KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Maximize Your CRM to Track, Nurture, and Convert Leads with Tips from Sara the ISA

Starting point is 00:00:01 You're going to burn out as an agent. You're going to hit a ceiling. You're not going to be able to grow. If you keep doing it with your cell phone and not giving it to the CRM to help manage and automate, eliminate, and delegate some of it. This is KGCI Real Estate on Air Live, your weekly deep dive into the strategies, trends, and tools shaping the real estate industry. From market updates to actionable strategies and exclusive interviews with top agents, we are here to unlock your full potential and help you thrive. Thousands of agents trust KGCI every week. Now it's your turn.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Let's go live. Here's Ian Wheatley. Here we are. I'm Ian Wheatley. Welcome back to KGCI Real Estate on Air live, and we have a big week ahead here on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. If you've been feeling like your CRM is just another thing on your to-do list, I'm going to invite you to lean in for this one.

Starting point is 00:01:00 All right, we are going to be diving into maximizing your CRM all week here on KGGY. I'm KCI, Real Estate on Air. We're doing it in a big way. First up, we'll be sitting down with Sarah DeLancic, aka Sarah the ISA on Instagram and TikTok. She's the host of keeping it real estate heard here on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. And we're going to be talking today about how to actually use your CRM effectively to track, nurture, and convert more leads because if we're honest about it, if you're not working your database, somebody else probably is. But that's not all we're doing. Sarah's going to be taking the conversation a level deeper over at the Agent Power Huddle on YouTube tomorrow, where she'll be breaking down the advanced strategies the top

Starting point is 00:01:41 agents are using to turn their CRM into deal closing machines. That's going to be over at Agent Power at huddle.com at 11 a.m. Eastern 8 o'clock Pacific tomorrow. And if you miss out on any of it, we got you covered. Our Friday focus this week is dedicated to maximizing your CRM. We're going to be rolling out six straight hours of the best insight strategies. real world applications so that way you walk away with a CRM that's actually working for you and not against you. So whether you're listening right now, you're catching the second part of the conversation over at Agent Powerhuddle.com at 11 a.m. Eastern 8 o'clock Pacific tomorrow or you're going to tune in for the weekly Friday focus where we're going to hit both of those plus more

Starting point is 00:02:23 strategies to take control your CRM. This week is dedicated to you starting to turn contacts into closings. We'll be doing the first conversation live at about five minutes right here on KGCI Real Estate on air, but now it's time to dive into those housing headlines. Well, don't look, Rocket Mortgage just got into the real estate brokerage game. On Monday, Rocket Companies announced a $1.75 billion with a B deal to acquire Redfin, combining one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders with a major home search platform. And it's also loaded with a ton of consumer data. I see bigger competition on the horizon, right? This deal does create a one-stop shop for home buyers offering search and mortgage all in one spot. So how are you keeping your process seamless?

Starting point is 00:03:15 Okay. This week, I'm talking with my trusted lenders on how we can improve that client experience. I also see more tech-driven transactions, right? So with automated online services increasing, agents who want to stand out should be doubling down on service. They should be doubleing down on service. down on negotiation. They should be doubling down on their local expertise. So we should all be asking ourselves, how are our workflows and our funnels doing? And are they up to this task? The other thing I'm keeping an eye out for is I'm watching for more industry shakeups. Okay. Other companies, they may soon start following suit, right? With forming similar partnerships that could reshape the by side of the real estate industry, okay? So staying nimble and staying

Starting point is 00:04:00 informed is going to be a key to overcoming that. But the bottom line is, I see the real estate industry evolving, right? Certainly the past 12 months have shown us that the real estate industry is evolving. But agents who innovate, agents that provide what tech cannot, they provide trust, they provide negotiations, they provide relationships, they're always going to be on that winning side, no matter what that shakeup is. In some other news, mortgage delinquencies hit an 11th. year high among FHA borrowers. Okay, household debt. That's been rising and rising for quite a while now, but we do have this new red flag with new FHA data showing that loan delinquency rates have climbed to 11.3 percent, the highest in over a decade. Perspective does matter. Okay, so let's

Starting point is 00:04:50 keep all of it in perspective. The overall mortgage delinquency rate, that remains just under 4% according to the most recent data I could find for the Mortgage Bankers Association. The impact is that high debt, low-down payment buyers are struggling, especially as inflation and insurance costs continue to rise. So agents, make sure you know what your client's concerns are. Okay, buyers feel financial pressure, even if the housing market itself remains strong. Being tone-deaf is going to blow up in your face. So make sure that you're approaching conversations with empathy and awareness to what's going on in the broader markets.

