Hi folks. Here's a little chart I made today that I want to share with you. I made this so I could see where my business is coming from.
What this chart shows me is that 45% of my business comes from referrals and repeat customers, 35% comes from my expired letter, 15% comes from the Internet and only 5% came from a sign call.
It also shows me that 35% of my current business is in Short Sales(SS). 85% is with Sellers and 15% is with Buyers.
|
PROPERTY |
STATUS |
SELLER |
BUYER |
ORIGINATED |
|
Eagle |
Active (SS) |
X |
|
Expired Letter |
|
Parsley |
Active (SS) |
X |
|
Repeat |
|
Kissimmee |
Active |
X |
|
Expired Letter |
|
San Jose |
Active (SS) |
X |
|
Repeat |
|
Sparrow |
Active |
X |
|
Expired Letter |
|
Sequoia |
Active |
X |
|
Referral |
|
Divot |
Active |
X |
|
Referral |
|
Reindeer |
Active |
X |
|
Internet |
|
Dundee |
Active |
X |
|
Referral |
|
Aylesbury |
Active |
X |
|
Expired Letter |
|
Jaguar |
Active |
X |
|
Expired Letter |
|
Dundee |
Pending |
X |
|
Expired Letter |
|
Reindeer |
Pending (SS) |
X |
|
Repeat |
|
Green |
Pending |
X |
|
Repeat |
|
Edgewood |
Pending (SS) |
X |
|
Expired Letter |
|
Nassau |
Pending (SS) |
X |
|
Referral |
|
San Jose |
Pending |
X |
|
Internet |
|
Green |
Pending |
|
X |
Sign |
|
Nassau |
Pending (SS) |
|
X |
Internet |
|
KB Homes |
Pending |
|
X |
Repeat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I did this little exercise so I could see what my strong points are and what areas I need to concentrate on. The results are pretty much what I expected. I'm very much a "people person" so, it is certainly no surprise, that the most productive part of my business is just talking with folks and helping them solve their problems. This is very evident by 45% of my business coming from referrals and repeat business. These are referrals from consumers not my peers.
It was also no surprise that my expired letter is very effective. The percentage of business from this is actually very low right now due to the fact that I turn down far more listings than I take. That's also the reason my listing inventory is very low. I usually carry between 25-30 active listings but only have 11 right now. I'm not counting vacant lots of which I have 7.
It looks like I spend waaaaay too much time blogging too, since only 15% of my business comes from the Internet. But hey....it's fun!!!
From reviewing this chart, I can tell I need to step up my listing efforts. And I need to hire a Buyer's agent. No sense wasting all those good Buyer leads but the fact is, if they aren't interested in my listings, then most of the time, I just tell them "Good luck with that"!!
So.........do you know where your business is coming from?
***This is a little side note. I just noticed that today's ActiveRain newsletter features me and a whole bunch of my posts on taking listings. Anyway, this has caused my email to explode with comments coming in. I want to thank AR for the mention and I want to thank all of you guys for visiting those old posts and commenting on them. Unfortunately I will not have the time to go back to all of them and respond. BUT....if you have any specific questions you are more than welcome to pop me an email and I will answer your questions as soon as possible. Thank you!!!!
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Blog Boy...
So I gather the Internet could go away tomorrow and it wouldn't effect us all that much.
That's a good thing. It's nice to know that our eggs are not all in one basket :)
P.S. You just have to know that I am contemplating the time you do spend on line :)
TLW...ROAR!
I find referrals and prior satisfied clients are my greatest source of revenue.
Thanks for the post- I appreciate it.
All the best.
Bill
Smart to track where your business comes from. One thing for sure, it has to be done consistantly.
I track where my business come from too. I also keep track of my sales numbers each month in accordance with my website traffic. It lets me know when I can take a vacation. :)
That expired letter percentage is pretty impressive. That seems pretty high. You do seem to have a diverse business plan which is good.
I can see your internet percentage being low, since you don't typically work with buyers. My buyers are exclusively referrals and internet. I get a lot of prospects from blogging. I don't get nearly as many seller calls from my blogging.
I'm impressed with the percentage you get from your expired listing letters. You must have a great letter that gets their attention. Good job!
Janice
I'm impressed with the percentage you get from your expired listing letters. You must have a great letter that gets their attention. Good job!
Janice
BB: Thanks for this post and more importantly, thanks for your concern about my latest updates. Apparently, when I do the same exercise, my latest activities/ prospects that they show that it is coming from my blogging efforts! Yea... I do have more reasons to be on here. But I also recently read about Katerina Gasset's posts and I do hope that I could add on more listings through my blogging efforts.
Great reminder to have a plan and stick to it. Out of 24 active projects, all but 2 are past clients and those 2 are guys we have been prospecting my postcard and email for a few years. One of those two has already referred us to another client.
Bryant--OK that expired letter of yours is very effective isn't it? I copied and saved it from one of your past posts but have yet to have time to put into practice. I notice that your past clients love you too! BTW...40% Internet, 20% Referral, 20% Past Client, 13% Sign and 12% Sphere. My internet play is well worth the effort! :)
What AR Newsletter? Is that something you can subscribe to when you sign up for the new service? (Haven't had much time to "play" lately.)
We track this quarterly and use it to plan our activity. Thanks for your info.
