Ponds, Smart Lists, and the Follow-Up System That Works

Q: Why do most real estate agents struggle to get results from their database?
A: Most agents set up their CRM but don’t stick to a daily workflow. They get caught up in urgent tasks and neglect important follow-up with leads and past clients, causing valuable opportunities to slip away.

Q: What is “lead flow” and why does it matter for real estate teams?
A: Lead flow is how leads are distributed to agents. If it’s not set up with the right filters—like price, location, or specialty—agents get leads they won’t work, and those leads go cold. Optimizing lead flow ensures the right leads go to the right agents, so nothing falls through the cracks.

Q: What’s the biggest mistake teams make with new leads?
A: Not having an instant response. When a lead registers, there should be an immediate automated text or email, even before an agent is assigned. Speed to lead is critical—if you wait, you lose the opportunity.

Q: How should agents follow up with new leads?
A: Agents should contact the lead within five minutes, then have a follow-up plan for the next 12 hours. Aim for at least five touches in the first seven days—calls, texts, and emails. If there’s no response after 10+ touches, move the lead to a pond so another agent can try.

Q: What is a “pond” in a real estate CRM, and how should teams use it?
A: A pond is a shared pool of unresponsive or unworked leads that any agent can access. Many agents treat ponds like trash, but they’re actually full of opportunity—especially if you sort by recent activity and re-engage those leads regularly.

Q: What’s the ideal daily workflow for agents to make sure nothing falls through the cracks?
A: Every day, agents should: 1) Clear their inbox (respond to anyone who reached out), 2) Complete their scheduled tasks (follow-ups they promised), and 3) Work their smart lists (people who need attention but aren’t on the first two lists). This takes 2–3 hours a day if the database is optimized.

Q: How can team leaders hold agents accountable to database standards?
A: Leaders should inspect three things weekly: last communication date (to catch gaps), overdue tasks (to spot dropped follow-ups), and stage accuracy (to make sure leads are moving through the pipeline). Regular review and visibility create a culture of accountability.

Q: What are the most common database mistakes, and how can they be fixed?
A: Common mistakes include not updating lead stages, letting tasks pile up, failing to log activity, ignoring past clients, and not cleaning up bad data. The fix is to keep stages simple, use tags for context, work smart lists daily, and schedule regular database cleanups.

Q: What’s the main takeaway for agents and team leaders who want a full pipeline?
A: Consistency beats perfection. Work your system every day, keep your database clean and organized, and hold yourself and your team accountable. If you do this, your pipeline will never be empty.

Lauren: [00:00:00] So even if you have, let’s say 10 deals under contract this month and you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and everything’s on fire, if you have really great leverage to rest in your team- 

Lauren: mm-hmm. … 

Lauren: and fill the gaps, if,we talk about the ultimate client experience.

Lauren: So like your system should be working for you to be able to provide that experience and for you to be able to go, do your one thing, your 20%, which is go get more business. All right. We are back. And if you caught part one of this conversation, you already know your database is either working for you or against you. There is no in between. but here’s what we did not get to last time. We talked about how to organize your database, and today we’re talking about how to actually work it.

Brooke: Absolutely, because that’s where most agents really fall apart. They get that system set up, they clean up their stages, they fix their tags. They’ve built all the smart lists, and then [00:01:00] nothing changes. 

Lauren: Remind us why. 

Brooke: Because they don’t have a daily workflow. And so say you log in, you see hundreds of things pulling at you, and you just don’t know where to start.

Brooke: So, you start with what feels urgent, and then the important stuff, the follow-up, the past clients, the hand raisers, really just e- getting pushed and pushed. 

Lauren: Mm-hmm. And then that’s where the money goes. 

Brooke: Every single day. 

Lauren: Okay. 

Brooke: yeah. So today we’re gonna cover a lot about lead flow, ponds, daily workflow, the most common database mistakes that we see agents and teams making right now.

Brooke: And we’re talking about how to fix them. So we’re gonna talk about accountability because a great system with no one inspecting, it is just a great looking mess, essentially. 

Lauren: Yep. Yep. And, we don’t like messes. We try to clean things up here. and if you haven’t listened to part one, go back and start there.

Lauren: we covered stages, tags, smart lists, and action plans, and everything we’re talking about today builds on that foundation. but if you’re here and you’re ready, let’s just jump into it. [00:02:00] 

Brooke: Let’s go. 

Lauren: Okay. so welcome back to the re- wow, to the Reside Platform podcast. I am Lauren Holland, the director of client experience here at Reside.

Lauren: and I’m back with Brooke, our client success manager for part two of our deep dive into database optimization. Excuse me, Brooke. For anyone just joining us, give us the 30 second version of what we covered in part one. 

Brooke: So really part one was talking about building the foundation. So we talked a lot about why your C- CRM is either going to be your biggest asset or your biggest liability.

Brooke: we covered eight stages every agent needs, how to use tags for context without creating chaos, and how to build the eight smart list system that’s gonna tell you exactly who needs your attention every single day. and then we also finished up by talking about action plans and automations and why one action plan per lead at a time is the main rule.

Lauren: Okay.

Lauren: Okay. So, let’s talk about lead flow because this is [00:03:00] something that a lot of teams don’t optimize. what is it and why does it matter? 

Brooke: So lead flow is simply just how leads get distributed to the team, and to your agent. So if it’s not set up correctly, you’re really just wasting leads and plain and simple as that.

Brooke: They’re not being worked, they’re not going to the right places. so it’s super important that you do have your lead flow set up correctly. 

Lauren: Yeah. And I feel like we hear lead flow all the time, but people might not have put a definition to it. So Brooke, what are the biggest mistakes you see with this? 

Brooke: I would say 99% of the time.

Brooke: If I’m looking at your lead flow ma- mainly what’s causing, a problem or a disconnect is filters. Okay. So agents are getting leads that don’t necessarily match their price point or their location or their specialty. 

Lauren: Okay. so they don’t work them, is what you’re saying? 

Brooke: Yeah. Exactly. Okay. you might see where luxury agents, that are only, they only work a certain price point are getting $100,000 leads, or maybe someone in the north [00:04:00] is getting southside leads and it just doesn’t get touched.

Brooke: Maybe they’re not telling you, “Hey, I’m not working this lead.” They just simply ignore it. so you wanna be able to filter by, price range or location, buyer versus seller, lead source. Mm-hmm. if you are, pretty much any CRM has this avail- availability. I know at least for follow-up boss, it’ll be in your admin section and your settings.

