Monthly Meeting Notes Archive

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Since we're moving all of our meeting notes away from Tettra, I thought it would be good to archive them here:

January 2022 Meeting Notes
1) Community Vendor -- Tori Woods with Gray Point Homes
 
2) Announcements
  • Welcome Alex Ellis!
  • Welcome Drew Parker!
  • Welcome Morgan Motley!
  • Welcome Erin Szczerba!
3) Round Table - What are your goals (not business related) for 2022?
 
4) OKRs (December)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • 164 conversations / 1 day 2 hrs of talk time
  • 410 text messages
  • 54,535 emails
Top Talker = Vivia w/ 3hrs 53m
Top Texter = Joe w/ 97 text messages
 
$1M+ Closers
  1. Craig = $4.2M
  2. Kasey = $2.9M
  3. Tara = $2.2M
  4. Joe = $2.1M
  5. Linda =$2M
  6. Shaun = $2M
  7. Vicki = $1.8M
  8. Lauren = $1.8M
  9. Will = $1.5M
  10. Eric = $1.4M
  11. Gabe = $1.4M
  12. Bailey = $1.1M
 
$1M+ Contracts
  1. Lauren = $1.9M
  2. Tara = $1.8M
  3. Vicki = $1.6M
  4. Gabe =$1.3M
  5. Vivia = $1.3M
  6. Shaun = $1.3M
  7. Linda = $1.3M
  8. Ashley = $1.2M
  9. Philip = $1M
  10. Patrick = $1M
 
5a) OKRs (2021)
  • $324.5M in sales
  • Goal was $300M
  • 567 Transactions w/ a $572k average price
  • Goal was 532 units w/ $563k avg price
  • 630 reviews across 3 sites
  • Goal was 792
  • 28 producing agents at the end of 2021
  • Goal was 25
  • 272 ($168.8M) company closings and 295 agent produced closings ($155.7M)
  • Goal was 280 company and 252 agent
  • 5981 inbound marketing calls & 1348 webforms
  • Goal was 5900 calls and 1220 forms
  • Hand out "By the numbers" sheet
 
5b) OKRs (2022)
  • $450M in sales
  • 758 units w/ $594k average price
  • 346 company closings and 412 agent produced closings
  • 7600 marketing calls and 1700 webforms
  • 40 producing agents by the end of 2022
 
6) What we're working on
  • 2022 Kick Off Party!!! Our party is happening at Smash ATX in downtown Austin on Friday, January 21st from 7-10 pm. We will have a private space with an open, premium bar and appetizers. Please invite a +1. We can't wait to celebrate with y'all!!
  • January's educational opportunity is an online class with Austin Land Keepers to talk about land use and zoning in Central Austin. This class will be happening on Zoom on Wednesday, January 19th at 10 am.
  • We spent some time talking w/ agents who converted a high % of leads to see what they're all doing differently. We have an ongoing effort to make the lead conversion process (the Secret Sauce) as simple as possible. We feel like we've found some strong insights. We're going to have a round table on Tuesday, January 25th at 11am to discuss this and we'd love as many people as possible to attend.
  • We're adding brownies to your buyer's home anniversary. These are $14/send ($28 per couple) and they are mailed on the home anniversary of your clients' purchase. Rida is going. To set these up for anyone closed 2020+ (and anyone moving forward.) We do need you to create an account here.
  • We're proud to announce that Tara, Craig, and Stacy are the first agents to start a team at Bramlett Partners! In keeping with our cultural belief that "people are happiest when they have growth opportunities", we knew that we had to formalize a team system here. More on this here.
  • We've launched a new feature where we set up Market Updates within FUB. When you're inside a contact's page, look on the righthand column and you can see it there. Rida is going to move all of your SOI market updates to this feature. You will now be able to see when your past clients are opening these emails from within FUB.
  • We have a new feature in RealScale that will allow Stephen to find new contracts and documents without you sending them to him. This requires that you connect your email to RealScale using this integration. Please go ahead and do so and we'll have more information to everyone. https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTqeZie0s9f90rW5L2Nit4U1y4jfd_VSTHmOlxUFS5PVDbTYjMzUwL1XssZh0KcO_cFuVfU5we7yHeu/pub?urp=gmail_link
  • We've hired a full time graphic designer and he is available for everyone to leverage! (Tyler Martinez) To start, the process to get any custom designs done will be pretty easy - just email [email protected]. There are some design standards that need to be followed and some general best practices that can be found here. Bilal will oversee Tyler in the beginning.
  • We had 56.75% Leads Duty coverage in 2021. Our goal is 100% Leads Duty coverage. This isn't a push to say "cover more leads duty!" It's completely normal to take less leads when your pipeline is full and there are only so many hours in a day. This is one of the reasons why you will see a recruiting push this year.
  • We're searching for a Sales Manager / Coach in earnest. This is a super important hire for us, so we'll be really picky about who we hire. If anyone knows anyone awesome please let us know! https://www.indeed.com/job/sales-manager-coach-high-producing-residential-real-estate-brokerage-13f2e239aebab355
 
7) Market Round Table and General Round Table
 
December 2021 Meeting Notes
1) Community Vendor - Amber Martinez with Achosa Home Warranty will be sponsoring our meeting. She co-hosted the Bramlett Happy Hour a few months ago with Sam Conkey, so a few of you have met her before! For the unfamiliar faces, she will be letting us know about her company and home warranty products they provide.
2) Announcements
Meet Jeremy!
 
3) OKRs (Eric)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • Office Totals:
  • 162 conversations / 1 day 2 hours | 501 text messages | 66,051 emails
  • Top Texter = Eric E with 196!
  • Top Talkers = Eric E with 4 hours 45 min!
  • On company leads, the FUB dialer/text messaging app isn't optional. I'll ask for questions during open discussion.
 
Marketing
440 inbound calls and 81 form submissions. This is a +7% increase in calls and a -21% decrease in form submissions. The market definitely feels slower now than it did last year, but not by a ton. I think we're going to be really, really busy this spring.
 
Office Numbers
  • $26.5M and 47 units closed. This is a -3% decrease in volume and a -6 decrease in units.
  • $25M and 51 units contracted. This is a -13% decrease in volume and a +55% increase in units. (Kasey contracted a $14M property last November.)
  • I'm not surprised at all that we're slightly down over 2020. We're doing much better than I expected. I think the spring will be on fire.
  • First Look Stats show that the Austin Metro is down -12% in units (sales). We're beating the market and gaining market share!
 
$1M+ Closers for November (11)
  • Kasey = $3.4M
  • Tara = $3.3M
  • Will = $2.6M
  • Katie = $2.4M
  • Linda = $2.2M
  • Bailey = $2.1M
  • Ann = $1.9M
  • Patrick = $1.9M
  • Joe = $1.3M
  • Vicki = $1M
  • Craig = $1M
 
$1M+ Contracts for November (11!)
  • Craig = $3.8M
  • Joe = $2.9M
  • Tara = $2.9M
  • Shaun = $2.1M
  • Will = $1.5M
  • Kasey = $1.5M
  • Eric = $1.4M
  • Katie = $1.3M
  • Bailey = $1.1M
  • Gabe = $1M
  • Lauren = $1M
 
4) What We Are Working On/General Announcements:
  • If you have not done so, please make sure and schedule your 2022 goal setting meeting with Eric!
  • Make sure to complete your COE training before the end of this month!
  • ABOR has several classes coming up these next few weeks, please make sure to check the Bramlett Calendar and sign up at the links provided if you can/would like to attend any
  • Leasing, Lease Invoices, & Payments - We have updated our Company Guide to help everyone better understand the process for lease invoices, lease commission checks, and how to check if these have been received/paid by us.
  • Eric
  • Just to reiterate how bullish I am about the spring. I'm a perpetual moderate/skeptic. It goes against my intuition to publicly believe that things are going to be very, very busy in the spring.
  • We're going to run into similar difficulties getting buyers under contract.
  • We need to continue to do our 30 min of daily f/u. This will help you reiterate messaging to your clients and know who's serious.
  • We'll likely discuss "Challenger Sales" a lot again. There's a decent chance we'll create new buyer informational assets to help you guys.
  • The company guide on the website will be finished and published in 1-2 weeks. This turned out to be a pretty big effort.
  • We are testing a new Market Update system that we've built in house. This is a system that will send your clients and past clients weekly updates of new sold properties in their neighborhood. We will hopefully have it available to everyone by the end of December.
  • This is part of a longer term effort to build an in house property search / Client Gateway that will integrate inside of FollowUpBoss.
 
5) Mini Class- Condo Warrantability
 
6) Office Coming Soon and Buyer Needs
 
7) Open Discussion / Round Table
Smart Lists? Eric
 
November 2021 Meeting Notes
 
1) Community Vendor - We have Randy Warrick and Carla Mitchell with DR Horton to tell us about two DR Horton communities: Parker Station and Parks at Westhaven. They will also talk about the DR Horton offer process.
 
2) Round Table - Goal Wins!
 