Starting point is 00:05:28 okay. Also, be prepared to deal with more affordability discussions. We've been dealing with more affordability discussions for a while now, but agents should be proactive in discussing creative financing options, grant programs, buy down strategies, anything that can help buyers navigate cost challenges. But the bottom line in my mind is we need to be mindful as agents of the market pressures so that way we don't come across is out of touch, okay? Clients and customers are watching their 401ks and their budgets like Hawks right now. So make sure we meet them where they are. And can I at least share a little bit of good news?

Starting point is 00:06:10 All right. Buyers may be coming back. There's some new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showing that mortgage demand jumped 20.4% at the close of February with purchased applications up 9%. But refinance applications were up 37%. So what happens? Well, going back to the so goes the rate, so goes the buyers, right? Whenever rates dip,

Starting point is 00:06:33 buyer urgency increases, we see it in that increase in mortgage applications, right? So are you reaching out to your pipeline? Right. If you haven't been in the last couple weeks, you should be right now. But more importantly, those refinance rates, that's really jumping out to me, right? So even Mortgage Daily News right now still has that 30-year fixed rate at about 6.7%. So your past clients might need you. Many homeowners, now have significant equity in their houses, but they may be unsure what that next move is, all right? That's where you come in. That's where you check in. They could be thinking about cash out refinances. They could be thinking about investment properties. They could be thinking about

Starting point is 00:07:13 maybe even moving up. You never know. Stay in front of them. And be sure to leverage the window the best you can. No one knows the next time rates are going to pop back up to 7%. Proactively educating buyers about affordability while conditions remain favorable is always the right thing to do. But bottom line here, rates, they're going to fluctuate, but your clients, they still need guidance, okay? If you haven't checked in with past buyers, now is a great time to do it. And that's a check of your housing headlines here on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. KGCI Real Estate on Air live. I am Ian Wheatley and excited to have Sarah Delensig on from Keeping It Real Estate.

Starting point is 00:07:56 That's a part of the Agent Power Huddled YouTube stream channel. You can check it out there, or you can listen to Keeping It Real Estate. estate right here on KGCI, a real estate on air. We're here talking about advanced CRM usage, how you can track, how you can nurture, how you can convert leads, and why I'm excited to have Sarah on is Sarah has the expertise on this. She does inside sales. Sarah, how's it going? Welcome to KGCI Real Estate on air live. Thank you so much. It's going well, Ian. So nice to see you again virtually, but see you. But this is fun. This is fun. And this is why we love to it. So CRM mastery. It can be a make it or break it factor for a lot of real estate agents,

Starting point is 00:08:40 particularly in a market that we're dealing with right now. So to try to help agents understand why a CRM is more than just a Google spreadsheet or an Excel spreadsheet and the tools and access that they have, a lot of them, a lot of agents aren't using CRMs effectively. I guess what's the biggest mistake you see with agents? and their use of a CRM. Oh my goodness. They don't. They don't use it.

Starting point is 00:09:08 I mean, you got to crawl before you can walk or run, right? And honestly, I think that, okay, story time. Story time. I'm here for it. So I am an ISA. I work exclusively with people I want to work with, and I have a company for this. But I have been approached by a lot of people, and I work with some of the biggest teams. And sometimes you hear stories and I'm not going to say whether I work with this person or not.

Starting point is 00:09:35 But there is a situation that I've run into where someone is a very large team and they were, they thought a CRM was like entering notes was micromanaging. You know, putting things into that was taking up too much time, taking them away from actually buying and selling real estate, which is so the opposite. And I will say that I have changed this person's mind over the course of time. Yes, yes, it is. It's really good. Time on task over time, Sarah. Time on task over time. Yes.

