This is an ongoing series of articles that cover the topics and insights shared during the three-day Real Conf 2021 hosted by Adfenix. The following article summarizes the keynote discussion with Kenny Truong on Day 2 Session 4 of the conference.
Kenny Truong is Founder of the Fast Real Estate team, the number one sales team at eXp Realty, a brokerage with 65,000 agents worldwide. In this session, he shares valuable and unique insight on Secrets of Successful Real Estate Agents (Ep 2).
- It’s not about working hard, but working smart
This means automating processes for better and more efficient workflow, and using your digital brand online is very important. In the US right now, agents are either paying a referral fee to a lot of different companies, spending a lot of money marketing, or they’re investing in their own brand in marketing.
- What does it mean to use digital to drive success?
Kenny refers to his own experiences about a decade ago, when the Fast Agent brand he built was plastered across over a hundred billboards, bus benches across Oakland, on all marketing fliers and social media posts, email campaigns and video marketing, etc, making it the most recognizable team in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only has that recognition driven the brand’s success, but it’s allowed Fast Agent to help their agents develop their own brand that’s still aligned with theirs.
Using digital to drive success also means working at it bit by bit, by watching presentations and conferences like Real Conf, watching what other agents are doing, what systems they’re using and trying it for themselves; for example, Fast Agent uses a wide array of tools, from Sisu, to Chime to Optum to partnering with Adfenix - these are some of the ways the company has been able to grow and scale business.
- Are agents failing to harness different digital tools or is there a specific strategy?
These digital tools should work in order to save agents valuable hours and to speed up processes. For example, in terms of AI chatbots, tools like Ylopo will help retarget ads to drive them back to the property website and when there’s engagement the system automatically detects it. CRM system Chime works similarly, but what these tools offer is a much more cost and time efficient way in winning these clients back without having agents spend hours to do so. What’s more, these processes will help them get in front of the client when the client is ready.
Kenny likens the process to playing golf; rather than you trying to hit a birdie every single time, these tools can help put the ball closer to the hole, so that when it’s time to actually swing, you’re not spending as much effort on it. With running a sales team, it’s harder to hold agents accountable and teaching them every single process, so these digital tools help them perform better, and execute at a higher level.
- How have times changed since the advent of this digital transformation?
Kenny shares how he was one of the first agents to get an IDX feed ten years ago, when Zillow, Redfin and Trulia were just coming out. Before this, there were no websites where one could actually go scouting for homes, and agents were posting on Craigslist and on feeds, having to choose elements of their own brand and website designs. There were no all-in-one solutions as yet, and no big box CRMs which aided these processes. Today, agents are in an era where the tools are extremely good at what they do, easily accessible and available.
There has also been more of a shift into a social media influencer world, requiring a little less creativity in look and design, but requiring very high-quality images, buys and likes, etc. This move, however, seems to be a shift back to more authentic and real experiences. In fact, this type of personality-based video marketing can be so effective that many of Kenny’s agents are on Instagram and Tiktok. New agents can come into the marketplace with little to no experience, and within a couple years become a high producer in the market just with the right type of video content.
- Advice for young and upcoming agents
Kenny advises young agents to do more video that’s educational, unique and to continually try to understand what’s popular in culture now. These social media platforms and websites are always prioritizing people who are new to using technology at a higher level, and that can mean an extra, extra boost in traffic while the cost is really very low, especially if you also decide to turn it into advertisement.
To sum up:
- It’s not about working hard, but working smart - utilizing automation and promoting digital brand is key.
- Using digital to drive success means working at it bit by bit, especially by emulating what successful agents out there are doing.
- Implementing digital tools should save agents valuable work hours and drive down costs; they should also bring the client closer to you as they become increasingly sales-ready.
- Digital has changed the way agents conduct business but it has also brought about the shift towards a social media influencer world, and towards more authentic and real experiences.
About Real Conf.
Real Conf 2021 is a three-day virtual event exploring ways that agencies and brokerages can leverage the power of digital to increase business opportunities, elevate the brand, and empower agents to deliver success. The conference features hundreds of invaluable insight from keynote speakers, panel discussions and case studies from experts in the field.
All 15 sessions with 25 speakers are now available to stream on-demand.
Gain full access to the stream and watch the sessions in their entirety by signing up here: https://www.adfenix.com/real-conf