3) OKRs (Eric)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • Office Totals:
  • 164 conversations / 1 day 3 hours | 618 text messages | 32,619 emails
  • Top Texter = Eric with 164!
  • Top Talkers = Eric with 3 hours 3 min!
  • I'll talk about this more later, but we all need to make an effort to use the FUB dialer/texting.
 
Marketing
484 inbound calls and 130 form submissions. This is a 10.5% increase in calls and a +35% increase in form submissions. This is honestly a headscratcher. It bodes really well for the spring, but I don't see as many qualified leads coming in right now as we did last year. (That's anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt.)
 
Office Numbers
  • $20.7M and 38 units closed. This is a +20.3% increase in volume and a +22.6% increase in units.
  • $23.6M and 40 units contracted. This is a -31% decrease in volume and a -23% decrease in units.
  • October 2020 was during the Pandemic Boom. We have now returned to a more normal seasonality.
 
$1M+ Closers for October (8)
  • Kasey = $2.6M
  • Craig = $2.1M
  • Philip = $2M
  • Steve = $1.8M
  • Patrick = $1.1M
  • Bailey = $1.1M
  • Lauren = $1.1M
  • Tara = $1.2M
 
$1M+ Contracts for October (12!)
  • Will = $2.6M
  • Bailey = $2.3M
  • Kasey = $2.2M
  • Tara = $2.3M
  • Ann = $1.9M
  • Patrick = $1.8M
  • Shaun = $1.7M
  • Katie = $1.4M
  • Gabe = $1.3M
  • Vicki = $1.1M
  • Linda = $1M
  • Lauren = $1M
 
Eric Notes:
Last Fall/Winter were a once in a career experience. The pandemic caused an absolutely insane market that caused buyers to behave abnormally. We are now settling into our new normal. This will be a higher demand environment than 2019 (or previous) but it will not be comparable to 2020. It is 100% normal to see our numbers decline now. We will likely see gains again in the spring, as buyers behave normally and enter the market during the normal season.
 
4) What we're working on / General Announcements:
  • Make sure to do your COE training before the end of the year! Here is our current list of agents needing COE training:
  • Ashley Vavasour
  • Will Mackintosh
  • Gabe Bramlette
  • Delaine Kaplan
  • Eric Engberg
  • Ann Nye
  • Steve Crossland
  • Linda Baddour
  • Lisa Bujulian
  • Kristin Wellborn
  • Next week we have the Income Tax Efficiency class at 10:30 am on Tuesday the 9th at Relay Coworking in Springdale General. Relay Coworking is on the backside of the first building on your right when entering the complex. It is above The Front Page bar. Carlie Bittel with Bittel Books will explain how to be as efficient as possible with your income - particularly she will talk about forming an LLC as a way to take your commissions. She will also talk about general accounting best practices.
  • Next week we also have the Leads Round Table at 10 am on Wednesday the 10th via Zoom. Please plan to attend if you are taking leads or will be taking leads! Come armed with any questions you have!
  • We will be scheduling goal setting meetings for 2022 so start thinking about your goals for next year. Don't forget to set both professional and personal goals that are SMART!
  • S = Specific
  • M = Measurable
  • A = Achievable
  • R = Relevant
  • T = Time bound
  • Eric = Leads accountability. We have a new write up for "Expectations and Eligibility" for Leads Duty. We need everyone to adopt the FUB Dialer and Text messages. We will ultimately have automation that will move leads back to the pond if they are not called/texted from the FUB dialer. (This will come much later, but I want everyone to prepare for it.)
 
5) Mini Class - New HOA Regulations are in effect! Highlights are Subdivision Information (resale cert + governing docs) is capped at $375 and updated resale certs are capped at $75. Check those settlement statements!
 
6) Open Discussion
 
October 2021 Meeting Notes
 
Vendor Intros
  • Elaine Maxey with OneGuard Home Warranty - We can hear from Elaine about how she makes your life easy when it comes to ordering home warranties for your buyers and about the specific unique coverages through OneGuard like the move in services and HVAC.
  • Mark Kendrick with Storybuilt - Mark will be telling us about upcoming sales opportunities with Storybuilt including 3 exciting east side opportunities - The George, Ellie May and Charley.
  • Michelle Loconto with Loco Lens - Meet and greet opportunity with Michelle! Lauren got headshots with her last week, came out great and she offers us an awesome rate!
 
New Agent Intros
 
1) Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
2) OKRs (Eric)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • Office Totals:
  • 79 calls | 822 text messages | 33,070 emails
  • Top Texter = Tyson with 291!
  • Top Dialers = Tyson with 20 dials!
 
Marketing
461 inbound calls and 119 form submissions. This is an -8.6% decrease in calls and a 54% increase in forms over 2020. The market is normalizing. The good news? Our market share (the % of the market we sell) is up massively and prices/commissions are way up.
 
Office Numbers
  • $28.8M and 50 units closed. This is a +34% increase in $ volume and +32% in units.
  • $24.4M and 35 units written/contracted. This is a 66% increase in $ volume and a 30% increase in units.
  • Total sales in the Austin metro were down -10% in August, so we're beating the market.
 
$1M+ Closers for September
  • Craig = $5.2M
  • Tara = $4.7M
  • Will = $2.9M
  • Linda = $2.4M
  • Vicki = $2.3M
  • Kasey = $1.8M
  • Simon = $1.3M
  • Tyson = $1.2M
  • Katie = $1.2M
 
$1M+ Contracts for September
  • Tara = $5.4M
  • Kasey = $4.1M
  • Craig = $3.4M
  • Steve = $1.8M
  • Lisa = $1.3M
  • Tyson = $1M
  • Kristin = $1M
  • Gabe = $1M
 
Eric Notes:
Keep crushing it, guys!!!!!
 
3) What we're working on
  • We are hiring! If you guys know anyone who you think would be a good fit, please reach out to Lauren, Bailey, and Eric. We will always be very selective.
  • We are working on a back end Agent Guide - this will be on Bramlett Partners's website instead of through Tettra. It will be a slow transition but one we are ultimately very excited about!
  • The Stokes sign store is LIVE - https://bramlett.stokesdsignr.com/
  • Eric is hosting his 3 part Listing Series this month on Zoom! Every Tuesday from 10 - 11:30 am for the remainder of the month. This will be recorded and added to the Archived Classes folder.
  • We have our serve day coming up at Community First Village coming up on October 20th from 9 am - 12 pm. I will be circulating details via email this week.
  • We have a Halloween happy hour happening on October 27th with our favorite title team over at Capital Title. Thrive Craft House from 4:30 - 6:30.
  • Make sure to get your COE training done before the end of the year! Your license will be suspended if it is not complete. Agents who still need it:
  • Vivia Robertson
  • Eric Bramlett
  • Tara McGuire
  • Steve Crossland
  • Linda Baddour
  • Kasey Gilliam
  • Lisa Bujulian
  • Kristin Wellborn
  • Gabe Bramlette
  • Will Mackintosh
  • Ashley Vavasour
  • Eric Engberg
4) Mini Class - PIDs! What the heck are they?
5) Round table discussion - Market observations, coming soons, buyer needs, etc...
 
September 2021 Meeting Notes
 
1) Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
2) OKRs (Eric)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • Office Totals:
  • 151 calls | 1841 text messages | 51,098 emails
  • We 3X'ed our text messaging over August!
  • Top Texters
  • Tyson = 521 (Congratulations to Tyson for winning the August challenge!)
  • Patrick = 376
  • Vivia = 223
  • Top Dialers
  • Vivia = 65
  • Tyson = 22
  • Kasey = 16
 
Marketing
428 inbound calls and 71 form submissions. This is an -11% decrease in calls and a -33% decrease in forms over 2020. The market is normalizing. The good news? Our market share (the % of the market we sell) is up massively and prices/commissions are way up.
 
Office Numbers
  • $30M and 48 units closed. This is a +65.7% increase in $ volume and +17% in units.
  • $23.3M and 38 units written/contracted. This is a -7% decrease in $ volume and a -29.7% decrease in units.
  • Total sales in the Austin metro were down -10% in August, so we're beating the market.
 
$1M+ Closers for August (10)
  • Kasey = $5.1M
  • Ann = $4.2M
  • Tara = $3.1M
  • Ashley = $2.5M
  • Katie = $1.8M
  • Gabe = $1.8M
  • Philip = $1.7M
  • Lisa = $1.6M
  • Craig = $1.2M
  • Will = $1.1M
 
$1M+ Contracts for August (6)
  • Craig = $6.1M
  • Will = $2.4M
  • Philip = $2.1M
  • Kasey = $1.5M
  • Linda = $1.3M
  • Vicki = $1.2M
 
Eric Notes:
We have returned to our normal market and normal market seasonality. Since 2020 was not normal, we'll see our huge gains over 2020 start to decline. The fall/winter is a great time to catch your breath and recharge, so make sure to do that. Make sure to pay attention to your pipeline and consistently work on lead gen activities - lead duty or SOI marketing activities. This will set you up for a great spring 2022!
 
