New Agent / Industry Partner Mastermind: Session 1, A Broad Look at the Transaction Cycle

Before you address your client funnel:

With 86% of real estate consumers factoring in “one-stop shopping” into their agent decision making (per NAR) you must assemble your team of specialists who make the transaction go. Mortgage, title, inspectors, home stagers, roofers, plumbers, contractors and more… their specialty adds to your offerings. You’ve got time so tail them, get to know them and ensure their customer contact ideology and marketing mindset matches yours.

Embrace “client-first” ideology and never let commission breath get between you and your customers and clients.

From client generation to client curation to transaction management to post-transaction referral messaging, get your workflows and systems down pat. Shay has a two-year customer curation marketing plan and a 10-year top-of-mind follow-up plan after the transaction to drive business. Partner insight is an integral part of this messaging stream so get your AND their differentiators ready to go!

Set long-term goals with one-year mile markers. Generally speaking, you want to shift from a quantitative control to a qualitative control methodology and be 30 percent referral-based going into year three in the business doubling up every two years afterward.

Client generation and curation tips:

With 75 percent of consumers starting their real estate search six months to two years before closing their home, you need a detailed mind-share building marketing stream. No matter the platform (social media, web, offline, etc) ensure that your marketing is useful in short quick bursts of wisdom and knowledge. Market stats (from DMAR here) integrated with your Industry Partner team is a great start.

Open houses will be hot again so team up here with your mortgage partners for real-time preapprovals. Plug your laptop into the living room TV and get folks to sit down and search with you. Always ask rapport-building questions (ex. “what has your home search experience been like?”) first and ask folks to sign OUT rather than sign in to your open house.

Use Zoom on social media to interview your mortgage, title, inspector, et al team for more effective home buy and home sell seminars that can be viewed, saved and distributed digitally and on social media and send them to your customers primed to be clients during the “seriously looking” portion of their agent decision-making period which is seven weeks before agent outreach.

Right before the first contact go high touch. Use intake forms to ask really high-quality questions like “what do you look for in a REALTOR®?” And “who do you ask advice from?” Questions that elicit areas you can hone your processes to your clients' desires. (Examples can be found on buyselllovechicago.com, readytobuysmart.com and readytosellsmart.com. Forms can be built for free on airtable.com.)

Overwhelming people with wisdom, intelligence and “a-ha!” moments before the first contact will negate the “how many houses have you sold?” questions many new agents get.

Transaction management tips:

This is the make-or-break moment for referrals as a smooth experience will get you wonderful returns and it’s here that managing your CRM is more important than managing your email with clients in the transaction. Ensure your CRM has integrated in-transaction messaging to set the tone for a client experience your clients don’t even know they need.

Get on the same page with your partners to ensure they are of the same communications mannerisms you are. Consistently high-quality over-communications is key here.

Build trust constantly, set expectations early and be human. Every buyer and seller is doing it for the first time - the business is THAT fast - so embrace it!

Referral building tricks:
Save money for high-quality thank-you’s now and ask your partners to help with things like mutual client appreciation events.

Make your client events memorable and worth them sharing on THEIR social media.

Create a networking group with your partners and meet monthly with business referrals in mind and don’t forget to add them to your post-transaction marketing stream! Refinancing, home care, community-based messaging is really important after the transaction so pick the brains for your partners to attract more business together!

REALTORS® are needed more than ever, even in this high-tech world. Plan ahead, be human and earn the business to be a future-proof REALTOR®.

Shay Hata 
shay@shayhata.com
312-600-7510

******** Shay’s CRM partner Realvolve has agreed to give all DMAR Mastermind attendees and their industry partner the following CRM setup:

• All of Shay's workflows
• Waived setup fee from RV
• Free onboarding call with RV
  • Contact import
  • Google sync set up
  • Review account settings
  • Set up of integrations

Please email sales@realvolve.com and mention “DMAR Mastermind” to get the discount!***************

For more information on the next business building mastermind topics coming to your district email jvoorhees@dmarealtors.com. For these and other topics hit our video library!

Thank your industry partner today!

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this guest post are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent those of the Denver Metro Association of REALTORS®. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.

If you are interested in submitting a guest post, please contact Sarah at sgoode@dmarealtors.com.