Doubling Sales Volume Six Years in a Row -- By Following Up

From agent follow-up to leveraging the right tools, broker JP Piccinini, Founder and CEO of JP and Associates REALTORS, shares the secrets that have helped his firm double in size every year for six years. Check out the the interview below to learn more:

It's no mystery that when agents follow up, their business volume goes up. How do you know if your agents are keeping in touch?

We actually ran a test and found that our follow-up numbers were good – with something like 83 percent of the leads getting an immediate response. But we also have a culture and values centered on productivity and service. We are one of the few brokerages out there that has a yearly productivity standard.

What is your expectation on productivity from your agents?

If the agent does not sell six properties over the year then they are not in our brokerage. We draw the line there because we do believe that the most productive agents are the best agents, and we think our clients should have the best agents out there.

If you have agents that are productive professionals – who really get this business – the best thing to do is just to get them the best tools, best technology and the best marketing message. We provide the best platform to run their business and then get out of the way.

What technology tools do you provide?

The best CRM an agent can use is the one they will use. As long as you use it, you are going to have better results versus not. We recommend using Top Producer because it is the best one out there in terms of function and it is designed specifically for real estate with the real estate top producer's agenda in mind.

What is the impact of having a high standard and a good CRM in place?

The biggest impact comes when they begin to implement the CRM and begin to work their leads and follow up with their sphere -- we see them increase their referral base.

And also we see them build better relationships with their clients. This helps them build their business year after year to be relationship based and less transactional.

With all these automated systems in place, how do you keep the relationships personal vs. automated?

That is all part of the Top Producer's suite we provide. You can customize your messages to make everything personal. The tools help you set up follow-up phone calls, emails and personal messages as part of your Top Producer campaigns. That's the beauty of the CRM system -- it doesn't necessarily make you accountable, but it essentially gives you tasks to do throughout the week to follow up with your sphere of influence to make sure you stay connected and tap in with your past clients.

Do you use this for recruiting?

As far as top Producer, Market Snapshot and Five Street go, we have a menu that shows all the technology and services we can offer agents. We're a 100 percent commission, transaction-based company, and yet a full-service brokerage, so it's really incredible that we can offer what we do and still give them 100 percent of the commission -- and only really charge a transactional fee when the deal closes.

And retention?

We don't have many agents that want to leave -- we have a very high retention rate and it is because we have all those tools that help them get to the next level.

As an example, just the basics of realtor.com Advantage Pro lets agents use their listings as a lead generator and not have their leads go somewhere else. That's a couple extra deals a year for an agent that they would not have at another brokerage.

So it's all working?

Our company has doubled in size every year for six years. Only 4 percent of our agents sold less than six homes in a year. And we continue to grow.