3) What we're working on
  • We are hiring! If you guys know anyone who you think would be a good fit, please reach out to Lauren, Bailey, and Eric. We will always be very selective.
  • Agent assets are up on Tettra! You can find them here: https://app.tettra.co/teams/bramlett/pages/agent-marketing-assets
  • Buyer guide and listing presentation are updated
  • Personalized cover pages are done
  • Dedicated photographer and headshots - consistent look and $100 per person.
  • Michelle Loconto with Loco Lens - https://locolens.com/portfolio#portfolio.1
  • Calendar for the rest of the year is updated! You can view it on your Google calendar or at this link: https://bramlettpartners.com/events/
  • Volunteer opportunity to hang holiday lights at Community First Village- October 20th, 9 am - 12 pm.
  • Eric is hosting a 3 part listing series in October!! Very EXCITING!!
  • Holiday party planning
  • Make sure to get your COE training out of the way before the end of the year.
  • 2022 Commission Schedule. This will be rolled out by email this month with invitations to one-on-one calls/zooms for any questions. There will be a lengthy email that goes over everything. This is not a dramatic change, but there are changes.
4) Mini Class - The new Fixture and Residential Lease Addendums
5) Legal Alert! - Email communication as a contract - is it binding?
6) Round table discussion - Market observations, coming soons, buyer needs, etc...
 
August 2021 Meeting Notes
1) Community Vendors
  • Noah Terrazas with MidCity Homes will introduce a new south Austin community - Southstone - opening soon for sales in Phase 1!
  • Tara and Debbie with Loop One Designs will be sponsoring the meeting. They come highly recommended from Tara McGuire as some of her favorite stagers. They will discuss their process, pricing and some of the most bang for your buck items in helping sellers get their homes ready for going on the market.
2) Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
3) OKRs (Eric)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • Office Totals:
  • 146 outbound calls | 657 Text Messages | 91,317 Emails
  • Top Texters
  • Linda = 223
  • Tyson = 111
  • Vivia = 94
  • Top Dialers
  • Vivia = 40
  • Will = 19
  • Lisa = 19
 
Marketing
422 calls and 81 inbound webforms for July. -18% decrease in calls and +15.7% increase in webforms. The inbound volume is slowing and will continue to. This is due to seasonality and a shift in demand.
 
Office Numbers
  • $32.5M and 57 units closed. +39% increase in units and +68.4% increase in $ volume.
  • $30.3M and 50 units contracted. +16% increase in units and +33.5% increase in $ volume.
 
$1M+ Closers for July (13 Total)
  • Kasey = $3.8M
  • Jeff = $3.3M
  • Gabe = $3M
  • Will = $2.8M
  • Tara = $2M
  • Craig = $1.5M
  • Vicki = $1.4M
  • Tyson = $1.4M
  • Patrick = $1.3M
  • Ann = $1.3M
  • Linda = $1.2M
  • Lisa = $1.2M
  • Lauren = $1M
 
$1M+ Contracts for July (13 total)
  • Kasey = $4.5M
  • Ann = $4.2M
  • Ashley = $2.9M
  • Katie = $2.2M
  • Vicki = $2.1M
  • Craig = $1.9M
  • Linda = $1.7M
  • Philip = $1.4M
  • Lisa = $1.3M
  • Gabe = $1.2M
  • Bailey = $1.2M
  • Patrick = $1.1M
  • Lauren = $1.1M
 
Eric Notes:
  • We will see our massive increases slow and we will probably see a month or two where we go down in contracts/sales over 2020. This is OK. Fall/Winter 2020 was an anomaly caused by the global pandemic. It's a great time to check out our seasonality graphs. Seller Seasonality Graph. Buyer Seasonality Graph. This is what we're returning to.
  • It's a great time to take a break. If you're worn out from the crazy market that we've been in for the past 13 months, then slow down. You deserve it.
  • If you are still motivated to keep selling, then work everything that comes your way. This is the time of the year when the leads aren't as straightforward, but it's also the time of year when you can get contracts accepted more easilly.
  • No matter what you do, don't ignore your Daily FollowUp. Even if you're slowing down, you can keep your pipeline consistent by blocking off 30 minutes/day.
 
5) What we're working on
  • Google Drive asset folder - coming soon!
  • New office architectural design
  • Accountability Meetings - check in and discuss structure
  • WIG wins, observations and feedback - Don't forget the text message contest!
  • Fall class schedule
  • Ask Me Anything
6) Mini Class - The Appraisal Waiver
7) Round table discussion
 
July 2021 Meeting Notes
*** Intro with Scott Huckabay of Rollo Insurance *** Scott will talk about some insurance nuances- open peril vs named peril policies, endorsements he thinks are good to add, etc... You can also ask any insurance related questions you may have encountered with clients!
1) Meeting Goals -What are we going to discuss today?
2) Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
3) OKRs (Eric)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • We sent 96,835 emails, 769 text messages, made 178 call attempts, and set 37 appointments!
  • Shout outs to Tyson with 147 text messages, Craig with 119 texts, Simon with 99 texts, Patrick with 97 texts, and Linda with 75 texts!
Marketing
488 inbound calls and 93 form submissions. This is a 28% increase in calls and a 24% increase in forms over 2020. This is a slight uptick over May 2021, but we're watching volume slow quickly.
$1M+ Closers for June (11)
  • Craig = $3.9M
  • Linda = $2.9M
  • Tara = $2.3M Bailey = $2.2M
  • Patrick = $1.9M
  • Gabe = $1.8M
  • Will = $1.7M
  • Kasey = $1.7M
  • Katie = $1.5M
  • Ashley = $1.3M
  • Philip = $1M
  • Lisa = $1M
$1M+ Contracts for June (10)
  • Kasey = $4.2M
  • Will = $3.6M
  • Gabe = $3.4M
  • Jeff = $3.3M
  • Tara = $2.9M
  • Philip = $2.3M
  • Lauren = $2M
  • Ashley = $1.9M
  • Craig = $1.4M
  • Tyson = $1.4M
Office Numbers
  • $33.2M contracted and $26.7M closed in June! This is a +75% increase in contracts and a +100% increase in closings!
  • 17 new 5-star reviews in June!!!
5) What we're working on
  • Onboarding & initial training documentation
  • Agent Handbook
  • Buyer & Seller Assets
  • Updating Buyer's Guide, creating New Construction asset
  • Finalizing update on Listing Presentation
  • New office architectural design
6) WIG round table
7) Round table discussion
 
June 2021 Meeting Notes
1) Meeting Goals -What are we going to discuss today?
2) Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
3) OKRs (Eric)
Leading Indicators (FUB Leaderboard)
  • We manually (not-automated) sent 70,537 emails, 531 text messages, & 139 outbound calls.
  • We need to continue to work on using the app for all text messages and as many calls as possible.
  • Tara = 3811 FUB points
  • Tyson = 3460 FUB points (136 logged texts/calls!)
  • Philip = 2848 FUB points
  • Shout out to Simon with 102 logged texts/calls!
  • Shout out to Chris with 95 logged texts/calls!
Lead Gen Activity
443 inbound marketing calls in May. This is a 46% increase over May 2020. We had a 19% increase in webforms over the same period. We saw a 19% decrease in calls from April 2021 to May 2021. Lead volume continues to normalize. We will likely move into a normalish seasonal market.
$1M+ Closers for May (11)
  • Kasey = $6.2M
  • Vicki = $5.7M
  • Tara = $3.9M
  • Craig = $3.7M
  • Will = $3.1M
  • Gabe = $1.8M
  • Shaun = $1.8M
  • Bailey = $1.4M
  • Ashley = $1.1M
  • Patrick = $1M
  • Lauren = $1M
$1M+ Contracts for May (11)
  • Tara = $6M
  • Craig = $2.9M
  • Patrick = $2.9M
  • Linda = $2.8M
  • Gabe = $2.1M
  • Lisa = $2M
  • Bailey = $1.7M
  • Kasey = $1.7M
  • Katie = $1.4M
  • Shaun = $1.1M
  • Tyson = $1M
Office Numbers
  • $35.4M closed and $29.3M contracted in May! This is a 110% increase in contracts and 155% increase in closings!!!
  • A great early indicator for your 2021 production is your rolling 12 in closings. We track this on the leaderboard. The office rolling 12 is $279M. An even better early indicator is your rolling 12 of contracts. This is the business you've put under contract in the last 12 months. Our office rolling 12 of contracts is $317M. Here are a few highlights of agent rolling 12 of contracts:
  • Kasey = $48.4M
  • Tara = $45M
  • Ashley = $23M
  • Craig = $22M
  • Vicki = $21M
  • Will = $17.8M
  • Linda = $15.5M (This is only 8 months of production for Linda!)
 
