A reveal of the leadership, technology and techniques driving their success
Are you looking to amp up your production and take your team to the next level? In the following interview, Kevin Blain of Kevin Blain Real Estate Team offers insight into maintaining a high level of service and finding an online lead program that works.
Kevin Blain, Team Leader, Kevin Blain Real Estate Team
Name: Kevin Blain
Company: Kevin Blain Real Estate Team
Official Title: Team Leader
Region Served: Central Valley, Calif.
Number of Offices: 4
Number of Agents: 50
Years in Real Estate: 18
Your team has been growing rapidly. How do you keep that many agents busy? Are they all prospecting? Do you supply opportunities?
We keep our agents busy by encouraging them to lead generate along with our inside sales associate team (ISA). Our ISA team provides opportunities to jumpstart a career. For example, we had a young lady start full time on Dec. 1, 2017, and within 60 days, she had put eight leads into contract and closed five. All of those leads came from our ISA team. ISA new business and repeat business makes up about 95 percent of our production.
Can you tell me about your online program? When did you start to see your online program making a difference? Was there a tipping point?
After 3-4 months, we started to see leads mature and enter escrow. It’s a gradual process with a long-term goal in mind. Most leads online take 18-24 months to convert into real estate contracts. This is not a get-rich-quick plan. It’s a fundamental decision to follow the mantra “the fortune is in the follow-up.”
How was your experience building more lead volume with realtor.com®—are they working with you to plan a strategy?
Realtor.com® has been a great addition to our marketing efforts; they help us add on to the hundreds of leads we are already producing. They work with us to plan a strategy, and our lead volume has increased significantly over the past two years as we have expanded into new markets.
How important is it to have high volumes of leads coming in? How do you maintain this high level of service?
We are able to maintain a high level of service by hiring specialists. We have a specialist for each phase of the buying or selling experience.
What measures do you take to make sure the customer ends up actively working with your agents, versus letting them move on to the next listing they find?
Our team closes on the immediate opportunities and also nurtures leads until they buy, sell or pass. It is hard work and requires dedication and focus. If leads are worked effectively, they typically convert over to sales in 18-24 months.
Any advice for a newly formed team considering an online lead source?
My advice to a team forming would be this: build, grow or create a great ISA team. Implement a CRM with your ISA team as soon as possible. I would recommend internet leads to a colleague if that colleague was prepared for what it takes to convert internet leads: speed and follow-up for up to two years.
For more information, please visit hub.realtor.com/team.
Zoe Eisenberg is RISMedia’s senior content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at zoe@rismedia.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.
