Ever wonder what it really means when people say you should be working on your real estate sales funnel?
Crafting a solid funnel is one of those digital marketing pieces that so many agents tend to neglect.
Instead, you might be focused on cold-calling, handing out flyers, and other old-school marketing techniques.
But when you take the time to not only become a masterful real estate agent, but also a masterful marketer, that’s when your real estate business will SOAR.
Take our member Heather in The Listings Lab for example. She was able to generate $150 million in volume through mastering her messaging and leveraging organic social media platforms.
Browse more success stories like Heather’s here.
In this post, we’ll cover:
- What Is A Real Estate Sales Funnel
- The 4 Foundations of Your Funnel
- The Biggest Mistakes Most Agents Make When Creating Their Funnel
- A Powerful 9-Point Funnel Sequence To Convert Prospects Into Clients
Ready to master your sales funnel so you can scale from six to seven figures?
Read on!
What Is A Real Estate Sales Funnel?
A funnel is a psychological structure designed to take someone from prospect to customer.
From stranger to client.
From not knowing who you are…to knowing, liking, and trusting you.
Your funnel is what helps your ideal client see you as the solution to their problem.
Sure, your funnel might consist of a series of opt-ins, a webinar, an email sequence, or a Facebook ad campaign.
But all of those things still don’t make up a funnel.
They’re simply vehicles or tools to build out your funnel. But if the basic psychological structure isn’t there, it doesn’t matter what marketing platform or the tech you use – it’s not going to convert.
So let’s get into the four core foundational pieces of your funnel before going into detail about the 9-point messaging sequence!
Foundations Of Your Real Estate Sales Funnel
Building a funnel is all about creating relationships at scale with your ideal clients.
Here are four foundational pieces you absolutely need to get clear on before you start your real estate sales funnel.
Get Clear On Who You Want to Attract
Who are you targeting?
One key note…
When you’re getting clear on who you want to attract, it’s NEVER going to be from a geolocation perspective.
It *has* to be from a psychological perspective.
You simply cannot use buyer psychology if you’re geo farming.
In any one ZIP code, you’ll have a variety of prospects, each with their unique set of problems. You might have upsizers, downsizers, investors, first-time buyers…and on and on and on.
This is why we always recommend choosing your real estate niche based on the type of human being or life transition they’re going through!
Get Clear On Your Methodology
What is the actual problem you solve for your clients?
This step is about understanding your ideal client’s problems, fears, and desires and how your services address those needs in a way that nobody else does.
It’s all about developing a signature system that boosts your overall value proposition.
Get Clear On Your Message
Understanding how to speak to your ideal clients in a way that resonates with them and builds connection is a skill that many agents neglect.
But it is so vital to having a high-converting real estate sales funnel.
Create An Asset Around Your Method
The fourth step is to create an asset around your method or signature system. You want to document your method and turn it into something that can be used as a lead magnet.
The goal is to indoctrinate people into your methodology so they warm up to your system before they ever get on the phone with you.
Biggest Mistakes Agents Make When Creating Their Sales Funnel
Before we get into the 9-point funnel, I want to share some of the most common mistakes agents make with their real estate sales funnel so you can learn how to avoid them.
Forgetting Your Funnel Is A Work In Progress
Remember, planning and executing your funnel is a process. It’s all about launching, collecting feedback, iterating, launching, collecting feedback, iterating.
Over and over again.
When you get hung up or over-think any one piece of the puzzle, it’s going to cause delays and slow you down. And you may not even end up getting a full funnel built!
Thinking A Real Estate Sales Funnel Is Just A Collection Of Content
Your funnel is so much more than just various pieces of content. In reality, it’s a psychological journey you take your prospects on.
Focusing on The Wrong Avatar
Your funnel is never going to convert if you don’t have genuine expertise and experience with the audience you’re looking to target. Make sure that you choose an ideal client avatar going through a life transition that you’re truly an expert at – or one that you’ve gone through yourself.
Getting Overly Focused on The Tech
Once you get to a certain level in your business, creating great content should be a habit. Your funnel is just an extension of that process.
Most funnels fail because people focus too heavily on the tech. They focus on the systems and not the psychology behind their funnel.
95% of the time, there’s nothing wrong with the tech.
Rather, there’s a deeper problem going on. There could be issues with your messaging, offer, or avatar
9-Point Messaging Sequence For Your Real Estate Sales Funnel
Are you ready for it?
Here’s the nine-point real estate sales funnel any agent can use to build trust with their clients online and become the #1 option in their market.
Implementing this funnel is all about doing three things.
- Selling The Problem
- Selling The Process
- Selling The Solution
Let me show you how to do all three.
Sell The Problem
In order to sell the problem, you must get clear on three things – your audience’s pain, problem, and the stakes and consequences of said problem.
Pain
If you don’t understand your ideal client’s pain, you’ll never be able to sell your services.
Because here’s the deal…
People don’t move because it’s fun. They move because they’re experiencing some sort of pain. The whole reason people begin looking for a solution is that their current situation isn’t working for them.
So many agents neglect the pain piece when in reality it’s incredibly important.