4) Market Observations Round Table
5) What we're working on
  • Onboarding & initial training
  • Agent support services
  • Better/simpler "FUB Best Practices / Policies" informational. (Eric)
  • Continued marketing improvements. The market demand looks like it's shifting again, so our strategies will continue to shift. (Eric)
6) Open discussion
 
 
May 2021 Meeting Notes
1) Meeting Goals - standard OKR meeting
2) Round Table Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
3) Market Observations Round Table
4) OKRs
5) What we're working on
6) Open discussion
 
OKRs
$1M+ April Closers (13)
  • Kasey = $9.6M
  • Tara = $5M
  • Linda = $3.5M
  • Bailey = $3.2M
  • Craig = $2.3M
  • Austin = $2.3M
  • Lauren = $2.1M
  • Patrick = $2.1M
  • Will = $2M
  • Ashley = $1.7M
  • Shaun = $1.4M
  • Chris = $1.3M
  • Steve = $1M
$1M+ April Contracts (13 agents!!!!)
  • Vicki = $5.7M
  • Kasey = $4.8M
  • Tara = $4.1M
  • Will = $4.1M
  • Craig = $3.3M
  • Bailey = $2.8M
  • Shaun = $2.1M
  • Gabe = $1.8M
  • Austin = $1.4M
  • Lauren = $1.2M
  • Linda = $1.1M
  • Ashley = $1.1M
  • Patrick = $1M
Office OKRs
  • We closed 58 transactions & $43.7M in volume! This is +176% in units & +297% in dollar volume over 2020!!!!!!! This is the biggest month in closed volume that we've ever had!
  • We contracted 59 transactions & $40.9M in volume! This is our second biggest month of contracts ever (behind March 2021) & the second time that we've broken the $40M mark! This is +168.5% over 2020 for units & +360% in volume!!!!
  • We received 20 new 5-Star reviews. GREAT WORK!
Lead Gen Activity
  • Congrats to #1 Tara, #2 Bailey, & #3 Patrick for their awesome April follow-up activity! (They're at the top of the leaderboard!)
  • We will have a lead follow up round table next week with regards to new policies.
  • April 2021 call volume & inbound forms/chats were up considerably over April 2020, which makes perfect sense, given the state of COVID last year. In hindsight, January 2021 was the peak of the new buyer demand (remember how many investors were calling in?) Our inbound call & form inquiries are down 22% from January 2021. It looks like the market is stabilizing and it looks like lead volume is also normalizing.
What are we working on?
  • We made a revision to the listing presentation and swapped 2 pages with more relevant pages - these are the "listing timeline" and "pricing your property" pages. We're going to make some more revisions, update the PPT, and hold a class on it (likely in June, but possibly July.)
  • We're doing a bunch of planning to roll out more office services. We've not been great about regularly scheduling classes & round tables, and that's going to change (improve.)
 
April 2021 Meeting Notes
1) Meeting Goals - standard OKR meeting
2) Round Table Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
3) "Hard Talk" + Difficult Market success stories & round table
  • "Hard Talk" follow through
  • Some clients need to see for themselves
  • "3 strikes, you're out"
4) OKRs
5) What we're working on
6) Open discussion
 
OKRs
$1M+ March Closers
  • Ashley = $6.6M
  • Kasey = $2.7M
  • Tara = $2M
  • Chris = $1.9M
  • Lauren = $1.7M
  • Philip = $1.2M
  • Shaun = $1M
  • Kristin = $1M
$1M+ March Contracts (12 agents!!!!)
  • Kasey = $9.9M
  • Tara = $6.4M
  • Craig = $3.4M
  • Ashley = $3.1M
  • Patrick = $2.5M
  • Linda = $2.3M
  • Lauren = $2.2M
  • Chris = $1.9M
  • Shaun = $1.8M
  • Will = $1.8M
  • Philip = $1.2M
  • Bailey = $1.1M
Office OKRs
  • We closed 45 transactions & $24.5M in volume! This is +32.3% in units & +70% in dollar volume over 2020!!!!!!!
  • We contracted 59 transactions & $42.5M in volume! This is our biggest month of contracts ever & the first time that we've broken the $40M mark! This is +68.5% over 2020 for units & +148.5% (2.5X) in volume!!!!
  • We received 14 new 5-Star reviews. GREAT WORK!
Lead Gen Activity
  • Congrats to #1 Tyson, #2 Tara, & #3 Philip for their awesome March follow-up activity! (They're at the top of the leaderboard!) Tyson is already at 5 contracts with us!!!
  • We are setting a new follow up policy with regards to number of follow ups & using the app for texting. I'll have more info to everyone this week or early next.
 
What are we working on?
  • We're doing a bunch of planning to roll out more office services. We've not been great about regularly scheduling classes & round tables, and that's going to change (improve.)
  • We're going to launch a Masterminds program & a proper Mentorship program. More on this in the near future.
  • As mentioned above, we're putting together some minimum expectations for lead follow up and FUB activity. That will be rolled out as policy over the next couple of weeks.
 
March 2021 Meeting Notes
1) Meeting Goals - standard OKR meeting
2) Round Table Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes. Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
  • Who has finished "The Challenger Sale" and/or "The 4-Hour Work Week"?
  • Mental health hack: Scheduled "me time"
3) "Hard Talk" + Difficult Market success stories & round table
4) OKRs
5) What we're working on
6) Open discussion
 
OKRs
$1M+ February Closers
  • Tara = $4.5M
  • Shaun = $1.5M
  • Bailey = $1.2M
  • Kasey = $1.1M
  • Joe = $1M
$1M+ February Contracts
  • Tara = $3.6M
  • Linda = $3.3M
  • Ashley = $2.3M
  • Kasey = $2.2M
  • Lauren = $2.2M
  • Chris = $1.3M
  • Katie = $1.1M
Office OKRs
  • We closed $16.4M & 35 units in February! This is 133% more units YOY and 82% more $ volume!
  • We contracted $21.4M & 32 units in February! This is 19% more units & 80% more $ volume!
  • We received 6 new 5-star reviews in February!
  • 602 inbound marketing calls & 151 forms in Feb 2021! this was a 164% increase in calls & a 297% increase in forms!
Lead Gen Activity
  • Congrats to #1 Tara, #2 Philip, & #3 Patrick for their awesome February follow-up activity! (They're at the top of the leaderboard!)
  • Our speed to lead is improving, but we still have a lot of work to do. We'll continue to monitor it this next month to see if the new Lead Ponds will help.
  • Our average # of contact attempts is dropping. It looks like we're not using the app for calling or texting as much as we should be.
 
What we're working on:
  • We updated our website copyright to 2021 and double-checked our email signatures. Reminder to check your email signatures and update anything that references old dates!
  • Corporate broker's license is active. We'll be moving everyone's licenses to Bramlett Partners PLLC this week
  • Lead preview in Followupboss has shipped via "Lead Ponds"! Lead Preview = You can view the details of a lead before claiming it!!!!!! Does anyone have any questions over how to claim leads using the new system?
  • We are starting the process to hire a "Chief Excellence Officer". This is a management role that will fill the gaps in Eric's weaknesses. We will not make a hire until we're 1000% sure it's the right person. This means that it could be 1 week or 1 year until this position is filled. https://www.indeed.com/job/chief-excellence-officer-recruiter-456d8ceacc8f3257
 
February 2021 Meeting Notes
1) Meeting Goals - standard OKR meeting
2) Round Table Goal Wins, Good Reads, & Notable Quotes
  • Eric's new goal (not a win) will be facilitated by a nutrition coach since he's been flatlined for 12 months
  • "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
3) "Hard Talk" success stories & round table
4) Efficiency Improvements, Efficiency Hacks, and/or Unnecessary Friction?
5) OKRs
$1M+ Closers in January
  • Vicki = $2.7M
  • Kasey = $1.6M
  • Shaun = $1.3M
  • Gabe = $1.2M
  • Linda = $1.2M
  • Tara = $1M
  • Katie = $1M
  • Craig = $1M
$1M+ Written Business in January
  • Ashley = $4.1M
  • Kasey = $2.2M
  • Tara = $2.1M
  • Linda = $1.9M
  • Bailey = $1.2M
  • Shaun = $1.2M
  • Gabe = $1.1M
  • Patrick = $1M
Office OKRs
  • 16 new 5-star reviews!
  • $14.2M in closed transactions on 32 units. +238% increase in $ volume & 220% increase in units
  • $20.8M in contracts on 49 units. +53% increase in $ volume & 69% increase in units (nice)
  • 701 inbound calls & 196 form submissions. +183% increase in calls & 270% increase in forms
Lead Gen Activity
 
5) What We're Working On & Discussion Topics
  • Please monitor your own lead gen activity (referenced above.) Round table how to look at this.
  • The most important thing we can do is educate our clients & help them win contracts.
  • 20% or more appreciation is not sustainable. That said, it feels like our demographics are rapidly shifting upwards. I’m going into this assuming that there will be ~45k units on the MLS this year and that there are 100k+ buyers fighting for them. Our job is to coach *our* buyers to be one of the lucky 45k who buy-in this year. Demand should go down next year as prices increases (simply less people can afford them = less people in the market) so hopefully there are ~70k buyers fighting for ~50k units. It will hopefully start to flatten as prices increase. Funny thing is that our commissions are based on volume and volume is based on Units X Price, so we’re all making more money as long as we know how to coach people to show up ready to compete.
  • If you haven't already, read The Challenger Sale.
  • Every time a market shifts & there is adversity, there are winners & losers. The winners gain market share and the losers go out of business. If we're successful this year, we will see a big gain in market share (sales.) I plan to adjust our company goal up from $300M in a month or two when I can see what our new/better trajectory is.
  • Every time a market shifts, there is adversity, you learn to adapt to it, & you gain market share, you've learned new skills and you're a better agent. That skill will be challenging/educating your clients.
  • To adapt to the market, our #1 goal this year is to build a Challenger Salesforce. That's going to be our big win as a brokerage. Challenger Sales will become a part of our culture. Everyone here will be stronger at the end of the year and our brokerage as a whole will be stronger.
  • Homeward notes - what is it & who will it help? Tuesday onboarding at 11am.
  • Sell before you buy - 1.4% w/ Homeward Mortgage & 1.9% without
  • Buy with cash - 0% w/ Homeward Mortgage & 1.9% without
  • Be skeptical of who you take advice from. Generally assume that anything you hear on social media (especially shocking anecdotal claims) are incorrect.
 