Brooke: Yep. And if you go to lead flow, you’ll see advanced settings underneath each piece of your lead flow that you can click on right under the name of the lead flow. from there you can be able to adjust your conditions or your rules essentially. So, for example, if you are a team leader and you wanna make sure that you are taking on all of the higher priced, leads that come through, you can set a condition.

Brooke: So if the price is over a million, it goes to you. Otherwise, if it doesn’t meet that rule or that condition, it’s gonna go to its normal lead flow. Okay. so you wanna make sure that you check each piece of lead flow that’s on there, that’s integrated. and make sure that if [00:05:00] there is a specific, condition that’s needed, like a tag or like a location or zip code or city or price that, or lead source specifically that you are adding those filters there.

Lauren: You’re so good. I love it. Okay. So you’re saying the right leads to the right agents. 

Brooke: Yes, exactly. What 

Lauren: is next, Brooke? Tell us, give us all the gold today. 

Brooke: Yeah, absolutely. I would say a big, and a … Well, I guess I say the first one’s 99%, but really this is probably the main I lied. really probably the biggest mistake I see is that there’s no instant response.

Brooke: So a lead registers and then just nothing happens. 

Lauren: Okay. so, so tell us more by the time someone follows up, it’s too late? 

Brooke: Absolutely. Okay. so really needs that immediate text or email, even if it’s just automated. Okay. Something that just says, get, “Hey, we got your info. I’ll be in touch shortly.”

Brooke: again, I know for a lot of CRMs, there is an option to have an initial text message somewhere,[00:06:00] with Lofty. I know that you have an AI option that can engage them first regardless of where they came from. Mm-hmm. within follow-up boss, I know in that advanced lead flow settings that you can go ahead and add an initial text message.

Brooke: so even if you, we don’t know who the agent assigned is gonna be, at least having a general message that says something like, “Hey, thanks so much for your inquiry. somebody from our team’s gonna be in touch 

Lauren: shortly.” Mm-hmm. And for everyone that’s joining us today, I really just wanna highlight why we’re talking about this is because for some of us, it’s muscle memory, it’s second nature, it’s like a transaction coordinator that knows their checklist, front words and backwards.

Lauren: I love going back to the basics, and this is actually a really high level, basics, a high level overview of what we’re talking about. so if you’re listening and you’re like, “Yes, I already know this, ” I, listen, keep listening because, you might do this every single day, but there might be, a screw that you’re missing that’s gonna hold it up, and if you don’t have that placed properly, it could break the entire [00:07:00] structure.

Lauren: So we’re making sure that the foundation is built and if you’re someone that is, not utilizing their database or their CRM or these functionalities that we’re going over, this is for you to really, make your, clean up your business, plug the holes, fill the gaps, as I like to say. Mm-hmm.

Lauren: So, Brooke, tell us about the third thing. I just wanted to give that little plug there. 

Brooke: Absolutely. No, and you’re so right. if one thing is loose, it’s all gonna fall apart, at some point. So you wanna make sure that you have everything tightened in your, on your side of things on your end. So it’s just as simple and easy for agents to go in there and use it.

Brooke: Again, we said it last, last podcast, but, if you go in and you’re overwhelmed and you’re confused by your CRM- Yeah. … your agents are 10 times more overwhelmed and confused. 

Lauren: I saw this the other day. I was like, guys, to our internal team, I was like, guys- Yeah. … I’m confused. 

Brooke: Yeah. 

Lauren: But, there’s only a couple circumstances lately that, someone started a motorcycle out there.

Lauren: I was like, “Is my dog growling?” that I get [00:08:00] confused in. there is my squirrel brain, by the way. now I lost my train of thought again, which keeps happening. So Brooke, I’m gonna let you, take it away, tell us more about the third- Absolutely. 

Brooke: Yeah. So, third one I see as far as the common mistakes with lead flow is no qualification standards.

Brooke: So this is where your agents are getting the leads, but there’s really no expectation for them on how to work them. so when we have teams that then reside that come to us and ask for best practices or the training that we provide around, lead generation best practices and lead flow- Yeah.

Brooke: we just wanna keep it really clear. So you wanna contact, and obviously you wanna contact them, speed a lead within the first, five minutes. however, you wanna make sure that you are, have some sort of follow-up plan within the first 12 hours. So yes, you do have that first call within the first five minutes, what’s your plan afterwards?

Brooke: ideally another call, during, during the day, an, a text message, an email, just kind of covering all bases. Mm-hmm. wanna make sure that [00:09:00] you’re at least touching them, at least five touches in the first seven days, and that’s, phone calls you wanna also add in, of course emails and texts if you’re just getting voicemails.

Brooke: make sure you’re updating the stage within 48 hours as well. So again, we talked a lot about the, in the first podcast, episode of this two-parter here. We talked a lot about stages and the qualifications of stages, how important it is to not have your database just swallowed by one general stage.

Brooke: That means that you’ve qualified them. Yeah. so make sure you have that rule of qualifying the lead and updating that stage as soon as possible. and then if no response after, a certain amount of touches, like let’s say like 10 or more, you can move them to the pond. So if you don’t have that fallback plan for your database right now, that’s exactly where you wanna start is look and see, okay, what happens if there is no response with leads after a certain period of time?

Brooke: how do you know that those are being worked? some teams, they have it flow back into a pond after a certain period. If there’s been no [00:10:00] communication or qualification that goes into a pond for other agents to take advantage of and, have their chance. And for some, unfortunately, they just sit there and kind of just, the lead just dies out, honestly.

Lauren: Yeah. And I really wanna hammer this because, and highlight what you’re saying, agents, team leaders, if you’re not working the leads, you are going to lose those leads, okay? 

Brooke: Exactly. So, 

Lauren: yeah. 

Brooke: Exactly. Those are gonna go to somebody who will. So- 

Lauren: Okay. … 

Brooke: having those expectations, so if you have those, again, we talked about looking at where your leads lie right now within the stages.

Brooke: it’s be a great standard with your team to say, “Hey, we are putting this in place of if there’s been no communication, the first, let’s say 10 days, we’re gonna give it, move it to the pond and give the opportunity to another agent that will follow up with them.” 

Lauren: Okay. Let’s talk about ponds. 

Brooke: Yes.

Brooke: Yeah. Perfect transition into ponds. Yeah. so ponds are gonna be where you’re, for the most part, [00:11:00] it’s where you’re unresponsive or kind of unworked or un- or leads have not been qualified yet. it’s where those leads go. So they’re not dead. They’re not, they’re just actively being worked, they’re not being actively worked on by one agent.

Brooke: They’re kind of available for all agents. No one’s assigned to it, but it’s just that extra layer of opportunity for them to have some other leads to work. 

Lauren: Okay. So it’s more like a, a holding place. 

