Leads Unleashed | The Art Of Lead Generation

Welcome to the Lead Generation Revolution
This episode is a deep dive into the dynamic world of lead generation, where every strategy opens doors to new opportunities.

Market Momentum and Personal Triumphs
Feel the pulse of the market through Jack's insightful updates. Discover how subtle shifts can initiate significant gains and learn from the hosts' recent wins and hurdles that they've overcome. 

Strategic Mastery in Lead Gen
Unlock the secrets to four powerhouse lead generation strategies: direct mail, social media, strategic networking, and the bold art of door knocking. Get ready for an in-depth exploration of these tactics in our series, designed to transform your approach and results.

Success Stories from the Field
Hear a compelling story from Jack about how a simple door knock escalated into a game-changing deal. These real-life successes underscore the transformative power of proactive lead generation.

The Power of Persistence
Dive into the discussion on the critical role of consistency. Learn why sticking to your lead gen plan, even when it's tough, can set you apart from the competition and lead to lasting success.

Exciting Episodes Ahead
Stay tuned for our upcoming detailed breakdowns of each lead generation strategy. These episodes are packed with actionable advice to supercharge your business. Don’t just listen—engage and revolutionise your approach to attracting the very best homes!


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Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of the Elite Agent Masterclass. I'm joined by Jack Durkin, co-founder of the Elite Agent Masterclass. And today we're going to be talking through all things lead generation. But first off, how's things, Jack? Good, good. I feel like the last few weeks has really started to pick up. I don't know if you're finding the same yourself, James, but I feel like the market is starting to turn in a much better direction. Yeah, had a couple of take-ons this morning. Starting to get a few offers coming in on some properties as well, which is good. Some that have been sticking on the market for a little while. Lots of new instructions. I'm really keen to talk about lead gen and the lead gen strategies that have worked well for us because we're starting now to really see some really exciting opportunities, some really nice properties coming on, a good influx of opportunities heading our way organically as well as us going out there and actually generating them ourselves. So yeah, really, really keen to dive into the lead gen. But yeah, overall, I think the last couple of weeks has been a lot more positive for the market. How about yourself? I'd say similar. We've had a busy what we now we're recording this at the beginning of March. We've had a couple of busy months to start the year. We've across the board with new new properties coming to the market, sales being agreed. So we've had a busy start. But it's not all rosy in the garden because we have become. known I guess in the local area as the agent that we've taken on quite a lot of secondhand stock properties that have already been on the market and for whatever reason have been struggling to sell with other agents and those clients have then come to us and last week it was a little bit of a I guess a kick in the teeth on on a couple because we put them on the market we were getting loads of positive interest in in the two these two particular properties and then all of a sudden we get a call from people that viewed and offered through previous the previous agents um they wanted to do the business through us but the problem is is that both parties on both properties had sold through the original agents so there was you know there was no conversation to be had anyway um and they were like how do we how do we proceed with you we want to buy the property but you can't you've offered through the other estate agent so it was one of them where it got to the end of the week and i was reflecting back and i was thinking that's painful um you know to lose two we've put so much work in even the client said is there anything we can do No, unfortunately not. So, yeah, overall positive. But a couple last week was a bit bruised going into the weekend, if I'm honest. Frustrating, I'm sure. And I think we're starting to notice quite a lot as well. A lot of properties that were on the market last year or the back end of last year and hadn't sold or either have either taken breaks and now coming back to market or are now switching agents. I'm finding that seems to be quite a common theme at the moment. We've had a few conversations with people we've been out to last year and now want to make a switch. Interesting. And I guess that is an interesting segue into a part of the lead generation, isn't it? One of our partners dropped a message into the group chat the other day, didn't they? Talking about how they've had some really positive responses from doing some homework on Rightmove, Rightmove Plus, finding those properties that had been withdrawn last year and writing to them and has had, was it four or five reactions he's had? Yeah, five responses. Targeting about 50 properties. So it's about a 10% return on, well, 10% in terms of the conversations he's generating. Yeah, great. Really, really positive. Really positive. So where do we want to start? Would it be fair to say that we agree that there are probably four overriding categories within which lead generation falls into? Yeah, definitely. We've spoke about it a number of times, haven't we? Yeah. The four main areas we feel are most important for lead gen are your letters, your door knocks, your social media strategy and networking. So I feel we could probably break those down into separate. We could probably have separate discussions on each of those topics and cover separately each one of those areas because there's a lot to go through. And we will. Absolutely. It's a great idea. So for anyone listening in, we had discussed and agreed that we will break lead generation into its four segments and discuss each segment