January 2021 Meeting Notes
Congrats!
  • Vicki is in the top spot on the leader board with $6.7M for the year already! She's already over halfway to her 2021 production goal!
  • Linda is way up the board and already has $3.1M for the year!
  • We are already at $46M / 105 units for the year!!!
$10M+ Closers in 2020
  • Kasey = $37M
  • Tara = $28.9M
  • Will = $15.8M
  • Lauren = $14.9M
  • Ashley = $14.1M
  • Vicki = $12M
  • Craig = $11.4M
  • Bailey = $11.1M
$10M+ Contracts in 2020
  • Kasey = $34.4M
  • Tara = $33.9M
  • Vicki = $18.7M
  • Ashley = $16.5M
  • Lauren = $16.5M
  • Will = $15.3M
  • Craig = $13.8M
  • Bailey = $11.9M
168 Reviews in 2020
  • Tara = 29
  • Lauren = 17
  • Vicki = 17
  • Bailey = 15
  • Kasey = 15
  • Craig = 14
  • Will = 11
  • Ashley = 10
  • Kristin = 10
 
2020 & 2021 OKRs
 
What We're Working On
  • Big push for more landing pages on the site. These will help us target more geographic areas and have insight into a lead's needs prior to contacting them.
  • We're starting a pilot mentorship program. Kasey & Kristin are the first agents participating. If you're interested, please reach out to me directly. I'm very excited for this for a number of reasons. Mentoring is incredibly fulfilling and receiving mentorship is incredibly helpful. This is an excellent way for us to continue to build our culture and to help everyone be as great as possible.
  • We're implementing a new requirement/policy. Anyone who claims or is assigned a lead is required to use the Call/Text/Email method, to use their FUB phone number for call/text, and to make 4 contact attempts in the first 7 days. The first step to improve is to track, and this allows us to track. (Eric will share screen and show the reports we'll be watching.)
  • Katie sent over some great ideas for new home assets that we'll have the VAs start putting together. New construction will likely become a bigger part of our business due to the lack of inventory and we want to help you guys with that as much as possible.
 
December 2020 Meeting Notes
Congrats!
  • Vicki beat her 2020 production goal last week (and then blew past it by $1M right after that.) Would like to point out that Vicki has $13M+ in contracted/closed business in 2020, but she has contracted $17.5M in 2020!!! Her 2021 is dialed in to be HUGE.
  • Kasey has a record setting property under contract right now that's set to close this week. This will be the highest priced property that the brokerage will have closed!
  • Both Kasey & Tara have contracted $30M+ in 2020!!!
 
Goal Wins - $1M+ November
  • $1M+ Closings (12 total agents!!!)
  • Will = $3.9M
  • Tara = $3.8M
  • Ashley = $2.8M
  • Craig = $2.3M
  • Bailey = $2.2M
  • Kasey = $2.1M
  • Vicki = $1.9M
  • Gabe = $1.4M
  • Ann = $1.2M
  • Kristin = $1.1M
  • Lauren = $1M
  • Shaun = $1M
  • $1M+ Contracts
  • Kasey = $16.9M!!!!!!
  • Katie = $2.8M
  • Ashley = $2M
  • Linda = $1.5M!!!
  • Tara = $1.4M
  • Craig = $1.2M
 
October OKRs
  • We closed $28.4M & 52 transactions in November! This is a 255% increase in $ volume and a 189% increase in units sold! This is our biggest month of closings ever!!!
  • We contracted $29.9M and 37 transactions in November! This is a 327% increase over November 2019 sales volume and a 147% increase in units sold!!!! This is the 2nd biggest month we've ever had in contracts written!!!
  • Our inbound marketing call volume in November 2020 was up 95% over November 2019!!!
  • We received 19 new 5-star reviews in November!!!
  • We are tracking to close $205M this year w/ 389 sales!!!
  • YTD, we have contracted 411 properties at $213.4M. These are huge numbers. This is a 68% increase in $ volume and a 39.3% increase in units. JUST HUGE!!!
  • We are already going into 2021 with 47 properties & $21.3M set to close! 2021 is already off to a great start and it's only December 2020!!!
  • We are dialing up marketing spend on Jan 1. We have some marginal ad sources that we're going to put more money into, in the interest of generating as many calls as possible!!!
 
Discussion
  • The company roster & company docs pages are live on TFY. Please make sure to upload your headshot to Transactify.
  • New build inventory - waiting lists and how to move forward. (Craig)
  • Gmail Priority Inbox - What is it and how is it different than the default?
  • https://www.thnks.com/ - What is it and how can we use it? How are we currently testing it? (Listings & coop agents.)
  • I am rolling out a new Phone Duty feature (today) where users will "press 1 if a buyers, press 2, if a seller, press 3 if something else." This will reduce the number of junk calls and route good calls more efficiently. We're going to test this for 1-2 weeks. The downside is that we will have more hangups. Very strong likelihood we will roll this back before the busy season hits, just out of caution.
  • Lead Distribution: We are moving to "first to claim" for all leads that Bailey & Tara assign.
  • It's imperative that you have the FUB app installed with "noisy" alerts.
  • For now, you won't be able to preview a lead before accepting it. If you accept a lead that you can't work (not in your service area or price), you want to go ahead and reach out to the lead and start the conversation. At the same time, email [email protected] to see who can help.
  • Let's discuss. Please speak up if you have questions about this. Likewise, if you have comments or concerns. Happy to discuss "why".
  • Speed to Lead & "Call, Text, Email". We have to always use "Call, Text, Email" and text through the app (best practice to also call through the app, but understand it can be clunky.) https://app.tettra.co/teams/bramlett/pages/speed-to-lead-call-text-email
  • We will have our company Annual Goals / OKRs review during the next meeting. This is always super fun and a great look back at the year. We'll release our 2021 OKRs at that point.
  • The goal setting class is tomorrow. I'd like to meet with anyone who would like to meet for a 30 minute one-on-one goal setting Zoom meeting. I'll send a Calendly link out to everyone after the class.
 
November 2020 Meeting Notes
Welcome Philip Myers, Patrick Hallett, & Austin Pitts!
 
Goal Wins - $1M+ October
  • $1M+ Closings
  • Tara = $3.3M
  • Craig = $2.7M
  • Bailey = $2.1M
  • Lauren = $1.4M
  • Kasey = $1.1M
  • $1M+ Contracts (11 total agents!!!)
  • Tara = $5.4M
  • Vicki = $5.2M
  • Lauren = $4.5M
  • Will = $2.7M
  • Bailey = $2.2M
  • Gabe = $1.7M
  • Craig = $1.6M
  • Ann = $1.2M
  • Kasey = $1.2M
  • Kristin = $1.1M
  • Shaun = $1M
 
October OKRs
  • We closed $17.2M & 31 transactions in October! This is a 115% volume increase & a 63% unit increase over 2019!!!
  • We contracted $34.6M & 61 transactions in October!!! This is a 374% increase in volume & a 205% increase in unit count over October 2019!!! This is the biggest month we've ever had, and it's in a historically slow month!!!
  • Our inbound marketing call volume in October 2020 was up 49% over October 2019!!!
  • We received 19 new 5-star reviews in October!!!
 
What We're Working On
  • The new website has been live for ~2 weeks! This turned out to be a pretty massive effort. We're continuing to work on it and build out more features & pages.
  • The 2021 ACB designs will be white (per the office survey results.) We are modifying the design elements slightly.
  • We're in the beginning stages of building out an integration between Matrix & FUB. This would allow you to see Matrix login history within FUB.
  • We've started developing the Transactify Agent Roster & Office Listings features.
  • We've obviously grown a decent amount recently. I want to reassure everyone that this isn't a big push for growth. We are 100% focused on agent quality, not quantity. I'm absolutely thrilled at how great of agents & people everyone here are, and that will always be our focus!
 
