How One Brokerage Cured their Weak Conversion Rate (and Brought Their ROI Back to Life)

When Pat McCandless and Chris Earl bought Stephens Real Estate in 2013, they became the instant owners of one of the top firms in their area. They knew, however, that the company could perform better.

"Our reputation is excellent," says Pat McCandless. "But we did realize our support systems were out of date. In order for our agents to maintain our standards of service, we had to update those support and tech systems."

One major underperformer was their online lead generation effort. Their ROI was weak, with leads converting at just half the industry rate. Obviously, something was wrong—but what? McCandless and Earl had to dig in deep to find out.

Sluggish Response Times Lead to Problems

The diagnosis of their issue came from an unlikely source—their sales representative at realtor.com®—who actually recommended that they not renew their contract.

The program they had been using was being transitioned, but Richard McDonald, their realtor.com® contact, didn't recommend another product to replace their program. "He had conducted an analysis of the response rate we were providing for leads, and it was less than ideal," says Chris Earl. "Some leads were responded to quickly, others were not and some did not receive any response at all. Our conversion rate was at 3-4 percent, when it should have been 8, 9 or 10 percent. Richard told us we'd be wasting our money to keep purchasing the leads without making any changes to increase our response rate."

Getting Help from Smart Tools

Richard took the time to educate McCandless and Earl the longterm effects of low lead response and low lead conversion. They discovered that not only were they wasting money, but "for every lead that was responded to late or not at all, we weren't just losing the lead. It was also tarnishing our brand and our reputation," says Earl.

"We knew we needed to commit to increasing our response rate, no matter what leads (or whose leads) we were working," he says. With the knowledge that discipline is key to increasing their conversion rate and ROI, McCandless and Earl committed to using FiveStreet, which captures new leads, and—more helpfully for Stephens Real Estate—also sets a follow-up plan into action.

"We instituted new follow-up standards across the brokerage, giving the listing agent the opportunity to respond in the first five minutes, then broadcasting the lead to an available agent if the listing agent hadn't replied," says Earl.

McCandless and Earl also brought in Top Producer® CRM to help their agents manage their contacts and reach out to their clients in a simple, convenient way.

"These programs enable everyone on our sales team to be more efficient," says McCandless. "But the biggest opportunity in my mind will be the consistent follow-up we can now assure by providing Top Producer® as the CRM."

Discipline Leads to a Stronger Brand

The team at Stephens Real Estate found that implementing healthy new habits does more than just boost their conversion rate. "We're also seeing that by improving our response times to consumers, we are really building our brand with the new leads and our seller clients," says McCandless.

"Now during listing presentations, we can tell our prospective clients, 'If I cannot respond to an inquiry about your home within five minutes, someone on my team will.' This gives us a great competitive advantage."

"We are not a mega-franchise company," says Earl. "Our dedicated team is comprised of local agents who are the best in this area. We are only as good as every member of our team, and I believe arming them with these tools will enable each of them to perform at their very best."