independently because there's lots that can be done independently. Under each segment, it's just a case of dialing in. And I think one of the major things that we discussed about this, didn't we, Jack, is one of the most important things is becoming boringly consistent. Whatever strategy you choose or whatever collection of strategies you choose to use, you have to become boringly consistent, which isn't easy. And I'm talking as someone who I like variety. I like freedom. I like autonomy. So to become boringly consistent is almost like the antichrist of me as a person. But I had to learn. I guess, to some degree, the hard way. I don't mind sharing. We launched the business July 2021, listed a house in the July, listed a house in the August, listed a house in September, and it got to mid-September. And I sat down with Hayley on my behalf and said, I don't know whether we've made the right decision here. I don't know whether I'm capable. I don't know whether I can do this. Having come from a background of I hadn't been customer facing for a long while because of the roles that I'd performed previously. I guess that self-doubt, that imposter syndrome started to creep in. But I went, it's not in my DNA to quit. So I've got to make a plan. And I sat down, formulated a plan. And the two main strategies that I deployed, social media. And the commitment I made was to post on social media every single day for the next four to six weeks and direct mail. They were my two main strategies. And then we led into the beginning of the following year with 14 new listings in the January. And it all started from that spot. How about you? Yours was a slightly different journey into it. Yeah, so I feel I probably use slightly different strategies. I think a lot of people, when they come into self-employed or they're looking to try and generate opportunities, everyone's always looking for the perfect way to generate an opportunity. They're trying to find a way that's going to work really well and it's going to get them instant, quick results. um whereas you mentioned it earlier it's just about being formally consistent and doing doing the same things over and over again because each one of these strategies can work um but it's about doing them repetitively time and time again and maybe fine-tuning the um delivery of some of those strategies and you can tweak those but it's just about being consistent so when when we initially launched um i suppose i took a slightly different approach being having worked in um self-employed at purple ricks and just still very um when we launched i hadn't long been out of customer facing role so i used my network had a lot of friends family in the area really utilized the network um had a few people that allowed us to to showcase the homes and it then led up to other opportunities off the back of that as well um the very early days as well we did a lot we did a lot of door knocks locally in our local business which led to a lot of opportunities We probably could have done a lot more of that as well because the actual conversion rates from those opportunities were really, really high. We just didn't probably, in all honesty, we probably should have done more of those. But the networking was working really, really well for us as well. We didn't do too many letters at the start. Social media was something we were really, really strong on. So making sure we had stuff going out consistently on social media. And the other thing that we really try to focus on a lot as well. It's the Google reviews, having the Google business set up and generating Google reviews can be massive to give your business credibility. You've mentioned door knocking and I suppose let's dive in on that because it's quite a controversial topic. I think it divides the industry. There are some that are absolutely devout door knockers and there are others that think that door knocking is a product of the devil. I think fortune favours the brave. And so you did take the ball by the horns with door knocking. And I remember you sharing a story with me, and I think the public listening to this would benefit from it. Do you know which one I'm referring to? Yeah, I've got a good idea, I think. There's a couple of stories. One was more around letters, the other around door knocks, which led to quite a few opportunities. So, yeah, so... There was a property on the market just over the road from our family home. And the board had gone up. It'd been on the market a few weeks, not really getting any interest. We then launched the business. And I noticed it on the market. And I kept seeing, every time I stepped outside, I was thinking, there's an opportunity there. And I need to find a way of being able to show what we can do, at least have a conversation. So it was actually an empty property. And I saw a car on the drive. So I took a bit of a chance. It could well have been the estate agent doing a viewing, or it could well have been the homeowner that had turned up to check on the property. And unfortunately, it was the latter. So knocked the door, spoke to the homeowner. We ended up having a good conversation. We did a video for him, which we shared on social media and shared the success of that. then kept in touch and yeah coincidentally may have been the video it probably wasn't the video but they ended up it ended up leading to a sale with their current agent they oh sorry they sold the property with their current agent um and we still kept in touch four weeks later i had a message from from the seller to say we're not really confident the deal is going to go through we think the buyer hasn't got the funds. Would you be interested in having a conversation? And if we do look to switch agent, then we'd love to give you the opportunity. So went around, had a conversation. We ended up taking it to market. And that one instruction not only led to a great fee, but also it led to five valuations off the back of that, three which we instructed on. And there was about 30,000 pounds worth of fees in total. from that one. And why was that? Was it viewers or people had seen it being marketed? What was