Automation vs Systemization

Hey – it’s Nick.

Welcome back. It’s a gorgeous day.

Hope you’re all soaking up your Sunday. Even if you’re doing an open house ☀️

Everyone’s favourite topic: lead nurture.

Specifically, should we automate messages or set up systems to message our leads?

Estimated read time: 3m 31s

Actionable Tip: Set up Systems – Then Automations

First, let’s define “Systems” and “Automations” for real estate lead nurturing as we see it:

So, when a lead comes in (from anywhere), what should we do?

We should have a system in place first for nurturing leads. Only after we’re confident in our systems should we think to bring in automations.

“But Nick, automations sound pretty nice. And with AI we can just set it up so I don’t have to talk to anyone…”

Shhhhh…

Let’s go through this from the lead’s perspective, starting with an automation-only approach:

1/ You sign up for a handy city guide that you saw on Facebook because you’re moving there in a few months for a new job. You only have to give your email and phone number, what’s the harm?

2/ You get the guide. It’s actually great. You see an email. It says:

Hey! Saw you downloaded my GUIDE TO [CITY]! Any questions?

You don’t reply.

3/ Over the course of the next few weeks, you get 12 emails, 14 texts, and 3 voicemails from this agent. All of which seem like they were picked out of a cereal box. They won’t leave you alone. You’re feeling like all they want is to sell you something.

Ugh.

Now if you had a system that reminded you to reach out to this person, they’re experience might look like this:

1/ You sign up for a handy city guide that you saw on Facebook because you’re moving there in a few months for a new job. You only have to give your email and phone number, what’s the harm?

2/ You get the guide. It’s actually great. You get a call. You decide to leave it go to voicemail. You listen to it:

Hey! I saw you downloaded my GUIDE TO [CITY]! Listen no pressure, but usually the people who download my guide are from out of town. I know moving to a new place can be a bit scary, so I like to reach out to people who download it and offer to personally set up a day around town with them! Again, no pressure at all, just hoping this helps.

3/ You feel a warm spot in your chest. *Phew*. A real human being is on the other end.

The point I’m trying to drive home is that you’re in the people business, and talking with humans comes with the territory.

Systems are inherently more human because they require you (a human) to perform the task. Not a robot.

We can easily set auto-responders on Messenger or through our CRMs, but how effective are they?

About as effective as all those generic emails you get from marketing companies…

Now you get me.

And hey, when you have a system set up that you can use reliably to nurture your leads, you can try to automate some tasks that will make it easier to scale.

Action Item

To set up a system for nurturing your leads, use your CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Common CRMs for REALTORS® are kvCORE, Follow Up Boss, or IXACT, just to name a few that our clients have used.

A “system” in this case would look like a checklist. Whenever a new contact is made in your CRM, it would come with a checklist you would follow when following up.

Here’s an example of what the checklist might look like:

1/ New lead comes in

2/ Send a text with in 5-10 minutes with a personalized message regarding how they entered your database.

3/ Follow up call the next day.

4/ Follow up email with personally recorded video about the thing they reached out for.

5/ Send handwritten card to address.

6/ So on and so on…

Great REALTORS® use systems and automations together, but have a special love for systems.

The best agents love working with and talking to people.

Happy systemizing.

Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this, please forward to a friend who you’d like to see win in real estate. It takes 10 seconds and makes a big difference. And if didn’t enjoy it, unsubscribe below.

See you next Sunday – Nick

P.S., your goal for this week should be to create at least one system on your CRM with the goal to nurture your leads better.