Discussion Topics
  • Call, text, email every lead that comes in by webform, chat, or receptionist (not a phone duty lead.)
  • Phone duty & seller leads. IT's critical that we follow the process of texting all 4 LAs w/ the address and then sending whoever is available the lead.
  • Seasonal slow down? Call volume in October decreased 14% from September. We might be seeing the start of a temporary slow down.
  • FollowUpBoss tips & pointers?
  • SOI Marketing discussion. Beyond the autopilot cakeballs, cards, & emails, what else are people doing? Any questions?
 
October 2020 Meeting Notes
Goal Wins - $1M+ September
  • $1M+ Closings
  • Tara = $4.7M!!!!!!!!
  • Kasey = $4.1M!!!!!!!
  • Craig = $2.2M
  • Lauren = $1.7M
  • Ann = $1.6M
  • Bailey = $1.2M
  • Chris = $1.1M
  • Vicki = $1M
  • Shaun = $1M
  • $1M+ Contracts
  • Ashley = $4M!!!!!!!!
  • Bailey = $3M!!!!!!
  • Tara = $2.2M
  • Kasey = $1.1M
  • Craig = $1M
 
OKRs
  • We closed $22.3M in September! This is our biggest month of closed business ever and is a 97% increase over September 2019 ($11.3M)!!!!!
  • We contracted $17.5M in September! This is a 103% increase over September 2019 ($8.6M)!!!!
  • Our inbound marketing call volume in September 2020 was up 49% over September 2019!!!
  • We received 7 new 5-star reviews!!!
 
Seasonal Slowdown?
It makes perfect sense that we will see some slowdown as we get closer to the holidays. We're seeing this with our September contracts vs August contracts. However, this year is considerably busier in the Austin market than in past Septembers. Likewise, our marketing is outperforming past years. So, it doesn't feel as slow as it generally does. If you need to take a break now - take a break. Burnout is real. If you are still working (happily) hard, then continue working hard. However, don't be worried when things slow down even more in October and then November.
****There is a HIGH likelihood that Jan-April 2021 will be insane. Take some R&R and start preparing now.***
 
What We're Working On
  • We're going to go ahead and cancel our round table discussion on 10/20. This will be a listing agency class followed by round table discussion on listing agency. Moving forward, we're going back to our "one meeting per month & 1-2 classes per month" schedule. The round tables were awesome during COVID, but we want to focus on meeting quality now, not quantity.
  • Rida will manage "pause leads" when agents go on vacation. I'll send an email about this, but please email Rida/Bailey/Eric when you're going on vacation and we will pause leads to you. (New feature in FUB.)
  • Eric is moving the "missed calls" off of agents - should create a "Rida Malik" user and she manages them. Need automation for when someone responds.
  • Better FUB integrations are now built into Transactify. Deals reporting & TFY edit screen searches for existing users.
  • TFY "easy wins" coming next, which will include the office listings / coming soons & agent/staff roster.
  • Still working on getting the new site launched.
 
September 2020 Meeting Notes
 
Goal Wins - August Closings!
  • $1M+ Closings
  • Tara = $4.2M!!!!!!
  • Kristin = $2.1M
  • Ashley = $1.8M
  • Kasey = $1.3M
  • Vicki = $1.7M
  • Will = $1.7M
  • $1M+ Contracts (11 agents!!!!!!)
  • Tara = $7.2M!!!!!!!
  • Kasey = $2.1M
  • Craig = $1.9M
  • Chris = $1.8M!!!!
  • Lauren = $1.7M
  • Bailey = $1.7M
  • Ann = $1.6M
  • Vicki = $1.2M
  • Will = $1.1M
  • Jeff = $1M!!!
  • Shaun = $1M
 
OKRs
  • We closed $18.5M under contract in August 2020!!! This is a 52% increase over August 2019!!!
  • We contracted $24.7M in August! This is a 175% increase over August 2019 and is our biggest month ever!!!!!!!! (July 2020 was previously our biggest month at $23.4M)
  • Our inbound marketing call volume in August 2020 was up 14% over August 2019!!!
  • We received 16 new 5-star reviews!!!
 
What we're working on:
  • We're still working on launching the new bramlettresidential.com site.
  • We are now posting all Property Showcase listings on bramlettresidential.com/properties - The goal is for you guys to be more comfortable/excited about sharing your listings.
  • Rida is proactively sending you social media images to share. Bear in mind that she is not sharing these on your page (she can't.) You have to share them after she's provided them to you.
  • We'll have a meeting over the new FUB features & leaderboard next week. It will be in the morning. Do you guys prefer 9 or 10am for these calls?
 
August 2020 Meeting Notes
 
July Goal Wins!
  • $1M+ Closings
  • Will = $3M!!!
  • Yoder = $2.9M!!!
  • Kasey = $2.4M!!!
  • Tara = $1.9M
  • Shaun = $1.5M
  • Ashley = $1.3M
  • Vicki = $1.2M
  • (Katie at $940k!)
  • $1M+ Contracts (9 agents!)
  • Tara = $4.1M!!!!!!!!
  • Kasey = $3.5M
  • Craig = $2.9M
  • Ashley = $2.1M
  • Kristin = $2.1M!!!
  • Will = $1.9M
  • Lauren = $1.6M
  • Bailey = $1.4M
  • Vicki = $1.3M
 
OKRs
  • We closed $19.6M under contract in July!!! This is the biggest month of closed business that we've ever had. This is a 38% increase over July 2019!!!
  • We contracted $23.4M in July! This is a 129.4% increase over July 2019 and is our biggest month ever!!!!!!!!
  • Our inbound marketing call volume in July 2020 was up 31% over July 2019!!!
  • We received 20 new 5-star reviews!!! The new review request automation is working incredibly well!!!!!
 
What We're Working On
  • More Transactify automation & feautres.
  • Coding the new site at https://bramlettresidential.com is moving along. Will hopefully have that launched in September.
  • One of our new marketing sources is just crushing it for inbound phone calls.
  • We are continuing to experiment with higher funnel (lower quality) leads and follow up automation.
Notable Quotes & Good Reads?
Discussion Topics
  • Preferred Lender Program
  • Sanity checks
  • How quickly agents can get to 90% proficiency. How long it takes to get the remaining 5% and 4% (no one ever gets to 100%.)
  • What is a sanity check?
  • Who would you guys guess calls me the most with questions?
  • How many times a week would you guess that I call other folks w/ questions?
 
June 2020 Meeting Notes
June Goal Wins!
  • $1M+ Closings
  • Will = $2.9M
  • Bailey = $1.9M
  • (Kasey, Vicki, & Lauren were all in the ~$900k range!)
  • $1M+ Contracts (10 agents!)
  • Will = $2.5M
  • Kasey = $2.4M
  • Lauren = $2M
  • Ashley = $1.8M
  • Kristin = $1.6M
  • Tara = $1.4M
  • Katie = $1.4M
  • Vicki = $1.2M
  • Shaun = $1.1M
  • Craig = $1M
OKRs
  • We put $19.6M under contract in June!!! This is the biggest month of business written that we've ever had. This is a 16% increase over June 2019!!!
  • Our inbound marketing call volume in June 2020 was up 19.8% over June 2019!!!
  • We received 8 new 5-star reviews!!!
 
What We're Working On
  • We rolled out the new review request automation and we're already seeing phenomenal results. We've already received 12 reviews for July.
  • Coding the new site at https://bramlettresidential.com is moving along.
  • We have positive results from one new marketing source and okay results from a second.
Notable Quotes & Good Reads?
Round Table Discussion.
 
Weekly COVID-19 Crisis Meetings
June 5 Weekly Meeting
 
June 1 Weekly Meeting
May Goal Wins!
  • $1M+ Closings
  • Kasey = $2.6M
  • Tara = $2.1M
  • Vicki = $1.8M
  • Ashley = $1.5M
  • Helen = $1.2M
  • Will = $1.1M
  • Katie = $1M
  • (Shaun at $940k!!!)
  • $1M+ Contracts
  • Will = $3.1M
  • Helen = $1.9M
  • Shaun = $1.2M
  • Vicki = $1.1M
  • Bailey = $1M
  • (Craig at $905k!!!)
OKRs
  • We put $12.8M under contract in May. This is a only a 6% decline over May 2019!!! (We had a 35% decline in April 2020/2019.)
  • Because of all of the marketing experiments we've been running, we still can't track/compare assigned leads. Too many high funnel / bad leads that would make things look better than they are.
  • Our inbound marketing calls (one type of "good lead") were down 27% over May 2019. This is good news! These were down as much as 70% during the peak of the crisis.
  • The second half of May showed only a 15% decline over the same period in 2019.
  • Things are trending in the right direction!!!
  • We received 10 new 5-star reviews!!!
 
