Win the Race to Be TOP of Mind

Results with Auto-flow: There’s a better way to generate business than buying leads.

There are two parts to the real estate sales business. Part one is Doing the Business–listing, selling, and closing. Part two is Generating the Business—this is where many sales associates struggle and is a primary reason they’re spending billions of dollars annually buying leads. There is a better way.

Let’s look at the science. Research shows that most people would prefer to work with a real estate professional who they know, like, and trust versus an online stranger. However, they know, on average, 12 real estate professionals. The challenge (and opportunity) is simple: As a leader, how do you help your associates win this battle to become the Agent of Choice? We have found the one thing that will do it is FLOW–frequency of interaction.

Increasing FLOW through face-to-face, voice-to-voice, mail, email, text, and social media positions your associates as the Agents of Choice. FLOW is the oxygen of their business. Cut it off, and their business dies. Increase it, and their business thrives. If you have a struggling associate, help them increase their flow. Flow Fixes Everything!

There are two types of FLOW:

Live flow (face-to-face and voice-to-voice). This is primarily the responsibility of the sales associate. We recommend they be in live flow with at least 50 people a week. These are not 50 sales calls. They are 50 live interviews where the associate simply asks about FORD (family, occupation, recreation, and dreams) and listens for changes that might affect their real estate or the real estate of their friends (referrals).
Auto-flow (mailings and emails). Auto-flow consists of three valuable touches per month that are designed to keep your associates top of the mind, especially when they get busy or are on vacation. Unfortunately, most associates are not organized to create and run auto-flow. They are more than willing to pay for it. They just don’t have time to set it up and run it. This is where you come in.

Setting up and running an auto-flow system is the one thing that will most improve your results, your recruiting, and your retention. Here’s how:

Results. Helping your associates to become the agents of choice will dramatically increase their production–as much as 40% to 50% in many cases. Here are the results of a 1,000 associate 14-office firm that implemented auto-flow five years ago:

Market: Up +8%
Auto-flow associates: Up +65%
Auto-flow associates earned 58.9% more than non-auto-flow associates
No. 1, No. 2, No. 4 offices in profitability were No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 in auto-flow participation
Auto-flow works!

Recruiting. With these results, top-producing associates are attracted to your company. You are offering them a valuable service that is time-consuming for them to set up and run on their own. They know they need auto-flow, and you have just become their solution.

Retention. Once an associate is set up on auto-flow, their results improve, and it is nearly impossible for them to leave. Very few firms offer this service, and most associates don’t have the time or organization to set it up on their own. You have a competitive advantage.

Challenges are setting up and running an effective auto-flow system. Here are the biggest three.

Creating valuable content. This tends to be the most straightforward challenge to solve as most reasonably sized companies have created an abundance of newsletters, market reports, events, etc. Often the frustration is getting their associates to use these pieces. Auto-flow is the answer. Set it up for them, and they will use it–and pay for it.
No database. It’s amazing how many sales associates don’t have a database. A study by Efficiency by Design found that 60% of associates don’t have a database (CRM). The 40% who do earn 251% more! Hire an intern if necessary, to help your people set up their database.
Associate resistance to sharing their database with the company. Show the benefits and invite everyone to participate in your auto-flow system. The early adopters will take you up on it. Don’t be discouraged if this is only 10% or less of your company. They will get results, word will spread, and others will join over time.

Company leaders face many decisions today on where to invest their time and money. We have found that implementing an excellent auto-flow system is the one thing that will give you the highest return on your investment.