Getting FUB’d Up with Bridget: Better Ways to Use Your FUB Contact Information
Operations
Getting FUB’d Up with Bridget: Better Ways to Use Your Follow Up Boss Contact Information
Watch our latest webinar that teaches you how to get the most out of the information you’re adding to your Follow Up Boss account!
🤫 Want an Easy Button for Better Sales Meetings?
Putting together a sales meeting twice a month or even weekly can be a challenge! Including a brief training is something that will really help your team get a lot of value from the session together, but it often takes time to research and prepare.
Set aside the time within your meeting for this training, and then let us do the heavy lifting! Use our Follow Up Boss Playlist for agents to supply you with a short training video to watch as a group and discuss during your meeting.
Choose one video from the playlist to cover each meeting and revisit often as we will be continually adding to this to help support you in your quest for building the perfect real estate team.
You might also want to check out our full list of offerings for more in-depth training sessions.
🛳️ Guide to Nailing Your Onboarding
Onboarding your new agents smoothly is not only a key piece of your recruiting puzzle, it’s crucial to create a healthy, growing team or brokerage.
This process is the agent’s first impression of how the organization works and you want to do everything you can for it to go smoothly to show them what a professional, organized, and committed-to-their-success place this is.
In a lot of cases, those new agents are scared. They’ve left salaried positions with benefits or a brokerage that they know inside-and-out and have taken a leap of faith to try something new. Especially those who are new to a commission-only pay structure, this can be a really intimidating thing.
The goal with onboarding is to have them land with you confidently on their feet. If they were to show up on that first day and you say, “Oh, great! Uhh…I didn’t know that you were starting today! Uh…here’s some information for you to read, here’s the wifi password, and here’s some things to read that I just slapped together just now,” that’s going to cause your new rockstar agent to have some immediate job-change remorse. Worse, if mistakes happen down the line, they will say, “I knew it from the first day that this was a bad decision!”
So how do you accomplish this soft yet ready-to-go landing for your new agents? Give yourself a runway of time to prepare. 48 business hours should be sufficient, depending on your process. This way, you and anyone else assisting you with onboarding has plenty of time to get everything prepared before they walk in the door. Agents are READY. TO. GO. and they will become frustrated in having to wait on their basic needs to work.
Create an onboarding checklist to ensure that each item you have identified that an agent needs when they begin is prepared for them. Similar to the results of having a transaction or closing checklist for your clients, you want the process of working with you to be the same for your agents: consistent, thorough, and positive.
Use our guide below (make a copy and save it to edit,) and add every single thing that you do when you onboard someone new. Yes, even the small stuff. As you grow and bring on multiple people at once it will be harder and harder to remember each detail.
Once you’re done, save another copy and name it “Exit Checklist” and update it so that you are turning off and performing all the tasks needed when an agent leaves and nothing is missed on that end as well.
This is all about consistency. If you need to do something to onboard or exit one agent, you will likely need to do it for all of them. Building systems around the regular actions that you take means that nothing will be forgotten, the organization is working efficiently, and there are fewer items to remember and decisions to be made around recurring events, freeing you up to spend time and energy on the business building activities instead.
Guide to Creating a Team Business Plan
If you’re going to run your team (or brokerage!) and get results, you need a plan. Setting aside time to think about and map out our businesses is something that we all need to do more often rather than getting stuck doing the work and caught up in the weeds of everyday happenings.
Blocking off time regularly with no distractions to think about ways to improve your business is a great first step, but creating a clear actionable plan is the key to seeing results.
Watch our guide to creating a team (or brokerage!) business plan and use the accompanying workbook to make a plan that you can execute and take your business to the next level.
Strategies for the Never-Ending Fight Against Spam
Effective communication is key in any business, but especially so in real estate as this element can make or break your transactions and growth. Email remains a primary channel for connecting with clients, colleagues, and prospects however, the constant battle against spam filters can hinder the delivery of crucial messages. By understanding the nuances of spam filters and implementing proactive measures, you can ensure messages reach the intended recipients, fostering stronger relationships and enhancing your overall success.
