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Repeat Business: 10 Tips That Keep Clients Coming Back
By Maddie Jostol, Senior Marketing Manager
Repeat and referral business is the heart of your business, which means every real estate agent should be thinking about how they can keep clients coming back time and time again. Referrals convert at a significantly higher rate than cold purchased leads, so nurturing everyone in your database over the long run will generate business continually, capturing opportunities with past clients and their friends and family.
Here’s the reality: it takes work to keep in touch with clients over the years that go by in between transactions. It’s a combination of automation, following a methodology, and utilizing systems that enable real estate agents to foster a client base that continually brings in business. Because, not taking advantage of your existing client base is like leaving money on the table. Here are a few tips to keep your clients coming back.
1. Start early.
What not to do: close a transaction successfully with happy clients, wish them well, and then ping them a year or two later because you realized you should probably keep in touch. Instead, plant the seed early. While you’re working with them, be sure to mention all the ways you’ll be able to support them throughout the transactions and after. Then, immediately following the transaction, start those activities so that they’re well received rather than coming out of the blue.
2. Be their go-to expert.
The second someone considers moving, they won’t even consider who they’re going to work with because you’re already they’re go-to real estate expert –– you have been for years. How do you make this happen? Be consultative in your sales process, and in your touchpoints after the sale. Programs like automated market snapshots are a great way to stay relevant and be seen as an expert so that when someone hears “real estate” you’re the one who pops into their head.
3. Automate, automate, automate.
For those regular, repetitive tasks, automate as much as you can. Those automated market snapshots that we just mentioned are a great example. It’s a simple way to keep your clients in touch with their market, with a subtle reminder that you’re there if they have any questions. In addition, set up email drip campaigns to keep your clients engaged by delivering tailored content at the right time with set-it-and-forget-it systems.
4. But, don’t be robotic.
People want to work with people. So, while automation should be a key strategy, make sure you don’t rely solely on automated programs. Sprinkle in personalized touchpoints every once in a while, such as a handwritten card for their house-versary, a congratulatory note on a life achievement, or a quick email recognizing that the home next door just sold, and you wish them well with the new neighbors.
5. Take advantage of special dates.
Speaking of handwritten notes, special dates are a great excuse to reach out to your clients to stay in touch and keep them coming back. It’s a relevant, thoughtful reason to let them know you care, even long after the transaction is complete. During the sales process, take note of any special dates your clients mention such as birthdays or anniversaries. Log special dates in a system that reminds you of these dates and records your touchpoints (your CRM should do this).
6. Use a proven sales methodology.
Following a sales methodology is a simple, effective way to run your real estate business. Methodologies like Ninja help agents follow a proven process to grow their business. Good sales methodologies guide you to generate repeat business through effective management of long-term sales cycles. Plus, when you follow a proven method, you have access to training and resources to support your business and improve over time, rather than creating a process from scratch.
7. The best CRM is one that you use.
Leverage a CRM to help manage your sphere of influence effectively. Again, keeping track of the hundreds of people in your contact database takes time and effort. Relieve that burden a bit by using a system that helps you manage that work, reminding you who to reach out to and tracking your relationship and activity with each contact. No, it’s not enough just to have a CRM. You actually have to use it. And when you do, we think you’ll be excited about the results you see.
8. Ask them to refer their friends.
When you not only work with them, but you also work with their friends, colleagues, neighbors, and in-laws, it solidifies you even further as their go-to person when anyone mentions real estate. Plus, those referrals will refer their friends, who will hopefully refer their friends, and the trend continues. Now that’s how you grow a killer sphere of influence.
9. Stay relevant.
Stay relevant in the lives of your past clients by publishing content that is useful and engaging to them. A blog on your agent website is a great way to do this. Not sure where to start? Here are some easy blog topic ideas for real estate agents.
10. Share helpful content on social media.
Publish those great blogs as well as other content relevant to homeowners in your local market on social media. It’s a great way to stay in front of that audience with engaging, sharable content. Grow your presence in your clients’ newsfeeds to remind them you’re there to help.
As a real estate agent, you’re a pro at building and maintaining relationships, which is the heart of repeat and referral business. Keep your clients coming back with these simple tips for managing ongoing engagement with your sphere of influence.
Gaining a Competitive Advantage with a Modern Real Estate CRM
By Maddie Jostol, Senior Marketing Manager
Evaluating a real estate CRM in today’s noisy world is overwhelming. What will actually make a difference in your business? What should brokerages look for in a real estate CRM that will truly give you a competitive advantage?