It's important to know where our business is coming from and what aspects of our advertising are really yielding results. This has been a very important part of my decision making process. When I changed advertising outlets, I did it from a place of knowing where my advertising dollars were really doing the job.
I keep notes in Outlook, for every customer and clients, with the origination date, and how they found me. My old manager said I was the only agent in the entire office who could tell him where every client had come from.
BB, I love metrics. You can't lie when you look at the hard cold numbers. Very good analysis.
BB, You got to know your stats to effectively change as your market changes. Hey, so now you got an AR Newsletter too? I thought it was a great complement to a great contributor to AR. Keep on Blogging.. AJ
finding what works and being consistent will always be the best choice - knowing where your business comes from will save you big $$$$
Bryant- That is so funny! I have a post in draft on my html editor about this very subject. We get most of our listings from expireds, then our AR blog, and then referrals. Interesting. Our percentage from Expired listings is huge. And the agents I coach are getting the same results! It is exciting to see. Work more on your strengths. We see that we are now getting 2 or 3 listings per week just from the AR blog, so we are going to beef that up even more. Focus on Seller material.
I think your internet leads for listings is lower because Poinciana is (my guess) not as internet savvy as silicone valley:) I know here, we have a ton of people still on dial up! But we are still getting the calls. Most of our calls though are absentee owners from out of the area.
Melina- You are not getting listings from your blogging because you are writing to buyers. We don't work with hardly any buyers. We are strong listers and so we write to our audience, sellers. Then they will call! It works, I promise. Just know who is your audience and write to them about them.
Loreena- You will get listings from your blogging efforts. Study how to title your posts with good keywords that you need to be found for. Write for sellers. It will make a huge difference for you. I am honored that you are reading my posts.
It is important to know which side your bread is buttered on. The chart is great meauring device. Certainly time well spent. Thanks for the reminder-
Good Luck and Sell Well!
Bryant, Marvelous idea! First, Way to go on all those blogs. Looks like you've had great success!! May you have many & much more!!
P.S. I will certainly be checking out your old posts:o)
I've tracked mine since 2004, last year it jumped to 37% internet and 63% referred.
Before that is was similiar but at 76% referred and 33% internet. I thought maybe it was the fact that most MI folks can't move up because they can't sell their home to move up.
Bryant, this is a great little exercise to go through, and I do it often. I have almost all referrals, repeats and the new ones are from Open Houses. And I count AR referrals as referrals and not internet. I am just a whole lot more comfortable working with people to whom I've been properly introduced. They are more likely to buy and more likely to pass the fun test. I'm trying to earn more money working fewer hours, and it seems to be happening. Go figure!
You've been in business awhile but I'm starting to see the same pattern. My referrals are the bulk of my business (I don't do as much as you :) and like you...internet is not the strongest area but it is consistent for the amount of work I put into it.
Pretty helpful reminder. It seems you didn't include your SOLDs for the year; that may have been intentional, though, if you're only looking for current stuff. My current-only numbers (like you have above) are much different from my YTD (or all-inclusive) numbers.
Hi Byrant, knowing is half the battle the half is the doing....you got it going! Nice post Bryant.
Bryant - THat's a good exercise, and my business is mostly repeat and referral like yours. However, my internet business seems to be picking up. But it looks different than I expected. People call me about my listings, and they usually don't have a realtor. I ask where they found the property, and they just say the internet. Since my listings get syndicated through my point2agent site, as well as my Keller Williams site, it's in lots of different places. The bottom line is that my last 4 transactions were due to the property being found on the internet. But not blogging.
A good business practice. I've run across a few people on panels who have said that most of their business is from the internet. I heard someone once say that 90% of their business is from the internet. That would say to me that people who buy houses from them don't use them again or refer them.
As for all the past posts and the feature in the A/R newsletter is well deserved! You contribute a lot to this community and a small shout out like that is nothing compared to what you deserve.
As for the question "Do I know where my business is coming from?" Yes, I do and I also keep track of where every one of my clients comes from. I even wrote a post how I even break it down online with MyBlogLog and I have to say if you don't know where your business is coming from today, then how do you expect to know where tomorrows business will be coming from.
Heyy BB - I do this too. I thought I was one of the few (at least i don't think anybody else at my office does). I recently shared w/my own broker. We were amazed at how my Internet leads have increased in the last several month/ Much thanks to AR & point2.
You definitely need to hire a buyers agent or at least refer the leads out to somebody. You are skipping over the dollars. Buyers are where it is at right now, if you can actually get them to qualify for a loan that is.
Hey guys, Thanks for all the great input. I've finally started to turn my year around this year. The first 6 months were just brutal. I needed to do this chart to put things in perspective. Plus it's so important to know where are business is coming from. It helps to get us focused on the ares that need improvement and also tells us waht areas we just need to drop completely.
BB, I find your results really amazing! Especially form your expired letter. Back last year you shared a copy with me and I put a Lizette spin on it. Then I never took the time to use it. Have you made any changes to it? Do you tailor it to each potential seller like Katerina does? (she uses a cover letter and a brochure) My inquiring mind needs ta know. I plan to get my system whipped into shape this week. I DO have a listing goal this year. I have about 11 right now too.
I'm glad to see that a good part of your business comes from JTTP. (Just talking to people). Regarding the blogging- 15% isn't bad- especially when you consider the spillover effect... I'm guessing quite a few of your clients who were acquired by other means have probably checked out the blog as well.