As a real estate professional, you know the pain of a missed sale. You’ve shown off a beautiful property to an interested buyer. Then, things just fall through. That ends here. Our course content from branding all the way to Google Ads are the magic ingredients for your online success. It’s time to put them all together into a winning recipe. For that, you’ll need to master the sales funnel.

What is a sales funnel?

When you market to thousands of people, not everyone will be interested. But when they are, you want them to invest in what you’re offering. This is where the sales funnel comes in. It marks out the journey this potential lead goes through before they (hopefully) buy or rent a property or sign up for your services.

The strategy gets its name from the shape of a funnel. As you know, a funnel is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The top end is where your potential clients lie. The goal is to get them to the bottom where they are converted and keen to do business with your agency.

Benefits of a sales funnel

A sales funnel is more than just a clever metaphor. It’s the very essence of a thriving business. Here are all the reasons you’ll want one.

• Easily adaptable to meet your agency’s unique needs.
• Puts a process in place to attract leads and convert them.
• Encourages automation of certain processes like newsletters.
• Builds your brand awareness through consistent marketing.
• Aims for repeat business after you’ve built awareness and trust.
• Once up and running, you can use it to make your profit-generation consistent. This helps make your agency more stable.
• Helps you understand which parts of your marketing are not working.

Sales funnels bring so much to the table. The best part? They’re quite simple to set up. First, you must understand each of the stages that your potential client will follow.

Sales funnel stages

As we’ve mentioned, your sales funnel can be tailored to your agency. However, there are some key stages all real estate sales funnels will have in common.

1. Awareness
   When potential clients learn about your agency, listings and services.
2. Interest
   When they actively express an interest in your offerings.
3. Evaluation
   When they compare your offerings against your competitors.
4. Decision
   When your offer is shortlisted and they negotiate the price of your listing or services.
5. Action
   The moment you’ve been waiting for. This is when they buy or rent a property or sign up for your services.
   
   Depending on your agency, you might want to resell new homes to your clients. Perhaps you’ve also sold them an investment property. With your sales funnel, you can market your rental services. The next stage would definitely work for you.
6. Repurchase
   They decide to sign up for your services again, trust you to find them a new home or sell another of their properties.
   
   Each stage is important and needs a range of techniques to be effective. Don’t panic. We’ll show you how to be a sales funnel fundi in no time. In fact, if you’ve been following our course closely, you may have already applied some of these strategies.

Sales funnel in practise

Consider this case study: Unathi is on the property prowl for a house in Kimberley. After receiving a promotion, she needs to relocate to the city. Unathi’s a proud mum of two and is looking for a place she and her husband, Bheki, can both afford.

• Awareness
  Ever tech-savvy, Unathi decides to start her search on Google. She types in ‘Cheap homes for sale in Kimberley’. You’ve set up a search advert so your agency pops up first. "Wow, these guys sound great," she thinks after reading your cleverly written copy. She clicks on the link and lands on your website.
• Interest
  Remember all that effort you put into your brand identity, logo and website? They’ve given Unathi a fine impression of you. She decides to check out your listings.
  
  “What’s the fishing scene like there?”, texts Bheki. “Priorities”, she texts back. Luckily, your Kimberley area profile tells her about the schools in the area. Your article on fly fishing in Kimberley keeps her husband happy.
  
  After careful consideration, she messages her favourite listings. On your side, her query is logged as a lead and assigned to the right agents. Unathi also decides to sign up for your newsletter - there’s an article on Kimberley clothing stores that needs further investigating.
• Evaluation
  It’s been a long day but Unathi is not done just yet. One agency couldn’t possibly be enough. So she checks out Property24. Like your competition, you’ve placed your listings on the portal. She searches through the aggregated stock.
  
  As she’s comparing, she decides to read the news in Kimberley. You’ve gotten your marketing team to implement Google remarketing. So since Unathi’s visited your website, your site’s listing appears. “These guys - again?” she wonders. “Could they really be that good?” Her son suggests she check out your Facebook page. Here she compares reviews between you and the other agencies on your list.
• Decision
  Your marketing has paid off. Unathi and her husband are impressed by your agency. They take time to see a few of your listings. They find a home they love and negotiate the price they want.
• Action
  The price is right for your seller! Unathi signs on the dotted line. The house is sold.
• Repurchase
  Years later, Unathi’s children have left the nest. She and her husband have decided to put their home up for rent to pay the mortgage on a cosy cottage they’ve found in Hermanus. Who do they get to manage the property? You, of course. After seeing your newsletter in her inbox, Unathi is reminded of the great experience she had.