Ponds, Smart Lists, and the Follow-Up System That Works

Lauren [00:00:00] So even if you have, let's say 10 deals under contract this month and you feel like you're spinning your wheels and everything's on fire, if you have really great leverage to rest in your team—

Lauren mm-hmm.

Lauren and fill the gaps, if we talk about the ultimate client experience.

Lauren So like your system should be working for you to be able to provide that experience and for you to be able to go do your one thing, your 20%, which is go get more business.

Lauren All right. We are back. And if you caught part one of this conversation, you already know your database is either working for you or against you. There is no in between. But here's what we did not get to last time. We talked about how to organize your database, and today we're talking about how to actually work it.

Brooke Absolutely, because that's where most agents really fall apart. They get that system set up, they clean up their stages, they fix their tags. They've built all the smart lists, and then [00:01:00] nothing changes.

Lauren Remind us why.

Brooke Because they don't have a daily workflow. And so say you log in, you see hundreds of things pulling at you, and you just don't know where to start.

Brooke So, you start with what feels urgent, and then the important stuff, the follow-up, the past clients, the hand raisers, really just getting pushed and pushed.

Lauren Mm-hmm. And then that's where the money goes.

Brooke Every single day.

Lauren Okay.

Brooke Yeah. So today we're gonna cover a lot about lead flow, ponds, daily workflow, the most common database mistakes that we see agents and teams making right now.

Brooke And we're talking about how to fix them. So we're gonna talk about accountability because a great system with no one inspecting, it is just a great looking mess, essentially.

Lauren Yep. Yep. And we don't like messes. We try to clean things up here. And if you haven't listened to part one, go back and start there.

Lauren We covered stages, tags, smart lists, and action plans, and everything we're talking about today builds on that foundation. But if you're here and you're ready, let's just jump into it.

Brooke [00:02:00] Let's go.

Lauren Okay. So welcome back to the re—wow, to the Reside Platform podcast. I am Lauren Holland, the director of client experience here at Reside.

Lauren And I'm back with Brooke, our client success manager for part two of our deep dive into database optimization. Excuse me, Brooke. For anyone just joining us, give us the 30 second version of what we covered in part one.

Brooke So really part one was talking about building the foundation. So we talked a lot about why your C—CRM is either going to be your biggest asset or your biggest liability.

Brooke We covered eight stages every agent needs, how to use tags for context without creating chaos, and how to build the eight smart list system that's gonna tell you exactly who needs your attention every single day.

Brooke And then we also finished up by talking about action plans and automations and why one action plan per lead at a time is the main rule.

Lauren Okay.

Lauren [00:03:00] Okay. So let's talk about lead flow because this is something that a lot of teams don't optimize. What is it and why does it matter?

Brooke So lead flow is simply just how leads get distributed to the team, and to your agent. So if it's not set up correctly, you're really just wasting leads and plain and simple as that.

Brooke They're not being worked, they're not going to the right places. So it's super important that you do have your lead flow set up correctly.

Lauren Yeah. And I feel like we hear lead flow all the time, but people might not have put a definition to it. So Brooke, what are the biggest mistakes you see with this?

Brooke I would say 99% of the time, if I'm looking at your lead flow, mainly what's causing a problem or a disconnect is filters. Okay. So agents are getting leads that don't necessarily match their price point or their location or their specialty.

Lauren Okay. So they don't work them, is what you're saying?

Brooke Yeah, exactly. Okay. You might see where luxury agents that only work a certain price point are getting $100,000 leads, or maybe someone in the north [00:04:00] is getting southside leads and it just doesn't get touched.

Brooke Maybe they're not telling you, “Hey, I'm not working this lead.” They just simply ignore it.

Brooke So you wanna be able to filter by price range or location, buyer versus seller, lead source. Mm-hmm.

Brooke If you are—pretty much any CRM has this availability. I know at least for Follow Up Boss, it'll be in your admin section and your settings.

Brooke And if you go to lead flow, you'll see advanced settings underneath each piece of your lead flow that you can click on right under the name of the lead flow. From there you can be able to adjust your conditions or your rules, essentially.

Brooke So, for example, if you are a team leader and you wanna make sure that you are taking on all of the higher priced leads that come through, you can set a condition. So if the price is over a million, it goes to you. Otherwise, if it doesn't meet that rule or that condition, it's gonna go to its normal lead flow.

Brooke So you wanna make sure that you check each piece of lead flow that's on there, that's integrated, and make sure that if there is a specific condition that's needed—like a tag, or like a location or zip code or city or price, or lead source specifically—that you are adding those filters there.

Lauren [00:05:00] You're so good. I love it. Okay. So you're saying the right leads to the right agents.

Brooke Yes, exactly.

Lauren What is next, Brooke? Tell us, give us all the gold today.

Brooke Yeah, absolutely. I would say a big—and a... well, I guess I say the first one's 99%, but really this is probably the main (I lied), really probably the biggest mistake I see is that there's no instant response.

Brooke So a lead registers and then just nothing happens.

Lauren Okay. So tell us more—by the time someone follows up, it's too late?

Brooke Absolutely. Okay. So really needs that immediate text or email, even if it's just automated. Okay. Something that just says, “Hey, we got your info. I'll be in touch shortly.”

Brooke Again, I know for a lot of CRMs, there is an option to have an initial text message somewhere. With Lofty, I know that you have an AI option that can engage them first regardless of where they came from. Mm-hmm.

Brooke Within Follow Up Boss, I know in that advanced lead flow settings that you can go ahead and add an initial text message.

Brooke So even if we don't know who the agent assigned is gonna be, at least having a general message that says something like, “Hey, thanks so much for your inquiry. Somebody from our team's gonna be in touch shortly.”

Lauren [00:06:00] Mm-hmm. And for everyone that's joining us today, I really just wanna highlight why we're talking about this is because for some of us, it's muscle memory, it's second nature, it's like a transaction coordinator that knows their checklist, frontwards and backwards.

Lauren I love going back to the basics, and this is actually a really high level basics, a high level overview of what we're talking about.

Lauren So if you're listening and you're like, “Yes, I already know this,” listen, keep listening because you might do this every single day, but there might be a screw that you're missing that's gonna hold it up, and if you don't have that placed properly, it could break the entire structure.

Lauren So we're making sure that the foundation is built and if you're someone that is not utilizing their database or their CRM or these functionalities that we're going over, this is for you to really make your—clean up your business, plug the holes, fill the gaps, as I like to say. Mm-hmm.

Lauren [00:07:00] So, Brooke, tell us about the third thing. I just wanted to give that little plug there.

Brooke Absolutely. No, and you're so right. If one thing is loose, it's all gonna fall apart at some point. So you wanna make sure that you have everything tightened on your end, so it's just as simple and easy for agents to go in there and use it.

Brooke Again, we said it last podcast, but if you go in and you're overwhelmed and you're confused by your CRM—your agents are 10 times more overwhelmed and confused.

Lauren I saw this the other day. I was like, guys, to our internal team, I was like, guys—I'm confused.

Brooke Yeah.

Lauren But there's only a couple circumstances lately that someone started a motorcycle out there. I was like, “Is my dog growling?” that I get confused in. There is my squirrel brain, by the way. Now I lost my train of thought again, which keeps happening. So Brooke, I'm gonna let you take it away. Tell us more about the third.

Brooke [00:08:00] Absolutely. Yeah. So third one I see as far as the common mistakes with lead flow is no qualification standards.

Brooke So this is where your agents are getting the leads, but there's really no expectation for them on how to work them.

Brooke So when we have teams that come to us and ask for best practices or the training that we provide around lead generation best practices and lead flow, we just wanna keep it really clear.

Brooke So you wanna contact them—obviously you wanna contact them, speed to lead within the first five minutes. However, you wanna make sure that you have some sort of follow-up plan within the first 12 hours.

Brooke So yes, you do have that first call within the first five minutes—what's your plan afterwards? Ideally another call during the day, a text message, an email—just kind of covering all bases. Mm-hmm.

Brooke Wanna make sure that you're at least touching them—at least five touches in the first seven days, and that's phone calls; you wanna also add in, of course, emails and texts if you're just getting voicemails.

Brooke Make sure you're updating the stage within 48 hours as well. So again, we talked a lot about the first podcast episode of this two-parter here. We talked a lot about stages and the qualifications of stages, how important it is to not have your database just swallowed by one general stage. That means that you've qualified them.

Brooke So make sure you have that rule of qualifying the lead and updating that stage as soon as possible. And then if no response after a certain amount of touches, like let's say like 10 or more, you can move them to the pond.

Brooke So if you don't have that fallback plan for your database right now, that's exactly where you wanna start: look and see, okay, what happens if there is no response with leads after a certain period of time?

Brooke How do you know that those are being worked? Some teams, they have it flow back into a pond after a certain period. If there's been no communication or qualification, that goes into a pond for other agents to take advantage of and have their chance. And for some, unfortunately, they just sit there and kind of just—the lead just dies out, honestly.

Lauren [00:10:00] Yeah. And I really wanna hammer this because—and highlight what you're saying—agents, team leaders, if you're not working the leads, you are going to lose those leads, okay?

Brooke Exactly. Those are gonna go to somebody who will.

Brooke Having those expectations—so if you have those, again, we talked about looking at where your leads lie right now within the stages. It's a great standard with your team to say, “Hey, we are putting this in place of: if there's been no communication the first, let's say 10 days, we're gonna move it to the pond and give the opportunity to another agent that will follow up with them.”

Lauren Okay. Let's talk about ponds.

Brooke [00:11:00] Yes. Perfect transition into ponds.

Brooke So ponds are gonna be where you're—for the most part—it's where you're unresponsive or kind of unworked, or leads have not been qualified yet. It's where those leads go.

Brooke So they're not dead. They're just not being actively worked on by one agent. They're kind of available for all agents. No one's assigned to it, but it's just that extra layer of opportunity for them to have some other leads to work.

Lauren Okay. So it's more like a holding place.

Brooke Yes, exactly. And honestly, there's just so much opportunity in ponds and I think that it's so common to see teams not treat it like an opportunity.

Lauren Tell us more. Why?

Brooke [00:12:00] I think most agents treat ponds like they're dead, like they're trash, but they're not. They just didn't convert the first time around.

Brooke So I mean, imagine some of—for those that are listening, that are still in production or have been in production—think about those leads that, did you get every single lead the first time you talked to them? No. So it took a round of following up and contacting them.

Lauren That'd be great.

Brooke Yeah, exactly. Right. Sometimes it happens, but you know, you always wish for that. But does it mean that they're trash or that they're dead leads or they're bad leads just because they didn't answer the first time?

Lauren Can we please hang around on the bad leads part, please?

Brooke Yes.

Lauren Please.

Brooke Yes. And I always say, if they have some sort of valid contact information—you've got a valid name, you've got a valid phone number, valid email, or a valid address—you can work from that. Okay. You can work off that. Kind of reverse engineer and find who that person is.

Lauren Everyone needs a place to live.

Brooke Exactly. Exactly.

Brooke So yeah, again, people are treating ponds like that's just like the trash or no one wants those leads, but really, as far as how to work your pond, the approach is pretty simple.

Brooke You wanna start with the leads that have had a recent activity.

Brooke I guarantee you, if you go into—so let's say you do have a pond within your CRM regardless, and this exists in every CRM—whether you're with Lofty or Follow Up Boss or Sierra, wherever it might be.

Lauren All the ones.

Brooke [00:13:00] Yes. All the ones have ponds. So you can go into your ponds if you have them, go ahead and sort by the last activity or last site visit or whatever your column is specifically there.

Brooke You will be amazed by how many people are still actually engaging and looking at the emails that you're sending or looking on your site, but no one's actually talking to them.

Brooke So I always say, make ponds part of your daily routine here. Again, that's an opportunity.

