Despite the challenges presented by limited face to face contact in many parts of the country, real estate continues to be a need for many people, and agents and brokers are finding ways to make it happen. While listings continue to be king, don’t overlook the importance of reaching buyers as well. Many consumers may not realize that real estate is still an active and essential business, and just because other businesses are closed, it doesn’t mean they necessarily have to shelve their plans. However, it might take some extra education and hand holding on your part to make them aware of what’s possible. Now more than ever they will need guidance from the right real estate agent and brokerage. If you follow these tips from the experts at Weichert, you can maintain your lead pipeline and even develop new tools and skills that will benefit you and your agents for the rest of your career.
Educate With Virtual Seminars & Webinars
If you have never hosted an educational event as a real estate agent or broker, the idea might give you butterflies, especially if you need to do it virtually. You need to promote the event online, through direct mail or email invitation, develop a compelling presentation deck, drum up excitement and get people to come. If you’re new to the idea of running a virtual seminar, consider this an opportunity to get your team up to speed on all the virtual tools and technologies that exist to help people conduct their home search.
Go to Zoom.com and sign up for an account that enables webinars. Zoom is one of the most cost-effective ways to bring powerful conferencing and webinar technology into your brokerage. Setting up a webinar couldn’t be easier and folks can join simply by clicking on the link you provide them and entering their name. With webinar functionality, you can also capture their contact info in advance by creating a registration form. Make sure you record your webinar so you can provide a follow-up link after the meeting.
If you’re struggling with how to prepare compelling content, one way to lighten the load is to reach out to other real estate vendors like attorneys, home inspectors, and title companies to co-sponsor the event with you. Each time you host an educational event around topics like how to buy your first home, you position yourself as the go-to expert in the field and get the chance to prove you are a wealth of knowledge in the local real estate market. When you are affiliated with a franchise, often this content is already created for you and all you have to do is customize it with your info and plan the event.
Create Educational Content
Since not every buyer you come across will be ready or willing to buy right now, it is important that you have a targeted buyer lead sales funnel in place to cultivate them over time. Make sure your social media pages are active and show you are open for business. The best way to attract buyers is by offering valuable pieces of educational content that act as a lead magnet to your sales funnel. Share interesting free content buyers might engage with like top home trends, backyard ideas, ways to save for a down payment or reasons why it’s a good time to buy. To capture lead info, create a squeeze page for a free e-book on 5 great neighborhoods in your community. Promote it heavily on social media. Every time someone opts-in with their name and email address, they become a part of your sphere of influence and a potential client who can be nurtured going forward.
Work Your Real Estate CRM
As a real estate agent or broker, your most valuable asset is your database. Although it is wise to work your database every month of the year, it is particularly important now. You never know who could turn into your next client or referral partner just from reaching out to check-in. For buyer leads, pay particular attention to the renters or young couples on your list. Reaching out to this group at the right time, in the right way, is a great source of buyer leads. The more personal you can be with this the better, but when popping by is not an option there are plenty of other ways to reach out. Place a call, send a text, email or even use direct mail. Vary your form of contact each time, but do it consistently. Remember to keep the contact friendly, upbeat, and casual to show that you care about more than just sales. The more you reach out in a genuine and valuable way to past clients and your database, the faster your pipeline will fill up.
Offer One-on-One Buyer Consultations
Even during a normal business environment, it is important to have a formal meeting with buyer clients before the search process begins. Create a buyer-focused presentation that you can walk customers through to better understand their motivations, hopes, and dreams in making a purchase. This will help ensure you are both on the same page and there are fewer misunderstandings as you embark on their home search. While ideally this would be done face-to-face, if you have a digital presentation created, you can easily hold these meetings virtually. Promote the availability of these types of consultations online. This will not only show you are active and open for business, but that your brokerage cares about their needs and has the capability to operate virtually. Customers are likely confused about what they can or cannot do to get started and a one-on-one consultation will be a welcome opportunity. It will both reassure them of how the process works and allow them to get direct answers from a professional on their many questions.
Focus on Building Lasting Connections
At Weichert, we arm our affiliates with many of the tools and resources described above, like Buyer & Seller seminar and Buyer Consultation materials. In addition, our powerful smart technology platform allows our agents to organize and stay in touch with their contacts in a variety of ways, as well as offers sophisticated online marketing tools to promote themselves on social media and generate their own leads.
Every single person you meet has unlimited potential to help you grow and learn, and you never know where that growth will come from. Every handshake is an opportunity, even a virtual one. Jim Weichert found that you can build one of the most powerful brands in real estate by taking time each day to invest in direct relationships with others and with your community. Indeed, being a positive force in your community couldn’t be more important during a time of uncertainty and the investment you make in relationships now is sure to pay dividends down the road.
To learn more about how Weichert can help you attract and develop business-building relationships go to http://www.weichertfranchise.com.
