Whether the real estate market is up or down, managing your time effectively is essential. Get it wrong and you’re looking at missed opportunities, dissatisfied clients, and ultimately, decreased profits.
In this article, we'll share five tips (and scripts) to improve your productivity and list more property. From delegating tasks to your sales team to systemising your follow-up process, these tips will help you work smarter, not harder.
1. Own your time
To avoid playing phone tag with potential clients, the key is to be better at organising other people, not just yourself.
When managing enquiries, don’t reply back with, “I’ll call you back asap.” You need to own your time and lock them down by saying, “Hi x, I’ll call you at 10.15am tomorrow. Let me know if this doesn't work” – then follow it up with an appointment.
It’s also a great idea to pre-load your calendar at the start of the week with dollar-productive activities.
Pro tip: If you don't have a team to help manage your calendar and admin, use tools like Calendly to allow clients to book themselves into times that suit you.
2. Hand the phone to your sales team
One of the best ways you can maximise your appraisal and listing numbers, is to delegate your phone to your sales team.
Starting with the most obvious – outbound and proactive calls. Structure your team’s week around specific tasks: for example, on Wednesdays they follow up all appraisals during ‘X’ time period.
Here’s a basic script:
“Hi, it’s Matt from ABC real estate. Sam Smith provided you with an appraisal on your home 18 months ago. We've seen some significant value changes recently and Sam is actually in your street next week, have you got 15 mins for him to drop in to provide an update?”
When it comes to inbound calls, you can't afford to miss anything. Buy a second phone and set it up to divert after 5 rings. This allows you time to answer those you wish or allow them to go through to your team. The second phone means callers will still get your personalised voicemail.
3. Multiply yourself with tech
Work smarter by leveraging direct to voicemail or ‘ghost voicemail’ tools. You only need to invest 30 seconds of your time to pre-record a message that goes straight to the voicemail of hundreds of contacts without their mobile phone ringing.
Here’s an example of a voicemail to send out as part of your post-sale marketing strategy:
“Hi it’s Sam from ABC real estate. I sold 60 Smith Street over the weekend, it was a really great result. [Include some short background info]. I can’t send you the exact price it went for due to privacy reasons, but I can tell you over the phone if you're interested.”
Direct to voicemail is a great way to let potential prospects come to you. Those people who have no interest won’t call you back, so neither of you has wasted much time.
4. Systemise your follow-up process
It’s very easy to let golden opportunities fall by the wayside when things are busy.
Become a well-oiled machine in ensuring no prospect falls through the cracks. You need to implement a consistent follow up process that starts with having a militant focus on collecting the right information.
One of the benefits of a digital sales platform like Openn is contact fields are mandatory for buyers and people who have registered interest on a property. You can then leverage this data to identify and prioritise prospects.
Here’s a follow up text you can send out to people who observed one of your Openn sales:
“Hi X, per my message yesterday, there were four buyers that missed out on 60 Smith Street. Are you in a position where I could show them through your home this week?"
5. Learn to say no
There’s probably lots of things you’re doing that should be delegated to someone else, or just flat-out shouldn't be doing all together.
Say 'no' to taking a buyer through a private inspection unless you’re 100% confident they’re in a position to purchase. Say 'no' to another lunch with colleagues instead of an important client. More than anything, don't be afraid to start saying 'no' to appraisals that impact time with your family or time spent doing something more important to you.
Saying no is an art form, but as Stephen Covey says: “You need to have the courage to unapologetically, smilingly and pleasantly say 'no' to other things. And the way to do that, is to have a bigger 'yes' burning inside”.
Find out how Openn can help you attract more buyers, sell faster and take your business to new heights – book a free demo today!
