When you're new to the team leader gig—you just hired your first buyer agent—lead distribution is a no-brainer. You take the listings, and all of the buyer leads go to your employee. You hand over these buyer leads manually, on sticky notes and via forwarded emails. Simple.
But as you continue to grow your team—once you've hired your second, third, fourth, and fifth agent—you're going to need a more advanced lead distribution method.
To run a real estate team efficiently, team leaders need an automated lead distribution system.
A lead distribution system is a digital platform that allows you to automate the way leads are sent to the agents on your team. You can segment incoming leads based on criteria (price range, buyer vs. seller, lead source, location, etc.) and then set a rule for which agent(s) those leads will be delivered to.
Each incoming lead can be assigned to a specific agent or sent to a "pond" (where the lead is up for grabs for whomever gets to it first).
If you choose to send leads directly to an agent, you typically have two options:
An automated system allows you to be strategic about the way you distribute leads to agents on your team. And having a strategy in place is important.
Just as every lead is different, every agent on your team is different, too. Some of your agents are higher performers, so you want to give them the high-value leads (which are often the most expensive, so you don't want that money to go to waste). Your newer agents might be more compatible with first-time buyers. You might have a couple of agents who are the experts on specific zip codes. When you are able to make the perfect lead-to-agent match, you'll have higher lead conversion rates.
Put your lead distribution strategy in writing, and make sure everyone on your team understands how it works. Your newer agents will aspire to reach the level of leads that your top producer currently receives. The agents assigned to the same pond will be aware of their competition, which will encourage them to speed to those leads. Be transparent about the rules so there are no hard feelings, and so everyone knows how they can grow within your team.
Lead distribution can be simple or complex, depending on how you have your rules set. If you want to further optimize your lead distribution, here are 6 ideas—all of which you can do in Firepoint!
Let's say you have three agents in the same round robin, but one of them is able to handle more leads than the other two. You can adjust the delivery to assign a higher percentage of leads to that agent. For example, that agent could receive two leads per round to the other agent's one lead per round.
Give each agent in the round robin a time limit for accepting the lead before it is rotated to the next agent.
At Damon Gettier & Associates, the team pond (called the "Money Pond") is monitored at all times by an agent assigned to a shift. There are two shifts a day, and each agent on that shift has to call the lead twice. The agents also use text messaging and BombBomb videos to try to connect with the lead. If none of the agents are able to have a conversation with the lead within three days, then the lead is moved to the "shark tank" and, as Damon puts it, "Ylopo is turned loose on them."
"By the time that lead exits the pond," Damon says, "it has been called 13 times, should have been texted 3 to 4 times, and has been BombBombed probably 3 to 4 times from a different agent each time."
Quick follow-up is crucial, and technology makes it easy for your agents to reach out to leads almost instantaneously after they're received. In Firepoint, you can create rules that will send an auto-responder text message or auto-assign the lead to one of your follow-up campaigns. You can also set rules to automatically assign tags to organize the leads in your CRM.
It's pretty common for buyer leads to browse listings in the middle of the night. When they fill out a form at 2 a.m., you don't want them to get your daytime text message: "Hi, thanks for reaching out! I'll give you a call in just a few minutes..."
In Firepoint, you can create a special rule based on the time of day a lead is acquired, allowing you to send a more appropriate auto-text: "I'll give you a call in the morning, around 9 a.m..."
As team leader, be sure you are checking in on your agents' activities to ensure they are following your process for working leads. In the Accountability tab in Firepoint, you can easily see a view of every user's activity.
As your team grows, your lead distribution strategy should grow with it. As you bring on more agents, take the time to identify which types of leads they are best suited to convert. Reward high-performers with high quality leads. Match your neighborhood-expert agents with leads in their target zip codes. Ease in your new agents with 1 lead to every 3 leads your more experienced agents receive.
The payoff is a team that runs more efficiently and converts more leads.
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