4 Ways to Get More Listing Appointments w/ Steve LaMothe
February 25, 2021
February’s second Real Geeks Keeping It Real Training with Frank Klesitz and Greg Harrelson featured Steve Lamothe of Elevate Realty Group. Together they brought focus to 4 Steps to Get More Listing Appointments. Sharing that his primary sources of business are referrals from his sphere, agent to agent, past clients, repeat customers, and referral syndicates, Lamothe suggested four ways to ramp up business.
Four Methods to Get More Listing Appointment
1. Meticulously managed database
2. Cold calling
3. Run ads as an instant home offer, NOT as a home value ad
4. Syndicated Referrals (radio, partner organizations)
Explaining that “all marketing is buying your time back as you run out of it,” Lamothe shared that he invests time, money and energy into his marketing. He’s partnered with several organizations, including HomeLight, Dave Ramsey, Open Door, and Zillow (with a small spend only strategically per zip) in order to build his business and his database, because in Lamothe’s words, “Your database IS your business.”
Setting Up an Effective Database
“You should break your people up into two groups,” Lamothe suggested. “You have your not mets and your mets,” he explained, referencing Gary Keller’s book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. “The people that you have met, you would call your sphere database,” Lamothe said. “The real money making activity is taking that database… and then breaking it down into segments and groups. Really understand what’s in it. Think of your database as a way to get information to your clients.”
Lamothe modified Keller’s “33 Touch” system and actually contacts his database 66 times a year, and says it results in a million dollar business, where his team creates over $400 million GCI per year. He encourages agents to start now with messaging and growing their contact database, “do it from this point forward,” he said. Lamothe found that events were key in growing his database, called “Touchplan Events” and said he feels it would take agents 24 months to create similar value and results.
Details of Lamothe’s Database Touchplan
• 66+ touches (many broken down around events)
• 4 events per year – portraits in the park, movie event, Thanksgiving pie event, ice cream social
• 16 calls quarterly (4 around each event)
• 2 emails (requesting registration), 1 voicemail and 1 last-minute email, 1 text & 1 voicemail for each event (6 touches per event)
• Mailer (12 per year – 4 centered around event)
• 2 video emails per month to entire database (24 per year)
• 13 recurring holidays where past clients get a text message
• 1 educational webinar per month (12 total)
• 2 touches to each client on social media per year
Harrelson focused on the long term business plan Lamothe has created. Klesitz explained that is where agents experience “the shift from salesperson to business owner,” and begin to understand the lifetime value of each customer.
How to Make Cold Calling Work
“For every 100 dials, you’re probably going to speak to 7 people, so this is not the best job for someone whose dollar per hour is pretty high.” Lamothe revealed. He said if you used an overseas team, you’d probably see 1-2 nurtures per 1,000 calls and that it would take a year for an appointment and then 10% convert to a closed sale, making his investment $80 each. “It’s a long game, just like your database,” Lamothe said. “You should expect to burn that cash for the first 12 months,” but in the second year you’ll see a large return, he explained, and you’ll get some deals in that first year, too.
How to Warm Leads with Social Media Advertising
Harrelson shared that while both cold calling and calling leads yourself are effective ways to grow your database. He recommended that segmenting a social media audience is work as well, but results in a warmer lead than a cold call. “That’s what RG specializes in,” Frank explained. Harrelson shared that he has spent $1,298 on FB ads and has created 294 fully opted in seller leads from a What’s My Home Worth campaign. Harrelson has uploaded individual community segments to Facebook and targets them directly with messaging and exact neighborhood images, with a pocket area properties. An ad copy example, Harrelson shared, may be, “Attention Grand Dunes property owners, another property recently sold that could have impacted the value of property in Grand Dunes. Find out what your property is worth now.” Since these campaigns are run through the Real Geeks CRM, they are targeted and nurtured. Harrelson has 700-800 niche home value campaigns and uses cloned, not new creative in his ads.
Lamothe also calls, mails, but also retargets website visitors as listings go live in specific communities, and changes messaging as properties move through the real estate cycle in neighborhood (new, pending, offer, sold). Lamothe focuses two neighborhoods based on price point and zip code when running Facebook ads. “If you’d like an offer on your home within 24 hours, click now,” results in high conversion in Lamothe’s area. See a sample ad here.
Lamothe also shared that targeting buyers with a follow up Facebook campaign using a mid-level, “move up” home specific to a 15 mile radius was very successful. He said this type of ad could be used for an entire database segment, even people in the active met list, due to its relevancy. This type of ad typically brings in 2 transactions, as it targets existing home owners who would sell their existing home when buying a new one. Lamothe said that in these campaigns, 2/100 are legitimate buyers.
Radio Ads & Syndicated Referral Systems Create Interest and Demand
Lamothe also uses radio ads (spending $10K annually) and uses messaging that brands the company as a while and seeks to solve a problem. He says the ads rotate messaging based on options that show they are unlike any other agent in their market. They offer renovation loans, offers to buy homes outright, full listing packages, and a menu based approach of options with competitive listings. This competitive approach was taken once Lamothe realized that “Almost every appointment had an offer from OpenDoor or Zillow before the seller had been contacted. Lamothe had to find a way to be unique.
Lamothe suggests using an indirect circle prospecting script when calling, such as, “Good morning Mr. Brown. This is Steve with Keller Williams. We’re calling to notify you that we recently sold a home in your neighborhood. We had several offers on that home, do you happen to know of anyone that’s considering making a move in the next 12 months?” After letting them respond, the virtual assistant then says, “Have you yourself considered leaving the neighborhood, or do you just love it so much, you’re going to die in the home?”
As a recap, Klesitz and Harrelson shared resources discussed on the show and Harrelson underlined that Lamothe’s events were key to building his sphere because he went deeper than his competition. “There’s so many ways to build a business,” Harrleson said. “Choose a path and you go deep on that path.”
Lead Flow Resources
• Dave Ramsey https://www.daveramsey.com/elp/real-estate-agents
• HomeLife https://www.homelifeus.com/
• Agent Pronto https://agentpronto.com/
• FastExpert https://www.fastexpert.com/
• Referral Exchange https://www.referralexchange.com/agents-web/
• Glen Beck https://www.realestateagentsitrust.com/
• UpNest https://www.upnest.com/
Skiptracing Email Harvesting Tools
• Cole Realty Resource https://www.coleinformation.com/real-estate/
• Exact Dial https://exactdial.com/
• Remine https://www.remine.com/