealtyGenerator, we had our first buyer. One month later, we had 51 prospects and 12 active buyers. - Dan Keller, The Dan Keller Home Selling Team Keller Williams Realty San Clemente, CA 9

10 Immediate Lead Response Recommendations Consistently, the most successful Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers do these five things to get the most out of their lead generation & cultivation strategies: 1. Respond Quickly: The faster you respond, the more impressed the buyer or seller will be with you. 2. Respond Consistently: Have a plan for how you follow-up when you , when you call, with templates and scripts to make it fast and easy for you 3. Keep your Lead Management System Open All Day: Make your lead management system central to how you do business. It makes responding to leads faster and easier. 4. Market Your Web Site = More Prospects: Your Web site should be marketed everywhere on your business card, your voic message, everywhere. The more it s available, the more likely it will generate you new leads. 5. Add All Your Prospects: Your lead management system will only work as hard as you work it. Everyone you know and meet should be on your drip marketing campaigns. If they aren t a prospective buyer or seller right now, they likely know people who are. 10

11 Mastering Short-Sale Lead Generation Kelly Gebler of the Keller Williams - Cornerstone Group NW in East Portland, OR has accelerated her business by focusing lead generation on short-sale opportunities. Hundreds of Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers nationwide have leveraged the current shortsale market opportunities to accelerate their sides and success. In the following Q&A, Kelly describes her strategy & system. How have buyers & sellers changed in your market, and what are you doing to change with them to earn their business? More short sales and REOs on the seller s side. We saw this was the direction the market was going so we became specialists in this area and aggressively try to contact and cultivate these types of listings. My team runs approximately REO listings, short sale listings as well as a handful of traditional listings. We have staff on our team that does nothing for us but generate and negotiate the short sale listings on our behalf. As for buyers - we ve brought in a couple of buyer s agents to handle the leads coming from all of these listings - they are skilled in educating a buyer regarding short sales and REOs. We are seeing more investor/buyers in our market and work with several of those - many homes that are REO or short sale listings are fixers and good candidates for flippers. We spend time studying news and updates regarding our industry and taking educational courses to stay one step ahead of where the market is going. 11

12 What are you doing differently now vs. last year to generate new leads and increase your customer pipeline? We hired staff members to specifically generate short sale listings, we ve spent time and money on our web presence to generate leads, I ve become a Trulia. com Pro and answer questions - which has generated leads that have closed sales, and we are focusing much of our lead generation on the internet. We also just recently signed up for a 5 month trial with Market Leader - they launched our site 3 weeks ago and we already have 42 leads in the system and have made contact with several of them personally so far. We are working on getting systems in place to make sure we specifically cultivate these buyer leads and not let them fall through the cracks. What has been most successful for you to build and manage a bigger pipeline of future prospective buyers and sellers? Hiring staff to lead generate short sale listings. These are folks that will sell now, and will then be ready to buy again 3-4 years down the road when they are on their feet again. Market Leader also seems to be generating a lot of leads so far as well. What other best practices would you like to share with fellow Keller Williams teams? My team hit the ground running and grew so fast that we acted out of immediate need and kept running. We should have spent more time creating our business model, putting systems in place that would run and grow with us and hired staff according to that plan... otherwise you will be way overworked and hit burn out stage. We did things backwards and just ran with the work needing done and added whoever was available when 12

13 we couldn t keep up. We are now trying to go backwards and put systems in place to make our team work more efficiently and have had to let 2 people go who don t fit. We were close to these people and it was very difficult to do - but from a business standpoint, we had no choice. It s harder to take apart and rebuild something than to have built it correctly in the first place. Best advice I can give for any individual or any size of team is to get set up with great mentors to help you put your business together right from the beginning. Having systems in place that work - allows you the freedom and the potential to grow into a Millionaire Agent. Keller Williams Success Story Lisa Thoele, Keller Williams - Executive Home Team Lisa began her real estate career 7 years ago. She knew she needed a source of leads so she started generating buyer leads from Market Leader. After a short time, Lisa s husband joined their real estate venture. Together they dabbled with several strategies to generate their own leads via pay-perclick and other means, but were frustrated with how much time it took, without the return on investment they had hoped for. Earlier this year, Lisa joined the RealtyGenerator trial program offered by Market Leader exclusively to Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers. Lisa was impressed not only with the lead generation and lead management systems, but also the active access to best practices of successful Keller Williams Teams throughout the RealtyGenerator trial program. I want to know what other brokers do on a day-to-day basis, so I can copy their game plan, Lisa said. One thing that really helps Lisa with her business is a 13

