Hey all,
In the spirit of the new process/program I’m going to introduce today, I’m bringing this update via the forums instead of our more traditional blog post/blast campaigns, etc, so that we can engage with our community in real-time and get folks used to using the forums again.
Ok, let’s get into it! What are we talking about here?
First, let’s acknowledge that our industry has been through some really tough times over the last few years. With the lawsuits and NAR debacles, the market has had fewer sales in 2024 than in the past 20 years. It’s been pretty crazy.
We were hopeful that in 2025 post-election things would stabilize (as is normally the case once these things are settled) but without making any specific political statement, I think it’s fair to say there is still a lot of uncertainty in the world. And with uncertainty comes a reduction in real estate activity.
So we know you are impacted. As Realtors®, customers and friends.
Of course, as we service real estate exclusively, we are also impacted. There are a lot less net new opportunities in the market for new website customers and even more so in terms of brokerages and teams wanting to do custom projects.
It’s slow all around.
Now before I go any further, I do want to point out, I am not sounding any alarms for REW - below I’m posting our “actual” revenue trends for SAAS, PPC and Professional services.
We’re actually in a very good spot “compared to” our competitors (many of whom I am good friends with and speak to often about the market).
We’re holding our own, but there certainly isn’t any “growth” right now (if anything we’re a tiny bit down).
We’d like to have growth for 2025 - but with the way the market is going combined with some more recent personal updates (I can no longer be on the road speaking or promoting REW) it’s not looking like growth is on the table for us unless we get creative.
Because of our healthy position, we’ve made a very important pivot in terms of where we focus our resources.
Any unsold professional services capacity: It goes right back into the product and accelerates R & D. I’m sure you noticed, every month now we pump out even more epic features (more than ever before).
Our marketing team: We’ve shifted our focus from lead generation and promotion to education. The marketers now work full-time and exclusively on developing educational resources and content aimed at helping our customers get the most out of their products.
Marketing has created:
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A new resource center to showcase all new products and features.
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Amazing Video Library To Provide Step By Step User Guides
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Upgraded / Updated the forums including additional staffing for Q & A
There is always more to do, but we feel strongly that if we can engage with our customers and help them educate themselves and their agents better on the product, they will get better ROI and be customers for life. So that’s the marketing focus - help our customers do better with our products so that they stay customers forever. Retention is the name of the game.
On the topic of education, improved ROI (and hopefully retention)
I wanted to share with you something new that I’ve been doing - CEO / CRM Coaching.
As many of you may know, my wife and I started a real estate time a few years ago so that we could truly learn and understand the real estate industry from the perspective of “Realtors” and “Team leaders” -
My wife was the first case study, and we closed 10’s of millions in dollars in deals and more importantly learned a TONNE about what could be better in our products and services.
Our next step after launching the team was to add our daughter who in her very first year closed over $10M in transactions by following our exact formulate for CRM lead follow-up and leveraging my training.
It was going awesome! (It is going awesome). Unfortunately, my wife ended up getting sick, and that is the reason I am no longer on the road speaking or marketing REW. It’s not just that the market is slow, I have a far more important job to do here and that is taking care of my family.
The irony of that situation is this - I now have a LOT more time to focus on R & D and coaching.
So that’s what I’ve been doing. Coaching our agents and being the full-time leader of our real estate team in addition to being the CEO of REW (which candidly is now a very easy job since I have such great/supportive leaders).
And I love it! (I really do!) - I mean, I’ve always loved building the product, but being a coach and mentor to Realtors is actually an incredibly rewarding job and I get a lot of joy seeing them succeed.
Get to the point Morgan!
Super easy offer (because it’s free). I run coaching every two weeks for my team (it’s generally Wednesday at noon PST) and I’d like to invite you and your agents to join me.
Here’s what I know for sure! If your agents attend the training and actually do the program as I teach it, they WILL find success in the CRM. It’s proven by my own team, and it plays out every single week with our coaching clients.
Just last week in fact, we had one of our coaching clients close a $6M+ deal from the website.
This week - Jayda on our team announced 3 deals pending and another listing about to hit the market.
Every time we run these sessions, we start with wins/shares and it’s so great to hear from the engaged agents using the software. The deals are out there! Your agents just need to learn how to use the system and commit to accountability.
So how about it? Do you want the CEO of the CRM company you use (who not only works hand in hand with R & D and the top real estate teams in the world to build the product… And also runs a real estate team) teaching your agents for free?
Let’s do it! (It would be my pleasure).
So that’s the update - no pitch in this part, just letting you know we’re here and we’re focused on helping you be as successful as possible using our products by doubling down on R & D to get you the features you tell us about faster, and by quadroupling down on education and support.
Oh I should probably put a PS in here - our coaching clients also get special pre-launch access to our R & D roadmap, so they get to know about and give feedback on features before they ever hit the market - that’s one of my favorite parts of the sessions each week 
Now let’s talk about the pitch/promo part:
I’m going to be selfish first… What is it that REW wants (what do we need?)
Well simply put, we know that deals are still out there to be had and that there are a LOT of Realtors who are not on platforms as good as REW. They would benefit from moving over to us and in doing so, we would benefit from the growth and stability that comes from that business.
We’re focused on retention so we don’t need as many “net new” accounts (the whole you can fill a bucket with an eye dropper as long as it doesn’t have any holes in it). But we still need new business.
Really - that’s it. That’s all we need. A few net new accounts per month and we’re crushing it.
What do we think you need (or want?) As customers?
Well first and foremost (always) - if we can help you get more deals out of your “existing” spend / platform, that will always make you happy. That’s why we’re so focused on education.
If we can run some programs for you that will generate (or even guarantee) net positive ROI? We assume that would make you happy too.
But let’s be honest, you would also love to find a way to “reduce” your bills (one of which is your REW bill). Sound about right?
So here’s what I’ve come up with - The REW Partnership program.
It’s super simple: Realtors understand more than anyone the concept of referrals. We would like you to refer us to your Realtor friends/connections that would benefit from our services.
In exchange - we are offering an INSANE (not even close to matched anywhere) 50% referral free of their SAAS against yours until your bill goes to zero. That’s right, we’d like your bill to go to zero.
So if you’re 10 users or less ($500 per month) at REW - refer us to $500 per month customers and your bill is GONE!
After your SAAS bill is gone, we’ll still pay you 25% of any additional SAAS you refer us in services (SEO, Programming, Design etc) or if you’d like 10% cash. But your first referrals (unit your SAAS bill with us is gone is 50%!!!)
Now here’s the catch - remember we’re retention-focused, right?
To get these referrals (credits to your bill) you have to be an REW customer. A built-in incentive (and yet another reason) for you to stay at REW for life.
Of course ideally - you’re here anyways for the “right reasons” (best looking, most SEO friendly websites, great CRM, great conversion).
And it’s only getting better!
So that’s my message/offer to those customers who already know, love and trust us.
In addition - I’ve authorized your AM’s to offer you 25% any professional service you would like to order as long as our team is below 80% capacity. After 80% capacity, we’re considered “full” - and can only sell at retail - but there is almost always capacity somewhere - so just ask your rep. And if this month is full and you can wait until next month, a bit of planning can save you a bunch of money on your custom projects.
Your AMs will be in touch - they will have sent you this link. If you’d like to learn more about how we can partner together to strengthen your product and help REW stay the top custom real estate website/marketing platform in the world!
Thank you again for your continued support Brian.