Brooke: Yes, exactly. and honestly, there’s just so much opportunity in ponds and I think that it’s a big- 

Lauren: There 

Brooke: are.

Brooke: it’s so common to see teams not treat it like an opportunity. 

Lauren: Tell us more. Why? 

Brooke: I think most agents treat ponds like they’re dead, like they’re trash, but they’re not. Yeah. they just didn’t convert the first time around. So I mean, imagine some of, for those that are listening, that are still in production or have been in production, think about those leads that, did you get every single lead the first time you talked to them?

Brooke: No. so it took a round of following up- Yeah. … and contacting them. 

Lauren: That’d be great. [00:12:00] 

Brooke: Yeah, exactly. Right. Sometimes it happens, but you know, you always wish for that. Yeah. But does it mean that they’re trash or that they’re dead leads or they’re bad leads just because they didn’t answer the first time?

Brooke: Oh, 

Lauren: can we please hang around on the bad leads part, please? 

Brooke: Yes. 

Lauren: Please. 

Brooke: Yes. And if, I always say, I’m like, if they have some sort of valid contact information, you’ve got a valid name, you’ve got a valid phone number, valid email, or a valid address, you can work from that. Okay, you can work off that. Yeah.

Brooke: Kind of reverse engineer and find who that person is. 

Lauren: Everyone needs a place to live. 

Brooke: Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, again, people are treating ponds like that’s just like the trash or no one wants those leads, but,really as far as how to work your pond, the approach is pretty simple. You wanna start with the leads that have had a recent activity.

Brooke: I guarantee you, if you go into … So let’s say you do have a pond within your CRM regardless and this exists in every CRM, rather you’re with, Lofty or Fall [00:13:00] Boss or Sierra, wherever it might be. 

Lauren: All the ones. 

Brooke: Yes. All the ones have ponds. So you can go into your ponds if you have them, go ahead and sort by the last activity or last site visit or whatever your column is specifically there.

Brooke: Mm-hmm. You will be amazed by how many people are still act- actually engaging and, looking at the emails that you’re sending or looking on your site, but no one’s actually talking to them. So I always say, let’s say, make ponds part of your daily routine here. So it’s, again, that’s an opportunity.

Brooke: You want agents to work the early is first, unless you do have, a specific system, like for our residers that are on money time. Obviously, that’s a separate thing we’ll get into today. 

Lauren: Don’t get confused on that guys. Don’t get confused. 

Brooke: Yeah, don’t confuse. Yeah. Money time’s a separate kind of policy there if you’re our residers listening here.

Brooke: but if, let’s say, you do have a pond, you would want, you want your agents to work their leads, but they also can use ponds as part of their daily activity or their daily routine to find- mm-hmm. … the gold within there. [00:14:00] and again, you wanna start with the leads that have had recent activities.

Brooke: So you can sort by that and start there. Mm-hmm. and then you wanna reengage. So call, text, try a different angle with them, see what happened beforehand, were they called before, by who? Did they talk? What kind of notes are in there? Just- Yeah. … see where you can pick up. 

Lauren: Well, always look at the notes too because we talked about this in the last episode, which is why we’re doing a part two because there’s just so much to cover.

Lauren: if there’s a lead that was archived or in trash, unless they seriously threatened the do not call list, like if someone asked you and they’re registered on a do not call list, I am saying, “Do not call them.” That is- Right. … don’t come from me. Don’t call them. 

Brooke: Yeah. Do not call. 

Lauren: Yes. I am not saying do something bad.

Brooke: Right. 

Lauren: What I am saying is take a look at the notes and see why they got archived. Maybe it was an agent that I just gave up too early or whatever it is and they were just moved to archive. Yeah. And the timing or connection just might have been a little bit off, 

Brooke: Absolutely. [00:15:00] Yeah. It goes back to that lead flow too.

Brooke: I mean, maybe they just archived them because they weren’t in their area or- Yeah, for some reason. Price range and they just like, “Nope, not for me. ” 

Lauren: And then they weren’t moved properly into the right channel or pond, whatever we wanna call it. Exactly. Yeah. It’s a system guys. it’s a system.

Lauren: Yeah. 

Brooke: Yeah. Yeah. Feel free to reach out to Lauren and I if you want more details as far as like how to- It’s so funny. … organize your pond or how to, that’s a lot of coaching y’all do with our teams is like how to organize the pond. by the way, too, if you have 20 different ponds, again, very confusing so make sure you have a very, you have a lot of intention behind your pawns.

Lauren: Intention. Yes. Great word. it’s just really funny because I am very bubbly. I love, I’m a high eye and also like I’ve realized I’ve become way more direct in the last year. Yeah. Because, that’s what we’re coached to is accountability is the best form of love you can give someone. It is about approach, but I keep reading in these, I’m hosting a webinar this week and in, our emails that are going out, I’m [00:16:00] not fluffy apparently.

Lauren: Yeah. So it’s like Lilo and Stitch. he’s like- Oh yeah. I’m not fluffy. And so when I say these things, guys, it’s not because I’m cold hearted or mean, I want you all to win. I want you all to win and we are giving you the exact roadmap to do that. It’s not fluff. It, everyone say, says, “I don’t wanna be told what to do.

Lauren: We do want to be told what to do because we want to win. This is the path to winning. So Brooke, educate us more. what is next? How often should leads, be working their pond or teams, sorry, not leads, teams be working for pond. 

Brooke: Absolutely. Honestly, I feel like you should be working your pond every single day.

Brooke: It’s, a great opportunity for the agents that are existing on your team to find the gold. And again, you can find that to the top when you sort by their last activity and see who’s actually engaged right now. Okay. or when the last communication was as well. you can sort by that too.

Brooke: you can also sort by, if they’ve been tagged a seller or [00:17:00] buyer, if you are working a specific, piece or their area or whatever it might be. But again, there’s opportunity every single day in there for existing agents and it’s a great opportunity for newer agents as well. Awesome.

Lauren: Awesome. because, what I’m hearing is when they get reps, they’re getting reps without needing new leads in these calls. 

Brooke: Yeah. Exactly. So you’re really not, you’re not spending any more money and you’re not giving your new agents,a set of leads that, they might not have the experience to work just yet.

Brooke: You’re still, maybe you’re still in the middle training them on their skillset and their skill practicing. so you’re not spending a bunch of money just for them to not be converted. so really, again, you’re just giving them what you already have. and another area that they can work from and feel like that they, you’ve provided them that lead value right off the bat.

Lauren: Okay. I wanna move on to,the daily workflow. So- Yeah. … we’ve covered stages, we’ve covered tags, smart lists, action plans, leave flow and [00:18:00] ponds. Let’s bring it all together. What does the daily workflow actually look like to execute? 