Starting point is 00:10:06 So I would say the biggest mistake that people make is that they, they just think that it's a place to, it's like a storage center like a, that's out of side out of mine. And they're not really taking advantage of everything that they may be paying for and everything that it is capable of. So a CRM, now that I have had teams that are using CRMs really effectively, and they may have not been using them effectively when they first started working, with me and I don't claim to be a super expert on this. I'm more of an ISA, but I can see what works

Starting point is 00:10:37 and what doesn't work as I'm in there making my calls and doing my tracking and analytics and things of that nature. Now they finally understand, oh, well, now I don't have to sit there and type up every listing that I have in a Google Doc and send it once a month, right? All I have to do is pull a report. Now I don't have to show them like how many calls or like tell them I made 20 calls. I can just pull a report or it's right there, the data is there. So now it is coming into a lot better, you know, usage and like people understand it better. So that kind of brings me to how does a well-organized CRM impact the daily productivity? Oh my gosh. And what are some, what is some of those more longer-term conversions? Like walk me three, six, 12 months out. When you've got it organized

Starting point is 00:11:22 and you've got the system's firing, how is that impacting that daily productivity? I mean, it has a massive impact on it. If you are not utilizing the CRM and organizing it in a way that helps you understand the data, then you are really doing yourself a disservice because as an ISA, I call people and I have conversations with them. And a lot of times they say, oh, I'm so sorry, you know, I can't talk right now or I can't talk this weekend because my daughter's getting married. Okay, mental note taken, but if I don't actually put that someone,

Starting point is 00:11:57 and then decide maybe I'm going to send them flowers this weekend or something like that. There's, it's, it is a storage center, but it's not one to be ignored. It's one that you're walking in daily. It's like a walk in at a restaurant, you know, like a freezer, things like that. Sorry, I'm from the real estate and from the restaurant industry. So, you know, you're walking in, you're taking this out, you're using it, you're putting things in. You're actively addressing everything that's happening. So if it is well organized, like I mentioned, like I mentioned,

Starting point is 00:12:27 before, you can pull the reports, you can see your ROA, you can see exactly how many transactions you've closed, you can see where they're coming from, what lead sources are the most valuable to you, you can see if your ISA is effective, you can see if your agents are effective. I mean, there is absolutely no limit on what a well-organized CRM can do for your team, for you personally, for anyone. So I try to make this point very clearly because a lot of people do just think it's a waste of time or a place to store information that they're never going to touch or whatever. It's supposed to work for them without them putting anything into it.

Starting point is 00:13:02 But just like anything, you have to put the time and energy into it to make it work. Hmm. I'm going to share with Sarah DeLancig host to Keepin at Real Estate here on KGCI, Real Estate on air live. We're talking about advanced CRM usage. So keep it in mind, advanced CRM usage. What are some of the key data points that agents should be tracking inside of their CRM? Okay. I have a lot to say on this.

Starting point is 00:13:29 Okay. Fire away. That's why you're here, Sarah. I know. I know. Okay, so, well, you should definitely be tracking calls, text messages, lead flow, lead conversion, lead, well, lead flow, lead generation, lead conversion, lead follow-up, okay? Automations, emails, open rates, how often you get somebody reply,

Starting point is 00:13:56 stop to automations if you have text automations going out or if you're making those calls yourself, how often your agents are actually setting appointments? How about that? That's really interesting. And I mean, there's really, there's a lot of things you can track. The number of calls you're making, the number of people you spoke with, how long you spoke with them. I mean, I could get into just everything, but it may overwhelm some. people, but like that's just scratching the surface. That's just scratching the surface. How would you recommend segmenting leads inside of a CRM? Because I'm assuming, I have to assume, right, a buyer and a seller conversation are different, right? A someone who needs a house like

Starting point is 00:14:43 tomorrow. That's a different conversation than someone who's like a first time home buyer and they're thinking about grants and all, all that stuff. So how should these systems be segmented, specifically for having more effective and better follow-up strategies. Okay. Well, I mean, I'm going to speak from my experience and what I've seen work, okay? But there may be other really high producing teams that have their own way of doing it. And I just don't know about it. So for me, though, I find it's really valuable to mark whether they're a buyer, a seller, or both a buyer and a seller, an investor, a renter.

Starting point is 00:15:23 an agent, especially if you are looking to grow your brokerage or agent attract or something like that. Every time I call somebody and they're like, I'm an agent, I changed the little thing from buyer to agent because maybe they came in through Zillow and they were not very, you know, they were trying to do something. Yeah, it just happened to me just two days ago. I was like, what are you doing? Anyways, so I keep track of that. So if they say, yes, we have a home to sell as well, they're looking to buy a home, buyer and seller. If they're a seller, seller, and they're not going to buy. You know, so you got to think about those things and make sure you're asking those questions, and it's pretty much just normal conversation. I would also then track it by the lead source.

