Today is always a fun day, a brand new team member has started!
At the Carly Carey Real Estate Team, we get our agents set up on new leads and the CRM the very first week so that they can have access to warm leads and real-life context immediately as opposed to theoretical teachings in a classroom or online setting.
You have access to the REW CRM, now what? (What to expect and what you should focus on first)
Let’s start with a few important things right up front and then we’ll get into the details of the CRM.
CRM Policy: All great teams follow these simple rules:
#1: Speed to lead is everything. Do not allow anything (and we mean anything) to become a reason to not follow up inside of 5 minutes. Not prepared? Call! Driving? Call! Too early or too late to call? They are on the site aren’t they? Do you think they are on your timezone? Call 
Think you should send a text or email first? HELL NO CALL!
Don’t be this guy (we’ll have to kick you off the team sorry)
A bit of humor but also, seriously - you can’t be on the team if you’re not willing to make “phone calls” the very first outreach to a lead. It’s mandatory. You might suck at calling to start (everyone does) - that’s even more reason you need to call. 10,000 calls later you’ll be a millionaire
#2: If it isn’t in the CRM, it did NOT happen! We’re big on accountability and we except no excuses for why activities are not in the CRM. They need to be logged at the time you do them but if in the rare case, you can’t for some reason, you must go back and log all activities by the end to the day. This behavioral data is critical in order for us to be able to assess your performance and assist in improving your conversion through coaching.
#3: If you don’t write it down you can’t measure it. If you can’t measure it you can’t improve it. It’s as simple as that. The insights you will gain over time in evaluating your own data as well as the massive value it adds in aggregate to the team make this phrase so critical to commit to memory. Make it part of the fiber of your being!
You’ll hear me talk about these things constantly (all the time). Even when I think (when I know) that you know them. Over communicating the most important principles of lead follow up is a key to the highest possible commissions for you, our agents.
Ok, those are 3 simple rules - now that we have them out of the way.
My first recommendation: Do one thing WELL! Don’t get distracted by a piece of software that has hundreds of features. Those features are all valuable in their own way, and have a time and place, but for your first 3 months on the team not a single one of them should matter to you. Do NOT let yourself get distracted. You need to master one thing first.
What’s the one thing? Details page + speed to lead.
Nothing else!
Here are the steps:
#1: Notification: Comes via both text and email. Whatever you are doing, drop it and click the link. It will take you directly to the details page. This takes literally 3 seconds, there are no excuses not to.
#2: Before you accept the lead, spot check it. Take a look at the name, email address, phone number. Does it look like there is even a remote possibility it could be real person? If so. Click accept.
#3: Check the listings & searches (1 minute max): Scroll down the page to the listings section and see if they have viewed any listings and / or done any searches. This is the ONLY information you can justify researching before calling. Anything else can wait. I do this while the phone is ringing, I don’t wait.
Here’s what the listing section looks like:
Immediately what can I see? Price point ($700-$750) Qualicum, Small houses max 2 beds, 2 baths - I already have something to talk about. The rest will come during the call.
Our system also provides a nice summary of trending search behavior right below the listings
#4: Visit history: This is a tab in the upper left and will be your next source of deeper information which can give some additional helpful context (timezone, IP, that sort of thing) including the pages they looked at. You can typically just click this while the phone is ringing, it’s a 1 second thing to have open.
Lools like this:
We won’t get into what to say specifically on your call (that is what our training classes, coaching calls and perhaps a separate topic are for) so let’s skip to the end of the call.
When the call has ended you must do the following: (Do this immediately when you hang up, do not do any other task until this is done)
#1: Log the call. It’s super simple, click “Calls” at the top of the details page. If this is your first time calling, it will have a 0 if you’ve already tried, it will have however many past attempts you have.
A dialogue box (below) will open. Choose the appropriate category from the dropdown (attempted, talked etc) then leave as detailed of a note as is required.
As a follow-up - once you’ve logged your calls, they will be accessible to you for review at any time by clicking the call number (like so) PRO TIP: If you use the REW Dialer, you do NOT have to log calls, it automatically does it for you including the time and duration - all you have to do is make your notes.
The dialer can also record your calls, however you are required to let the person know you are recording if you use this feature.
#2: Create a quick note - this is CRITICAL and a step agents often don’t understand immediately or sometimes feel is redundant with call logging. I promise you, it is not.
When creating a quick note, we’d like you to include “at a minimum” what you did last and what you intend to do next. This allows you to quickly see where you left off, but also implements the practice of committing to the “next step” in the lead journey. If you don’t have a next step, you’ve given up on that lead and should return the lead to the pool. There is ALWAYS a next step.
Ok, now as to why (the context) of quick notes vs just logging calls.
Once you have a lof of active leads (and because you are with the Carly Carey Real Estate Team you will have a lot of leads, you will very soon be faced each day with a smart list of many people to follow up on.
By using quick notes, it provides a function that follows the lead everywhere in a very visible way. So when you have a list of 50 leads or more and need to know where to start / or prioritize the highest value leads, you can quick scan all leads at once to know what is pressing and what can be left until later.
Here is an example of quick notes - just mouse over (no clicking) to get full details)
I chose this list on purpose so that you can see quickly if this was your list, obviously you would not call the fake number (which has been rejected and sent back to admin) and you probably wouldn’t prioritize the “Not very nice” person who said do not call