Convert Real Estate Leads with Scrum Process

Have you ever taken a hard look at the costs associated with using inside sales agents (ISAs) to convert real estate leads and wondered if there’s a better way? Well, according to former freight pilot and current Real Estate Rockstar Nick Mclean, there is. Interestingly enough, this real estate lead conversion alternative is something commonly used in the software-development industry – not something most real estate agents use to convert real estate leads. This alternative Nick Mclean introduced in his podcast interview with Pat is something known as Scrum.

You can listen to the entire podcast below.

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What Is Scrum and How Does it Relate to Lead Conversion?

According to this article written by Michael James, a Certified Scrum Trainer for CollabNet, Inc., Scrum evolved out of the Agile movement, which was a response to the failings of the project-management paradigms used in software development in the early 1990s. As explained by James, “Scrum emphasizes decision making from real-world results rather than speculation.” It’s a methodology that empowers team members and allows them to work more effectively toward common, agreed-upon goals.

Why Use Scrum to Convert Real Estate Leads?

To gain a better understanding of what Scrum is and why it’s gaining so much popularity as a management and control process in multiple industries, it’s important to consider why it’s being used. In this article by Mark C. Layton, 10 benefits of the Scrum process are described, painting a clearer picture of why it’s now being used by business leaders around the world. Here are a few of the benefits mentioned by Layton that we felt were most applicable to teams in the real estate industry and most indicative of why they’d use the Scrum process,

1. Improved Progress Visibility

Scrum encourages visibility and transparency, providing all real estate team members with the ability to identify potential issues, effective strategies, and more. In a real estate office, this transparency benefits all agents by encouraging the lead-conversion strategies that work most effectively and helping agents identify when certain strategies are underperforming.

2. Increased Project Control

The Scrum process provides teams with greater control due to its flexible nature. For real estate teams trying to convert real estate leads, this flexibility allows for strategy adjustments if minor issues arise with something like lead-conversion rates. Since real estate trends are fluid, enhanced project control also makes it easier for teams to make larger adjustments to adapt to market changes.

3. Greater Collaboration

Commission-based careers like real estate don’t always encourage effective collaboration. Unfortunately, this lack of collaboration can hurt both individual performance and team performance. By encouraging all team members to work together toward common goals, the Scrum process makes collaboration a more vital part of day-to-day business and improves individual and team outcomes for real estate lead conversion.

Nick’s Scrum Process to Convert Real Estate Leads

Nick uses the Scrum process in order to help track what needs to be done and what has already been completed concerning lead conversion. Believe it or not, he does this using three large whiteboards and sticky notes containing lead information. While this might not sound as sophisticated as the accountability software commonly used in real estate offices, his sales numbers speak for themselves.

In a small town of 40,000 residents, Nick managed to pull in more than 400 sales in one year. In addition to high rates of lead conversion, the Scrum process provides Nick with all of the information he needs to know what each team member’s pipeline looks like – something that the accountability software he used in the past could never do quite as effectively.

If you want to learn more about the Scrum process and its specific applications in real estate, be sure to listen to Pat’s complete podcast interview with Nick McLean.