Now is a Great Time to Catch Up!

Written by Posted On Tuesday, 31 March 2020 05:25

When I switched from my commercial business management career 20 years ago to work in the real estate support industry, I was amazed at the number of standard business practices many agents didn’t use.  I was coming from a world of mission statements, 6 month, 1-year, 5-year forecasting, making a quarterly pro forma, plus doing all the different managements of contact, time and information. We didn’t call it a sales funnel back then, not sure how we referred to our customer/contact list, but if somebody wasn’t buying we sent one of our outside sales people to see them.

I remember within the first 6 months of helping agents I was speaking in a remote part of Maryland and an agent and her husband asked me to dinner after my presentation.  I was new and didn’t realize many times an invitation was actually a chance to learn more about the subject I had presented. It turned out to be a nice evening, but I learned more than they did; the agent wanted my input on contact management, I asked how many contacts she had in her contact management system, she proudly answered 3,000!  She was a successful agent so I decided to take a look at what her contacts looked like. My first question was, “how many are dead of this 3,000?” Her answer, she didn’t know! Next, I asked if she had the contacts divided up by anything like level of interest, possible leads or past customers? Her answer, no! I told her she did not have a contact management system, she had an old expired phone book.

Now is the time, with what is going on in the world, to tackle a project you have been putting off for months or even years: CLEAN UP YOUR CRM SYSTEM!  Let me share how I think you should clean up your contacts. First, design your own categories and don’t make more than 6 or 7 categories. My suggestion would be to simply put: Contacts that can make you money within the next year, Contacts that can make you money in the next 2 years, other contacts which might make you money someday, past clients, support people like lenders, title companies, home inspectors etc., Family and finally friends.  That would be my 7 categories, but feel free to make what works for you. Every contact in your CRM should fall into a category so we can discuss next steps.

“Why do we need to have categories in our CRM?” you might ask. Simple; in marketing, whether it’s emails, phone calls, or postcards you need to know who to invest time and money into staying in touch. The category “Make Money in a Year,” you would dedicate more resources than the “Make you Money Someday” category.  This is how and where you start building a marketing plan and how to execute the plan. We can discuss more in the future about marketing plans, but for now clean up your contacts!

Oh, the agent from that remote part of Maryland with her 3,000 contacts, the agent, the husband and an assistant went to work cleaning up the contacts and about a month later proudly called to tell me she had gone from 3,000 contacts to 1,200 alive, maybe interested contacts

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Dick Betts

Dick Betts, REALTOR® The Villages, FL with Touchstone Real Estate, Addie Owens, Broker, Mount Dora FL.  Dick has been working in the real estate industry for more than 20 years and brings his experience and expertise to help you find the best solution for your real estate needs.  Moving to Florida in 2008 he started in Ocala and began searching where in the state of Florida he wanted to call home, Florida has so many options, Beaches, Southeast, Southwest, the Panhandle.  After weighing his options, he found where he wanted to call home just 20 miles south of Ocala, The Villages!  Living fulltime in The Villages since 2011 his only regret was not moving there sooner.

Dick has traveled across North America since 2000 speaking, training and helping REALTORS® in 47 states and 5 Canadian Provinces hone their skills to better serve the public.  He now brings those years of experience to The Villages to help folks who also want to call The Villages home.  People looking to buy in The Villages are from around the world and need a tech savvy REALTOR® to serve their needs.  Selling in The Villages you want to list your home with somebody who knows how to market your home to the Facebook Generation and bring the most exposure possible to attract a buyer.

Want to really learn about The Villages Lifestyle?  Want to see what The Villages has to offer?  Let Dick Betts be your guide and help you call The Villages your NEW HOME TOWN!

www.dickbetts.com

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