It can be tough to know what features to prioritize, how much you should be investing, and what questions to ask. It’s important to go in knowing what pain points you’re trying to solve for and what your priorities are. There are a lot of solutions out there, which leaves you weeding through everything to pick a system and provider that will not only fill your current needs, but also grow with your brokerage in the future. Trust us, though… when you pick a good one, it will all be worth it.
The truth is, when you onboard a truly innovative, well-designed real estate CRM that fits your business model, it can make an amazing impact your bottom line.
Here are a few things that a good, modern real estate CRM should have that will undoubtedly enable growth in your business:
A system that understands your business.
First of all, you need a CRM that works for real estate. The sales process in real estate is drastically different from that of other industries. The way in which agents work leads, how marketing is done, the data necessary to complete a transaction, and the way goals are tracked are all unique to real estate. Choose a system that aligns with real estate transactions and compliments the way you do business.
Automation that improves productivity.
Any modern CRM should be built with automation in mind. Automation enables your agents to do more, with less time. It means they’ll be able to rely on technology to do the mundane, repetitive tasks so that they can focus on what they do best: building relationships.
Look for a system with marketing automation, such as email marketing that automates touch points with an agents’ sphere. MoxiEngage, for example, has Neighborhood News, which sends out personalized market snapshots to an agents’ sphere every month without them lifting a finger.
Event better, look for integrated predictive analytics that help your agents stay ahead of the game. Agents are attempting to stay in touch with hundreds of people in their sphere. Imagine being able to provide them with a system that not only automates many of those touch points, but also leverages data to notify them when someone in their sphere is likely to list.
Integrations that matter.
Speaking of automation, data integration is key to having a CRM that truly drives your business forward. Integration with your MLS should be a non-negotiable. Agents shouldn’t need to waste time on repetitive data entry, and your property data should always be up-to-date and accurate. When evaluating a real estate CRM, look for integrations that increase agent productivity, in turn, increasing your brokerage’s profitability.
Lead routing should be a given. Integrated websites are best, because they route leads generated on your brokerage or agent websites directly into an agent’s CRM. On top of that, any lead providers (Buyside, Offrs, and Flipt are a few of our partners, for example) should be integrated so that those leads are routed into the CRM for easy follow-up.
Integration with your digital transaction management provider is also incredibly valuable, as it streamlines the entire transaction process for the agent. For example, agents can launch a DocuSign Transaction Room directly from their MoxiEngage account. The more we can simplify an agent’s workflow through valuable integrations, the better.
Reporting that promotes business growth.
At the end of the day, agents need to know: where does my business stand? Am I hitting my targets? Am I behind on my annual goal? Automated reporting enables and agent to always know the status of their business. Goal setting is step one, but agents also need the ability to track progress towards that goal.
As an example, since MoxiEngage is integrated with your MLS, an agent’s goals dashboard is automatically updated with each completed transaction, which enables them to see a realistic view of where their business stands without having to manually input any data.
A future of innovation.
It’s in your best interest as a brokerage to seek out a CRM that values innovation. The real estate industry is in an era of change and disruption, which means that in order to gain that competitive advantage you’re looking for, you’ll need an innovative technology platform behind that CRM.
Of course, we’re a bit biased since we’ve seen our clients drastically grow their businesses with MoxiEngage – the average agent with a MoxiEngage license sees 54% more transactions than those without, and the agents who fully utilize it see 117% more transactions over their peers without it. You can see why we’re biased. Regardless of the technology provider you choose to partner with, be sure to check these boxes when evaluating a new CRM. Choose a system that not only fits your business now but will grow with you.
If you’re in the process of evaluating a CRM for your brokerage and would like to get advice from one of our experts, reach out to us here.
3 Surefire Ways to Reap the Benefits of Your CRM
By Tiana Baur, Content Marketing Manager
#1 way to reap CRM benefits: Move people through your CRM sales flow!
The number one thing you can do with your CRM is to do what it was meant for: Convert, convert, convert, by moving people through that sales flow. It sounds like a no-brainer, but there are tons of agents out there that don’t even use a CRM.
Your sphere is everything. Not those cold leads you got from Zillow, not those contacts where you don’t even know how they got into your phone. Your repeats, your referrals, those that will all list with you at some point in the next ten years. Moving these gems through the sales flow is a sure bet to getting the job done and that contract signed.
If you don’t believe us, we’ll let the numbers speak for themselves. Those that actually did this, did 42% more business in 2017 – at least with our CRM, Moxi Engage.
#2 way to reap CRM benefits: Automation isn’t the enemy.
We’ve been hearing and reading some things that say auto-marketing isn’t the way to go. While the sentiment makes sense that auto-marketing is not enough by itself (and that’s true), it is still a vital touchpoint and there’s really no excuse to not take advantage of it. I mean, it’s automatic!