You have to be able to answer the questions – what’s driving the move?
Because again, it has to be pretty serious if they’re willing to pack up their entire lives and put it into boxes, list their house, live like they’re in a museum for weeks, secure financing, and the list goes on and on.
A key note when we’re talking about pain points is we want to use very specific language.
These pain points should conjure up a mental picture for your ideal client.
What does the pain look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like?
And if you’re not clear on these things, you most likely want to go back to the drawing board and do more market research.
Problem
Getting clear on the problem means you understand two things.
What your client *thinks* the problem is
And what the true, underlying problem actually is
Sometimes these might be the same, but often there will be a disconnect.
Your client might assume the problem is that the kids are fighting or that they’re arguing lots as a couple.
When in reality, you know as the agent that the underlying problem is the lack of space they have in their home.
Or maybe, it’s that there are four people sharing a bathroom. Or that the kids don’t have their own room.
So you want to be able to identify…
What’s the pain they’re experiencing?
And what’s the underlying reason they’re experiencing this pain (the problem)?
Consequences
And the last thing we want to get clear about is the stakes and consequences.
What happens if they don’t solve the problem?
What’s going to keep happening?
What does the compound effect look like?
What will things look like in a year?
You want to paint the nightmare scenario.
When you’re able to get clear on the pain, problem, and stakes and consequences, you’ll have everything you need to sell the problem – the first key step in your real estate sales funnel.
Sell The Process
Next up, we need to sell your unique process.
To do this, we need to share your story, your qualifications, and your proof.
Your Story/Qualifications
Your story and qualifications should essentially answer the question – who are you and why should people listen to you?
You should be able to answer:
- What are your personal beliefs?
- What is your personal philosophy?
- What is your story?
- What are your core values?
Your Method
Your differentiator can’t be something like, “I’m the agent who cares more!” or “I’m the number one agent in [X] ZIP code!”
It has to be the systematic approach you’ve used to get proven results and help your clients overcome their problem.
The amount you share about your signature process will heavily depend on where your prospects are at within your real estate sales funnel.
Early on, you may only share the surface-level pieces of it. But as people get further into the funnel, and they get more accustomed to you and seeing you and consuming your content, then you can go more in-depth. You want to give them a behind-the-scenes look at what your process entails and the method you use to achieve results.
One of the BIGGEST mistakes so many agents make is they think they need to wait until a listing presentation to go over their signature method.
But in reality, your potential clients should be fully educated on most of your process or signature system before you ever get in the door.
Social Proof
Last but not least, the final part of selling your process is sharing social proof.
Social proof refers to:
- Case studies
- Testimonials
- Client results
Basically, anything you can use to back up the fact that your services provide the transformation you say they do.
You want to be able to walk your ideal clients through the story of where past clients were when they first started working with you – and paint a clear picture of how your services changed their lives.
Your leads need to see real examples so they can picture themselves in your clients shoes!
Once you’ve nailed down your story and qualifications, unique method, and have gathered some social proof, you’ll be able to start signing more inbound clients.
Sell The Solution
Finally, there are three key steps to close the sale and make sure you sell your solution.
Handle Objections
The first one is to skillfully handle any objections.
I’m sure you’ve been at a listing presentation before and you’re getting some sort of pushback.
Whether it’s the commission, or the fact that your potential client has an uncle who’s an agent…there’s always going to be something.
As an agent, it’s your responsibility to not only address these objections – but to overcome them.
And the best place to do that is in your real estate sales funnel.
That way, when your prospect meets with you, they don’t need to be convinced. They’ve already bought into your signature system and your strategic content has busted any objections that would prevent them from taking action.
Vision
Spend some time thinking about:
- What can your ideal clients expect when they apply your system to their life?
- What are the results?
- What are the outcomes?
- What circumstances do they want?
Where will they be a year after working with you? - How will their life look different?
All of these questions make up your vision.
Your vision goes beyond just telling prospects that you’ll help them get the most money for their house. That’s what every other agent out there is saying – and it’s why so much real estate marketing just gets filtered as noise.
Really good marketing is getting someone’s head nodding. It’s being able to articulate what’s in the back of someone’s head better than they can. Because when you can do that, they’ll automatically credit you with the solution.
Action
And last but not least is action. What is the next step?
You want to make sure you’re giving your prospects a clear action to deepen the relationship.
Whether that’s booking a call, signing up for a video webinar that you’re doing, or making a listing appointment.
When you’re able to create a sequence that addresses all of these nine core areas:
- Pain
- Problem
- Stakes & Consequences
- Your Story & Qualifications
- Your Methodology
- Your Proof
- Objections
- Vision
- And Action
You have everything you need to establish authority, develop a connection with your ideal client, and become the go-to agent for them.
If you want to dive deeper into the sales and marketing psychology required to consistently attract qualified real estate leads on autopilot, be sure to download The Listings Lab Method Guide.
In this highly valuable 20-page guide, you’ll learn how to master the principles of The Listings Lab Method – relevancy, omnipresence, and intimacy so you can be the only choice for your ideal clients.
