How are you leveraging your database?
In the latest RISMedia webinar, "Your Database: Maximizing Its Potential for Profit," moderated by Cleve Gaddis, coach with Workman Success Systems, and sponsored by Elm Street Technology, the focus was capitalizing on your database to generate maximum ROI.
Related: From Contact List to Follow-Up Machine: Database Tips
Featured speakers included Scott MacDonald, broker/owner and president of RE/MAX Gateway and Rick Turner, broker-in-charge and president of Engel & Völkers Hilton Head Island - Bluffton, as well as Frank Chimento, VP of Brokerage Development at Elm Street Technology.
"[As real estate professionals], you need to really maximize the data that's already in your database," said Gaddis. "If you're anything like me—and I've been in the real estate business for 16 years—it took me a while to really get to where I was doing the right things with my database."
Many agents take for granted the wealth of information they have at their fingertips. In your database is not only a means to contact all your current and previous clients, but information that is crucial to nurturing those relationships so you can have more clients in the future. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Protect Your Data
From home showings to video marketing, today it seems as if there's no aspect of the real estate industry that is safe from disruption—and that includes your database; however, triggered by nationwide inventory shortages, this is a different kind of disruption...
"Everyone is trying to get their hands on our clients—our past clients and our future clients," said MacDonald. "It's more important now than ever that real estate agents and brokers protect their databases and effectively communicate with clients in their database."
"I heard a figure that, in 2017, $86 billion in commissions was paid for brokerages," added Gaddis. "So I'm not sure that the interlopers who are coming into the business actually want our clients, but they certainly want our commissions."
Utilize Newsletters Effectively
This is by no means a new concept, but to excel in today's market, you need to be more diligent than ever when it comes to deploying newsletters. One of the best ways to generate potential clients is by sharing charitable drives and local events through your newsletters, and then actually being present at them when the events roll around.
"I've spent years recruiting agents, and it's never about the brand—it's about your reputation," said Chimento.
"It's important to keep clients updated with what's happening in the market, where inventory levels are and how to win in multiple contract situations," said MacDonald. "We have 160 agents, of which about 140 are each mailing [a newsletter] on a monthly basis to 500 clients, on average."
"We get very few people who opt out of our emails, because they're interested in what's going on in the market," added Turner.
Educate Yourself and Your Agents
It doesn't matter how much great information you have to give to your clients if you aren't utilizing the vehicle to get it to them correctly. Educate yourself, as well as your agents, on the technology, and regularly refresh yourself on the ins and outs of your database.
"I love having a database that continually feeds us," said Turner. "However, 10 years ago or so, I hired a consultant and he came down and spent a day with me, and halfway through he said, 'Rick, you're probably wasting tens of millions of dollars worth of leads,' and so he taught me how to really utilize my database."
"Brokers need to be aware that if agents don't trust your database, they're not going to use it," said MacDonald.
Learn more from the webinar in the recording below:
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