By no means are we suggesting “set and forget” auto-marketing is the only marketing you should be doing, but since you only have to sign everyone up one time and it can be extremely effective, it would be ridiculous not to take advantage of this kind of marketing.
Take Neighborhood News for example. This tool lets you send market snapshots to your sphere automagically AND it’s hyperlocal info, for whatever zip code you sign them up with (they can change the zip code themselves if they wish to). Utilize it, embrace it, love it.
#3 way to reap CRM benefits: Take lot of notes.
A contact database with no context is relatively useless. Even if it’s your own database, even if you have a great memory. Chances are, there are contacts in there like we mentioned above, and you have no idea whatsoever who they are. So, when you’re adding new people or learn new info or just have a spare minute waiting at the doctor’s office, update those notes! You might have a great memory, but we guarantee you won’t remember all of their birthdays or their favorite hobbies or drinks right off the top of your head. No one can remember everything. If you want to hear from a pro why this note taking is so important, look no further.
Psst – you’ll also notice if you click that link that a strong database is a priceless ticket to retirement. And by priceless, we mean it could actually be very lucrative if you’ve curated it diligently and thoughtfully, so the next owner of your book of business can use it properly.
So please, do yourselves a mega ultra-favor and take care of that CRM! Use it the way it was meant to be used, like the third arm you never had.
Why a Clean Database Is the Most Important CRM Strategy
By Tiana Baur
Your current and past clients are what gave and continues to give you the entirety of your real estate business, which is why your sphere – or database – is the make or break of your success. It’s the meat and the potatoes, the wheels and the gasoline, the peanut butter and the jelly… you get the point.
The data to back it up
In fact, according to our data, those who converted people in their Moxi Engage CRM, did 40% more business than those who didn’t. To clarify, conversions simply mean moving people through your sales flow in your CRM, from marketing, to prospect, to active, and into pending. Because of this, not having your database be clean and up-to-date, with no duplicates, can mean kissing that 40% goodbye. Let that sink in. Using your CRM is such a simple daily task, that can completely transform your real estate business and put lots more money in your pocket.
Clean up your database by doing nothing
The worst part about this, is that cleaning a database sounds extremely daunting. With everything else going on, it gets pushed down the to-do list time and time again. What if we told you that you could get a clean database in 48 hours by doing practically nothing?
Welcome to Concierge – our new offering to help agents with the busy work. We want to do the heavy lifting, so you can hit the ground running and take full advantage of your MoxiWorks products. Saving time and LOTS of potential frustration.
The MoxiWorks Concierge team helps you by scrubbing your database of contacts and appending them with the most current data available today. Once it’s been scrubbed, you can choose between uploading the final list yourself or have us do it for you. The concierge database clean-up will:
• Identify and merge duplicate records
• Consolidate contact data for seamless upload and search inside of Moxi Engage
• + Guaranteed turnaround of two business days
For reference, the regular contact database clean-up is $150, while the premium contact database clean-up is $300. Our Premium service includes dedicated phone support throughout the process.
What are you waiting for? Save time, enhance the accuracy of your contacts in Moxi Engage, and get that 40% more business you deserve by converting contacts through your sales flow!
Why The Right Brokerage CRM Can Be a Goldmine
Choose wisely, and your brokerage could see agent productivity increase by 40%
As seen in Mile 62 Magazine – By Andrew Eberting
A CRM should be the epicenter of your customer and prospect data – and your brokerage. Not having the right one implemented at your brokerage, you cost yourself and your agents the #1 thing that matters most: Money.
If profitability and growing market share is not for you, no sweat. However, if you do want to own the competition in every possible competitive category, then keep reading.
1.) Ease of Use
For Your Agents: One of the biggest factors that impact agent adoption of your brokerage’s tools is its ease-of-use or lack thereof. The more approachable your offerings are, the barrier to resistance will also be lowered.
Agents want to do what they do best: create dreams for clients and win more listings. Give them something that accomplishes both, and your brokerage becomes the “it” place to be.
For You: If your current agents are excited about the tools that make their lives easier, think about the impact this can have on other areas of your business.
- New agent recruiting
- Current agent retention
- Growth in market share
If your brokerage platform offering is sound, it will result in the acquisition of more share of your local market. It is a dog-eat-dog world; which one are you going to be?
2.) Scalability and Integration/Single Point of Truth
For Your Agents: If an agent can navigate to a single point of truth for their entire workflow with their sphere, what kind of increase would that have not only with their productivity but also their quality of life?
