Real Estate Agents

I’ve been to real estate school. I have been marketing real estate companies for years. I’ve been self employed for 8 of my 11 years of experience in technology. I have sold, marketed my own business and many others. I know what it takes to sell. I know what is available. But do Real Estate Agents?

I have noticed many Real Estate Agents are face to face, handshake oriented people. Many are not technologically savvy. So, that makes it hard for them to embrace advancements in sales technology. They stick to what they know because they stay in their comfort zone.

Never mind what many theologians have said about how good it is for people to break out of their comfort zones, let’s just look at the simple idea of “Why NOT be better?”

The fact is, if a real estate agent actually USES a drip marketing system (or their broker does it for them), they USE a Sales Force Automation tool (basically a robust CRM) and their brokers USE a lead routing management tool and other technologies alike, they will do more business.

Where the problem lies is the approach. First and foremost, it is my belief that the Broker should supply such tools to their agents. Second, the Broker should do more than dump the technology on the agent and expect them to learn how to use it without providing any sort of preface.

The broker needs to understand that technology is an investment that takes some time to maximize ROI and express that to the agent. The broker needs to specify that while the agent is being offered many tools, they should start with a couple of them and move on once they have a firm grip on the tools at hand.

I suggest getting started with a simple online contact manager that syncs with outlook and a drip marketing system based on those contacts. There is a ton of literature out there on how to properly use these techniques. However, be careful to choose those tools separately or to choose a system that is too stripped down. Why? Because you will have to log into different systems and take other unnecessary steps in order to conduct business. If you add onto your platform, the number of unnecessary steps will only increase. You will eventually want an all-in-one CRM, and then you will be forced to relearn everything. If you are a broker, you should pay special attention here. You will be surprised that some agents actually will take full advantage of opportunities you give them and become resources of knowledge within your firm.