Sally Agent starts her workday like a million other dedicated REALTORS®. She goes through the morning ritual of rubbing the sleep from her eyes, perhaps doing a bit of exercise before breakfast, then getting dressed and ready to go to the office. But this is where the similarity ends. You see, Sally is not just any typical agent, she has an entire team tirelessly working for her even while she sleeps -- a team she has never met. Here's how Sally has the perfect workday, one that she enjoys five days a week.

Focused – Not Frazzled

With the help of Lisa, her Executive Level virtual assistant, Sally has become very clear on what her business is about. Her primary focus is taking new listings (via referrals and expireds) and selling homes to white-collar, mid-level executives relocating to her area. Her main source of leads is her website (targeted to relocating buyers), referrals from her sphere of influence and previous clients, and actively prospecting expired listings. Anything outside of listing presentations, writing up offers and negotiation, is handled by various members of her team on an as-needed basis.

This approach empowers Sally to be highly focused, productive and avoid the overwhelm that so many other agents feel when a lot of business is coming in. And with Sally, new business is always coming in.

The "Just Show Up" Listing Appointment

Before arriving at her office, Sally already knew she had two scheduled listing appointments and two buyer showings. Her calendar is kept up to date (and full of new business) by all her VAs, each of which has access to a Web-based calendar that automatically sync's up with Sally's Outlook calendar. This is one of the many ways that her VAs actually manage her time, so she can focus on what she does best and not worry about the details.

As Sally arrives at her desk, she smiles to herself as she sees that the CMA's and customized marketing plans are already waiting for her on her printer. And, the blank CD she left in her CD-ROM burner the day before is ejected and contains the custom PowerPoint presentations to help her win the listings. These were completed by Mary, her VA Listing Marketing Coordinator, who lives two time zones away and completed this work while Sally slept.

Even though Sally has had as many as four listing appointments in a single day, she never gets flustered or feels overwhelmed. That's because in addition to doing the pre-listing presentation preparation, Mary also handles all of the details of the listing once it is signed up. This includes showing feedback, entering the listing into the MLS system, writing and posting all the print ads, initiating Web-based marketing and giving the sellers comprehensive marketing reports every Friday.

This process works so well for Sally, a listing for her basically involves just showing up at the seller's house and closing the deal -- everything else is handled by her VA Listing Marketing Coordinator.

Real World Example #1

Joan Prout of RE/MAX Villa REALTORS® in Jersey City, NJ, uses a VA Listing Marketing Coordinator in Chicago to handle all of her listing presentation and marketing coordination details. You can see the entire list of what her VA does for her in the May 2005 Ask Mr. Internet column of REALTOR Magazine Online.

A Pipeline of New Listings That Is Always Full

Sally averages eight listing appointments per week, which takes about 15 hours of her time total (remember, her VA, Mary, handles all the pre and post presentation details). Sally generates these new listings from two primary sources. First, she has another VA, Vickie in Florida, who handles all her "stay-in-touch" drip marketing (both e-mail and post cards) specifically targeted to her sphere of influence and previous clients. Since implementing that, she sees on average 7 new listings a month -- just from that.

Real World Example #2

Sylvia Woods of GSH Real Estate in Hampton, VA, works with a Virtual Assistant who designed and implemented a stay-in-touch drip marketing campaign. This meant not only freeing herself from the monthly process, but seeing a dramatic increase in listings and achieving the #1 spot in her agency with 60 listings in one year directly attributable to this stay-in-touch campaign.

Sally also aggressively goes after the expired market in her area. Since the process of determining which listings are going to expire, getting the seller's phone number and making the appointment can be very time consuming, Sally, of course, outsources all of those functions. She has another VA (that lives several time zones away) generate a daily "call list" of sellers whose listings will be expiring that same day. Every morning before she even gets to her office, Sally has the list waiting for her in her e-mail inbox. Another copy of that list is sent over to Rhonda, her VA on the West coast, whose only job is to set the listing appointment for Sally. Rhonda is an absolute pro on the phone and more times than not is able to set up the appointment for Sally. And, each time she does, she contacts Mary (the Listing Marketing Coordination VA) so she can prepare the pre-listing presentation documents in time for Sally's scheduled appointments.