Starting point is 00:16:09 So if it's coming through Zillow, Zillow, Zill leads get treated differently than Facebook leads, period, point blank. Like, if you treat a Facebook lead the way that you treat a Zillow lead or you treat a Zillow lead, the way you treat a Facebook lead, you're probably going to going to see from tracking and analytics that it's not as effective, right? So you want to make sure that you're paying attention to the lead sources, who they're coming into. If you have a big team, who they're funneling to. I personally recommend that it goes to an ISA that is highly involved with your team first. And unless it's a personal lead that they're coming through their own website or it's like, you know, they added manually. Right. So track the lead sources,

Starting point is 00:16:51 have the ISA, then track who the agents they're going to are, then make sure that they're all putting the notes in and doing all of the things. But yeah, that's how I would set it up, is basically just making sure you have the right lead sources. You have the right, what type of lead they are, which they're real people. They're not leads, but we'll just use it for the sake of being simple here, right? We don't want to think of them as leads. We want to think of them as humans, but for the sake of speaking clearly right now, we'll call them leads. That's also kind of interesting, interesting thought because, you know, sometimes, you know, if you're dealing with it, you might, you might forget that there's, these are, these are people, right?

Starting point is 00:17:32 They have their own needs. They have their own ideas, right? They need to kind of be fleshed out. I know a lot of agents, because of that, they give up on leads almost too soon. Always. Yeah. How do you approach nurturing those leads in the long term, knowing that these are not just leads, they're people. They have their own motivations, they have their own thoughts, they have their own opinions.

Starting point is 00:17:55 How do you keep them warm over that long term? Well, I'm biased, but that's where I think that an I say is very helpful. But if you weren't in a position to do that or you don't have that ability yet, I would say that what you need to do is stay in front of them with automations, right, and workflows. So these things should be tweaked and personalized. So this is on my list of bullet points to discuss, right? Okay, so the number one thing that a lot of agents do when they do set up a CRM is they'll set up automations and workflows, but they don't read through them. I had one lady spend like a thousand dollars for this, this automation with text messages.

Starting point is 00:18:39 And she bought it from like a younger dude. Let's just call it. All right. All right. Okay. Like a younger guy and his way of speaking. She did not read through this at all. before she purchased it and implemented it.

Starting point is 00:18:54 And it was very not her. She was like my mom. Like she was very conservative and she didn't talk like these people that she bought it. There was no, hey, what's good? No, right? It was very, yeah. What the sigma? Like, yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:12 Right. And you have to think about your market. Your market is different. I treat luxury markets very differently than I treat. the average, you know, market, right? Like you, you got to treat Park City, Utah differently than you would treat Dallas, Texas, okay? Right. There's fair. And I'm not saying, like, it's just a way of doing things. So anyway, so. You can be different, right? I mean, yeah, that, yeah, that's a thing. That's a thing. So. So, you say here, where I'm from, you know, soda, it's pop. Yeah, I say, oh, see, I see. Well, people. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:51 You from the south? I'm from that weird part of the country where they say pop. I'm not, I'm not like in Georgia where everything is Coke, but these are things that happen, right? Well, yeah, and some people can tell right away if you're not from the area. And what more do you want in a real estate agent than to be familiar with the market,

Starting point is 00:20:11 with what's going on there? So make sure you understand how you're presenting yourself. But with the automations and the workflows, read through them and personalize them. Now, anybody that is going to take the time to do this is going to see exponential, like, shift in what the people who just take the average that they're given. Okay. And that's just part of being in real estate too. But you're going to get a lot more business if you're the one that's actually going through and making it sound like you.

Starting point is 00:20:40 So one of my suggestions, actually John Cheplak talks about this. He's like, write it like a third grader. Write it the way you speak. I realized that whenever I would send a text message that had to do with business, well, even outside of business, a couple years ago, I would always put however, however comma, instead of the word but. So I changed it to but. Like if I'm talking like, hey, I use my CRM daily. However, on the weekends, I don't check it or something right that. So I realize, oh, that's pretty, it can come across a certain way.

Starting point is 00:21:14 And maybe I do talk to my friends like that, but maybe that's why they think I'm a know-it-all. I don't know. So I changed it. I'm serious. It happened back then, back in the day. But yeah, so I would recommend that if you type something out, try to make it the way that you speak because that way when they meet you or if you do a video or something like that, it's going to dive with the same person, right? You're attracting your tribe. You're trying to, you know, find the people that you mesh well with. So try that.