What We're Working On
  • Eric is continuing to work on marketing and is still focused on providing quality leads. We are still generating more high funnel leads, but we're working on automation to hopefully turn these into warmer leads.
  • We will continue weekly meetings through June and will assess moving to bi-weekly in July.
  • Unless something happens, we will likely move back to "in person" meetings in August.
  • We are still renovating the office. We decided to tear out the drop ceiling.
Notable Quotes & Good Reads?
Why is Price/SqFt a terrible metric when pricing a property?
Round Table Discussion.
Transition to "Buyer Inspections & Expectations" -- https://app.tettra.co/teams/bramlett/pages/buyer-inspections-expectations
 
May 25 Meeting
Make-a-Wish / Over the Edge update (not sure what's going on with it - postponed)
 
May 11 Weekly Meeting
Market/Marketing Update
  • Consumer Confidence update - April was bad at 71.8. This is the lowest it's been since Dec 2011, which was the tail of the 2008 recession. This is likely the low, but we don't know how long we'll be in a low.
  • Looking at 2 weeks of data, web traffic is slightly up over 2019. (Source: GA)
  • Call volume is still down (Callrail). We're down 36% YOY.
  • Conclusion: Motivated buyers/sellers have not re-entered the market.
  • We're continuing to spend on less profitable sources in order to monitor the market and get as much business as possible, at any profitable spend.
  • Operating under the assumption that Austin will recover incredibly quickly & strongly. However, we don't know when that recovery will begin.
Newsletter
We should receive April market data from Independence this week. If we do, we'll send out a market update that discusses these stats. We may or may not include numbers on leading indicators. The leading indicators do look much better than they did from March 16-April 15, but things just aren't improving as quickly as we'd like.
TEA School Calendar
Round Table Discussion
 
May 4 Weekly Meeting
April Goal Wins!
  • $1M+ Closings
  • Kasey = $1.9M
  • Katie = $1.25M
  • Tara = $1.075M
  • Helen = $1M
  • $1M+ Contracts
  • Tara = $2.4M
  • Ashley = $1.5M
  • Shaun = $1.2M
  • Vicki = $1.1M
OKRs
  • We put $10.1M under contract in April. This is a 35% decline over 2020, and is to be expected, all things considered. I'm hopeful that we'll see a smaller delta between May 2019 and 2020, but if we still see a 35% decline, we will be okay.
  • We are not tracking the assigned leads in April 2020. We had so much high funnel, experimental marketing, that it's not good data.
  • We received 12 new 5-star reviews!!!
 
COVID Marketing & Leading Indicators
  • From 3/16-4/15, organic search was down 43%. (GA data) Inbound calls were down 54%. (Over 2019) (Callrail data)
  • From 4/16-4/30, organic search was up 6%. Inbound calls were down 28%.
  • Anecdotally, high funnel leads are up. "Good leads" aren't up, but not as down.
  • Conclusion: People are searching online for real estate, but new buyers/sellers are not reaching out to agents (yet.) The "good leads" (low funnel) will be the last to come back.
 
What We're Working On
  • We're rolling back live call transfer.
  • We're working on how to automate and try out "call back a missed call". There's some automation that can be built in that should be helpful and I want to get that working before rolling it out.
  • Trying out experimental marketing again.
  • Proven marketing is still running unchanged. Borderline marketing has been paused. As soon as we determine that inbound calls are back, we will resume "borderline" marketing and increase the spend there. We'll treat it like it's January 1.
  • Yelp office address - courtesy notice
  • Newsletters. Please let me know if/when you guys think it's time to stop sending these weekly. We're planning to do a "leading indicators" update this Friday b/c it's good news, a market report analysis when the data is available in the next 1-2 weeks, and one over the lending environment. IF we start stretching for content, we'll slow down the pace of these.
Opportunities during a crisis.
Notable Quotes & Good Reads?
Round Table Discussion.
 
April 27 Weekly Meeting
  • Lead distribution changes. We're continuing to do the live call transfer and are going back to the direct lead distribution we used in the past.
  • Email to sphere that asks a question, "Is there anything you would like us to look into and write about?"
  • Monthly challenges breakout group.
  • Round table discussion.
  • FUB - bulk emailing feature
 
April 20 Weekly Meeting
 
April 13 Weekly Meeting
  • Final website design survey - Eric will send a link and discuss how to vote.
  • Layout and overall "feel" is how you should vote.
  • Please make comments on specific elements that you think could be changed (font, small location changes, button color, etc) but vote based on how you feel about the site. We can easily make changes to these things and will absolutely test them out.
  • Copy doesn't matter - ignore any typos or wording that you don't like (but comment about them)
  • The site will be responsive, meaning that a mobile version will be served when a user has that device. Focus on the desktop version, but do consider the mobile version secondarily. If a specific option only has a desktop version, just vote and give feedback based on that, understanding that there will be a mobile version designed.
  • We are going to test different images than the office photo. To start, this will have the office photo on the home page and over time, that will be tested against other images that we'll brainstorm.
  • Live call transfer update.
  • Round table - topics for newsletters.
  • Round table - how is everyone doing, what are they seeing, what can we do to support you?
 
April 2020 Meeting Notes
  • Goal Wins! Are there any personal/professional goal wins anyone would like to share?
  • $1M+ Closings in March
  • Kasey = $2.5M
  • Tara = $2M
  • Helen = $1.7M
  • Bailey = $1.5M
  • Ashley = $1.25M
  • Lauren = $1.2M
  • $1M+ Contracts in Feb
  • Tara = $2.8M
  • Kasey = $2.8M
  • Vicki = $1.9M
  • Lauren = $1.3M
  • Jenn = $1.2M
  • Katie = $1.2M
 
OKRs
I want to point out that we will likely not see big gains for the next few months, which is 100% okay. We will still monitor our Key Results.
  • We put $17.9M under contract in March 2020. This is the biggest month we've ever had for business written and is a 43% increase over March 2019!
  • We assigned 113 leads in March 2020 vs 133 in March 2019. This is a 15% decrease. (Likley due to COVID.)
  • We received 7 new reviews!
 
COVID Marketing Monitoring
I'm setting 3/16 as the "start date" for COVID when comparing YOY numbers. All numbers below compare 3/16/2019-3/31/2019 vs 3/16/2020-3/31/2020
  • 2019 Assigned Leads = 55 // 2020 = 54. (Not much of a drop. Anecdotally, it seems like the lead quality has been reduced. Bear in mind that we had a YTD increase of 44%, so this is a decent sized drop from our 2020 gains.)
  • Total website pageviews (regardless of source) are down 56%.
  • Paid search traffic is down 70%.
This is a really solid baseline from which we'll measure. When we see these numbers start to trend the other direction, we'll know we're starting to come out of the downturn.
 
What We're Working On
  • The home page redesign contest is wrapping up. Here's a poll on 8 finalists (there are 16 and I'll likely share another poll after this one.) https://99designs.com/contests/poll/7cb17eb285
  • The stairs at the office are being demolished! My goal is to have the office 99% renovated and designed by the time we're through "shelter in place".
  • Per my email, the EIDL & the PPP are the two government programs that everyone should look into and apply for. You'll apply w/ the PPP at your bank and the EIDL is available here. https://www.sba.gov/disaster-assistance/coronavirus-covid-19#section-header-3 Everything is super fluid right now, but it doesn't take a ton of time to apply for these programs and these are the most actionable steps you can take.
  • Monitoring marketing.... I'll continue to let you guys know how things are looking. We're still in the downward portion of this recession - possibly "flatlining" at the bottom as a best case.
 
Round Table Discussion! I'd love to hear from everyone here.
 
March 2020 Meeting Notes
Fun & Personal
  • Over the Edge ($100+)
  • Lauren = $759
  • Tara = $744
  • Ashley = $309
  • Craig = $159
  • Vicki = $109
 
  • Goal Wins! Are there any personal/professional goal wins anyone would like to share?
  • $1M+ Closings in Feb
  • Tara = $3M
  • Kasey = $1.8M
  • Helen = $1M
  • $1M+ Contracts in Feb
  • Kasey = $2.5M
  • Lauren = $2M
  • Helen = $1.5M
  • Bailey = $1.3M
  • Craig! = $1.1M
  • HUGE Gains
  • Kasey is up 268% over 2019
  • Tara is up 180%
  • Will is up 90%
  • Ashley is up 23%
  • Efficiency Hacks? Unnecessary Friction?
  • Good Reads?
 
OKRs
  • We put 30 properties and $13.9M under contract in February!
  • This is a 58% increase over 2019
  • We are up 56% YTD over 2019 for contracts written! We are up just over $10M in contracts written over 2019.
  • We are at $41.2M / 86 sales / $1.15M in GCI contracted/closed for the year!
  • This is just over $10M more than 2019 and a 33% increase!
  • We assigned 124 leads in February!
  • This is a 35% increase over February 2019 (92 in Feb 2019)
  • We are up 44% YTD
  • Looks like the market became hot really early (more on that later)
  • We received 9 five star reviews in February!
  • We are at 20 five star reviews for the year.
 