Brooke: Yeah. So I always say have three core actions every single day for agents.

Brooke: So this, again, this is for agent facing. as leaders, of course, you wanna be reporting every day to see did your agents actually accomplish this? Yeah. but for agents specifically, I always say three things, inbox. So this is who responded to you. Every CRM has some type of inbox of this is where if somebody calls you back or, send you a text message back or email back, it’s gonna be in your inbox.

Brooke: So you want to check out who’s responded to you, respond back to them, and then tasks, this is who you said you’d follow up with, and then smart list. So this is who’s really gonna be, who might be falling through the cracks. 

Lauren: Okay. Break them all down for us, Brooke. 

Brooke: Yeah. So inbox you talked about a little bit, but that’ll be, every morning you go in and you clear your inbox.

Brooke: Again, these are people who responded to you, they texted you back, they’re raising their hands. So these are gonna be your hot [00:19:00] opportunities. it should be your first priority. And then number two is gonna be your task. So these are the people that you said you would follow up with. These are the followups that you had scheduled.

Brooke: so for example, if you were on the phone with the lead and they said, “Hey, give me a call back tomorrow, you wanna make sure that you create that task for yourself, call them back tomorrow.” and I don’t know with other CRMs, I know some of them limited, but I do know with follow boss you can connect your calendar.

Brooke: Mm-hmm. So it’ll show up on your actual like Google calendar that you had scheduled that task in followup boss. it’s gonna connect to both. So again, create that task. If you said, “Okay, I’m gonna call you back or I’m gonna follow up with you, make sure you put a very specific date and time so you have that task.”

Brooke: just a heads up, if you do not complete the task, it becomes overdue. So make sure each day you’re looking at your overdue tasks as well, make sure you have not skipped anything. That would be a big red flag because it means that you’re not doing what you said you would do to your clients.

Brooke: Mm-hmm. and [00:20:00] the third one I just wanna highlight is the smart list. I know we’ve already talked about this in the last podcast. but again, just tying it all together, these are people who aren’t in your inbox and you don’t have a task, but they still need your attention. So they’re in the hot stage becau- and showing up in your hot list because you haven’t talked to them in six days or- mm-hmm.

Brooke: they’re a nurturer and you haven’t talked to them in 28 days or they’re a past client and you haven’t talked to them in 90 days. so you wanna make sure that you are zeroing out that smart list. 

Lauren: Mm-hmm. So the smart list catch what, would otherwise fall through the cracks. 

Brooke: Yes, 

Lauren: exactly. And, okay. And if you do these three things every day, nothing falls through the cracks.

Brooke: Yeah, exactly. 

Lauren: Okay. For agents that are saying, “Man, this sounds really overwhelming,” or, “I don’t have time.” Let’s realistically break down how much time this actually takes. 

Brooke: Yeah. I would say if your database is optimized, you’re looking at two to three hours a day, on average. 

Lauren: Okay. So, agents, team leaders, that is your [00:21:00] prospecting time.

Lauren: And if we have team leaders that are listening to this call, you should be prospecting with your agents. They need to, they need to see you showing up with them and doing this together. 

Brooke: Yes, absolutely. Even if you just have one hour to sit with them, that’s gonna make a huge amount of difference.

Brooke: Mm-hmm. this, I mean, this is your power hours. That’s your non-negotiable. So for your, for you team leaders, you have your three hours, which Lauren and I have talked about on another podcast prior as well. 

Lauren: We’ve just, we’ve covered everything guys. We’re done. Yeah. This is our send off. I am just kidding.

Lauren: You can’t get rid of us. Sorry, Smith. 

Brooke: Oh no, we’re coming back around and around. but,those are your power hours. And for agents, lead generation and follow up is their power hour time. So again, that, that inbox, that task list and then that smart list. 

Lauren: Mm-hmm. So, and, Carlton and I were talking about this earlier today too, those power hours are what keeps your pipeline full.

Lauren: Mm-hmm. So even if you have, let’s say 10 deals under contract this month and you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and everything’s on fire, if [00:22:00] you have really great leverage to rest in your team- 

Lauren: mm-hmm. … 

Lauren: and fill the gaps, if,we talk about the ultimate client experience.

Lauren: So like your system should be working for you to be able to provide that experience and for you to be able to go, do your one thing, your 20%, which is go get more business. So we can call that lead generation that’s generating new leads or nurturing your database, which is what we’re talking about right now.

Lauren: But if you have a ton of deals under contract right now, the biggest, thing I see agents struggle with is, they focus on those 10 deals and then either something falls through or they’re, everything closes and then what? This is what keeps your pipeline full, everybody. 

Brooke: Yeah, 100%. Exactly, I mean, exactly what you just said, because you’re not letting leads go cold here with the system, you’re not forgetting about past clients, you’re not missing hand raisers.

Brooke: I mean, it’s like, how many of us listening to this, I mean, myself included, where you have that epiphany in the middle of the night and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I forgot to reach back out to that person.” Or, “Oh my gosh, I forgot that. ” 

Lauren: Yeah. Like when, if you’ve ever waited tables, like, [00:23:00] oh my God, I didn’t bring that, the, not the client, the, the customer, their ranch.

Brooke: Exactly. I’ve had so many of those thoughts like, oh no, forgot that. 

Lauren: What you’re saying is everybody, this is what we, the common themes, you’re gonna start seeing commonalities and everything we’re talking about. You are working your database like a business because you are treating this as your career.

Lauren: We are not just plugging in when we want to and plugging out when we want to. If you want a full, healthy database full of clients, five star reviews, referrals, this is what working it looks like. You are treating it like a business. 

Brooke: Absolutely. And if you treat it like that, it’s gonna pay you back- 

Lauren: mm-hmm.

Brooke: like, like a business should. 

Lauren: We’re doing … And, we’re all in it, we’re in it for service, yes. We’re in it for contribution, yes. That is what gives us our purpose. what is your why, or, whatever word you wanna … Why are you doing this, I guess. And you need a roof over your head.

Lauren: We, we establish this. You need to put food on your table. That’s how we stay alive. I posted about this, the other day, but, we are just accepting and [00:24:00] validating things that shouldn’t be happening because we don’t wanna hurt people’s feelings. Right. And I’m gonna hammer in on this, okay?

Lauren: Because we care about you. We want your business to thrive. We want you to be able to build a life so big you can bring other people into it and put food on the table. Meeting Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, your basic freaking needs people. this is what we’re talking about and this is how you do it.

Lauren: Okay? So accountability is the best form of love. Stop getting in the way of your agents making money. Team leaders prospect with your agents. This is how no lead is a bad lead, right? Am I saying this right? Am I … Push back, Brooke, please. 