it that led to five more opportunities? Yeah, so the property was actually on the market for 695 with their current agent and they had an offer at 650 which they accepted with that agent but that deal then fell through. So when we had a chat and we talked strategy, we... we needed to bring the price onto a more realistic price point. It was too big of a difference, 45 grand difference between the pricing. So we bought it on at 675 and we actually sold it for 675, but we actually managed to generate 12 viewings at the open day, five of which had houses to sell. So we managed to get through the living room of those five opportunities and brought three of those to market. So it was the opportunities off the viewings that led to the additional valuations. And you've referenced it a couple of times. And I think that's because of the nature of where your business has moved to. You've said we quite a few times, but in the early stages, you were standalones. So there's no wing there. That credit all has to land on your shoulders that you were the one that went and knocked that door. You were the one that had a conversation with someone that it could very well have been the agent that opened that front door to you. Could very well have been. Yeah, we've had stories that that's happened. And it could lead to a bit of egg on the face, couldn't it? But I suppose you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette at the end of the day. So, you know, you were... And ballsy enough to knock that door, have that conversation, then to maintain contact. You know, I think a lot of people, this is the boringly consistent piece. A lot of people would go, bugger, I've had the conversation, but he's gone and sold it with his agent. So I'll park that one onto the next one. But you maintain contact. And so that's what then stood you apart in that process. But I think the major piece for me in that is that the opportunity, the size of the opportunity that it created for you, far outweighs any negativity that you could portray around the door knocking approach. Far outweighs the fear of rejection on that doorstep. Massively. Because to some extent, the 30 odd thousand pounds worth of business that that property created for you, would I suffer a little bit of an embarrassment on the doorstep because the agent potentially answered for the sake of the future that that could create? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I think door knocking, it is daunting. No one, I don't, well, if anyone does enjoy door knocking, I'd love to speak to them and find out how they managed to overcome that fear. Because then everyone gets it. And, you know, the first few door knocks that I did, it was very daunting. I sat in my car for 10 minutes mulling over whether to do it or not. But the I think the overriding thing for me was I had a message that I really needed to deliver to that seller, that homeowner. I had something that I believed I could share with them that was going to help them get a result that they were looking for. And that overweighed the fear or me doubting myself. So that's what made me go over and have a conversation with them and ended up leading to the result that they got. There's so many paths that this conversation could go down, and I'm very conscious of making sure we keep it on the lead gen, but it does take so many different directions. You've just talked about it there. You had a message. You had something you absolutely felt compelled to share with the person that owned that property. I think quite often the fear of rejection, the imposter syndrome, the fear of failure is overrides the the innate need to do the thing right so where you believed in the value that you could offer you had the self-belief that what you could do for that person would get them what they wanted and needed that for you then was your power right that was your ability to kind of go do you know what all of this self-doubt and whatever else has to just go to one side because i have something that this person needs and i think that mindset is the key That mindset is the key. So all you could look at all lead generation strategies and go, well, I don't think that work. And, you know, door knocking. People don't want you to knock on their door and they're going to tell me to do one or worse. And, you know, I feel like I'm intruding on their personal space by doing so. OK, that's down to the interpretation. That's down to your internal messaging, isn't it? You know, if you tell yourself that, then you'll believe that if you tell yourself that you have a compelling message that actually could see value being added to that person's experience. And in your case, you added twenty five thousand pounds worth of value. I bet every penny I have. If we gave that chap a call just now and said, are you grateful for the fact that Jack Durkin knocked on your door at that point and basically created £25,000 worth of value in your sale? He's not going to turn around and say, no, that cheeky swine should never have knocked on my door. He's not, though, is he? Yeah, no, like I said, I was confident. And the purpose overweighed me stopping myself from knocking the door. I had a purpose. I had a message I wanted to deliver. I knew I could provide the result or believed I could provide the result that they were looking to achieve. And like I said, if I hadn't, and I'd had not done that then one it wouldn't have helped them with the result and also it helped it helped us grow our business it helped the business grow massively with the opportunities we had um so it needed needed to be done and i think it can be said for all like you said all types of strategies people can say that some don't work some are better than others they all work we've got agents across our whole business that are doing different types of lead gen strategies and each have got different ways of doing them and some are working for some and others have different strategies that they're using which are working really well for them as well so i think it can work it just depends on what what is what your skill set is what you're