- One place to see all their entire database
- Build a CMA powered by integration with your MLSs
- Email said CMA to their sphere
- Turnaround and start marketing current listings or themselves instantly to Facebook and other online channels
- Send automated closing gifts to clients based on transactional closing history
How much time would be saved each day to log in and find all their tools in one place vs. logging into multiple systems? How much is this time down costing your brokerage?
For You: Staying competitive also means needing to stay current with best-in-class tools. The ability to stay agile while meeting the demands of your brokerage platform (like being integrated across multiple areas of the agent’s daily life) plays a significant role in making you recession-proof the next time the industry retreats. Being able to turn on new tools or keep favorites for your agents, while sunsetting those that have fallen out of favor or compliance, also lowers your annual spend on technology.
3.) Client Success aka YOUR Success Experience
For Your Agents: It is inevitable; at one point or another we all get stuck. With this in mind, sometimes everyone needs a helping hand. Accessibility to success, training, and support is vital to getting back on the proverbial bike and keep going.
For You: A happy agent is a productive agent. Offering your agents a CRM solution that provides multiple channels and assets to help them overcome roadblocks can be gamechanger in their productivity.
70% of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) end users prefer searching for self-service help related to their issues (Zendesk), meaning an agent’s time-to-productivity can be directly impacted by their ability to resolve roadblocks.
Want to know what else to look for in a CRM for your brokerage?
Check out our latest joint white paper with Victor Lund of WAV Group:
How to Choose a Real Estate CRM
Salesforce (2018, April 03) 4 Trends Customer Service Teams Are Using to Kill the Competition.
Zendesk Customers want to help themselves?
Agent-Client Closing Gifts Promote Stronger, Long-Term Relationships
We’d love to formally announce our newest partner, Loop & Tie, making sphere marketing through Moxi Works tools even easier for our agents.
Sending closing gifts is a seemingly small, but quintessential aspect to any deal done with clients, and later on, can be a reminder that their agent still cares and are thinking of them. Everyone likes presents, but more importantly, everyone likes to be thought of. We have partnered with Loop & Tie to provide an easy and effective way for agents to build and maintain these integral client relationships.
“This partnership allows Moxi Works to save agents, even more, time and provides them with more tools to grow and maintain their long-term relationships. We love what Loop & Tie is doing,” said Mike McHenry, VP of Channels & Partnerships. The positive feedback from agents is what made this an easy decision. Sara Rodell, CEO at Loop & Tie says, “Using Loop & Tie for gifts is like taking your clients shopping. Clients get to select what they want, and agents don’t have to stress about what to buy.”
Loop & Tie lets you send gifts from curated selections. Simply choose a price point and let your client pick from the gifts. This way your client gets what they want and they never see the pricing – win, win! Loop & Tie has a variety of unique products in numerous categories, including Home, Bath, Travel, Lifestyle, Food & Drink, and Accessories.
At Moxi Works, we also know that there is never enough time or days in a week for those in the real estate world. It is the entire reason we are in this business: to save brokerages and agents, precious time and money. The best part of this? No training required!
• Clicking a button leads you to the collections where you choose the level of gift to send
• Loop & Tie sends a gift email to the recipient, who then chooses the gift, where to send it, and a thank you note back
• All steps are brokerage-branded for a professional looking environment
• Moxi Works will show reminders to send gifts at logical points in the sales process
• Support is handled by Loop & Tie
Maintain long-term relationships and start impressing clients with these exciting closing gifts! Find out more about the importance of sphere and why it’s a quintessential part of your business:
Choosing a Real Estate CRM for your Brokerage
Photo Credit: amsfrank
Not all real estate CRM platforms are equal. So how do you make sure that you invest wisely in such a vital system for your brokerage?
Victor Lund of WAV Group addresses key factors brokerage owners should consider when selecting a real estate CRM.
Key considerations you will find in
– Setting agents up for success with goal tracking
– Why agents need 500+ contacts records in their CRM
– Why a sphere-centric CRM exceeds a leads-centric CRM
– The role that CRM plays in forecasting brokerage revenue
– How a real estate CRM impacts consumer engagement with your brand
– The importance of integrating email, calendar, and contacts with your CRM
Choose a real estate CRM that helps agents grow & nurture their sphere
The white paper details how to think about each topic above and what brokerages like Long & Foster and Windermere Real Estate have done, and the success they’ve seen.
When you look at the activities that drive their success they tend to revolve around helping agents getting better at:
- Prospecting
- Building a sphere of influence
- Being a great consultant
- Performing an excellent transaction
- Staying connected to that customer for life
The roll your CRM plays in this process is huge. To build a brokerage that will thrive equip your agents with a CRM that let take care of their customers for life. This is what makes a great CRM tool. If you are a brokerage owner or manager read this white paper. It will change the way you think about CRM.