No one wants their inbox junked up and major email providers are putting in place efforts to help protect us from spam. Still, if you don’t approach your marketing in a strategic, meaningful way, you’ll end up right alongside that nice Prince who can’t seem to find anybody to take his millions off his hands.
Here are some strategies you can implement to prevent your emails from landing in the dreaded spam folder:
💌 Establish Credibility
Building trust with clients and the public is the foundation of a secure business. When your emails consistently end up in spam folders, it can erode the credibility you’ve worked hard to establish. By taking preventive measures, you ensure that your messages are seen by the right people at the right time.
💌 Authenticate your Custom Domain to Improve Email Deliverability
Our besties at Follow Up Boss have created a way for you to authenticate your domain so that you can set your marketing emails up for the best chance of landing in the hands of future business. Use this link and follow the steps to further protect your efforts!
💌 Understand Spam Filters
Before diving into prevention strategies, it’s essential to understand how spam filters operate. These filters use complex algorithms to analyze various aspects of an email, such as content, sender reputation, and engagement metrics. By staying informed about these factors, real estate professionals can tailor their communication to align with spam filter criteria. Research the filters that you encounter during your everyday business to learn more about how they work and how you can structure your messaging to not get flagged.
💌 Craft Relevant Content
One of the primary triggers for spam filters is irrelevant or suspicious content. Focus on writing emails that are informative, personalized, and directly related to your recipient’s interests. Avoiding excessive use of promotional language and ensuring the content adds value can significantly reduce the chances of triggering spam filters.
💌 Maintain a Healthy Sender Reputation
Your sender reputation plays a crucial role in email deliverability and consistently sending emails that are marked as spam will harm your reputation. To maintain a positive sender reputation, regularly clean your email list, promptly handle unsubscribe requests, and encourage recipients to mark your emails as ‘not spam’ if they find them valuable.
💌 Use Authentication Protocols
Implementing email authentication protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds an extra layer of security to your emails. This helps verify your legitimacy, making it less likely for spam filters to flag.
💌 Encourage Engagement
Spam filters often take user engagement into account. You can encourage recipients to interact with your emails by including clear calls-to-action, relevant links, and interactive content. Higher engagement rates signal to spam filters that your emails are desired and legitimate.
💌 Regularly Monitor Deliverability Metrics
Regularly monitor key deliverability metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. Analyzing these metrics provides insights into the effectiveness of your email campaigns and allows for adjustments to be made to improve deliverability.
The Missing Element of Your Recruiting Strategy
It’s retention. How’s that for cutting right to the chase?
I’ve heard my entire real estate career that agents only stay at a brokerage for an average of three years. And while that is certainly true in some cases, I have had the pleasure to work closely with and see under the hood of brokerages all over the US and Canada and I’m here to tell you…it definitely doesn’t have to be that way.
Retaining your existing agents is not only a heck of a lot easier than recruiting, it saves you money and time as well. And aren’t they really one in the same? According to the website edume.com (I don’t know, it looked legit…) the average cost per hire is around $4,000 between the actual cost, HR time, and training efforts. That’s also not including the cost of your recruiting efforts per hire. A lack of effort on your part to retain, nurture, and grow this investment would be just poor business sense.
Your success as a team hinges on your ability to acquire top talent but also to retain it. A stable, committed team will boost productivity across the entire organization while also enhancing the reputation and profitability of the entire team and brokerage. Retaining experienced agents ensures that your client relationships have continuity, as clients often seek the guidance of familiar faces when it comes to large transactions like buying or selling a home. Longer-term relationships build trust, which also generates repeat business and referrals.
When agents work together for an extended period of time, they develop a deep understanding of each other’s strengths to work as a team and create a synergy that significantly impacts your overall team performance. They’ll know that Mike may not be the best at social media, but he’s going to win at the listing table every. single. time. and he’s willing to coach you up before your appointment. And they will know to go to Amber because she’s the social media guru and loves to give you tips on how to grow your audience.
Now, retention isn’t easy. It takes a lot of effort to maintain a long-term relationship and you can’t be everything to everyone. Yes, despite your best efforts, life will take some agents elsewhere or out of the industry completely. But by giving taking care of your people a good honest try, you will be well on your way to developing a team that wants to stick around and grow together.
