How to Build an Effective Real Estate Pipeline
Building an effective real estate pipeline is a critical part of building an effective business. The problem is that over the past year and a half, maintaining a pipeline hasn’t been as necessary as it normally is. Afterall, 2021 and the first part of 2022 were hot times in the real estate industry. Houses were selling like hot cakes and you really didn’t have to do too much to get clients and make deals.
But those times have passed. Now we’re back to the real world, where you have work extra hard for every lead and every deal. And that starts with your real estate pipeline.
What Is a Real Estate Pipeline?
Any business that involves selling needs to have a pipeline. In simple terms, your pipeline is just the process or sequence of stages that your real estate clients go through from when they are just a lead all the way through until the deal has closed. A significant part of managing a real estate pipeline is maintaining the relationship you’ve built with prospects and customers. The goal is to stay in contact, so when they’re ready to buy or sell, you’re the agent they think of.
Here are the primary components of a basic real estate pipeline for a seller client:
- Identify and generate your leads
- Reach out and follow up until they make an appointment with you
- Get the appointment and meet with them
- Secure a written contract
- Establish a listing
- Begin to accept offers
- Close the deal
- Follow up with your client after the sale
Why You Need an Up to Date Pipeline
Your pipeline reflects your future business. If it dries up, then your business is going to dry up soon after. In the really good times like we’ve just left in the real estate industry, an effective pipeline doesn’t seem that important, because there is business everywhere to be found that seemingly just falls from heaven.
But when times are tougher, your pipeline is what you rely on to keep new business coming in and being able to pay the bills. When it gets down to it, what does it actually mean to maintain your real estate pipeline? It’s essentially the combination of prospecting, lead generation, CRM management, lead conversion, the actual process of buying or selling a home for your clients, and then staying in contact with them, so they come to you in the future.
Each part of your real estate pipeline is crucial to your success, but the first half is often thought of as the most difficult. The part where you actually find and convert new business. But make no mistake, if you neglect the second half, the continued nurture for a future sale, your pipeline will suffer.
How to Build a Successful Real Estate Pipeline
If you’ve let your pipeline lapse, then I have a new program that can help! At Smart Inside Sales, we recently launched our Build Your Pipeline Challenge. It’s a 12 week program where you’ll get all the goods for a successful pipeline.
You will be set up in small groups of 5 or 6 Agents or ISAs and you will have a dedicated trainer that supports you and your goals every day. Throughout the 12 weeks you will have access to our Prospecting Room, where you will execute your sales calls for at least 1 hour a day, Monday – Friday.
There will be 2 classes a day offered in a breakout room exclusive to this program in The Prospecting Room. You will finish off each week with an accountability meeting with your dedicated trainer.
By the end of this program you won’t only have a pipeline bursting with new business, but you will have learned the skills and techniques necessary to effectively manage it and continuously add to it.