Starting point is 00:21:47 I love that. Catch up with Sarah DeLancig. She is the host of the Keep It at Real Estate Podcasts that streams here on KGCI, Real Estate on air. It's also part of the Agent Power Huddle. You can check that out on YouTube. Thinking about the automation feature, we're talking a lot about automation. But like, you know, what are we talking about automating specifically? Is it just text messages and emails? Is it listing alerts? You know, because there's a lot of things that you can automate nowadays in 2025.

Starting point is 00:22:16 What are you thinking that we should be? automated. Everything but phone calls. I think I'm okay. You would know better than I would if that's not allowed to have the robot phone calls. I'm pretty sure it's not allowed within EXP. I if even if it was allowed. Yeah, I don't think it's appropriate. Okay. Even if it was there is this uncanny valley nonsense. Like it's like the same thing. It's like when it's like when the election time and the president calls you and you just kind of roll your eyes and you go like yeah, this is bunk right yeah the president the the president's not calling me right now to get out the vote right so not only does it leave people jaded and upset and thinking that you're a phony fake loser

Starting point is 00:23:00 it's also not allowed okay that's what i thought i just wanted to put that out there but i personally am also on your level i don't think that they should ever be automated i don't agree with it um they could be used to practice uh your phone calls you can do the that you can practice, you know, role playing with chat GPT, which is awesome. But anyways, you're going to automate anything that you can. You're going to automate, eliminate, or delegate, right? Like those are the things that you want to do so that you can focus on the income producing activities, right? We're doing the Pareto principle, the 80-20 rule.

Starting point is 00:23:39 Focus on the 20% that's going to make you the 80%. So automating emails, automating text messages, automating listing alerts, basically you're automating anything that you can. I also, but the problem is that when you automate these things, you tend to set it and forget it. And then a lot of agents don't pay attention when they get the little pop-up on their phone, like my phone has popped up several times, see all the notifications. But Sarah, I thought the point of automation was to set it and forget it, right?

Starting point is 00:24:10 That's how often automation is built. So how do you overcome that? Triggers. So the automation should have trigger points that once somebody is responding and that's when you jump in, a real human that starts taking it from there because I don't know if you've ever read some automations,

Starting point is 00:24:33 have read an AI conversation with someone. They can say something a few times, but the automation the next day will ask them the same question again. So pay attention. Pay attention to it. Those. And it's and it's still emerging, right? And it does a decent job of just of like throwing, throwing the line out there. Yeah. To see what happens. And getting the fish set on the hook. But it does not, it does not do the best job of reeling that in. Right. There's a little bit of finesse required. Right. That's a great metaphor. Yeah. We talked a little bit about personalization already. Yeah. Making sure if you're buying something. Make sure you read it and make sure it's kind of.

Starting point is 00:25:13 of in your own voice. So that way it sounds like you, right? Yeah. How important is that actually in converting leads? Well, I will say it's crucial. Some agents will tell you otherwise because some agents have the next man up mentality and like, oh, I missed that one. So we'll just get the next one. But they're not the ones paying for the leads. Let me just say. So team leaders, hear me on this. team leaders need to be holding their teams accountable for entering notes, updating statuses, updating stages. I'm talking about brevity right now, but this is follow a boss too. Zillow.

Starting point is 00:25:51 Doesn't matter what CRM you are using. Cracking the progress of it is crucial. And especially if you're doing the Z word Zillow, you're going to get additional leads if you were tracking, okay, I spoke with them. I set an appointment with them. We're showing. homes were under contract, we're close. The more that you do that stuff, the higher your, your, your rate is or whatever. There's like a number that they come up with, which is another thing that a CRM does. It's track. You're, you're hot, you know, your hot rate. Yeah. I actually had a word for it, but yes, it tax the lead scoring, lead scoring. That's what it is. So as it goes through the process, you're going to get a higher lead score and then you're going to receive additional ones if you're talking about Zillow.

Starting point is 00:26:41 If you're talking about your own CRM and you are a team leader, what are you paying money for if you're not going to enforce that your agents actually follow all of the SOPs standard operating procedures for the CRM to have access to it? I would also highly recommend that you don't let them make phone calls from their cell phone or you give them a cell phone yourself because if they leave the team, they already have all that access to all the data. But if you are having them call through the CRM, through the database, when they leave the team, you remove the access, you assign it to a different person. And now that phone number forwards to a different agent instead of that agent taking their whole thing on their cell phone with them. That makes sense. That makes sense. Also, from a tracking perspective, I mean, I don't, I, I will, I will be on it. One of the, I don't know if I could handle running the business through my person.

