Crest Point Real Estate Outperforms Industry Benchmarks

Boosting a Growing Team’s Earned Revenue by 10% with Sierra

Crest Point Real Estate improved lead management and outperformed industry benchmarks with Sierra’s lead generation and management software.

A clear need for a full-service real estate platform.

When Patrick Keller formed Crest Point Real Estate in 2017, he knew immediately the importance of real estate lead generation and management software when overseeing his Indianapolis, Indiana-based business. The brokerage firms where he had worked previously had used different components of real estate software to manage distinct parts of the business. He wanted to take a different approach, one that would connect all the pieces of his agency together to generate gross commission income (GCI) more effectively.

“I knew from the start I wanted to ensure my clients are able to experience the utmost use of my agents’ time, the quickest responses and the most stress-free methods of communication when they are on their home buying – or selling – journey,” said Keller. “As a start-up agency, the best way to achieve those goals was through the use of the latest technology and marketing tools, backed by industry knowledge.”

With a fast-growing team and client list, Keller also needed a solution that would scale to match his business’ growth.

“Our needs weren’t simple,” Keller continued. “I needed to have a tool that could manage the front-facing side of our business and lead generation, with just as many capabilities on the backend so our CRM was driving lead conversion.”

Keller needed a software solution built for the real estate industry, with proven success generating leads and supporting lead follow-up to result in more conversions.

An unbeatable product mix 

Sierra Interactive generates quality leads through two main product offerings:

1. IDX websites, ready-made and customizable, with included features ranging from SEO, landing pages, blog functions and more.
2. Pay-per-click (PPC) Google and Facebook ad management to generate cost effective leads in a crowded market.  

Keller routes each lead generated through PPC to a team of two partnered agents. To meet commission goals, he knew he needed to land at least one viable lead per every 25-30 leads generated. It was a goal easier said than done, considering the national average of PPC conversions is less than 1% according to commonly cited conversion data in the real estate industry. 

“Sierra’s PPC campaign management proves that the solution can not only bring in volume of leads, but it can also deliver on quality,” Keller explained. “That knowledge was a big draw for my business. That it was a part of a platform that included other tools I need for my lead management — things like IDX-enabled websites and depth of knowledge into industry SEO terms — was a huge benefit.”

Keyword strategy was so important to Keller, in fact, he had briefly debated partnering with an independent digital marketing strategy to manage campaigns. When the agency determined they could not deliver the same level of experience with industry keywords, though, he quickly tossed that idea aside.

“We were looking for more than just keyword reporting to optimize our SEO,” Keller said. “Sierra offers my agency unparalleled expertise with industry keywords I can’t find anywhere else.” 

This includes on-page keyword optimization for websites, as well as routing traffic from specific keyword combinations like neighborhoods and communities to landing pages based on search intent.

Using lead generation and management software—and automating follow up—to earn GCI.

Equally as important for Keller was lead follow-up.

“Our competitors are converting 1-2% of leads. I needed Crest Point to exceed those benchmarks. I knew we could stand apart with our lead management efforts and Sierra,” he said.

Sierra stands apart from competitors in its automated action plan feature. Where others are limited to traditional follow up, or limited email drip automations, Sierra offers fully automated email, text and ringless voicemails within an action plan. As a time-saver, this kind of real estate marketing automation is invaluable for real estate agents, ensuring a relationship is being built and maintained, while lessening the manual demand relationship upkeep inherently places on any one individual agent. When a lead is ready to take the next step towards buying (or selling), automated action plans have kept the agency front-of-mind.

“The key to converting a lead into a transaction-ready client is in the follow-up,” Keller said. “But follow-up can be incredibly time consuming and a drain on agents’ time and resources. After setting up action plans as a part of our lead management, we saw an immediate increase in productivity among agents, which led to higher lead conversion rates.” 

Keller also noted automated action plans helped strengthen his team’s sphere of influence by ensuring they were top-of-mind when leads became transaction-ready.

Results Recap

Since implementing Sierra as his real estate lead generation and management software, Keller saw agency performance exceed industry benchmarks in lead quality and conversion. In 2021 alone, Keller’s team of six closed twenty deals from leads generated from their Sierra-managed PPC campaigns, earning over $115,000 in annual GCI.

“Our most popular action plan has over a 50% response rate,” said Keller. “That’s impressive, especially considering most email response rates alone are considered successful if they reach 10%.” He continued, “Sierra has thought of everything when it comes to supplying real estate agencies with the tools we need to be successful. It is sophisticated, it uses the latest technologies and techniques, and it is affordable. It is the trifecta of a must-have service.”

Now, Keller aims to generate 250-350 leads per month for his team with an annual revenue goal of $1.2 million. Apart from his primary goals, Keller has also seen a positive correlation to agency retention and recruiting efforts.

“Sierra’s lead management tools have almost turned into a recruitment tool for the agency,” Keller added. “It reduces the amount of manual work required by agents to close deals by such a high amount, new agents view it as a big benefit — an appreciated step away from clunky spreadsheets or labor-heavy CRMs — when joining our team.” 

About

Sierra Interactive develops residential real estate software and services for agents, teams and brokers in the U.S. and Canada. Sierra’s proven lead generation and management solutions are trusted by top-performing teams and influential coaches in the real estate industry. Founded in 2007, Sierra is headquartered in Louisville, KY, but has a remote-first workforce across the U.S.