Brokers and Agents often ask us about the best practices of managing leads, from the point of entry to a signed contract. When should I follow up and how? How often should I be in touch, and what are the best ways to engage? We have found that following a simple, systematic flow which combines persistence, common courtesy, and a reliable CRM system, is the best way to achieve a higher conversion rate. After all, the goal is always to turn more of your leads into DEALS.

Watch and learn from Boston Logic's President & Founder, David Friedman, as he takes you through the art of effectively managing and nurturing your leads to increase your client acquisition.

Learn more about how Boston Logic's Sequoia system can help you effectively manage your leads- sign-up for a no-pressure demo today!

If you missed last week's LogicClassroom presentation with our guest speaker Colleen Barry, you'll want to check out the video recording below!

Boston Logic's special guest speaker, Colleen Barry is a Real Estate Marketing Consultant.  In this LogicClassroom, she talks about how to make your website a real business generator. All real estate agencies have websites, but most aren't being used to their full potential. Colleen discusses how to effectively generate new leads, convert current leads, retain current agents, and recruit new agents.

We host a new LogicClassroom every month!  If you'd like to find what our upcoming classes are about, visit the LogicClassroom page of our website and sign up online!

Part of a 24 city tour, this month's Agent Reboot was at the A La Carte Pavilion in Tampa, Florida this past Wednesday. Boston Logic was an exhibiting sponsor of the event, which was hosted by Inman News.

David's Thoughts...

I can personally report that we had some great conversations with Broker/Owners eager to leverage technology and the web to its fullest. It was also nice to see Inman News CEO, Tim Smith, out at the conference. Always well produced and highly informative, Tim is obviously running a top notch operation.

I was happy to sit in on another Social Media Insights panel with Florida-based RE/MAX Business Development Consultant, Frank Chimento. The discussion was again hosted by Inman's Social Media Director, Katie Lance. (As I mention Katie here, I should direct readers to a nice video "snapshot" of her presentation about killer mobile apps- pretty awesome). The audience posed many questions and certainly agreed that they wished there was some tool or service to help do the work of social media engagement (or at least, the syndication for that matter). And indeed there are tools - we were very happy to talk about our Social Media Accelerator with many agents and brokers who approached the Boston Logic team afterwards. Let me be clear...I'm not suggesting you should outsource your voice, but we know that when you've got to focus on selling homes for a living, starting with a foundation for inbound marketing is better than re-inventing the wheel!

One observation at the event that I thought was note-worthy...

There was 3 general levels of participants at the conference:

1) Most participants were new to the web and technology. Realtors are learning that they need to get involved, join the conversation, and start investing their time and money online. These agents were looking for steps 1, 2, and 3. This profile probably represents 90% of the attendees.
2) The other 10% of the agents in attendance are already working social media, search engines, and the web. They were looking to fine tune their campaigns. They want to know the latest and greatest, and how to take the next step. I'm sure they got more than they could have asked for.
3) The final group of attendees were Brokers and Owners. These folks were, generally speaking, looking for solutions that will help every agent in their office. Of course, many of these folks came right over to our table to talk about how we could work with them and their offices, inquire about pricing questions, talk strategy, etc.

I'm definitely looking forward to future Inman conferences. Special thanks to Madelyn and Mike for their help too!

-DF

(David Friedman, President & Founder of Boston Logic)

The rainy June day started sleepy and a bit disheveled, as most traditional conferences do, when we arrived at the Back Bay Center to begin setting up our Exhibitor Table. BarCampers were slow to arrive, and cautious to post or host unpopular topics on the big empty whiteboard – but the afternoon turned out to be anything but traditional or underwhelming!

In fact, it was refreshingly noisy, social and unbarring. It almost seemed as if the vibe in the room was mimicking the very nature of the subject we all came to discuss: integrating social media into our businesses, relationships and accepting it as the new fabric of our lives. While the process feels messy and begs a substantial humility of sorts, the end result is one that’s honest and produces eye-opening results.

Our CEO and Founder, David Friedman, led the pack with what he called “A Realtor Wake-Up Call: You’ve Been Looking at Social Media the Wrong Way”.

This seemed to be just the caffeine everyone needed as thoughts and theories began to open up about the future path of the technology tornado. One Agent expressed his concern that the role of the realtor may soon become altogether inconsequential, as social channels bypass directly to the buyer and seller. Some participants seemed more weary than others of the trend, as Union Street Media’s Founder, Ted Adler, added his belief that social media “makes it harder to be bad at your job”- but David offered a final sentiment by expressing that “social media doesn’t have an agenda, nor does it have a conscience- it’s just a tool”- a tool that will only bypass us if we let it.

