Real estate attracts entrepreneurs, self-starters, the movers and shakers.

It's appealing because you can make your own opportunities and with no cap on potential growth. Provided you don't get in your own way, that is. 

The problem is, realtors get pulled in a million different directions. When you're chasing leads, juggling clients, researching prospects, and hosting open houses, productivity can seem forever out of reach.

Add in the fact that today's reps must be active in their communities - online and off. And, an understanding of things like lead scoring, customer analytics, and reputation management, and well, that's just too much to handle.

In this article, we'll cover a few key areas - from building a better schedule to building a technology stack sets the stage for success.  

Read on to learn how to make things easier on yourself - and become a better agent in the process. 

Start with time management

If you need to improve productivity, you're not alone. In fact, 42.5% of sales reps take 10 months or longer to become productive enough to contribute to company goals.

So, it’s safe to say, productivity doesn't necessarily come naturally to reps.

A few time management tips:

• Quit multitasking - Despite our best efforts to do it all, a study from Stanford University found that multitasking undermines our productivity.
  
  As much as everyone loves to brag about their multitasking abilities, almost no one can actually do five, ten, fifty things at once. And if they can, well, they're not doing them well.
  

• Track your time - Try using a time-tracking app or keeping a journal to learn more about where you're spending your time.
  
  The benefit here is, you'll get a clearer picture of how much you can handle, discover invisible tasks, and identify problem areas.
  

• Time-blocking - Time blocking is exactly what it sounds like, a strategy that involves blocking out a few hours at a time in your calendar dedicated to completing a specific task.
  
  You might try blocking out a few hours for lead generation, following up with leads, or planning your content strategy. Keep in mind, the key to doing this effectively is focusing on one task at a time and eliminating distractions - turn your phone on Do Not Disturb, shut off the socials, and keep away from the inbox.

Plan ads and content strategy during slow months

If you're in real estate, you're likely familiar with the industry's highs and lows, but how often do you actively prepare for peak season?

Look, during your busiest times, it's understandable that marketing falls by the wayside, but this is a big mistake.

Why?

Because you'll be able to reach more potential buyers if you actively advertise during your seasonal rush. During your slow season, block out some time to plan out your advertising content and adjust your budget so that you can reach more potential buyers.

Update your tools of the trade

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but agents hoping to boost productivity efforts must make technology a top priority. Put together a list of what you hope to accomplish with technology.

If manual tasks like emailing and appointment scheduling are taking up too much time, look toward tools that automate busywork. Or, if you're having trouble keeping up with Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, invest in a social media management tool.

CRM

One of the most important things to invest in is a CRM (customer relationship management) software. Look for solutions that come with built-in automation features that help you nurture leads while you focus on other things.

Other key features include:

• Custom reporting

• Integrations

• Contact syncing

• Collaboration tools

• Mobile access

Keep in mind, your CRM should serve as your central hub. As such, you'll want to make sure the platform you choose provides a holistic view of all sales activity.

According to HubSpot, 72% of salespeople spend at least an hour a day on data entry.

Another study found that the average salesperson spends 43 hours a month searching for information like pricing or sales collateral - that’s about three months’ worth of work.

In real estate, there are more moving parts than you'll find in most industries. You'll need to track lead progress, paid ads, social media engagement, content performance, and more.

Lead Management System

Lead management system helps agents save time by capturing leads, as well as managing, tracking, and storing all prospect data.

Using a tool like SalesCandy LMS gives agents an easy way to capture and qualify leads on the go, update records, and track performance records to fine-tune your strategy.

Marketing Automation

Real estate agents looking cover more ground and save time stand to see huge benefits from automating their marketing activities.

Here are a few ways you can use automation to nurture deeper relationships with your audience.

• Develop SMS campaigns to engage leads and nurture them through the sales funnel.

• Collect data linked to landing page visits, email opens, and engagement.

• Score leads based on online activity.

• Design email drip campaigns that automatically segment your audience.

• Automatically send content based on behavior, preference, and stage in the buying process.

• Add chatbots to your website and Facebook page to answer questions, engage your audience, and collect valuable insights.

Social Media Management

According to a report from the National Association of Realtors, social media is essential to scoring leads and closing deals.

The report found that 77% of agents use social media to sell and that 47% of real estate agencies say social media delivers the highest-quality leads compared to other sources.

What's more, almost every millennial (99%) and baby boomer (90%) starts their journey online.

This means, real estate agents not only need to be active on social media; they also need to post different types of content on multiple platforms.

To manage your socials without going nuts, you'll need to find a tool that does the following:

• Supports multiple accounts

• Allows you to pre-load content in advance

• Provides access to performance metrics for quick access

• Offers social listening features and competitive intelligence

• Identifies trending topics you can use to inform content strategy

Buffer, HootSuite, and SproutSocial are all solid options, here, and each comes with plans that cater to a range of budgets and workloads.

But ultimately, you'll want something that makes it easy to fill up your content calendar and schedule posts in advance.

Consistency is critical here, and regular posting will help you build your audience, generate awareness, and capture new leads.

Keep in mind, you’ll want to focus your efforts on the channels where your audience spends the most time. According to Google, non-urban users in Malaysia and the Philippines spend a lot of time using YouTube to find information.

So, if you’re working in those regions, you’ll want to make sure that YouTube is a big part of your marketing strategy.

Here’s a breakdown of APAC digital media use by generation, region, and channel:

Watch out for the too many tools trap

It's easy to get carried away with the latest tools and tech. As you look at different types of software to power up your real estate business, really consider what you need, versus buying new tech for the sake of buying new tech.

Hubspot found that monitoring too many tools was among the biggest sources of frustration for marketers:

Here are a few things you should ask yourself when putting together your tech stack, so it can help you work smarter. 

• Which integrations does it support?

• Will it work with your existing business tools?

• Is it built for speed?

• Does it support collaborative work or create more tasks?

• Does it fulfil a specific need?

The point is, the best solution isn’t always throwing more apps at a problem.

Are you one of the high performing agents?

High-performing agents have some habits in common. They tear down silos, automate busywork, and use data to power their decision-making.

At the risk of oversimplifying things, you might say that real estate productivity depends primarily on data.

Collecting data about your habits can help you optimize your time. Your social media tools, LMS, CRM, and others find patterns that help you understand the customer. And, of course, those customer insights and market trends inform your content and advertising strategies.

The point is, connected data allows you to become more productive and make better business decisions - which in turn, means more leads in the pipeline and more happy home-owners.

Learn how SalesCandy supports a smarter lead strategy by booking a demo today!