most comfortable with or even uncomfortable with it's putting yourself in that uncomfortable situation isn't it and then sticking to it doing it repetitively consistently time and time again find something that works and continue doing it tweak the things that aren't working a little bit and you'll start to see the results 100%, 100%. And you just said it, you could potentially move away from any number of strategies based on the fear, you know, direct mail, well, I could send 100 letters and get zero response. And that's a waste of money. I could, you know, put video content out on social media, and oh, my God, all my friends and family are going to see it, what are they possibly going to think? And all of these people that I've never interacted with these thousands of people that are going to see my face, what are they possibly going to think, you know, so therefore, I'm not going to do video. I'm not going to go to networking events because what value possibly could a networking event bring to my business in the here and now? And so you could put loads of barriers in the way with great ease. I could list a hundred reasons why you shouldn't door knock, do social media, send letters or network. Hundreds. Yeah, I think when you first launch in a business, the main thing I feel is most important is just letting everyone know who you are and what you're doing and doing that across your social media, doing that through letters, doing that through door knocking, doing that through networking, whatever way it is, you just need to get your message out there. You need to let everyone know exactly what you're doing so you can build an audience of people. And also getting your messaging right as well, getting your messaging very clear so you know who you're speaking to. It's just about being known for what you're doing. absolutely visibility and awareness is key, isn't it? And I think that probably leads quite nicely on to, I guess, the second section of lead generation, because like you said, we did deploy slightly different strategies. Yes, I did do door knocks and actually like you had quite a high success rate. But again, I'm being brutally honest, open, real. The fear of rejection, the fear of failure of door knocking for me meant I went all in on other strategies. You mentioned you had a lot of, so in the early days when we launched, that January when you hit those 14 instructions, I think it was, what do you feel was, you mentioned social media and letters were what led to the strategy. What was the strategy? What led you to those instructions? So we've not used the term yet, but the term omnipresence was what I aimed to achieve during the last quarter of that first period. So July 2021 launch. So from September through October, November and December, I wanted to create omnipresence in my marketplace. For those that don't understand, omnipresence is about being everywhere all the time. So what I did, as I say, social media content every single day, whether that be videos, statics, lives, every single day there was content going out, minimum once, but there was probably two or three pieces of content going out daily. That wasn't just onto my channels. It was into all of the local Facebook groups. Facebook groups are huge for potential if you're consistent. So to give a quick side note, we have for the last eight weeks been all over the Facebook groups. We had a period of time where it dropped off a little bit because we got very busy and we're victims of being on that roller coaster a little bit. You get super busy and the foundational stuff that you did at the outset can start to slip a little bit. But we've been all over the group since the turn of the year. We've had, I think at last count, we've had 145 new followers to our page since the middle of January, which is really strong growth. But what we did, so lots of social content with a direct mail strategy going out as well. We had good luck boards outside a dozen properties in our local area. um and we also bearing in mind it was leading into that christmas period we did the 12 days of christmas campaign so to some extent we covered every base socials direct mail the networking with the 12 days of christmas campaign that was 12 local businesses people had to get involved by way of it being a competition we had friends and family supporting it in a major way and then as I say the good luck boards in the area so 12 boards instead of having for sale or sold on had good luck on but it was generating calls people were driving past these boards picking up the phone we actually generated two listings off the good luck boards we generated two listings off the back of the 12 days of Christmas campaign we generated four listings off the back of the direct mail so you get the idea that it was A collective. Yeah. Yeah. Multiple different things, but just done consistently over, would you say, probably 90 days? Yes. It was mid-September when I committed to this. Right. OK, I've got to go all in on these things. It started with social media. So it wasn't right. I'm going to go. I'm going to do social media, direct mail, letters, boards. It was literally social media first. Then a couple of weeks later, I introduced the direct mail. A couple of weeks after that, we planned and then executed the delivery of the 12 Days of Christmas campaign, which was social media based. But equally, it was getting out in the local community, meeting local business owners, etc. And then the good luck boards, they went up around mid to late October. So, yeah, I think the great thing about that is it is that 90 day lead up, isn't it? And we've got Jake to mention another agent that we've got in our business on his 90 day launch plan and now really starting to see consistent results across his local business through the 90 day launch plan, which I suppose we built from the back of what we did. We both did together in those early days and those first 90 days on when we started to see the results and success and built that to kind of share with the rest of the partners, which I know it's time to see some good results from. Those first 