Teams, Leads, and the Long Term
Brian mentioned a theme I’ve been thinking about:
I also wonder if the very efficiency that makes teams work right now is also a long-term weakness. The rainmaker/buyer agent/TC pod fueled by online leads captured, scored, routed, incubated and dripped upon can be a lean, mean machine.
A machine that could be replaced.
It strikes me that the old-school top producer — a referral-driven creature dependent on a smile more than systems — may be more enduring in an age where artificial intelligence and machine learning seem poised to vanish millions of jobs.
I simply could not agree more. The minute a team stops paying, is the day the whole business grinds to a halt. That entire online lead volume is one competitor outbidding you away from going up in smoke.
Franchises, brokers, and teams really should be thinking about — and investing in — differentiated long term lead generation tools/assets/strategies that don’t go away (read here). In fact, costs of lead acquisition should actually get better and cheaper as time goes on if you make the right investments — as opposed to the alternative of rising acquisition costs via paid channels.
Sam DeBord
Posted at 13:47h, 07 JanuaryThere seems to be an assumption in Brian’s quote that most teams are online lead gen teams. He’s probably right about those teams, but there are also great teams with systems to create, nurture, and bring back clients in traditional ways.
A sphere building team with great past client follow-up can leverage the efficiency of a team structure and the stability of a relationships-built client database. More of us need to concentrate on this (mea culpa).
A pure PPC or paid leads team’s competitor–maybe Zillow Premier concierge service? It does much of the background work that a team would do. A single agent can work like a team because he/she has “staff” creating/nurturing leads. The long term cost is the big question mark.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 18:37h, 08 JanuaryRight. I know there are a number of online leads based teams doing a decent amount of volume. That’s the group I’ve referring to. I am still amazed such teams succeed at converting clients… not sure why people constantly end up working with the first person who opens the door / answers the phone rather than do a deeper evaluation.