In the 294th episode of Mail-Right Show, Robert and Jonathan feature Isiah Colton, the CEO, and Founder of Real Estate Nexus. Isiah is a businessman who started his real estate journey from scratch, climbing up to his Chief Executive position with pure dedication and hard work. His competence lies in developing and effectively applying sales and marketing plans. During his guesting, Isiah specified the importance of developing a marketing strategy and honing your lead’s follow-up process.
How it All Started: Taking a Big Leap
Isiah has a strong sales and marketing background; he was a former VP of sales in a marketing company before he took a big leap of faith in Real Estate.
“You have to learn everything and educate yourself,’’ this is Isiah’s mission. He educated himself about everything he needs to know regarding the field he is trying to enter. Going to different conventions with hopes of learning and applying the knowledge to his new investment. Isiah built the solid foundation he needed as he tried to make things work with his new brokerage.
After taking over the role of operations for the brokerage, he went to sign up for different lead generation companies. You need to have enough leads coming in for everything else to work out. However, after spending 10,000 hours for a couple of months in a row, they realized that the leads were not converting the way they thought they should. They did try to have an effective follow-up system and other stuff with an overall arching marketing plan, but they ended up frustrated in the process. It is important to have a well-established master plan and backup plans in case of failure when doing business.
Thus, he took a step back and started going to conventions related to sales and marketing.
He called different leads for himself to get real-life feedback on whether the leads were bad or not. His marketing plan is to roll up his sleeves, go in the trenches, and start setting around three to four appointments a day. You need plans and goals if you want to make things work. Eventually, Isiah and his team started hitting on gold. They went in particular on the listing side of the business.
Converting Leads with other Brokers
One of the important things that Isiah shared is to generate more listings specifically within your marketing plan. Get your marketing plan, and follow-ups honed to the point where you start getting agents willing to pay for your advice.
Isiah launched a broker-to-broker program that revolved around a sales and marketing strategy that he pioneered. Three years later, they got the Inc 500 and ranked as the 308th fastest-growing company in the country.
As a result, they moved over a billion dollars a year in real estate through the said referral model. On top of that, he grew a brokerage in which they have about 200 agents. Moreover, he also runs a massive broker-to-broker referral program focused on lead conversion and leads follow-up.
Developing a Marketing Plan
If you are out and looking to develop an effective marketing plan, you must first factor in technology to leverage. Your marketing plan and social media will give you leverage. But since it is not upfront, you need to remember that you still have to go into your current list of leads and follow up with them to make sure that they convert what you already have.
Jonathan also gave a generous overview of the type of leads and sales cycle. You must be aware of the types of leads, so you know what your return will be and what your cash cycle is going to be. He pointed out the importance of understanding the different types of leads (Type A, B, and C). The first lesson with your marketing plan is categorizing the lead type you’re signing up to. Each type of lead has a different sales cycle that you must be aware of.
Identifying Lead Categories
Social media falls into the B category. Type B leads do not actively seek after an agent or seek a property on Facebook. This is somebody who came in through what is called a forced registration. These leads are usually acquired from content or ads that force them to register. Leads like this usually take a long time and have a lower rate of conversion. You’ll want to develop a conversation plan for these types of leads and put them on a sales funnel designed to follow up on them regularly, so you’re in front of them when they are in a place to buy or sell real estate. A category is your sphere of influence, while a C list is like a list of data. For your A leads, you must always nurture your relationships properly.
Google Local Service Ads
Another important thing that Isaiah shared is Google’s newest service, the Google Local Service Ads. Google came out with a pay-per-call service, where if you optimize your business profile the right way, you sign up to Google local service ads. You get a bunch of reviews, and when you follow the process and the guidelines, you can show up ahead of all of the SEO of all the organic placement, right at the top with your phone number.
Robert also added information about the hyper-local search packs and how Hyperlocal search results only come up when you’re doing searches that relate to hyper-local, such as realtors near me, realtors in the city name.
His Life and Business Strategies
Isiah told everyone that his entry into real estate is an exciting venture for him, his unique perspective made him a big shot in the market. Thanks to his determination to learn and hone his sales and marketing skills, he developed effective marketing strategies and formulas that made him succeed and thrive in the industry.
“We gotta be smart. We gotta have a strategy.”
