A cool custom lead pool idea I'm helping with for REW CRM

[Morgan]

I have been working with my buddy and Showcase client Ken Pozek user: @Pozek on migrating his team from their previous customer relationship manager to REW CRM.

One of the concepts they have in their business is a “lead pool” - which is a pretty common feature/word in CRM but means different things in different applications.

For them - they have a process where agents can only have so many “new leads” - but they also have a “pool” of older or unclaimed leads that they can dip into at any time if they need more leads to follow up on or are hungry.

He’s going to use his retainer to make this, but I’ve offered to help him spec it out (since building custom software is something you should only do with experience and we want to make sure he has proper guidance)

With his permission, I’m posting the requirements/user stories for the team to follow. I’ve already met with R & D to ensure this plan is the best balance of performance and cost efficiency.

So here’s how it will work:

We need to create an agent in the system called “lead pool” - this will be a special/unique agent that is different than a regular agent.

For just this one specific “lead pool” agent, all other agents will be able to see it’s leads. (And all other elements within the UI from filters, to custom views etc) will be available. Think of “lead pool” as a filter or view within that agent’s CRM.

In order to see the “lead pool” leads, we’re going to add a filter to the right-hand side “Lead pool” and when selected there will be a simple “yes/no” radio button (or whatever the default pattern is for yes/no in filters)

Once lead pool is turned on in terms of their view, they would review these leads (from main screen or be able to click into details)

Any lead they want to “claim” they will be able to by selecting the lead (or multiple leads) on the left hand side and selecting a new “claim” option from the move dropdown

If they click “claim” that lead is now re-assigned from the “lead pool agent” to that agent and now that lead is only visible and owned by that agent.

Make sense?

The question came up about how leads get in there.

There are a few ways.

#1: The ISA’s or admin can re-assign leads into the pool as they would reassign leads to any other agent.

#2: If agents “reject” a lead in the system for whatever reason, they should automatically go into the pool

#3: Not needed for this project - I also had the idea of having this as a permission (has access to pool leads) in the permissions settings, but as Ken allows all agents access to the pool, it is not needed (don’t spend his budget coding it) but it’s important to note it in case we might want it in the future.

I think that’s about it Ken, is this everything? Did I forget anything?

Great idea btw! Thanks for allowing me to post about it / share it with the group.

[Morgan]

One thing I should mention (which was my first question as well when we started talking)

“How is this different than Shark Tank?” (Which we already have)

The difference is, they still want to be able to use the other features of custom lead routing for company leads that are new (auto rotation, custom lead routing rules etc).

Our current “shark tank” is all or nothing, so if you turn it on, you can’t use the other rules for assignment.

So the difference is, in this case leads are first handled in a best practices assignment / ISA scenario, and only “after” their first bit of time in the system are they eligible for the pool.

Which makes sense - the 2 categories of leads are different “new / hot leads” vs “database leads”

Love this idea the more I think about it

[Morgan]

Pinging @Aayaam and @MattPinneo who assisted me in vetting this solution.

For the dev / PM teams, please ping Matt P with questions

[Pozek]

Yeah we’re excited for this feature. This year we’re really drilling down on how many leads can an agent actually follow up with at a given time? We realized last year that 100 was about right. That said, we’re always asking our agents to topgrade that 100. Pulling from the pool, and throwing back (reject) what they don’t want. It worked really well with our old CRM. Stoked we’ll be able to make it work in REW

[Morgan]

A few questions on this (thanks for sharing btw)

Are there any rules or guidelines the agents have to follow on who they take, how long they have to take them for, what is required as a minimum for follow up… that sort of thing?

How are they measured (are they measured) and held accountable to their follow up?

Is there ever a scenario where they get turned off from leads until they catch up / perform?

