Making Your Dollars Count

Editor’s Note: This was originally published on RISMedia’s blog, Housecall. See what else is cookin’ now at blog.rismedia.com:

Successful real estate teams strive to operate at their most profitable, with purposeful practices in place to keep the bottom line at the top of the priority list.

Two real estate team leaders, Jim Knowlton and Zac Pasmanick, recently shared their profit-turning takes on operating a thriving business in RISMedia’s ACE webinar, “Operational Excellence: Does Your Back Office Align With Your Back Pocket?” The webinar, sponsored by Moxi Works, was moderated by real estate coach Cleve Gaddis of Gaddis Partners, RE/MAX Center.

The key to coming out ahead? Delegate low-earning activities and focus on high-earning tasks—the “$300-$500 an hour” to-dos, not “repetitive paper-pushing,” said Knowlton, leader of the Jim Knowlton Home Team with Keller Williams. ” often…run around chasing the golden coin that never shows up. I’m a firm believer in that whatever I do, I’m going to be profitable—if it’s not going to be profitable, I’m not going to do it.”

The real money-makers, according to Knowlton, are generating listing and recruitment leads, and communicating and upholding standards for the team. Pasmanick operates by a similar credo, entrusting the day-to-day to his team members while tending to the innately profitable part of the business.

“My favorite part of my business is the listings, so I do a lot of lead generation to get listing leads into the system,” said Pasmanick, leader of The Zac Team with RE/MAX Metro Atlanta Cityside. The rest, he explained, falls on the team, which functions through a set of expectations, or standard operating procedures, established early on.

Knowlton agreed. “I want to do more transactions—that’s the goal. That’s why we set forth standards,” and, importantly, “do corrections in small increments. Doing an annual review without quantifiable numbers is like trying to do your taxes on April 15.”

Accountability, both said, is ongoing. “We want to make sure doing the actions that are going to lead to transactions, lead to closings, and we do that on a daily, weekly and monthly basis,” Knowlton emphasized.

Seamlessness also plays heavily—generally, the more streamlined a process, the more earning opportunities become available (and, in many cases, the less it costs). Integrating a CRM, for instance, with marketing and social media tools, third-party applications, etc., makes follow-up and prospecting easier on team members, raising productivity.

Connected processes, for Pasmanick, are paramount when marketing. His team rolls out drip campaigns through a CRM, as well as a newsletter, and postcards with a clear call-to-action: visit a website to learn what homes in the neighborhood are selling for.

Integration can also be a help in recruiting. Knowlton consistently keeps his eyes peeled for opportunity, blocking one hour of devoted lead generation time to find fresh talent.

“You have lead generation and marketing tools you use to stay in flow with your sphere,” said Mike McHenry, vice president of Channels, Partnerships and Integrations at Moxi Works. “All of those things can be automated through an open platform. We’re huge proponents of that.”

Learn more from the webinar in the recording below: