THE ELITE REAL ESTATE SALES MACHINE 41 and give consumers an inside look (literally) into your real estate? A virtual walkthrough from anywhere in the world. Technology in this arena is flourishing. Matterport has been the most popular and affordable provider of 3D tour technology, but others are coming. One of particular interest to me is VR Global. They have taken 3D to the next level with Virtual Reality. This certainly won’t be the cheap- est option, but for developers projecting a sellout period of at least a couple years, providing consumers the convenience of a virtual walk- through of the property will certainly pay dividends. Of course other pieces play a role in selling remotely, including de- veloper reputation, brand presence and the economic health of the des- tination to name a few, but the ability to literally walk through a phase one model in Cabo San Lucas from a coffee shop in New York City is a difference maker for the sales program. Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM) I’ll go ahead and assume that everyone reading this knows what a CRM is. I can also assume that most developers already understand the im- portance of CRMs in managing leads. But here are a few assumptions that I cannot make: 1. A proper CRM has already been installed into your arsenal 2. The CRM is set up for easy use by the sales team 3. The CRM is actually being used by the sales team So let’s tackle these not-so-safe assumptions in reverse order. 3. The CRM is actually being used by the sales team Regardless of which CRM is selected (it could be the most expensive fully customized platform ever devised), if the sales team isn’t using it, it’s worthless.
42 ERIC PIERCE One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen (and made) is little to no use of the CRM. The fact is, too much is going on in a salesperson’s day for them to remember everything. All too often, sales execs have great conversations with prospective buyers and discuss needs, wants, desires, kids, hobbies, retirement, goals and their golf handicap, only to forget 75% of that conversation because none of it was recorded in their CRM. These important phone and email interactions must be recorded somewhere, not only for the salesperson to be more effective, but for others to be informed as well. What if a salesperson quits, comes down with pneumonia or is on vacation? How will anybody else know who to follow up with, and what their needs or objections are? CRM’s should be used to track: 1. Prospect phone conversations 2. Sales Process (see Stages and Statuses in Chapter 3) 3. Scheduled and completed property visits 4. The closing process 5. Forecasts—how many are projected to close next month? 6. Email exchanges 7. Lead Sources—what advertising is working the best? 8. And a lot more—this could be a whole new book But minimal use of a CRM is understandable from the salesperson’s perspective. The best salespeople care about selling and that’s about it. Recording all that information after every conversation can be a hair- pulling event. Of course, whether or not sales teams enjoy using the CRM is irrel- evant. The tool is critical to making sales teams more successful, and it must be mandated from the highest level. This leads to the second not-so-safe assumption.
THE ELITE REAL ESTATE SALES MACHINE 43 2. The CRM is set up for ease of use by the sales team The quickest way to get a sales team to embrace the use of a CRM is to eliminate the fear associated with it. So make it as easy to use as humanly possible. Some of them can be so complex that they literally scare users away. Furthermore, confusing software costs additional hours every day in lost productivity with everyone trying to figure out how to look up leads, run reports and send emails. At the outset, a CRM can be very inexpensive compared to other sales and advertising costs. But you’re not factoring in a few extra bucks in hiring an expert to customize the system to work for the sales team easily. 1. A proper CRM is being used There are literally hundreds of CRMs to choose from, but there are very few that are best designed for a real estate development sales team. Salesforce Lightning is the leading CRM in a crowded industry and for good reason. Salesforce is built to work for companies of all shapes and sizes. Whether you’re General Electric or a river guide, you can use Salesforce.com and do almost anything with it. But with that comes its inherent challenges. This is where Property base comes in, a CRM built specifically for the real estate world on the Salesforce.com platform that offers specific sales and marketing tools with extremely flexible customization possibilities. Propertybase exists entirely “in the cloud,” integrating smoothly with any website, and exchanging data with real estate portals worldwide. With next-to-no IT setup required, users can get to work using Propertybase in their business and on mobile devices with minimal effort required. Another strong option for any industry is Hubspot. It’s just so easy! It seems they took what was irritating from every other CRM and fixed it in Hubspot. There is added Marketing value that is also extremely easy to pull off including automated nurturing campaigns with analytics and real-time
44 ERIC PIERCE read alerts similar to Clearview Elite. Sales Productivity There is no doubt now that CRMs provide many benefits to the sales team. They are a critical component of database management and sales organizations cannot work efficiently without them. However, most CRMs are just what their name implies, a lead man- agement system, a place to store, track and organize leads. There are other technologies that should be integrated to add additional boost – efficiency—to the sales process. If the CRM is a bicycle, sales produc- tivity software is the gears. Salesforce Lightning can integrate with over 3,000 other apps to im- prove productivity. For example, there are tools that can sync email exchanges right to the lead page, and apps that allow salespeople to research their leads by automatically linking social media pages, like LinkedIn. Clearview Elite is a tool specifically for real estate team productivity. It, along with thousands of other apps, can be found on the Salesforce app marketplace called AppExchange. The idea for Clearview Elite was born when I noticed that more than 50%* of all the leads we generated in our real estate consulting work had never actually spoken with a salesperson. This was obviously an alarming revelation, and after further research, I attributed it to the following: 1. We were not sending those leads the additional “next level” in- formation they wanted 2. We were not sending the information fast enough 3. We did not realize that only 25%** of those leads had a real interest to purchase anytime soon 4. We did not know which leads represented that 25% Sales teams were unaware of who they should call and when. This is
THE ELITE REAL ESTATE SALES MACHINE 45 supported by the 2016 Sales Perception Survey by Hubspot, which identifies that the second most challenging issue for sales professionals was getting in touch with / connecting with their prospects. Sales productivity software like Clearview Elite solve this problem. Custom, web-based sales presentations are delivered instantly and au- tomatically on behalf of the salesperson. Then real-time alerts tell the salesperson which leads are reading the sales presentation and when. This just in: leads that actually read the information you send them are usually the most interested. This is who salespeople follow up with. With the Clearview Elite app, the robust Propertybase, Salesforce Lightning and Hubspot platforms are even more optimized for real es- tate lead response and efficiency. Salespeople can work more produc- tively by sticking to their Elite Priority Plan. *Clearview Elite Consulting Data **Marketo Study Messaging You’ve heard of live chat of course. It’s been around for years, but typ- ically is limited to customer service or tech support use. You’ve got a question about something in your account and you ask questions in real time to a customer service or technical support staffer. But now live chat is a whole new ball game. It’s greatly improved with new technology and it’s beginning to flourish as a sales tool. Now we call it messaging, the ability to ask questions in real time to sales- people about a product or service, or vice versa. Software companies are adopting messaging every day to help their sales teams connect with prospective buyers. Having real-time conversations with buyers via messaging will become commonplace in sales. Let’s be clear, I’m not talking about consumers messaging salespeo- ple in their Facebook accounts, or texting to their iPhone. I see live sales conversations happening from a real estate development website (or next level sales presentation) to a sales executive’s laptop or iPhone. Companies like Drift have brought this technology a long, long way.
46 ERIC PIERCE Now bots can be used to have conversations, answer questions or even direct prospects to the right salesperson automatically. Salespeople can be alerted when prospects are on their website (or real estate presentation) and can jump in to say hello. Hubspot has also integrated their own messaging solution right into the CRM. Comparing today’s messaging to yesterday’s live chat is like comparing the iPhone to the flip phone. Video I know, you already understand and embrace video to promote your real estate. My intent here is not to state the obvious, but to remind you how important quality video production is. To properly market a luxury real estate development, nothing trumps the power of eye-opening photography and professionally produced vid- eos. The importance of professional photography has been beaten to death so I’ll breeze by it. Junior league photography stands out like a sore thumb and savvy consumers will notice it right away. If you’ve got a potential buyer pe- rusing your property website, amateur photography is one of the fastest ways to lose them. A professionally produced video will make you melt. The right com- bination of lighting, staging, music, atmosphere, story writing, acting and directing can move a prospect from interested to engaged on its own. But use caution with who you hire and don’t skimp. The results can backfire. I watched an amateur video once (of a $20M home) and saw the person shooting the video in the mirror. Oops! I’ve been fortunate to work with many video firms, but Goldeneye Media takes the prize for luxury and “wow” factor. They aren’t the cheapest, but for an owner / developer preparing to promote a new development or re-brand a current one, cheap isn’t the answer. Nothing is more important than the video. It gives the sales team a head start.
THE ELITE REAL ESTATE SALES MACHINE 47 KEY TAKEAWAYS: • While still in its relative infancy, Virtual Reality will be the dif- ference maker in selling luxury real estate. • Virtual Reality advancements will result in more sight unseen purchases from investment buyers abroad. VR Global is the leader in the luxury VR space. • CRMs are critical to the sales team, marketing and manage- ment teams. • Propertybase, Salesforce Lightning and Hubspot are CRMs worth the money. • The CRM alone is good, but add sales productivity software like Clearview Elite and it is great! • Messaging has already started to compliment (and in some cases replace), website sign-up forms and that will continue for many industries. Drift is the leader. • Quality video is essential when selling high dollar real estate. Don’t skimp. Goldeneye has mastered beautiful video production.
