October 18, 2021
Ginger Crosbie
Does your team hand out online real estate leads like a card dealer?
One by one, in order in a circle, until you’ve made it through all of the agents in your office and then start over again from the beginning?
Or perhaps your team does first to claim the lead in the CRM? The first agent to claim the lead in the CRM after the notification is sent out is the agent that gets the lead.
Even though these methods may be fair for the agents on the team, it doesn’t consider the needs of a key player in this online lead equation - the lead.
At Smart Alto, we help real estate agents and brokerages set thousands of appointments with leads that we filter and qualify.
As a result, we’ve learned a few things about how to dole out appointments with qualified online real estate leads to agents when we are supporting a team.
And it probably looks a little different than what you’re currently doing…
The team’s goal is to meet the needs of its customer: the buyer/lead.
The first step in that process is to give the lead to the agent who has the availability to help that lead and meet when the lead wants to meet.
Imagine…
Using one of the traditional round-robin methods, a lead comes in and is assigned to Agent Jimmy.
It’s Thursday, the lead just found a listing that came on the market today. They are eager to buy and want to talk to an agent ASAP about getting in for a showing.
However, Jimmy is tied up with other clients and isn’t available to talk to the eager buyer until Tuesday.
How does that help the lead?
It’s a far better level of service and experience for the lead if you are working around the lead’s schedule. That means giving the leads to agents who can properly serve them in the appropriate time frame.
That may mean that some agents don’t get as many leads as others. And some agents may be angry about that, but it’s the BEST way to serve the lead/customer.
Don’t give agents leads at all.
We’ve talked to thousands of agents and we already know that agents don’t have the time to consistently follow up with leads.
Instead, give agents appointments on their calendars.
Rather than giving agents leads and expecting them to follow up….
We’ve found that the BEST way to hand out real estate leads to your agents is to hire an ISA to do the following up and then schedule appointments on the agent’s calendar based on the leads schedule.
So here is how it works:
1. Lead goes into CRM
2. ISA follows up with a lead on behalf of the entire team (not a single agent) and gets leads availability (Tuesday at 3)
3. ISA books an appointment on a team’s calendar and the calendar round robins the appointment to the agent who has availability for that time (Tuesday at 3).
That means we know when the lead wants to meet and found the agent who can meet them at that time by optimizing for availability at the calendar level.
The alternative is telling the lead “sorry, that time won’t work, can you meet earlier/later when Agent A is available?”
And in the world of speed to lead, that is not a smart move.
You care about your business, the people you have working for you, and the community of clients you serve.
You’re not just trying to dominate the market without regard for the people helping you get there - your agents and their clients.
Assigning leads based on customer needs and agent availability accounts for both pieces of the success equation.
If your agents aren’t successful or happy, then it’s hard for you to be successful and grow your business. Assigning leads a round-robin style doesn’t take into account their current workload.
Similarly, your real estate leads have schedules, demands, and a life of their own. If you or your team can’t meet them where they are or can’t make an appointment time work there is no reason for them to not go to another agent that can.
What you’re doing, might be working.
But you don’t want to get by on what’s working well enough… You have grand ambitions.
As the leading online real estate lead follow-up ISA in the world we have some experience in this arena. We know what helps make our clients successful.
Making this small change can have a drastic impact on not only your client satisfaction but also your ability to serve more people.
Interested in learning more about how our ISAs at Smart Alto can help you and your team follow up with your leads and set 15-minute appointments for your team?
The Smart Alto Appointment Setting System guarantees your team never misses another sales opportunity.