Brooke: No, this is … No, you’re 100% right. I would definitely … I mean, I can’t even challenge that.

Brooke: Like I can’t, there’s nothing to disagree on there. 

Lauren: I want you, like, please do, because I’m not … I don’t know. I’ve just heard a lot, some excuses and whatnot, and it’s like, guys, just get into the database, call, call. Yeah. 

Brooke: Exactly. And I always tell agents too, like, okay, let’s say you have one of those days where, again, Lauren and I are moms, so we, there’s those days where it’s like, okay, your [00:25:00] kid’s at home sick, you have maybe like a 30 minute- or your dog.

Brooke: Yeah, or your dog, or if you’re Lauren, your dog’s sick today. Yeah, you’re like, “Please snap.” So I could be like- No one lets 

Lauren: me sleep. 

Brooke: Yeah. and it’s just like, let’s say everything went to chaos and you only have a little bit of time, 30 minutes to an hour while like your child’s sleeping or, while you just get a free time.

Lauren: Yeah. 

Brooke: Use it intentionally, and this is exactly the roadmap of what to do, for agents is, again, checking their inbox, checking their tasks, checking their smart list because it’s bringing, it’s, what it’s meant to do is bring up those hand raisers to the top surface so you’re not digging for some prospects or opportunities.

Brooke: Yeah. Yeah. So focus on those things, even if you have a small amount of time, that’s gonna be the biggest impact you can make during that small amount of time that you have. 

Lauren: For sure. And to piggyback off of what you just said, these to- dos are telling you what to do each day. Mm-hmm. So, Carlton was saying to me earlier, eat the frog, Mm-hmm. If that’s the worst thing you have to, if you have to eat a frog every single [00:26:00] day, you wanna get that over with first so you’re not worrying about it all the time. Yeah. and that, I don’t know why, maybe because it really grossed me out, but that analogy has now stuck in my head. And so if, you’re dreading calling or you love it, get it first done when you have the energy because life comes at you, you’re putting out fires, you’re answering calls, you’re dealing with something from schools, like whatever it is, whatever is going on in your life, there’s no judgment.

Lauren: We are all part of the human experience. Get it done when you have the most energy first so that you’re not putting it off and then everything starts building and you’re procrastinating and then you’re just, you, everything’s on fire. So- 

Brooke: Yeah. … 

Lauren: this is preventing it. Absolutely. 

Brooke: Absolutely. 

Lauren: but what I was gonna say, sorry, set yourself up for success and, your calendar.

Lauren: Every Sunday, have a business meeting with yourself and then set your intentions. If it’s not on your calendar, it doesn’t exist. Mm-hmm. Okay? So put your to- dos in there, go into your database each day, use the afternoons for showings. if you don’t have any showings, have you set your appointments for that week.

Lauren: Mm-hmm. this is how we do it. and, Brooke, if you have anything else to say [00:27:00] on this, please continue. any, anything else before we go to the part seven? 

Brooke: Yeah. So I think exactly what you said, like if it’s not on your calendar, it doesn’t exist. we talk a lot about, okay, how im- important is it, on a scale of one to 10, for you to have some income from real estate coming into your family?

Brooke: And for most agents, it’s a nine or 10, unless, you’re just, this is like a, part-time thing for you that you just enjoy showing homes, which is great as well. But, for most people, most agents, like, it is top priority. So you have to look at your calendar to see is it being treated that way or where, what is your calendar?

Brooke: If you wrote down every single thing that you were doing in a day, does that represent, you know- Gold. … bringing in business a t- as a 10 for you? 

Lauren: I love you. You’re so good. You’re so good at what you do. I mean, I don’t know why I’m feeling so feisty today. I might be a little angry. 

Brooke: We’re taking that and making it into motivation.

Brooke: Yeah. 

Lauren: [00:28:00] Okay. Let’s move on, So Brooke, so, before we wrap up everything, let’s talk about the most common database mistakes you see, because I think if agents can avoid these, they’re gonna be way ahead of the game. 

Brooke: Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. so really kinda, and this kind of goes through everything that we’ve talked about in the last two episodes here.

Brooke: and mistake number one I’d see is again, not updating the stages. So your lead sits in the lead stage forever. They never get moved. Mm-hmm. and then simply the system just can’t work for you. Okay. 

Lauren: And then the system can’t work for them. 

Brooke: Yeah, absolutely. 

Lauren: Okay. Okay. so what’s the fix here? 

Brooke: Yeah.

Brooke: so we, you wanna move people intentionally. So every time you have a conversation, this goes, for agents or something, team leaders is something you can bring to your agents, you wanna have them ask like themselves here, where are they in the journey- mm-hmm. … what stage they be in and then update it.

Brooke: So again, [00:29:00] team leaders, for you all, your role here as far as how to f- how to kind of fix this mistake before it happens, and if you already made this mistake, that’s okay. You can still fix it, by the way. Mm-hmm. you wanna make sure look at your stages. Always. Yes, you can always fix it. Okay. We, that’s, it’s never too late.

Lauren: Now let’s give them some love because I think I went a little hard. Now I’m like feeling guilty. 

Brooke: You’re like, I’m sorry guys. No, it’s,it’s, great information to hear if it works. Yeah, absolutely. So if you’re looking at your stages, again, look at your stages in your database, how many stages do you have?

Brooke: Do you personally know what each stage means and can you, if you asked an agent, say next to you, could you, could they tell you what each stage means? if you have more than, eight to 10, if you’ve got more than that, you might wanna start considering, shortening them down a little bit or just do some of these things mean very similar stages.

Brooke: and then being able to, bring that to your [00:30:00] agent and say, “Hey, we’ve simplified this a lot for you. Well, this is now what it means.” but again, the goal is for agents to know what each stage means and know how to qualify, qualify those leads. 

Lauren: Okay. You’re on a roll. Keep going. 

Brooke: All right.

Brooke: So, mistake number two, I would say overdue tasks piling up. So the agent really sets the task and then they don’t complete them. So, then now we’ll have, let’s say, like, 50 to 100 overdue tasks. Oh. And at that point, yeah. At that point, the system is useless. Yeah, I know. As we know, like, this is the point, it’s useless at that point.

Brooke: you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing every day. 

Lauren: I love you. Yeah.

Brooke: But it’s just, you see it time again, and so it just becomes something I get really passionate about of, like, if you come to me and say, “Hey, my agents aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing.” It’s like, let’s diagnose where exactly the problem is, where is it [00:31:00] flashing for us?

