As a coach, I’m blessed to work with many team leaders across the country. Whether these are teams with just a team leader and an assistant at the time, or team leaders that are also broker/owners, and everywhere in between, the topic of using a high-volume lead gen site comes up frequently.
I realize that not all of you are in the same place in your business/team structure, so I’m going to break this down as specifically as possible:
The teams just beginning to grow think there’s a need to instantly open the flood gates with leads.
In reality, that person is probably starting a team because he/she is already overworked and busy. This would be a horrible time to sign on with a lead gen site. Your current focus should be working to get team members on board to assist you in your business and to help leverage your time. Once you have the “right people in the right seats on the bus,” as Jim Collins writes in his book, “Good to Great,” then, you are ready to scale.
If you’re a current team leader, you probably hear ‘We have no leads’ or ‘Our leads are bad’ all the time.
One of the instant fixes team leaders attempt is getting more leads to put a band-aid on the situation to keep everyone happy. This is where we’ve seen many team leaders jump into high-volume lead gen sites. This is not the right course of action, either.
Not all leads are bad leads—we may just be using bad scripts, or maybe we aren’t practicing role-playing with our team, but instead using our clients to practice on, and we probably have a conversion issue. Until you can get your team to actually call leads back (and not just once or twice, but 8-12 times, as the stats tell us), and set follow-up calls/reminders to do so, then you’ll always be throwing your money down the drain for leads.
In a recent speech I gave at the Workman Success Systems Leverage Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., I told the audience, “We’re all in sales.” It’s not the team leader’s job to supply the team with leads. Is it a great perk that some team leaders offer? Well, sure! However, making the choice to invest in a high-volume lead generation site is not cheap. Ensure your team knows the cost of not only the platform, but the pay-per-click ads, too. I believe this transparency helps show the team that you’re investing in them. You surely want their buy-in mentally.
As a team leader myself, choosing a high-volume lead gen site was tough. I investigated the bells and whistles of all sites. I had my team sit in on the demos—after all, this was going to be a site we all would be using daily. In the end, we decided that Commissions Inc was the best choice for our team. We have been running a Commissions Inc platform now for four years. We’ve had this site and the hard work of our team consistently convert us anywhere from 17-20 percent of our closed transactions annually.
A few pieces of bonus information…
Having a lender partner with you on the platform can help with the cost significantly. There are some lenders that want to be hands-off with the platform, and some want to dive in with both feet. If you find a lender that is interested in partnering with you on a platform, do your homework and make sure it’s a good fit for your team, and that the lender is reputable, professional, and will serve your clients well.
Lastly, if/when you choose to invest in a high-volume lead gen platform, remember that these leads don’t just result in closings overnight. Just like any type of lead, they take nurturing, incubating and showing that you are an agent to trust. Since we are a Workman Success Systems coaching client, we have access to the Lead Tracker. This has been instrumental in tracking our leads and ensuring money isn’t slipping through the cracks.
I definitely recommend a lead platform when you’re ready. Take the step to ensure you’re ready, and then elevate your leads!
Brooke Sines is a Workman Success Systems Senior Coach and full-time REALTOR® with RE/MAX of Grand Rapids who has been in the business of working with people all of her life. After working for several years as an entertainment agent that kept her traveling a lot during the week, she wanted a profession that would allow her to be home more to enjoy the day-to-day with her family. It was her love of people and real estate that lead her into a career as a full-time REALTOR®, where in her first year she was awarded the Rising Star Award for Sales & Excellence. Contact her at Brooke@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com. For more information, please visit www.workmansuccesssystems.com.