90 days are critical, I think, for anyone that is moving into, whether it be self-employed or starting a new agency, whether it be High Street or otherwise. Those first 90 days of having a plan of consistent action is where the key lies. So we've talked about lots of strategies. Let's give something away here. What would you say if you were starting again, knowing what we know now, two and a half, nearly three years in, what would you do and how would you do it for the first 90 days? So I think it touches on, I don't think one strategy on its own is going to create the success that you need. I think you have to... yeah do multiple things but do them consistently but i think for me if i was to do things over again i would focus on one main platform i think it can be very difficult when people are trying to spread themselves thin across five or six different social media platforms there's more social media platforms popping up all the time um so being really really consistent on on one platform you can then share the rest of the stuff across the other channels but really really consistent on one main platform um I would make sure to set the Google business up and start getting those reviews in quite early. So posting consistently on socials, regular Google reviews, trying to build your Google ranking up. So then you've got the credibility for when people search you. Then you can have the conversation you're going to have. You've got the credibility of people already recognizing and knowing your established business. But Jack, I have a question. If you just launched, you haven't got any clients to get Google reviews from. Where are you going to get these reviews from? You've got previous clients that you've worked with. So clients that you've worked with previously who were happy with your service, not the agent service that you work with, but happy with the service that you offered them. Why not get reviews from them? You've done the work ultimately, haven't you? Just representing a different brand. Yeah, makes perfect sense. Yeah, as long as they're obviously recommending you as a person, then there's no reason why you can't speak to people you've worked with previously and build those reviews up. And I'd also go door knocks. So if I was to do it over again, and I think I've probably... Haven't done as many door knocks as I would like to, simply because one, we've got too busy and we put it off, but it's simply because we've put it off ourselves. If the actual results we've generated from door knocks have far outweighed any of the strategy. So if I was doing it again, I'd put my big boy pants on and just go out and do some more door knocks. Pull up your big boy pants. What about you? Do you know what? I would... I would follow our 90-day launch plan, mate, the one that we roll out with all of our partners, which consists of some of what you've shared there. I would say we've learned and refined lots of strategies since we launched. I think we've tested things. We've broken things. We've rebuilt things. We've taken concepts that already existed and turned them into 2.0 versions. Credit to Chris Watkins. We took the 3.5 video, which is Chris Watkins' brainchild, his idea, and we've 2.0'd it. And we've turned it into the hijack stack. So for me, I would do the hijack stack, which consists of a door knock, a 2020 to the neighboring properties of the property that we've door knocked. So we've got the template letter designed, ready with lots of really cool, interesting stats and data, all connecting to that immediate locality. Who doesn't want to know about what's going on in their local, in their street? Who doesn't want to know about that? I would then do the 3.5, which is a part of that, which then has a social media strategy connected to it. So that would be one because that encapsulates a whole host of things in one go. Social media would be huge. It has been for my local business. I would follow our leads formula, which is local spotlight, educate the public, a sneak peek, day in the life of, and a spotlight on a property. I'd follow that formula. So that's my Monday to Friday strategy nailed down there as well. And that would be how I would start again. Nice. I'd keep it really, really simple. And for me, I have this tendency. I love complexity. I love new ideas. It's just in my DNA. But I also look at what we've done. I also look at what I know works. And I go, why try and reinvent the wheel? This formula works. So I just follow it. Yeah, I think what's really important as well is to track that data and track the numbers that you're doing, because then the data that you track, you can then measure, you can improve on it, you can double up on the things that are working really, really well. So yeah, it's really important to track that data as well, I think. What gets measured gets improved, right? So I totally agree. Having a blueprint for that is really, really important. And I would say, as we said at the beginning of the episode, we are going to be recording a series breaking down each of what we believe to be the four main lead generation strategies. We're going to be doing a series of four episodes, one on social media, one on direct mail, one on door knocking and one on networking. so that we can go into more detail. So if anyone has any specific questions about any of those topics that they would like us to unravel, then by all means, drop us a line. Equally, if you would like to see our leads formula for social media, then again, get in touch, happy to share. The whole purpose of the Elite Agent Masterclass is to help people level up across the industry, earn what they're truly worth and revolutionize the way in which customers are served. So we are an open book and happy to share that. And I think it leaves me to say on this episode, if you've enjoyed being a part of this and you are listening on either Apple or Spotify, then make sure you subscribe to the channel for future episodes. And yeah, share this with anyone you think might see benefit. But until next time, Jack, it's been a pleasure. Thank you. Catch up with you again next week.