Real World Example #3

Top producer Rick Parlente of NoSnowNaples.com hired a group of VAs from eight time zones away to create his call list of newly expired listings. This arrives in his e-mail inbox around 7:30 am every day. He then hired a VA in Southern California to set up his appointments with the sellers of these expired properties. Essentially, Rick set up his business of prospecting expired listings in such a way that he effectively only needs to "show up" to close the deal.

A Private Pond Stocked With Potential Buyers

Another major source of new business for Sally is the leads from her website -- the one targeted to mid-level executives relocating to her area. Sally understands very well the principles of turning online leads into transactions. She knows that the online consumer wants a near instant response to their inquiries, and that they may be several months from actually needing her services.

Since Sally doesn't want to be stuck in front of a computer all day checking for e-mail, she has two other VAs, Chris and Marley, that do it for her. Chris covers normal working hours and Marley handles inquiries that come in during the evening hours. Here are the steps they take every time an online inquiry is received:

1. If it is clear that the inquiry is ready to do something now, they contact Sally immediately to follow up (after sending a response to the message that someone will be calling shortly). NOTE: only 5 percent of these inquiries fall into this category;

2. For the other 95 percent that are not quite ready, her VAs send a special "first response e-mail" on Sally's behalf that is specifically designed to build trust, rapport and have the prospect feel in control;

3. They also put the prospects on Sally's custom monthly e-mail newsletter (written by another VA, of course) and in a drip e-mail system that is written specifically for relocating mid-level executives.

4. They monitor the prospects placed into the drip campaigns and alert Sally when they are ready to move forward with their purchase.

By using this method to process her online leads, Sally is free to focus only on those that are ready to do something now. The others are like fish that are too small to keep. Instead of throwing them back however, her VAs put them into a special private "pond" (the drip campaign) where they are fed and nurtured. When they are "big enough" (ready to move), then and only then, does Sally get heavily involved.

Real World Example #4

Prudential Douglas Elliman uses an entire team of VAs to be their "Virtual Customer Service Representatives." They handle all the phone and Web leads that come in directly to the company from 8:00am to 11:00pm 360 days a year.

Sally typically doesn't have to show many properties to these buyers once they are ready. That's because they did most of the work finding the kind of properties and neighborhoods they found most appealing. At this point Sally spends most of her time drawing up the contract and presenting the offers. And, once the offer is accepted, Sally faxes over the documents to Cindi, her Virtual Transaction Coordinator, who happens to live in Washington State. After Cindi has it, there is very little for Sally to do other than attend the closing and give her clients the closing gift that Cindi conveniently arranged to show up at the final meeting. After the close, Cindi then contacts Vickie, Sally's drip marketing VA, to make sure that these clients are put on the seven-year, "stay-in-touch" campaign.

Real World Example #5

Coldwell Banker agents Kathy & Michael Rain in Half Moon Bay, CA, use a VA in Virginia to execute a stay-in-touch program for clients that just closed with them.

This is just a short synopsis of how Sally is able to focus just on her core strengths of listing, selling and negotiating while the critical details are handled for her from a distance. In addition to giving her the time to enjoy her success, she also has no limitations as to how much business she can do. "Overwhelm" becomes but a faded memory.

Thousands of Semi-Sallies

Thousands of agents have incorporated the use of Virtual Assistants into their business during the last eight or so years that I have been speaking and writing about this incredible resource. Some are approaching "Sally Agent's" full scope of use, and many others are using them incrementally, such as the real world examples above.

This industry is not getting any simpler. It is already physically impossible for most real estate professionals to have a career where they make a great living, do only what they love to do and have all the free time to enjoy their success. Becoming a virtually supported agent is a proven strategy that will work with any agent, no matter where they are in their career.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.