KEY TAKEAWAY REVIEW The Big Takeaway To summarize this book in a single sentence: An Elite Sales Machine is the blueprint to a better bottom line through cost savings stemming from a faster sell out. Developers, take extra time in planning your sales and marketing in- vestments. Realize that your return on those investments is justified. By hiring the best salespeople and installing the best sales processes and sales tools, sales teams work more efficiently and sales move faster. Whether you’re just beginning a new luxury development or re-or- ganizing a current one these tools can be implemented. Eric Pierce [email protected] Chapter 1–A Sales Team Built To Thrive • Selling luxury real estate developments requires solution sales ex- perience. • Be picky and develop a detailed list of experience requirements. • Real Estate sales experience / license not needed and easily attained. • Performing sales teams should make six figures. • The luxury real estate audience is C-level executives, and your sales team should have experience selling to that audience. Chapter 2–Sales Team Productivity: Promote Interdependence and Watch Sales Flourish
50 ERIC PIERCE • A team motivated and incentivized to work together is the strongest team imaginable. • Consider the Team Fund equation to motivate your sales team: Team Fund Income (per person) = Total Sales * 1% / (# of team members - Sales Director). • Motivate sales team members with a Team Fund Bonus for reaching aggressive yet attainable goals. • Total commissions should not exceed 6% with the Team Fund. • Teams that do not work interdependently delay the sellout pro- cess longer than it needs to be, costing thousands of extra dol- lars to developers. Chapter 3–Sales Structure: The Elite Sales Process • Optimism on the sales team is healthy and should be embraced. • Asking them to forecast with “hot, warm and cold” shouldn’t be. • The Elite Sales Process is four Statuses and ten Stages purpose- built for the real estate development sales team. • Each Stage has a corresponding probability to close. • Statuses and Stages are used together to dictate the actions of sales, management and marketing teams. • Salespeople should attempt to reach new leads for 60 days. Af- ter that marketing takes over. Chapter 4–Sales Efficiency: The Elite Priority Plan for Real Estate Sales Executives • The number one job for real estate salespeople is to move leads from merely interested to truly engaged. • Dialing for dollars is not the best use of time if there are items not yet completed in The Elite Priority Plan.
THE ELITE REAL ESTATE SALES MACHINE 51 • Early stage leads are more critical than late stage leads because late stage leads are more likely to be truly engaged and therefore less likely to fall out of the pipeline. • Salespeople are going to sell more and make more money by constantly improving their talents and knowing their competi- tion inside and out. • Manually sending out email responses with PDF brochures isn’t a good use of time for an expensive sales executive. This should be automated. Chapter 5–Lead Engagement: You’re On the Clock • Once a new lead clicks submit on your website form you are on the clock! Time kills all deals. • Life gets in the way. The longer it takes you to respond to a new lead, the longer it takes to move them through the sales process. • Deliver more detailed “next level” information upon first re- quest. It’s what people want. • Promoting immediate delivery of advanced ownership infor- mation on your public website will increase conversions. • Always make a phone call within the first 5 minutes of a new lead notification if there is nothing higher on your Elite Priority Plan. • Timing and delivery of information converts leads from inter- ested to engaged faster. • The absolute best time to call a prospect is when they are ac- tively thinking about you. Chapter 6–The Role of Marketing in the Sales Process • Traditional interest-generating marketing (level one marketing) is free information to consumers. • Next level sales information, traditionally created and delivered
52 ERIC PIERCE by the sales team, should be designed by marketing but rarely is - this is level two marketing. • Level two marketing is not free. Consumers should pay for this. • Upgrading sales brochures and Word docs to level two market- ing is easy, inexpensive and will sustain a buyer’s emotional con- nection throughout the evaluation process - Clearview Elite built a business on this. • Marketing should not go on hiatus between level one and level three marketing (lead nurturing with newsletters); rather they should stay involved in the presentation of the entire sales process.
THE ELITE REAL ESTATE SALES MACHINE 53 Chapter 7–Tools of the Trade • While still in its relative infancy, Virtual Reality will be the dif- ference maker in selling luxury real estate. • Virtual Reality advancements will result in more sight unseen purchases from investment buyers abroad. • VR Global is the leader in the luxury VR space. • CRMs are critical to the sales team, marketing and manage- ment teams. • Propertybase, Salesforce Lightning and Hubspot are CRMs worth the money. • The CRM alone is good, but add sales productivity software like Clearview Elite and it is great! Messaging has already started to compliment (and in some cases re- place), website sign-up forms and that will continue for many indus- tries. Drift is the leader. Quality video is essential when selling high dollar real estate. Don’t skimp. Goldeneye has mastered beautiful video production.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eric Pierce is the founder of Clearview Elite, LLC, a sales and marketing consultancy to the luxury real estate development sales industry. Between direct frontline sales, sales team management and marketing manage- ment, Mr. Pierce is responsible for hundreds of millions in luxury real es- tate sales, primarily in second home destinations. His unique experience stems from individual site sales in gated communities, to luxury whole ownership residential sales, destination club and private residence club sales Eric has re-defined what it is to be productive by developing proprietary software and designing sales processes specifically for real estate sales teams. Eric, his wife Julie and kids Nicholas and Grace live in Boise, Idaho.
RESOURCES InsideSales.com and MIT: Study on Professional Lead Response Management http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/lrm_study Marketo and InsideSales.com: eBook - The Ultimate Revenue Engine https://www.marketo.com/ebooks/ultimate-revenue-engine/ Hubspot Research: Buyers Speak Out: How Sales Needs To Evolve https://research.hubspot.com/reports/buyers-speak-out-how-sales- needs-to-evolve Clearview Elite Consulting: Data from consulting with dozens of lux- ury second home real estate developments revealed that less than 50% of all leads generated were actually spoken with by a salesperson. https://clearviewelite.com
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