14 presence of automated templates and a gameplan of when to use them. Lisa cited that she has a process in place that enables her to categorize leads and respond accordingly, and automation has saved her a lot of time. Lisa described a very powerful rhythm that she and her husband have established. Her husband Steve is very much a numbers guy and is focused on tracking metrics like click through rates and blogging whenever he can to drive results. They also employ a top notch office administrator. Between Steve and the office admin, each lead is categorized and a determination is made as to the best way to follow up. Lisa s business has changed with Realty Generator. She lacked a long term solution and way of doing business. Realty Generator has restored enthusiasm with regards to internet leads in Lisa s office. Within just the first few weeks, she had 10 active buyer prospects and is constantly building a solid pipeline of future business. Lead Conversion Best Practices Ben Kinney s 10 Days of Pain Lead Conversion Method This system is a direct best practice from Ben Kinney, and already taught to thousands of agents nationwide. Ben is a Keller Williams Team Leader and rainmaker in Bellingham, Washington who teaches Keller Williams agents nationwide how to capture, cultivate and convert more prospects into closed business. He s also the co-author of Soci@l, a book about online marketing for real estate professionals available for free on the Keller Williams University Web site. 14

15 The 10 Days of Pain Conversion Method is a high touch aggressive tool used to identify motivation levels and gather additional contact information so that leads can be appropriately classified and converted to appointments. The National Association of Realtors research shows the average buyer searches for 2 weeks on their own prior to contacting a real estate agent. For this reason Ben designed his internet lead conversion processes so that it can be completed in a ten day period. Prior to contacting a real estate agent, potential buyers can be reluctant to release valid contact information. Although the ideal internet lead has , mailing address, phone numbers, and valid search criteria, the majority of Internet leads we will be working lack part to almost all of the above contact information. Ben s internet lead conversion method is a combination of persistence and marketing offers that are designed to create motivation for the buyer to release more information. The conversion plan must be modified depending on what information you have available on the subject lead. Methods of Communication Direct Mail Video Phone Calls Once you make contact you must adjust your messages and plan to fit the client s needs and timelines. Once you schedule the appointment, determine the buyer s timeline, or verify invalid contact information this system terminates. If you have valid contact information, but have not scheduled anyappointments, transfer the lead to a long term follow up drip system. 15

16 An internet lead is defined as: Any person(s) who has expressed enough information to allow for a successful contact to be made. Lead conversion is about filling your pipeline with buyers that will be buying today or in 2 years. Always remember the goal of each daily communication is to set an appointment or at least capture another piece of needed information about the lead, such as a mailing address, a phone number, etc. You have many ways to contact each lead and will need to use a mix of these as you can gather contact information: Phone call Text messages messages Facebook message and postings Video s Chat messages Direct mail Door knock Until you have an appointment set to meet then an internet lead is just a lead and not an internet client. Remember these rules as you attempt to make contact: For Messages: be short and concise always include a link to properties always ask for the appointment For Phone Calls: always leave a voic stand and smile when you are speaking on the phone match your vocabulary, tone and speaking speed to your audience 16

17 Ten Days of Pain conversion plan Day 1 Send introduction Make introduction phone call Send follow up thanking them for speaking with you if they answered Mail a notecard with 2 business cards in it Day 2 Send bank owned or list of properties that fit client criteria if you captured that with whatever source generated this lead Search for lead on Facebook and send a short message Day 3 message that you are available this weekend Make follow up call and leave voic if no answer Send first video (if video mentions that you are available it can be combined with step 1) Day 4 Send with a free CMA offer or relocation packageattach a Just Listed Property list to Day 5 Send a how am I doing Attach a Recently Reduced Prices Property list to Day 6 Take one day off during the plan. This can be put any day between Day 3 and Day 9 Day 7 Send Special Services Make another follow up phone call and leave a voic if nobody answers Send a text message if you are confident in the phone number you have 17

