How has your business grown in the past five years? To what do you attribute this change?
After opening the office in 2005, I failed in every way possible. And then I failed some more. Needless to say, those first few years were not the most fun. However, everything changed as soon as I discovered TigerLead in 2011. The lead generation system was a true turning point as the numbers started to go up, which enabled me to recruit and retain great agents. Not only did the system give us focus, it also provided a structure to work from and it was measurable. TigerLead has really taken on a life of its own within the office, becoming our biggest source of business. While the first year was spent growing and figuring out the system, we’ve really taken off with it and have grown ever since. TigerLead is the one thing that gave me and everyone else belief in working Internet leads, and showed us that there’s a whole business to be made in working these types of leads.
How do you make the process of following up with leads, which can be tedious, fun for the team?
We have a lot of fun in our office. I’m a big believer in rewarding—as everyone wants to feel appreciated—and I want my agents to know that I know when they’ve done a good job. Therefore, I incorporate a lot of contests and challenges into the mix. For example, agents may get to pick gift cards every time they turn in a TigerLead transaction. We even sent one team member on a cruise last year. I make it a point to keep everything visible, so all of our numbers are posted out in the open for everyone to see.
You seem to be closing a good number of your TigerLead clients. Do you have formal procedures in place for following up, or do your team members improvise?
While we use several different lead generation sources within the office, TigerLead is No. 1. In fact, my agents—for the most part—almost run their business entirely out of TigerLead. Not only is it a phenomenal business portal to run Internet leads from, it has everything an agent needs when it comes to following up and converting leads all in one place. The system has an amazing dashboard that not only keeps track of leads and current, future and past clients, it also tells agents who they need to reach out to on any given day. Through TigerLead, agents can send listings to their clients and even save their favorites. In the end, agents still have to do the hard work, but the dashboard makes it simple.
Any other advice you could give someone looking to build a successful team?
First, make sure you have the right agents. It’s also important to make sure you develop a team culture. And last but not least, create, buy or build a system. In my opinion, if TigerLead is available, sign up for it, as it’s important to get this kind of structure going to support your team.
For more information, please visit www.realtor.com/success.