Here are some suggestions to consider as you work to improve your agent retention efforts:
👩🏫 Invest in Professional Development
Provide ongoing training and development opportunities to keep your team engaged and motivated. Encourage them to grow and expand their skill set, stay updated on industry trends, and pursue certifications that can help them grow their book of business.
😊 Establish a Positive Work Environment
Foster a positive and inclusive workplace culture where agents feel valued and supported. Establish regular team-building activities, open communication channels, and recognition of achievements and things done right to contribute to a sense of belonging.
🏃♂️ Competitive Compensation and Incentives
Your compensation structure should be competitive within the industry and consider implementing performance-based incentives to reward your top performers as well. If you create an environment where it’s easy to sell a lot of houses but your agents HAVE to sell a lot of houses in order to make a decent living, retention will remain a challenge for your organization. Recognizing and appreciating your team’s hard work help them to feel acknowledged and motivated to continue delivering exceptional results for both the team and your clients. Take care to show them this appreciation year-round, not just at the end-of-year awards ceremony!
🏡 Flexible Work Arrangements
Life-work balance isn’t a myth and by leading with flexibility to allow agents to perform their duties well at work and at home will make it easier for people to stay and not have to leave for family reasons. Offering flexible work arrangements and staying in tune to the needs of your team will demonstrate that you understand and respect their individual circumstances and responsibilities outside of real estate.
👔 Help Your Team Identify Career Pathways
Assist your agents in creating a business plan for this year and a five year plan so that they have a clear understanding of their advancement opportunities both within the team and as a real estate professional. This gives your team a sense of direction and purpose which motivates them to stay committed to their roles. Taking the time to know and understand the motivation and goals of your agents will help you support them in reaching those goals. Not everyone wants to create their own team or brokerage, for some making a great living and having more time with their family is the driver.
📚 Provide Training and Support Systems
None of this works if the internal systems of your business are not strong and in place. Strong onboarding, training systems, support during transactions, mentorship opportunities, SOPs for how to work leads, hold open houses and all other real estate activities are all things that you should have in place and easily accessible to your agents. Reviewing these resources regularly at your team meetings and pouring into your folks to teach them everything you can will also result in higher retention rates.
Other companies are recruiting your people as you read this, making a concerted effort to retain or re-recruit your own agents will create an environment and culture so strong and nurturing that they won’t even entertain the conversation. You can do it, just get started and chip away at the things you need to do and the systems you need to create. Keep going, continuity is the secret to success!
🎁 Give Your Agents the Gift of a Business Plan
The most successful agents have an executable plan for their business. As leaders, we often overlook that an agent’s livelihood is a business inside a business or, in most cases, a brokerage. Just because we have a plan for the overall business and assist them in setting goals, that doesn’t mean that they know how to achieve those goals.
By helping your agents to develop their own personal business plan it not only helps them take ownership of their work and efforts, it aids them in having clarity on exactly how to accomplish the goals they need to hit in order to reach their personal success and maintain the overall health of the team or brokerage.
Set up a workshop with your agents with a clear outline on how to develop a business plan and watch them flourish as they achieve their goals with ease in the new year.
Below is our guide to creating a business plan for your real estate business for you to add your own tools and inspiration to!
🎁 Step One: Use a goal calculator like this one from our pals at SISU to help you determine exactly the effort needed on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis in order to reach your goals.
🎁 Step Two: Map out the specifics as to how you want to go about doing the things prescribed on the calculator and break it down by each month and week. Remember, there are many ways to achieve your goals and using a variety of tools will help you get there!
Questions to ask yourself to aid you in completing Step Two:
- How many hours do I need to set aside for prospecting each day? Each week?
- How much vacation time will I take this year? Factor this into your plan.
- How many open houses do I want to commit to doing each month?
- What is my social media strategy?
- Where will I post my content and how often?
- You can utilize a Social Media Calendar to pre-plan your posts
- Where will I post my content and how often?
- How many listings vs buyers do I want to work with?
- What is my niche and what are the necessary steps to improve my visibility with this audience?