Starting point is 00:27:36 cell phone, right? Having it having it on the CRM, right? All the business stuff is in one is in one spot, right? So many people do it though, Ian. I don't know how. I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you do it at a high level, right? Because then I've got I've got this, I got this client like, you know, dealing in in text message space with my mother and my wife and my kids and like in all this other stuff that it doesn't help delineate the urgency of the alert icon in my messages right there's there apple doesn't tell me with my iPhone ian this is a lead or ian this is your mother and it's and it's just it's just she's just calling to say hi or this is a junk prank text message from your son like it doesn't give me a power ranking

Starting point is 00:28:28 of all these other things so i can't can't imagine how to do how to scale and how to leverage independent of the CRM. And maybe that's maybe that's the sticking point for so many agents is it kind of started over here. It's hard. Maybe they're having a hard time making that transition. So maybe if you're an agent that's been around for a little while, maybe you're just brand new and you're just deciding to, you know, get into the CRM party here.

Starting point is 00:28:57 What's the first thing somebody should do? Integrate. Integrate. If you are coming from a space where you're using your cell phone consistently all the time, and it's so many agents do this, so many agents, especially if they're taking calls and things. They do this. Then you need to have the app of the CRM that you purchase with almost every well-known CRM has. Yep, they have an app and you can make the call through there.

Starting point is 00:29:28 and it will tell you that it's that person when you call them, and it'll make a note in the CRM for you if you call them. If you text them through the app, it's going to do the same thing. And so that is really important because you're going to burn out as an agent. You're going to hit a ceiling. You're not going to be able to grow. If you keep doing it the way with your cell phone and not giving it to the CRM to help manage and automate, eliminate,

Starting point is 00:29:56 and delegate some of it. We got AI in the forefront of everything that's helping to evolve automation. How are you seeing CRMs change in the next five years? Well, that's a really good question. I've been trying to change the CRMs for five years. I feel like, my brother is a programmer and he actually just reached out about helping build a CRM, but it's not for real estate. It's for his own business. But anyways, I've always, um,

Starting point is 00:30:27 with AI, it's already changed a lot. Let's put it that way. The AI is capable of telling you when somebody's interacting, what they're looking at, giving you kind of these snippets, like even my new iPhone, right? Like it gives me snippets. So too long didn't read, TLDR, right? You can just read the summary and you can learn.

Starting point is 00:30:52 So the beauty of a CRM and where I hope it's going, I hope they integrate even more with the cell phone and with the apps so that we can do group text messages because a lot of times the ISA has the initial conversation. And then I need to introduce them to the actual agent that's going to show it. I am an agent, but I'm not the one that's showing them the home. So I need to introduce them to the actual agent that is going to show them the home. And it needs to be a three-way introduction is the best way. So I'm hoping that the CRMs will start to integrate that. I also hear a lot of agents complain that taking notes takes up too much time or it's too

Starting point is 00:31:29 time consuming or it's too hard and whatever the case may be. This is when they don't do it at all, just so we're clear. But once they start doing it, then they're like, oh, that was actually really helpful that I found out that, you know, I already talked to the husband and da-da-da-da-da-da, and they really like this house. Oh, good, because you forget in a week after you've talked to 30 other people. So I think that they're going to go the route of voice. voice notes, voice memos.

Starting point is 00:31:54 Actually, I made a suggestion to this, Mr. Who Owns Brivity. I can't remember your name right now, but hit me up. I have some suggestions. I've already tried to talk to follow a boss. You guys can call me too. I'd be happy to help. But anyways, you guys need some voice to text memos or just voice memos that you can hear. And already follow up boss is doing this where they're giving you the summary.

Starting point is 00:32:18 So I make calls through follow boss and brevity and a lot of other CRM. But those are the two I'm talking about right now. And they follow boss has like when I make a call after what it says, Agent Sarah called so-and-so left voicemail, asked for them to call back, asked if they received the package for their luxury home via FedEx and ask for a return call. So it gives me a really quick breakdown of my 60-second voicemail. And you can read it. And so I think that they're doing that.

Starting point is 00:32:49 It's going to make it even quicker. it's going to help us, it's going to learn, obviously. It's going to learn what works and what doesn't work. It's going to stop doing the things where it's repeating itself. Those are the things. That's where I think is going, and I kind of hope it's going. Sarah, this has been an absolutely incredible conversation. I mean, we've covered tracking the right data, nurturing leads effectively,

Starting point is 00:33:11 converting them. Before we wrap up, what is the one thing, right? The one piece of advice that you'd give to agents that are looking to optimize, their CRM and optimize even some of that inside sales process. That's a really good question. I would say that you got to start where you start. Don't jump in and go, oh, well, Sarah said I needed automations, tracking workflows. I need every transaction in there.