18 Day 8 Send specific property Search other social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter and direct message them otherwise send another Facebook message if possible Research their IDX activity Day 9 Long Shot CMA message Make another follow up phone call and leave a voic if nobody answers Research their IDX activity 18 Day 10 Send Contest or Trivia or video Attempt contact once again via social media platform Research recent IDX activity Phone call for final call and leave a voic if nobody answers Day 11+ Discard contact if not valid Place contact into drip program if you have valid information for long term continued follow up Scripts for Phone Calls Intro Call Hello (name), This will only take a second, my name is (Your Name) with (Brokerage Firm) and I just wanted to thank you visiting my real estate website and wanted to see if you had any questions about buying real estate in (insert your city)? *Remember to then ask ALL of the questions on your lead sheet *ABC* Always Be Closing - attempt to set the appointment already

19 Best Buy Call Hello (name), Are you by chance interested in a really good deal? The reason I am asking is because I specialize in selling bank owned, foreclosures and short sale properties. In fact I have a list of the five best priced homes in (insert city) that I would love to show you. What is a good time for us to meet and go over these great deals? Would today be best or would tomorrow be better? Create Urgency Call Hello (name), I just heard in the office about a great property that is coming on the market in the next week and I wanted to see if it fit your criteria before the rest of the general public and agents got to know about it. Please contact me as as soon as possible so that I can give you more information about this amazing deal. Last Chance Call Hello (name), This is (Your Name) with (Brokerage Firm) and I have been attempting to reach you for the past 10 days and I am not sure that you are getting my phone calls or s. If you would still like to receive the just listed, price reduced and best buy properties in our area please just call me or me at (Your if it is simple) to start up again. I hope to hear from you soon! Templates ***Remember to have a signature file that includes Name Phone Social Network Links Website 19

20 Intro Hello (name), This will only take a second, my name is (Your Name) with (Brokerage Firm) and I just wanted to thank you for visiting my real estate website ( com) and wanted to see if you had any questions right off the bat? Signature File Open To Show Hello (name), Would you like to view some properties this week? What day and times work best for you? I am open this weekend and in the evenings during this week. Signature File Free CMA - Relocation Package Hello (name), I just realized that I am not sure if you are from (insert your city) or if you are relocating into our area? Two important things to note: 1. If you live locally and have a home to sell I am more than willing to give you a freeestimate of your home s value. 2. If you are relocating to (insert your city) I have an amazing relocation package to send you. Which of these are you needing at the moment? Signature File How Am I Doing Hello (name), I want to be sending you only the most relevant properties. Shall I adjust my search criteria for a better match to what you are looking for?i have an opening tomorrow night if you would like to view some homes. Signature File 20

21 Specialty Services Hello (name), Many of my buyers feel that real estate websites only tell half the story about that home. If you are not ready to start touring homes, I have a VIP buyer service you might really appreciate.i can send you plat maps, tax information, videos, or additional photographs and sales history on any property that is for sale currently or has sold in the past.can you think of anything you might need right now? Signature File Specific Property *Use IDX information to figure what type of property this lead was looking at and come up with a humorous subject line such as: Ugly Bank Owned Condo Hello (name), I know of a bank owned condo that will be coming available soon. I think it will be under (insert price range for your area that is a great deal) Would you like to be the first to view this? Signature File Long Shot Hello (name), This is a long shot but often people use our website to try and gain an understanding of their own home value. Is this the case with you?if so, I would love to give you a free online no hassle estimate or an indepth broker price opinion.interested? Signature File Free Certificate Hello (name), My office manager just gave me 2 free home inspection certificates that I can give out this week to buyers who would like to view homes on Saturday or Sunday with me. This is a great $300-$400 cost savings. Are you available this weekend? Signature File 21