What We're Working On
  • The interior office design is ~90% complete. It doesn't look that way, but the remaining 10% is what ties everything together.
  • We're building an automatic email feature for you guys to request reviews from your clients. This will be sent 1 day after the closing date in TFY to anyone rated 4+ stars. It's critical that you keep your closing dates accurate so that the system doesn't request a review (coming from you) for a deal that hasn't yet closed. This should be tested and deployed in around a month.
  • We started working on the PDF Reader feature to make entering transactions easier. This should be tested and deployed by the end of April. ("Should" being the operative word.)
  • We're running a design contest to refresh the website. It will take a while to actually develop everything, but I'll share progress with you guys as we go.
  • We'll be able to A/B test messaging better when this is done. We're going to play around w/ messaging that moves away from "Eric Bramlett" to see if we can achieve the same results with "Bramlett Team" or "Bramlett Partners" to make lead conversion (when you talk with them) easier.
 
Discussion
  • Policy & Best Practices: We now have an intermediary policy. If the brokerage acts as an intermediary, the buyers must be assigned to an agent other than the listing agent.
  • Policy & Best Practices: Eric is writing a policy regarding pre-MLS offers & multiple offers. Eric is writing a "best practices" for encouraging multiple offers.
  • Policy Discussion: We need to create a policy for when one agent has two separate buyers that would like to make an offer on the same house. Let's discuss what's worked in the past and set a policy.
  • Early market - all signs point to the earliest "busy" market I have ever seen. This means that it will likely cool early.
 
February 2020 Meeting Notes
Fun & Personal
We are signed up for the Austin Over the Edge charity. This is an event that benefits the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Please sign up if you haven't already!
 
Goal Wins!
 
Efficiency Hacks, Efficiency Improvement Ideas, & Unnecessary Friction
 
OKRs
  • Does anyone have goal wins to share?
  • $1M+ Closings in January
  • Kasey closed $1.3M
  • Tara closed $1.3M
  • $1M+ Contracted in January
  • Tara contracted $5.4M in January!!!!!!!
  • Helen contracted $2.6M!
  • Ashley contracted $2.1M!
  • HUGE Gains
  • Kasey is up 252% over 2019!
  • Tara is up 229% over 2019!
  • Ashley is up 44% over 2019!
  • Craig is up INFINITY over 2019! (He has 2 contracts on the board already!)
 
Efficiency Hacks, Efficiency Improvement Ideas, & Unnecessary Friction
 
OKRs
  • We put 28 properties under contract at $13.45M in January!
  • January is typically a slow month. These are "March Numbers!"
  • This is a 39% increase over 2019. However, if you remove Eric's numbers, 2020 is up 89% over 2019!
  • We are at $26.45M for the year already!
  • This is a 21% increase over 2019.
  • If you exclude Eric's production, we are up 41% over 2019!
  • We assigned 145 leads in January.
  • This is above/beyond the pace we need to hit our goal of 1478 assigned leads for the year.
  • This is a 48% increase over January 2019. It's a 130% increase over Jan 2018.
  • We received 11 5-star reviews in January!
  • This is a little low for our 180 review target, but January is a slow closing month.
 
What We're Working On
  • We're going to start posting the meeting notes top down, meaning the most recent meeting notes will be at the top of this document.
  • The Culture Code Deck is done!!! (But we'll always improve it.)
  • The office furniture & design pieces have been ordered and most are in!!!
  • The office staircase permit package was approved!
  • Eric removed himself from the TXFY Leaderboard. This is in the interest of promoting everyone else's production and is not intended to hide my production in any way. If you're ever interested in what my production is - just ask!
 
Discussion
1) Would you guys like a "multiple offers" best practices write up? Would you like this to be a set policy so that you can say "we have to do it this way."
2) We created an "Agent Policies" page. We'll keep this as minimalist as possible, but we will add policies as it's appropriate. This is in the interest of helping everyone have something to point to when sticky situations come up. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for this.
3) Elevator pitch & email brags
  • "I want to work with Eric" isn't something that's super common, but it definitely happens. Your goal needs to be able to reflexively explain why you're just as good (or better) than "working with Eric".
  • "Senior Buyers Agent" and "Senior Listing Agent"
  • Check the competitive metrics here - https://app.tettra.co/teams/bramlett/pages/competitive-metrics - "I sold more than 95% of agents in Austin last year by $ volume & units."
  • Elevator Pitch & Email Brag
  • Create a 1-2 line email "brag" about you specifically. $ volume, # of reviews, # of years in the business, etc...
  • Create a 15s elevator pitch. "I'm a senior buyer's agent and closed XX in 2019, which is more than XX% of all agents in Austin. Our team cares a ton about our reputation, which is how you found us. I would be happy to send you a link to my reviews. You're in great hands!"
4) How to respond to rebate requests
  • "Let me ask the broker" or "Company policy" is not a great response. People don't care what company policy is. They want to know why you can't rebate and it's best to explain to them why it's in their best interest that you don't.
  • Buyer Response
  • If after you're under contract or have been working with them for sometime (enough to develop a rapport)
  • I'm really sorry, but I don't discount. There are lots of companies out there that will do so and you'll always get an inexperienced agent and/or an agent with a lot less availability. I provide all of my clients full service and I have a bunch of experience in the area where you're buying, so I don't discount my commission. If we'd talked about this initially, I definitely could have given you some rebate brokerage options, but at this point, it's not something that I'll do.
  • If prior to going under contract or prior to building rapport:
  • I'm really sorry, but I don't discount. There are lots of companies out there that will do so and you'll always get an inexperienced agent and/or an agent with a lot less availability. I provide all of my clients full service and I have a bunch of experience in the area where you're buying, so I don't discount my commission. Would you like me to give you some names of agents/brokerages that do discount?
  • Seller Response to "Is your commission negotiable?" or "Will you do this for X%?"
  • This is trickier. In my experience, it's not uncommon for sellers to ask if commission is negotiable. You ca respond with one of the following:
  • I don't negotiate my commission. There are definitely agents that will do so, but they won't have my experience or track record. Earlier in my career, I would certainly discount because I didn't have a lot of listings. Since I'm established, I don't have to discount any more.
  • What did you have in mind? -- From there, go down to 5.5% (2.5% to us), but no lower. In my experience, sellers who will meet you at 5.5% are reasonable and good to work with. Every seller I've worked with who demands 5% (or lower) has turned into a huge pain.
  • There are exceptions to this - referrals from out of state, attorneys who understand the 25% referral fee, people who are buying/selling, etc....
 
January 2020 Meeting Notes
Personal/Accomplishments
$1M+ Closings
  • Ashley = $2.2M
  • Lauren = $2.1M
  • Vicki = $1.6M
  • Tara = $1.5M
$1M+ Contracts
  • Kasey = $5.5M
  • Bailey = $1.4M
  • Vicki = $1.1M
 
Marketing Numbers - Year to Date (Jan 1-12)
  • Assigned leads are up 132%!!!
  • Inbound calls are only up 9%
  • This is a small dataset, so it's not worth taking any action on. However, it's a very good leading indicator.
 
Office Numbers
  • December 2019 closings were up 24%!
  • December 2019 contracts were up 115% to $11.5M!!!!!
 
We are implementing Culture KRs in 2020
  • Company participation in 1 charity event
  • Monthly lunch meetings scheduled at least 3 weeks in advance
  • Quarterly events scheduled at least one month in advance
  • Office renovation completed in Q1
  • Culture deck completed for public consumption in Q1
  • Quarterly or monthly learning opportunities
 
What we're working on
  • The Culture Code is 95% finished. If anyone would like to see it, let us know.
  • Eric is still working on a website refresh. This is a second level task.
  • Conni will have the office design completed sometime soon.
  • We are (still) waiting on permit approval of the stairs.
  • Charity = https://austinovertheedge.com/index.cfm. This benefits the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The event is very fun and it's a team event. At the event, there is face painting, food, drinks, etc, and the Wish Kids are there.
  • New lunch format = Monthly lunches are now 2 hours. Goal is for the sponsor & Eric to be done talking w/in 1 hour. This leaves 1 hour for open discussion.
  • We're implementing monthly classes. These will be lead by different agents in the brokerage and very select vendors who bring a value add (FollowUpBoss, for example.)
 
Discussion
  1. Food at the monthly lunches - simplifying. Will send a poll.
  2. New Coming Soon policy and office Coming Soons.
  3. Receptionist leads - Vicki
  4. Listing presentation class - what we'll go over.
  5. Quarterly Events: What would you guys like to do?
  6. Monthly 2 hour classes: What would you guys like to cover in classes?
  7. Lead distribution & limitations of text message "claiming".
 
December 2019 Year End Meeting Notes
Personal/Accomplishments
  • We beat our annual goal of $131M! We're at $132,984,898
  • Tara McGuire = $21,793,015
  • Vicki Duran = $14,263,077
  • Kasey Gilliam = $13,614,259
  • Lauren Yoder = $11,899,090
  • Will Mackintosh = $11,128,663
  • Katie Evans = $10,608,110
  • 7 out of 10 producing agents beat $10M in production this year! That is just phenomenal. Way to go everyone!!!
 
Marketing Numbers - Year to Date
  • Inbound marketing calls were up 44.74% over 2018.