Brooke: and so these are the common things that we see, of where that red light’s flashing. So, last thing on that mistake is just make sure you and your agents are zeroing out tasks every single day. If you can’t complete it that day, just reschedule it, but don’t let them pile up. So you’ve got hundreds and hundreds.

Lauren: I have a question for you. 

Brooke: Yeah. 

Lauren: Is it something that your admin team or operators can audit? 

Brooke: Yeah, absolutely. so for our operators and our team leaders listening, you can go into your tasks and look, make sure you have everybody selected, and you can see where everyone’s at and then you can go agent by agent, and see what specific agents have what tasks to do.

Brooke: and I know in followup boss, you can also filter by the certain type of tasks so you can see is everyone behind on calls? Is everyone behind on, maybe they’re rescheduling showings, maybe they’re rescheduling open houses or things like that. So you can filter those out a little bit further. 

Lauren: Yeah.

Lauren: And there’s no judgment on it. It just brings awareness and visibility into what’s happening and what isn’t, especially for the agents that you’re [00:32:00] getting frustrated with because they’re not producing, or you’re like, we hear all the time agents are lazy and whatnot. And, if you’re an agent on this call and you’re like, “Dang, people are really hitting us hard, we’re here to defend you and stand up for you.

Lauren: Right. because we know it’s not that. We just are trying to build that clear pathway for you as well. 

Lauren: Absolutely. 

Lauren: so okay. So we’re zeroing out our tasks every day. You can make this operationalized or operational because you’re, you can have your admin or your virtual assistant or even probably cloud or AI can go in and somehow do this.

Lauren: Like I think you can connect it to the followup boss now. anyways, just go in and automate it and then have a report built out in an automation or a workflow. You can probably do connect, if we really want to get into the weeds here. I don’t know if you could do this, any, you let us know.

Lauren: But, if you have Cloud, build out an automation, make sure everything you can now c- connect Claude to Chrome. I think it’s called Cloud and Chrome. just go to configurations and then, it can connect to your drive to your Excel sheets. I think it connects to pretty much anything that you’re building out in G Suite.

Lauren: Please, if it’s not right, just, it’ll tell [00:33:00] you, ask Claude if it can do that. but then, I think it connect, can connect to your, to at least follow up boss. I think you can connect it. so just play around with it and be like, “This is what I wanna do. I want all reporting and visibility. Yes, you have the leaderboard in there, but like, how do we 10X this now?

Lauren: How do we take it to the next level that we are now operationalizing all of this to actually get visibility into what agents are doing versus what they’re not doing?” So really, this is for team leaders and integrators looking, listening to this call, play around with it. I don’t know. Mm-hmm. That’s something maybe we beta test.

Lauren: I’m not sure. 

Brooke: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That’s a great idea. Yeah. Copy and paste. I mean, worst case, let’s say that doesn’t connect, you can’t, having a hard time there. You can really just copy and paste, like, eh, just, it’s like- … Text and then paste it. 

Lauren: Fingertips people, we got this. 

Brooke: Yeah. It’ll, and then again, kind of ask, okay, based on what you’re seeing, who are my top performers, who do I need to have a conversation with?

Brooke: What’s the pattern history here, and really get some insight there. 

Lauren: Yeah. Okay. what’s mistake number three? 

Brooke: yes. So number three, not logging activity, which is a huge one. So [00:34:00] agents have conversations, but they don’t necessarily log them in the CRM. so it makes it feel like the conversation really never happened or doesn’t show up that way.

Brooke: so if makes it … So if you’re on a team and you’re the team leader, you can’t see what they’re doing. Mm-hmm. if you’re an agent, you’re getting your team, you’re a team leader reaching out to you saying, “Hey, what’s going on here? why aren’t you reaching out to your leads or contacting them?”

Brooke: And you’re saying, I am.” it’s most likely because it’s not in follow-up boss. so if it’s not in follow-up boss or not in your CRM,if you’re not in follow-boss listening to this, it did not happen. So make sure that you are logging every call, every text, every email,called, no answer, left voicemail or texted, waiting for response, spoke, moving to hot stage.

Brooke: even if it’s just something quick, you’re at least showing that you’ve had that activity. And again, make sure you are con- I think we talked about this in the first one, but make sure you are connected to everything. Like- 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Brooke: I know, make sure you have the app download on your phone for your CRM, make sure you’ve logged in, make sure, your email’s connected, your phone’s connected.

Brooke: So it will do a lot of [00:35:00] that automatic logging on your behalf. 

Lauren: Yeah. And, think about it because this is what creates the history, and you need the history because we talked about this on the last one. If you, excuse me, you’re not using your CRM phone number and you’re relying on your personal number because, oh, my SOI knows this as me.

Lauren: We all have a contact card. We don’t actually … I only know really my sister’s phone number now because it’s been the same since I was- Yeah. … elementary school. Right.

Brooke: The way they are now. 

Lauren: I’ll just hit call. I don’t know your phone number. Like I know you know what I mean? Right. And the same for me. Like you don’t know mine probably. 

Brooke: Right. 

Lauren: if you did that, it’s really sweet and I’ll learn yours. 

Brooke: No. Re impressive. I’m like, yeah, it’s- 

Lauren: But so I guess anyways, I’ll digress.

Lauren: But what I’m saying is don’t use your personal number, stop using the excuses of, “Oh, but these people know my phone number. They’re gonna know it’s not me. ” You can add multiple phone numbers, your mobile number, your, your work number, your whatever’s on the phone because if [00:36:00] something happens and, your kid shuts your phone into the toilet or someone chucks it out the window or you’re just like, something happens, someone steps on it, your phone breaks.

Lauren: Yeah. No one did anything violent to your phone, Like it just breaks and you don’t have anything backed up to it, you’re gonna lose all the business data that you have. Yeah. So use your follow-up box because if you’re using follow-up costs, once again, it’s downloading in real time there, and then your TC can see the conversations and act accordingly, like you can just remember things.

Lauren: So anyways, Brooke, keep going. Well, what else? 

Brooke: Absolutely. So, I would say mistake number four would be ignoring past clients, which is a great segue of, kind of, of missing those points. it, really, a lot of times what we’ll see happen is agents will close a deal and then they never talk to that client again.

Brooke: They’re like, “Oh, phew, okay, next.” and then-. Yeah. Yep. And then they’re like, “Why did I not get a referral? or why am I not seeing the repeat business?” Mm-hmm. so really you wanna make sure that you are working your past client and your SOI smart list every single [00:37:00] month or you’re creating some sort of, again, you’re lofty at segments, but creating some sort of list where you have it, a tagged list of your past clients, your SOI, and you are following up with them every quarter, so every 90 days, you wanna make sure you’re calling them, you’re not calling them just to ask for referrals.