Starting point is 00:33:41 I need everything. And you're not even entering notes or making calls or sending texts or any of that stuff yet. Okay. So the best, like I said at the beginning, you got to crawl before you walk, before you run and keep in mind you're learning to crawl you fall down when you're learning to walk you fall down you make mistakes you learn from them and you adjust so then one thing that i would tell people is begin with one thing focus on one thing and get good at it i would say go in and you know put a note every time oh i met with this person they like this home or um showed them several

Starting point is 00:34:16 homes it doesn't even have to be long just showed them homes on saturday all right how Have a follow-up call on Tuesday, right? Whatever the case may be, enter something. Then start adding the statuses and changing that stuff. If it comes naturally to you, then do all of that stuff. Eventually, you're going to find workflows and emails and automations. And you'll slowly start to integrate the other things. But I would say that if you can, start using it and integrate it with the thing that you actually use.

Starting point is 00:34:46 Because if you're selling real estate at any level, you have to be using something, whether it's your own cell phone. or an actual CRM. Yes. You gotta be using something. You gotta be using something. We hope it's not the cell phone and we hope it's not an Excel spreadsheet or a Google sheet or something. At least it's more reliably in the cloud so maybe they can pull that down to their phone. I was going to say, yes, you can import a Google Sheet as a CSV filed into almost every single CRM.

Starting point is 00:35:11 So there we go. There you go. There we go. We're taking the excuses away. Sarah DeLansig, host of Keep It at Real Estate, heard here at KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Thanks for joining us today on KGCI Real Estate on Air Live. Thank you. KGCI Real Estate on Air Live. I'm Ian Wheatley. And I always appreciate getting some perspective from others. And honestly, I couldn't think of asking anyone better about what we as agents could be doing to improve our use of a CRM that is someone who makes their living doing inside sales.

Starting point is 00:35:46 And Sarah absolutely delivered there in that conversation. If you want to take that conversation to the next level, tomorrow morning, 11 o'clock Eastern, 8 o'clock Pacific time. Be sure to check out Agent Powerhuddle.com where Sarah will be taking you through more strategies and more tactics to get the most out of your CRN. But don't forget, we will be revisiting the conversation Sarah and I just had and her conversation over at Agent Power Huddled to start off our weekly Friday focus here on KGCI Real Estate on air on Friday beginning at 12 noon Eastern. Okay.

Starting point is 00:36:17 We will be bringing you six hours of real world actionable strategies to, to track, nurture, and convert leads. But some of my takeaways from the conversation that we just had. And the first one, it seems simple, right? The biggest CRM mistake is not using it at all, okay? Many agents, they view CRMs as a storage tool instead of an active business resource. And the biggest mistakes that CERA sees is agents not using their CRM effectively or at all, okay? That CRM is not just a database.

Starting point is 00:36:49 It should be used as your daily tracker of conversations. You should be setting reminders. You should be automating tasks. And agents that fail to engage with their CRM are missing out on valuable insights that could be used to improve their own conversations. Number two, a well-organized CRM increases productivity and long-term conversations. Okay. An optimized CRM will help you work smarter, not harder,

Starting point is 00:37:17 By tracking key information like a client's life events, their search behavior, and their past conversations, agents, you can use that to personalize follow-ups and build stronger relationships. An organized CRM also eliminates any guesswork by providing data on which lead sources are performing the best, helps team allocate time, and budget effectively. Number three, personalization. It really does matter. One size does not fit all. because not all leads are the same. Treating a Zillow lead like a Facebook lead is not going to yield the same result. And Sarah emphasized this pretty clearly the importance of segmenting leads properly, distinguishing between buyers and sellers and investors and renters, so that way the follow-ups can be tailored to their specific needs and timelines.