Brooke You want agents to work their leads first unless you do have a specific system—like for our residers that are on money time. Obviously, that's a separate thing we'll get into today.

Lauren Don't get confused on that, guys.

Brooke Yeah, don't get confused. Money time's a separate kind of policy there if you're our residers listening here.

Brooke But if, let's say, you do have a pond, you would want your agents to work their leads, but they also can use ponds as part of their daily activity or their daily routine to find the gold within there.

Brooke And again, you wanna start with the leads that have had recent activities. So you can sort by that and start there.

Brooke And then you wanna reengage. So call, text, try a different angle with them, see what happened beforehand, were they called before, by who? Did they talk? What kind of notes are in there? Just see where you can pick up.

Lauren Well, always look at the notes too because we talked about this in the last episode, which is why we're doing a part two because there's just so much to cover.

Lauren If there's a lead that was archived or in trash—unless they seriously threatened the do not call list, like if someone asked you and they're registered on a do not call list, I am saying, “Do not call them.” That is—don't come from me. Don't call them.

Brooke Yeah. Do not call.

Lauren Yes. I am not saying do something bad. What I am saying is take a look at the notes and see why they got archived.

Lauren Maybe it was an agent that just gave up too early or whatever it is and they were just moved to archive. And the timing or connection just might have been a little bit off.

Brooke [00:15:00] Absolutely. Yeah. It goes back to that lead flow too. I mean, maybe they just archived them because they weren't in their area or price range and they just like, “Nope, not for me.”

Lauren And then they weren't moved properly into the right channel or pond, whatever we wanna call it. Exactly. Yeah. It's a system, guys. It's a system.

Brooke Yeah.

Brooke Feel free to reach out to Lauren and I if you want more details as far as how to organize your pond or how to—that's a lot of coaching y'all do with our teams is like how to organize the pond. By the way, too, if you have 20 different ponds, again, very confusing, so make sure you have a lot of intention behind your ponds.

Lauren Intention. Yes. Great word.

Lauren It's just really funny because I am very bubbly. I love—I’m a high I—and also like I've realized I've become way more direct in the last year. Because that's what we're coached to: accountability is the best form of love you can give someone. It is about approach, but I keep reading in these—I’m hosting a webinar this week—and in our emails that are going out, I'm not fluffy apparently.

Lauren Yeah. So it's like Lilo and Stitch. He's like, “Oh yeah, I'm not fluffy.” And so when I say these things, guys, it's not because I'm cold-hearted or mean. I want you all to win. I want you all to win and we are giving you the exact roadmap to do that. It's not fluff.

Lauren [00:16:00] Everyone says, “I don't wanna be told what to do.” We do want to be told what to do because we want to win. This is the path to winning.

Lauren So Brooke, educate us more. What is next? How often should teams be working the pond?

Brooke Absolutely. Honestly, I feel like you should be working your pond every single day. It's a great opportunity for the agents that are existing on your team to find the gold.

Brooke And again, you can find that to the top when you sort by their last activity and see who's actually engaged right now, or when the last communication was as well. You can sort by that too.

Brooke You can also sort by if they've been tagged a seller or buyer, if you are working a specific piece or their area or whatever it might be.

Brooke But again, there's opportunity every single day in there for existing agents and it's a great opportunity for newer agents as well.

Lauren [00:17:00] Awesome, because what I'm hearing is when they get reps, they're getting reps without needing new leads in these calls.

Brooke Yeah, exactly. So you're really not spending any more money and you're not giving your new agents a set of leads that they might not have the experience to work just yet.

Brooke You're still maybe in the middle training them on their skillset and their skill practicing.

Brooke So you're not spending a bunch of money just for them to not be converted. So really, again, you're just giving them what you already have, and another area that they can work from and feel like that you've provided them that lead value right off the bat.

Lauren [00:18:00] Okay. I wanna move on to the daily workflow. We've covered stages, tags, smart lists, action plans, lead flow and ponds. Let's bring it all together. What does the daily workflow actually look like to execute?