Brooke: You’re not saying, “Hey, how’s it going? Okay, where’s your m- where’s my referral?” but it’s, you’re really calling just to check in and then the rest kind of comes naturally. So, it’s just, and we’ve, I think we, we’ve talked about this, another podcast, different podcast about reviews and referrals, but- We got you on.

Brooke: Yeah. So there’s ways to go about it that it doesn’t feel so like- Yeah. … salesy like, “Hey, I’m trying to get your business,” but, We 

Lauren: go over the scripts too. Yeah. Like we give you the promise script, how to ask. it’s a long one, but a good one, just- 

Brooke: Yes. … 

Lauren: so. 

Brooke: Absolutely. But yeah, make sure you’re reaching out to them and keep it top of mind, even if it’s just a, “Hey, I’m just checking in.

Brooke: How are things going and what’s up?” 

Lauren: Yeah. [00:38:00] Okay. Finish us off. 

Brooke: Yeah. So last mistake I wanna make sure that we are talking about today is not cleaning up bad data. So, and I don’t know if bad’s really the right right word, but cleaning up incorrect data maybe. 

Lauren: use it. 

Brooke: Yeah. Bad phone numbers or bounced emails or, duplicate contacts.

Lauren: Mm-hmm. 

Brooke: it’s really just creating that noise for you and that’s gonna kill your clarity. So- mm-hmm. … I would say block time at least once a quarter to clean your database. And if you have,admin or virtual assistance or leverage that, that can do this- 

Lauren: AI. … 

Brooke: definitely leverage that out. you wanna make sure that you are seeing who’s got good, got incorrect phone numbers, bounced emails, check if you have any duplicates.

Brooke: I know with, at least with followup offs, they try to eliminate duplicates based on emails and contact information, but if you happen to notice duplicates, make sure that you’re removing them. clean up any spam. again, you can most likely within all CRMs know for sure follow up off. Sorry guys, I’m [00:39:00] very, 

Lauren: You just use it, there’s, sure send out there, there’s Lofty, there’s Rivity, there’s all these things that are out there.

Brooke: Right. 

Lauren: Just, we’ll, yeah, you’re good. 

Brooke: Yeah. You, most of these will have the same kind of functionality. Some of the vertibge might be a little bit different, but- Yeah. … always to go about it, but it’s all very similar. so, there’s usually a filter where you can go into all your people and filter out those that have a bad phone number or an incorrect phone number.

Brooke: I know a follow-up boss at least, if it has an incorrect phone number, it’ll strike it out and say incor- invalid phone number- There we go. … and it turns red. So you can look up, you can filter by all my numbers that are invalid and then see, do you have an actual email for them? Do you have another phone number, you just need to delete the other, the bad number you have?

Brooke: can you email them and get their most recent contact information for their phone numbers like, “Hey, I would love to talk more with you, can I get your most updated number?” also to send you some, market updates of what’s going on in your area, what’s going on in your neighborhood.

Brooke: same thing for emails, you can go ahead and filter out by bounced emails. Again, Fall Boss does a good job of if [00:40:00] an email bounces, it will say invalid email. So you can go back in and again, vice versa, like if they have a good phone number, you can call them or text them and say, “Hey, what’s your most recent email?

Brooke: I’d love to send you some market updates or home valuation or whatever it might be. ” but again, taking that time to at least one support or just to clean up your database, make sure you have valid contact information. and again, leverage that out if you do have that leverage opportunity with operators or virtual assistants.

Lauren: Awesome. Sorry, I am moving something so that nothing falls. okay. So your database is gonna stay clean. Yep. Let’s move on to part eight. I know we are hitting you all with so much content and so much context. we’re just laying out the path. Take what you will out of it. So I wanna talk about my favorite because I really do take it to heart.

Lauren: let’s talk about accountability, because you have the best system in the world, but if no one’s actually using it, it doesn’t matter. 

Brooke: Yep. Absolutely. Apps 100%. And this is where like team [00:41:00] leaders, I d- we’re coming with the spice today, I feel like, but team leaders, I love you, but, this is where you really need to step it up is in the accountability piece.

Oh 

Lauren: yeah, get it Brooke. I like why. 

Brooke: yes. 

Lauren: Okay. So sorry, so what should they be inspecting? 

Brooke: Yes. So I would say, some three main things here. You wanna look at the last communication date or the last touch date, again, just depending on the verbiage of what you’ve got. But when was the last time this lead was contacted?

Brooke: so for example, if there’s someone that’s in the hot stage that has been in contact in 10 days, that’s a problem because they’re looking, if they’re looking in zero to three months and you haven’t talked to them in 10 days, they most likely are moving on without you. 

Lauren: Okay. so you’re looking for gaps here?

Brooke: Yep. Yep. Okay. Absolutely. 

Lauren: Okay. 

Brooke: I would say number two would be overdue tasks. So again, we talked about this already, but how many overdue tasks does each agent have? if they have more than 20, they’re really not managing their pipeline well. There’s things that are obviously falling through the cracks that they said, “Hey, we’re gonna follow up with you and we have not.

Brooke: so [00:42:00] that’s, again, a problem. 

Lauren: So a time choice thing, we call that time management- Yes. … usually, but it’s a, it’s time choice, so we all have that 24 hours in a day. what’s the next one? 

Brooke: Yeah. So the last one I would say would be,again, stage accuracy. So are people in the right stages? Again, looking to see where your database is being swallowed by.

Brooke: If someone’s been in the lead stage for 60 days, they need to be moved. So that, again, ties back into what we talked about, for example, with lead flow and ponds, having some sort of system where if it’s not been communicated or there’s not been an established contact in a certain period, it’s gonna go to somebody else that’s actually gonna move forward.

Lauren: Okay. so we’re making sure that the data is accurate, because if it’s not accurate, the system’s not gonna work. How often should team leaders be inspecting this? 

Brooke: weekly at minimum, really, a lot of, really daily, you’re gonna be looking at your reporting to see what’s happened today, what, where the tasks stand and how many calls were made.

Brooke: and [00:43:00] again, each system has, serum has their own reporting tab. Mm-hmm. for follow-up offs would you go into the reporting tab, I really like the leaderboard report. Okay. or the agent activity report. the leaderboard report’s gonna show you more of like a race of who’s at the top versus the rec- of how much activity they had.

Brooke: And you can see underneath how many emails they sent, how many phone calls and so forth. The agent activity can get you a little bit more,specific data. You can add different columns for like conversion, conversion rates, speed to, con- like speed to contact percentage, average contact attempts, that sort of thing.