Starting point is 00:38:02 Even the tone and language of automations should reflect the audience. For example, how you're communicating with a luxury market is going to be differing from how you're going to be communicating with your standard issue. seller. And number four was near and dear to my radio heart, okay? Automate everything, except the human touch. Automation is a game changer in CRM usage, but it should be used strategically. Text, emails, listing alerts, all that should be automated, but human interactions, that can't be replaced, okay? Automations should act as conversation starters with agents stepping in at the key trigger points to ensure that seamless experience, okay? A poorly made

Starting point is 00:38:43 manage automation like generic, impersonal texts that can damage a client relationship. So every message should be reviewed and adjusted to match an agent's personal style. And the last one, start simple. Master one CRM feature at a time, okay? Agents don't need to master their CRM overnight. Sarah recommended starting small, adding notes, tracking conversations, and setting follow-up reminders. before layering on the automations and the email sequences and the advanced workflows. Okay.

Starting point is 00:39:20 The goal is consistent usage, not perfect usage. Agents who start by logging simple updates will naturally evolve into power users who are maximizing their CRM effectively. And one final thought that CRM is not just a database. It is a business tool. And when used properly, it can help agents close more deals and work more efficiently. And again, if you want more insights from Sarah, tomorrow morning, 11 o'clock Eastern, 8 o'clock Pacific, be sure to be over at Agent Powerhuddle.com and be sure not to miss the upcoming Friday focus here on KGCI,

Starting point is 00:39:57 Real Estate on air. All right, with all that, let's lighten things up a little bit. Real estate is full of some absolutely unexpected moments. Some are hilarious, some are bizarre, and some of the stuff you just can't make up. Welcome to my favorite segment of the week. Real Estate Confessions where we share some of the wildest stories from the world of real estate. And they're your stories. Okay, you can submit these to us via YouTube and Facebook.

Starting point is 00:40:24 You can send us a message, record a video, record some audio, send us some text. But before we dive in, I want to just get one thing straight. Real Estate Confessions features stories from the wild world of real estate. Names and details may have been changed to protect the innocent and occasionally the not-so-innocent. All confessions are shared in good humor and do not reflect the opinions of KGCI Real Estate on air, its hosts, or affiliates. No agent's licenses were harmed in the making of this segment. Enjoy responsibly. All right. We're covered. Let's get into it. This is real estate confessions because in real estate,

Starting point is 00:41:03 truth is stranger than fiction. I was meeting a client for our first showing. He was visiting friends from college and was interested in getting into real estate investing. We were at the first apartment of the first house, and we were told the occupied unit was going to be empty. It still seemed someone was home. So I knocked. No answer. We had the key, so I unlocked the door. I knocked one more time before opening the door.

Starting point is 00:41:36 I opened the door to find the two tenants in their nighties staring at us in the living room. They said nothing. We had several more showings that day, but I knew then my client was too traumatized to make any offers. I was showing a beautiful home with a pool when my buyer, wearing heels, and a little too much enthusiasm. Steps backward mid-conversation. One splash later, we learned that the pool was deeper than it looked.

Starting point is 00:42:05 She still bought the house. I got her a pool float as a closing gift. She loved it. I set up a fresh batch of cookies for my open house, hoping for a homie touch. One man walked in, ate every single one, nodded it. in approval and left, never even looked at the house. My clients sent me listing they loved and wanted to write an offer site and seen. They had done a drive by and even like the high privacy fence around the large backyard.

Starting point is 00:42:32 I encouraged them to see it first. We showed up to the house and the cellar was there and gave us the full tour. He was very proud of the interior staging, but the backyard was a full junkyard. Rusty cars, broken toilets, even an abandoned fridge. The worst part. The seller proudly said, I want the new owners to enjoy this yard's character, my buyers. Not so much.

Starting point is 00:42:57 You got a wild real estate story of your own? I certainly want to hear it. Send us your real estate confession, the crazier or the better, by messaging us on Facebook and Instagram. And while you're there, be sure to follow KGCI Real Estate on air for more stories, insights in some of the behind-the-scenes moments. And who knows, your confession may be hitting the air soon. Hit us up on Facebook and Instagram, and let's keep those stories coming.

Starting point is 00:43:18 This has been Real Estate on Air Live. I'm your host, Ian Wheatley, and do not forget if you enjoyed the conversation that Sarah and I had today on Real Estate on Air Live, be sure to check in to Agent Powerhubble.com at 11 a.m. Eastern and 8 o'clock Pacific tomorrow, where she's going to be diving into even more strategies that you can use to maximize your CRM. And we'll wrap it all here at Real Estate on Air with you our Friday focus beginning 12 noon on Friday. I'm Ian Wheatley. This is KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Be good.

KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Maximize Your CRM to Track, Nurture, and Convert Leads with Tips from Sara the ISA

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