22 Contest It s time for this month s trivia contest... Remember the first 3 people to answer these questions correctly will get a free appraisal certificate from Bank XYZ (insert your own giveaway item). Where in (your city) can you go to see...(insert trivia question). All answers can be found by visiting Make sure to include your mailing address so the prizes can be delivered. Five Tips to Avoid Call Reluctance & Reach New Prospects Most real estate professionals hate cold calling. Following up with existing leads sometimes isn t much better or easier. Even the best salespeople often have a strong case of call reluctance that s difficult to shake. But once successful salespeople get rolling, they often find it easy to keep that momentum and generate results live contacts, interested prospects, new sources of closeable pipeline. Here are five ways today s most successful Keller Williams agents get past that case of call reluctance and get more of your leads moving towards a sale. Script the first 30 seconds: Oftentimes call reluctance comes from a concern that the beginning of a conversation may be awkward. Get past that fear by writing down, visualizing and even practicing the first seconds of the call. Have a specific script you will use printed out and next to your phone. It ll give you confidence that each call will be easier to warm up, and get right to the conversation you want to be having. 22

23 Have a great voic script ready: Let s face it, most of the calls you make will result in a voic . Many sales pros leave a long, rambling voic with no direction, no urgency and no call to action. Have a great voic script ready beforehand, and use it every time. Leave something that s no longer than seconds, had a good pace, a sense of urgency, and a strong offer or call to action to get your prospect to call back quickly. When you have a voic script like this, that you know works, it s easier and faster to get through more of your calls (because you know those prospects will be calling back). Turn off all other distractions: You ve done it too you make the first couple calls, get a kernel of momentum, then check your or Facebook page and it s all gone. When you re ready to make those calls, turn off everything , your Web browser, RSS feeds, notifications, everything. Get yourself into a zone where you re making those calls and nothing else. You ll be surprised how quickly you get through the list, and drive results for yourself. Get momentum, and keep going: On a related note, have a strong list to call and keep going until you re through it. Do it at a set time, perhaps the same time of the day every day, and make sure those around you know you re staying focused. And tell your manager. Staying focused can take discipline, even if you don t have distractions. You leave a couple good voic s, maybe have a good conversation that moves a prospect along, and you want to get some more coffee. Avoid these things, and make the next call. Do it early, or do it late: When you first get into the office in the morning, make those calls. There won t be fire drills, you won t know what s awaiting you in your , and you re more likely to get call-backs later that day from the voic s you ve left in the morning. Next best strategy is to schedule those calls late in the day. You ll either reach more people live, or leave voic s that will be returned first-thing the next day (getting your next sales day off to a great start). 23

24 Where To Go From Here The Pioneer Playbook was created with content from some of the most innovative and successful Keller Williams Teams and Market Centers in the country. But those teams and Market Centers didn t get where they are by standing still. The most successful Teams and Market Centers are constantly changing, testing and innovating new ideas to keep their edge, generate even more prospects to fuel growth, and use more tools & technology to help them get more done, faster, in less time all the while increasing their market share, revenue and success. So although The Pioneer Playbook is a great start, it s really only the beginning. To continue learning new ideas and best practices, try the following: Meet the Top Teams: Introduce yourself to the top Teams and Market Center rainmakers in your market, region or across the country. Learn what they re doing now, share what s working for you. Read Daily: The Web is full of new ideas via blogs, newsletters, community groups and more. Read marketing and sales publications as well to see what s working well in other industries (that might be applied to home buyers & sellers as well). Brainstorm Regularly: Get your team together to brainstorm solutions to a difficult challenge. Chances are, your next innovative idea may already be inside someone you know someone you your team, just waiting to be discovered. Ask Your Service Providers: Companies that help you with your sales & marketing (including your Web site, lead management system and more) are full of new ideas. All you have to do is ask! 24

25 Have a specific sales or marketing question? Want to brainstorm an answer with an expert? your questions to: [email protected]. We re happy to help! Neither Keller Williams Realty, Inc. nor its affiliated companies warrant any product or service delivered under this program. All products and services are provided by Market Leader, Inc. A Keller Williams Approved Vendor Program member is a business entity independent from Keller Williams Realty, Inc. and has no gency, Partnership, or jointventure with Keller Williams Realty, Inc. 25

26 To learn more about The Pioneer Playbook, or to get extra copies for your Team or Market Center, please visit Market Leader, Inc. All rights reserved. KW 0012 (0910)