Realtor friends, as 100% commissioned salespeople, you want to make sure that we get the greatest return (closings) on the time that you spend doing your job, right? 

To achieve more sales and to do so more efficiently requires a conscious understanding of our industry’s sales funnel. 

What is a Sales Funnel?

In case you’re new to sales, a sales funnel, at its most basic, is simply a process that tracks your progress in moving leads through various stages into sales. In real estate, this process is not just important – it’s central to everything we do. It’s about turning leads into clients and clients into closed deals.

Here’s a breakdown of the various steps in the Realtor sales funnel. Starting with the end in mind (closings and compensation), here are the steps:

Closings

Let’s start with the end in mind – the goal of any real estate transaction is the closing. This is where the deal is finalized, clients get what they want, and income for us as salespeople is generated. But closings don’t just happen; they are the culmination of several key steps.

Contracts

Before a closing can occur, there needs to be a contract in place. This contract is an agreement between two parties to enter into a real estate transaction. To reach this stage, you need to be representing one of these parties, either as a listing agent for the seller or as a buyer’s agent. But these agreements, such as the listing agreement or buyer broker agreement, don’t just appear out of thin air. 

Agreements

Before a contract can occur, you need an agreement from a consumer that they will use you to solve for their real estate needs. This traditionally has taken the form of a listing agreement on the sell side and a verbal understanding on the buy side. (Side note: every agent can and should be using a written buyer’s agreement! We use them exclusively at The Chabris Group and have been doing so since 2016). Once a buyer or seller has explicitly agreed to work with you to buy or sell real estate, you can start working to help them and get them under contract. 

Appointments

The critical step before securing an agreement is setting up an appointment. An appointment is your opportunity to meet with potential clients, perform a needs analysis, and demonstrate how you can meet those needs. This step is crucial in earning the right to represent them in the transaction. It’s also the metric that is most important to track as you grow your business. Appointments are the best “lead indicator” of future business. 

Leads

At the top of the funnel, and arguably the most important part, is lead generation. Leads are potential clients who may be interested in buying or selling property. The more leads you have, the greater your chances of setting up appointments. Remember, lead generation is all about activity – the more activity and effort you put in, the more opportunities you get out!

Increasing Sales: Activities and Skills

There are two ways to enhance your sales: increase your activities (to generate more leads) and improve your skills (to convert leads at each stage of the funnel).  This journey from lead generation to closing is a mix of activity-based and skill-based tasks. You can do a deeper dive on increasing activities and skills here.

What’s Next?

Over the coming months, look for posts on boosting lead generation and enhancing the skill sets for each stage of the funnel. This will include concepts on how to effectively convert leads into appointments, turn appointments into agreements, and ultimately, agreements into closings.

Mastering each step of the sales funnel is how top producers become top producers. By improving your skill set at each stage, you can increase your efficiency, close more sales, and ultimately, earn more income.