When it comes to keeping in touch with large numbers of past clients, more than just a drip email campaign is needed, says Paul Argueta, CEO of Real Estate Heaven in Pasadena, Calif. RISMedia recently caught up with Argueta who discussed the robust solution he’s input at his company for client communications and lead management success.
Region served: Los Angeles, Pasadena, West Hollywood and Palos Verdes
Years in real estate: 22
Number of offices: 4
Number of agents: 150
Average time on market: 40 days
Average sales price: $700,000
Favorite thing about working in the industry: No two days are ever the same. Every day is an adventure. I also love being a problem solver. It’s the most challenging transactions that I enjoy navigating the most, mainly from the satisfaction that comes from having helped clients who had all but given up on finding or selling a home.
You recently changed your operations to provide more systems and technology to your 150 agents. What triggered this?
My biggest flaw has always been in maintaining communication with my past clients. It stings when you see a home that you helped someone purchase a few years ago on the market with a different agent or company. What that says is that I did a poor job of keeping in touch with that client—even if it wasn’t my personal client. If I represented the seller as the listing agent, it’s my responsibility to make sure the buyer has an agent to take care of his or her needs after the sale. My company did not have a dedicated system in place to do that. We did have Excel spreadsheets, but when you’re speaking to the volume of people I speak to on a daily basis, you need a more robust system that provides more than just an email drip campaign. Top Producer offered that system, and the Market Snapshots they sent were an invaluable tool and great conversation starter. I was the original guinea pig, and in six months, I had acquired seven listings that I attribute 100 percent to the Top Producer and Market Snapshot system.
What kind of commitment does the agent make to you to participate in company-generated prospecting?
In order for any of our agents to be assigned a lead, they must be a subscriber to our bundled package. In addition, commission checks are not released until a file is submitted for review through our online document management software and deemed compliant and complete.
How do you distribute leads to those who are interested?
We use the FiveStreet system, which allows the administrator of the account to assign leads and rotate them throughout an entire team.
What does an agent get in their technology “bundle” to work with these leads?
We created something we call the REH-Tech Bundle, which includes the Top Producer CRM, Market Snapshot, FiveStreet lead assignment system, professional landing page (included in the Market Snapshot toolbox), four assigned leads per month, and a few other tools that provide digital signatures and online document management software.
How do you get agents to believe in this as being a potential win?
The easiest way for an agent to believe that the REH-Tech Bundle is a win is for them to see actual results. I have been using the Top Producer system for eight months and have procured seven listings as a direct result. My agents see this. In addition, our firm regularly builds value for the bundle on a daily basis. We promote our victories on our private Facebook groups. We send internal messages letting everyone know about the new listings or new escrows that came from using these tools. As the broker/owner, it isn’t enough for me to tell them to use the tools just once. Lead by example and remind the agents daily is our motto.
How does this affect your success? Do you have any stories you can share?
Christian Perez is a young man who recently graduated from our real estate school, The College of Real Estate. He learned about the bundle as a student prior to becoming licensed. He saw the results, and believed in the system so much, he actually took out a personal loan from a family member and paid the cost of the service for the year. He began entering everyone he knew into the system. Sixty days later, he has three active listing contracts worth over $1.5 million in inventory, and he has only been licensed for about two months.
For more information about Top Producer, click here.