Brooke: So, if you want a quick look every single day, I would say the later board report’s great. Okay. but at least was where you wanna dive into,the more in depth reports and looking at the stage accuracy and where are we seeing as far as the task patterns- Yeah. … and less communication dates and so forth.

Lauren: Awesome. You can tell that Brooke works with teams every single day on this. She’s very well versed and this is our number one thing we get, asked about because production is culture. [00:44:00] okay. So, for teams that are trying to scale, you have your leaderboard, we can, we’ve talked about how to operationalize reporting,if you’re scaling and you don’t have time to do one-on-ones, or you’re only doing those with your top producers and leaders or whatnot who do it, there’s many ways to have these one-on-ones.

Lauren: You could even do a group, accountability where they have to earn into the group and then we go over these, in loud accountability. If you wanna do this at a sales meeting, have it pulled up every week and then go through, that’s loud accountability. You can have it on a TV in your office, 

Lauren: when we have visibility into what is happening, that makes other people naturally want to do more or they step up or step out. 

Brooke: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. 

Lauren: Okay. So we pull up their CRMs, we look at their smart list, you look at their overdue tasks, you look at their last touch dates and you coach based on what you see.

Lauren: This is not micromanaging. It’s leadership, because we’re helping them see their blind spots and you’re holding them accountable to the standards. Exactly. [00:45:00] perfect. So we’ve made it through all of our part, all of the parts. Yeah. 

Brooke: Yes. Yes. This is the full overview of follow-up boss strategy or database strategy.

Brooke: I know there’s been a lot of follow-boss specific things, but again, each CRM is so i- is very similar. so feel free if you’re listening to this and you’re not, and you’re in a different CRM and you’re not sure where to start or what we’re talking about or where to find this stuff. Yeah. I promise you can.

Brooke: it’s, it might be ver- verbiage a little bit different, but, feel free to reach out to us too if you need some help identifying where to find those things. 

Lauren: Yes, please. So, okay. We are gonna bring this home. My brain, I, it’s, I’ve, I’ve learned so much today and I am not just saying that. And even with the level of the, in the caliber of the teams that we work with and we get to talk to whether they’re in reside or not, I’m learning something new every single day and I think we need to have that kind of thought process [00:46:00] and being open-minded to learning every day because if we think we know everything, we’re doing everything, that’s when we get stuck and then that’s when our production either fall offs, falls off or we get into a, into the hole.

Lauren: So let’s bring this home. Yeah. what do you want agents and team leaders to walk away with today, Brooke? 

Brooke: so I would say let’s boil it down to five different takeaways here, five main takeaways. so first one, your CRM reflects your habits. So if your CRM’s messy, your business is most likely very messy, you wanna make sure that you clean that up.

Brooke: So again, it’s very clear. you wanna have takeaway two, I would say keep stages simple. Mm-hmm. So again, I would say around eight, eight to 10 stages maps. Mm-hmm. so lead, hot, nurture, active client, pending, sphere, closed and trash. you could argue for, referral or something, something specific like, or agent or something specific like that, but, again, you wanna make it simple as possible.

Brooke: Mm-hmm. takeaway number three, use tags for [00:47:00] context. So tags are gonna describe the facts, not necessarily the behavior. So use them intentionally, make sure you’re not using them as the stage or as the, conversion rate. Wanna make sure that they’re describing the lead further, not where they’re at right this moment.

Brooke: you also want to take away four, I would say is work your smart list every day. you wanna make sure, again, inbox, tasks, smart lists, that’s gonna be your daily workflow. Make sure your agents are very clear on that as well. Okay. and then my final takeaway is, what gets measured gets managed.

Brooke: So make, again, what we talked about just a minute ago, inspect your last touch or communication dates, overdue task, stage accuracy, and then hold yourself and your team accountable to those numbers. 

Lauren: That’s so good. Thank you for sharing all this with us. just one thing I wanna add is, we’ve talked about this.

Lauren: We m- likely do not have a lead problem. We likely have a fol- a follow-up problem. 

Brooke: Yep. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Brooke: Absolutely. 

Lauren: So, and that follow-up problem starts with how everything our da- [00:48:00] how our database is organized. So if you’re listening to this and thinking, my database is a mess, do not panic. just start block two hours this week- mm-hmm.

Lauren: go through your stages, move people out of lead and move people to the trash if they need to be there, clean up those tags,delete the ones that you don’t need, standard, standardize the ones that you do, set up your smart lists, Brooke, anything else? 

Brooke: Yeah. just start with, if you’re not where to sure where to start, start with just the eight, that we talked about, as far as your smart list and then commit to working them every single day because really that consistency is gonna beat the perfection and you don’t need a perfect system.

Brooke: You just need a system that works. So don’t worry if you go into your, you’re feeling like, oh my gosh, my Follow Boss or my CRM is a mess. Yeah. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but at least you’re doing something to move it forward to help clean it up so it, it does feel, it does get to the point where it does feel like a system that you can work every single day.

Brooke: and if you do that, your [00:49:00] pipeline will never be empty. 

Lauren: I love that. If you do all of these, your pipeline is never going to be empty. Brooke, this was so, so good. everybody, we’d love your feedback to let us know what you’re implementing, if this has impacted or influenced your business in a positive or e- even a negative way because we wanna know so we can make everything better.

Lauren: so thank you for breaking everything down, Brooke. That was a lot, but you made the playbook on this. 

Brooke: Of course. And we don’t wanna just hand you a template and say, “Okay, good luck. You got this. ” we wanna walk you through it, customize it to your business, make sure that you have the training needed for your team and you have the accountability to actually use it.

Lauren: Yes. Okay. So if you’re listening still, thank you. We appreciate you. And you want help optimizing your database. We do this every single day at Reside. we’re working with agents and teams to clean up their CRMs, setting up their smart list, building their action plans and [00:50:00] creating accountability systems that, actually work.

Lauren: and I know that Brooke just mentioned we’re not handle- handing you the template. So, if you wanna learn more about us, please feel free to reach out. if you got value from this episode, let us know. So I think that’s it for today. Yeah. Anything else, Rob? 

Brooke: Yeah, no, just feel free, my last thought here, feel free to just share it.

Brooke: if this resonated with you or you think this is something that your agents can hear or another team leader or an operator, please feel free to share it because the more agents who, and who, and operators who understand this, the better our industry gets. Mm-hmm. So, just make sure that you are spreading the word and it’s, again, if something works for you, share that with others, share it with us.

Brooke: Let us know what’s working for you. 

Lauren: Awesome. Okay. Well, perfect. Let’s go build some systems. We’ll see all the next episode. Thanks. 

Lauren: See you next time, guys.