- What community events should I plan to attend or sponsor this year?
- What networking events do I need to attend?
- What promotional materials should I be utilizing?
- How often do I send them and how much do I budget for them?
- Where are my boundaries going to be for my personal and family time?
- Where does my self-care fit into my business?
- Exercise, rest, and play should all be factored in
🎁 Step Three: Put your plan down on paper by mapping out in writing what is necessary for you to do each quarter, month, and week in order for you to reach your goals.
Do this in such a way that your actions are specific and measurable so that you can hold yourself accountable and your mentor or coach can assist you.
Be sure to break everything down into as small of pieces as possible. We all know that quote about eating an elephant! (And where the heck did that come from?!) If you are just looking at “I need to sell 25 homes next year” without small steps in between, your plan will not motivate you or help hold you accountable for the items you need to accomplish.
🎁 Step Four: Don’t put this plan away! Creating the plan is to use it regularly, not to think about it once. Revisit this weekly to ensure that you are following the steps that you laid out in order to reach your goals. Add to your task lists and calendars the items that you have prescribed yourself so that you are setting yourself up for success in actually accomplishing them.
Below are additional resources that aid in making business plans for you to use. This is YOUR business and there’s not a one-size-fits-all recipe for success, so take the information above, from the links below, and anything else you can find and put together what works best for you and your real estate business.
You’ve got this!
Follow Up Boss Goal Setting and Reporting
Tom Ferry’s Business Plan Writing Workbook
NAR’s Guidance on Writing Business Plans for Realtors
Brian Icenhower’s Real Estate Plan Template
⚖️ Five Ways to Improve Your Life and Work Balance During the Holidays
‘Tis the season to be jolly, but for real estate professionals, the holiday season often brings a flurry of activity that can make achieving work-life balance seem like a distant dream. Fear not, though, as we’ve curated a list of five ways for you to navigate this festive season without sacrificing your well-deserved downtime.
📆 Prioritize and Plan Ahead
The holiday season can be unpredictable as there are events popping up from all corners of your life, but with careful planning, you can stay one step ahead. By taking the time to create a detailed schedule of the season you can better prepare for your events and reduce scrambling for last-minute gifts and pot-luck contributions. Make sure you add personal and downtime during this season, if you push too hard it could lead to exhaustion or illness!
Take stock of your projects and tasks due during this time and make sure that you have prioritized them properly to ensure that you aren’t waiting until the last minute as staying on schedule will reduce your stress.
⚠️ Set Boundaries and Communicate
Communicating effectively is going to be on any list of helpful tips we send to you, but this is especially important for setting clear boundaries with clients and team members about your availability during the holidays. Make it known when you’ll be taking time off and establish expectations for response times. This proactive communication not only manages expectations but also fosters understanding, which promotes a healthier work environment, encouraging others to do the same.
💻 Leverage Technology to Streamline Processes
Make the most of technology to streamline your processes and save time during the holidays. Shore up your Follow Up Boss Systems (have you taken our FREE Building FUB Course yet?), automate email responses and as many routine tasks as you can. By embracing technology, you can maintain a strong online presence and keep your business running smoothly, allowing more time for holiday festivities and rest after a long year.
🤝 Delegate and Collaborate
You don’t have to do it all alone and attempting to do so is a sure-fire way to lead to burnout. Delegate tasks where you can or hire additional support during peak periods during busy seasons or times when you’re taking time off. By collaborating with others to share the workload you can divide and conquer to ensure everyone gets some well-deserved time off. A collaborative approach not only lightens the load but also creates a supportive network within your organization.
💆♀️ Practice Self-Care and Enjoy the Festivities
Yes, this is the season of giving to others, but by prioritizing your well-being during the holidays you will not only feel better, but you will have the foundation to show up in better ways for those you love…and your clients too! Schedule regular breaks throughout the week to recharge, whether it’s a short walk, meditation, or a festive coffee break. Take advantage of downtime to immerse yourself in the holiday spirit by attending local events, spending quality time with loved ones, and embracing the joy of the season as time away from your business, even in short bursts, allows you to come back with fresh ideas and the energy to tackle the next big thing.