Inquiring minds…

[Pozek]

Are there any rules or guidelines the agents have to follow on who they take, how long they have to take them for, what is required as a minimum for follow up… that sort of thing? Yes, only agents who sell 2+ homes a month get new leads. If they haven’t hit the standard, they have to dive into the pool for new leads, hold open houses, prospect in some other way to get business.**

How are they measured (are they measured) and held accountable to their follow up? We have an agent tracking system via google sheets. The ones who convert the best (on a rolling 12 month average) get more/better leads. Our top converters are fed very well

Is there ever a scenario where they get turned off from leads until they catch up / perform? yes 100% only on new/hot leads though. Anyone can log into the pool and take up to 100 regardless of current performance. Gotta remember though, pool leads are the ones who others have not been able to get ahold of. Still great opportunity because some of the older leads convert the best, but essentially they’ve been “cast away” by other agents in the past

[Morgan]

Ok mr @Pozek - looks like we’ll have something to show you for Monday! I just did some reviews / QA and had a few minor tweaks to the feature, but it’s looking in good shape!

Question for you (or a request) - there is a pattern in REW CRM that lets someone know when they are taking an important action (such as deleting a lead, re-assigning etc) and so the programmers added this pattern to Lead Pool, which I totally endorse. (Was a good call)

But they popped in some really quick placeholder content in there, and honestly, I think it’s an opportunity messaging-wise to remind the agents (in a positive and encouraging way) what taking a lead from the lead pool means.

So I wanted to get your thoughts on what to say here:

Example (shooting from the hip)

"*Thank you for stepping up and working lead pool leads! There are so many opportunities within our database and it is such a great way to build relationships via the CRM and earn customers for life. *

*As a reminder, please only take as many leads as you can reliably follow up on, as once you grab a lead from the pool, it’s no longer available for another of our awesome, hard-working agents to work." *

Good luck, and have fun! Ken Pozek~

Now since it’s a custom feature, if I was REALLY getting fun / cheeky, I’d do up a LensaAI version of Ken Pozen in a funny pose and replace the cartoon dude with that.

Finally - we need to change the red to green on the button. This is not a warning, it’s a positive action (CC @aporter)

[Morgan]

Insert worst effort mockup (complete with misspellings) ever!

But I expect points as I’m doing this from the gym!

[Bofficer]

@Morgan I just emailed my account rep looking for guidance on a “pond” for unassigned leads this morning. She mentioned the shark tank, but as I understand its either all new incoming leads go into the shark tank or new leads are distributed as setup in distribution rules.

This “lead pool” or “pond” as some call it, is very common in most CRMs. I know Pozek is paying for this upgrade, but can we get this added to the core CRM in one of the upcoming updates?

[Morgan]

We’re happy to explore adding “pond” to CRM, would need to have user stories created etc (Ken’s application has lots of great features but we would also need to ensure we explore other use cases as well).

What is “lead pond” in your mind Bofficer? How does it work?

[Bofficer]

Much the same as Ken’s…
Agents could send a lead out of their own database into a pond. Leads in the pond are available for any agent to work / take, but are not required to be worked by the initially assigned agent.

This would allow agents to stay focused on the most important 20% instead of the 80%, but also give access to a large group of potential leads should the agent be ambitious.

Not a programmer, but maybe adding “Pond” as an option under Status. Any agent given access to the pond would be able to create a filter to show the pond leads.

[carlosandteam]

@Morgan was this successful? @Pozek are you fully using REW CRM? I’m seriously considering FUB at this point due to this pond issue as well as full Zillow integration, but if this pool/pond has proven successful I might reconsider, it also depends on how many programming hours this actually took to implement of course. Thank you.

[Morgan]

Successful? Well we made it if that is what you mean

You might want to reach out to Ken directly to ask about how it works for his team.

Before considering FUB I would recommend you explore (implementing something like this would be cheaper than a whole other system) but also because there is a VERY compelling new release coming out next month which is the start of some game-changing TM / tracking and budget attribution.

I think you’re really going to love it!