Growth Leader: Innovative Tool Helps Prospects From Contact To Close

The real estate marketing and technology company Market Leader Inc. has introduced an innovative new tool for real estate brokers and agents that allows them to see at a glance what's going on with all of their online prospects and help them decide what
needs to be done next to tum those prospects into clients. While the technology is fascinating and pervasive, what's best about the system is that it's easy to understand and use.

Intuitively, the Growth Leader product can even offer insights into whether a prospect has changed his preferences about his future home. The product was introduced at the NAR Annual Conference and Trade Show in Orlando and already has proven to be a leap forward in what technology can do to help build an individual
broker's or agent's business.

While the typical agent Web site may convert only a few visitors into registered
users, Growth Leader is converting around 10 percent of its visitors - visitors
who are willing to register at the agent's site. Once that registration is received, the real estate professional is able to bring into play an array of helpful tools that will guide the prospect toward a home purchase and help that real estate professional get a competitive edge in earning their business.

HOW IT WORKS

According to John Gallagher. Market Leader's senior director of marketing, the company employs its national advertising buying power and years of expertise to help real estate agents generate a steady stream of prospects. The company also has business relationships with the major search engines, including Google. Yahoo and others, to make sure its customers come up high in consumer searches.

"We don't sell leads to real estate brokers and agents:' Gallagher said, "Instead we advertise them in a way that enables them to generate visitors to their own site. And we give them the tools they need to convert these prospects into clients. That's what Growth Leader is all about". From there, Growth Leader tracks the prospect every time they return to the site. "The system knows that the prospect has looked at 18 houses and has saved 6 as favorites."

Gallagher said: "The system identifies for the agent the average price of those homes and the amenities, all of which helps the broker or agent focus on what that potential buyer is looking at." The system knows when the prospect comes back to the agent's site - whether it's a few days later or a few months. It will note whether the prospect is starting to look at more properties and spending longer looking at each one - an indication that the buyer's search is intensifying.

The system even picks up on when the prospect's preferences change. "Let's say the buyer has been looking for condos in the city, but suddenly starts looking at houses in the suburbs. The system notes that change and tells the broker or agent so he or she can follow up with a phone call or email to the prospect," Gallagher said.

The system also maintains e-mails sent between agents and prospects and provides a space for agents to take personal notes on conversations - such as the prospect comments on specific listings. And because most agents are out and about working with clients, the system can be accessed via mobile phones as well.

ANALYSIS

The Growth Leader system can analyze the homes the prospect has looked at and identify other listings that the prospect hasn't seen but might be interested in. Those additional listings, however, are not pushed to the prospect - but are sent to the agent to filter before being forwarded to the consumer. The system is intuitive, much like Amazon.com's automated analysis of how book buyers use that site.

(A consumer looking for Harlen Coben's latest mystery thriller "Hold Tight" not only sees that book, but also gels a recommendation to take a look at David Balducci's " Whole Truth.") "The difference is that the alternative homes aren't sent to the prospect directly, they are shown to the agent," Gallagher said. "Then the agent decides which ones to forward to the prospect. That way the contact is personal and positions the agent as the neighborhood expert."

All of these features are designed to give Growth Leader customers a competitive edge in keeping prospects engaged. and in converting them into new clients.

PRICING

The Growth Leader system is priced at $175 per month on a month-to-month basis but can be as low a $99 per month when purchased with an annual subscription. When agents first sign up for the system, a Growth Leader associate will discuss the agent's objectives, figure out how many prospects they would like to generate each month, and then decide how much additional advertising they would like Market Leader to do on their behalf.

While the cost of driving prospects to a broker or agent's site varies area to area, Market Leader is able to help agents attract new clients at rates far lower than they could do on their own because of their volume relationships and decade of buying expertise. "We encourage brokers and agents to buy advertising - it can be really cost effective, we can pass savings on to agents," said Gallagher.

Gallagher freely admits that Growth Leader is geared to the broker and agent who is working with buyers. but says it also is a good listing tool. "The agent is able to show sellers the kind of technology that is available to him and the kind of interest that can be generated in a property. It's a powerful listing tool," he said.
For information on Growth Leader, go to www.MarketLeader.com or ca1l 877-732-9521.