From left: David Friedman, Spencer Taylor, Sven Andersen

The following session on social media presented the question, “what’s working?”- a tag-team effort by David, Spencer Taylor of Union Street Media, and Sven Andersen of RE/MAX. Sven shared an interesting notion with the group that his most effective marketing technique was the ‘personal touch’ achieved from throwing lavish or family-friendly client parties- and that social media tools like Yelp and Facebook came in a close second.

A dialogue then began about the value and ROI of  ‘community management’ techniques, such as partnering with local vendors to send out an “Angie’s List” type magnet to neighbors through direct mail – or participating in local activities and then sharing those experiences through a Facebook profile. An interesting Twitter anecdote was also offered about a realtor who was recognized at a client showing from a Twitter profile and won the client’s business as a result. The discussion soon took a turn and shifted into a panel about how much information is appropriate to share- it seemed many of the realtors were most concerned about appropriate social media etiquette and how much ‘personal touch’ to offer up online. What I heard loud and clear is that a real estate agent’s hesitancy behind social networking can be largely attributed to the very fine line that exists between personal and business life.

So what did we discover at the end of the day?

For Boston Logic, the real take-away was this: it’s not about the tool or gimmick, or even the means – it’s the matter that matters and it’s the connection that counts. Whether a magnet sent through the mail, a client party thrown with a clown, a Yelp review, a Facebook “Like” or a Tweet on Twitter- it’s the rapport that can be drawn from these frequencies that actually pushes a relationship forward and helps a business grow. There’s a sense of commonality and familiarity still at the driving center of all social networking- and this is something technology will never succeed to bypass.

Join us this Tuesday, May 10th at 5pm for our next LogicClassroom on Marketing your Real Estate Business on Facebook, taught by Marketing Associate Angela Davis.

Facebook is the most visited website online, and it's important to not only have a Facbebook business presence, but to have a good one that's executed correctly.

In this concise, 1/2 hour LogicClassroom, we'll take you from the creating a Facebook Business Page from scratch to populating it with valuable content, adding some bells & whistles, and how to get potential people to "like" and  interact with you.  If you've already made a Facebook Profile for your business or a Facebook Group, don't worry: we can show you how to fix it!

In addition to taking a look at all these great features and how to use them, take a look at some of the topics we'll be covering:

• Types of Pages & The Importance of Categories
• Anatomy of a Successful Facebook Page
• Custom Landing Pages & Other Advanced Features. These include Facebook Places, Cool Apps, etc.
• Getting People to 'Like' Your Page & Interact with It. This can be with good content, variety, Questions Feature, etc.
• Pay-Per-Click Ads, for Highly Targeted Audiences
• Oops! I Made a Group or Personal Profile for My Business: How do I Fix It?

You are welcome to attend at the Boston Logic office (view map), or sign up to participate through an online webinar. The class begins at 5pm on May 10th, 2011.

Please sign up using our easy online form, or call 617-266-9166.

In this concise, 1/2 hour LogicClassroom, we'll discuss what you need to make your social media presence active, engaging, and integrated with your website. We'll look at content syndication and how to keep your social media profiled updated with little extra effort. We'll also look at techniques to get your friends, followers, and fans to visit your website.

If you're a social media novice, don't worry, we won't let you get lost. If you're a pro, but need some help connecting your website to the top social media sites, we'll help you too. We look forward to seeing you there!

You are welcome to attend at the Boston Logic Office (view map) or participate through an online webinar at your convenience.

Sign up now for the webinar with our quick and easy registration form!

Boston Logic always updates its real estate web site design software to keep real estate brokerages and agents ahead of the online curve. Last December, we launched our new CRM component to track and manage leads and workflow within the Sequoia platform.

We'll take a look at some quick tips for using the CRM component, as well as some time saving, day-to-day tools for interacting with your clients. We'll also take a look at how the information uploaded to the platform could be used to get real time data about how your brokerages is performing, where your leads are coming from, and what is happening to those leads after your agents receive them.

We also launched a new feature for our Content Management System (CMS) called Sidebar Widgets.  We'll show you how to use the Sidebar Widgets tool to customize your site even further, giving your users the most comfortable and enjoyable online experience possible.

Learn these handy tips for getting the most out of your Sequoia software from Boston Logic on March 8th at 5pm!

You are welcome to attend at the Boston Logic Office (view map) or participate through an online webinar at your convenience.

To attend, please contact Katrina at 617.266.9166 or by email at ksierant@bostonlogic.com. Please specify whether you will attend the class at our office or online.

We look forward to seeing you there!