January 8, 2025 • 7 mins
Sometimes, what we think is helpful can create the opposite effect.
I poured my energy into building funnels for real estate agents, thinking I was giving them a surefire way to streamline their businesses. But instead of simplifying things, it seemed to complicate them even more. The reality? Agents were getting stuck on the details—missing the nuanced execution that turns a funnel from a template into a powerhouse conversion tool.
So, I started asking myself: What would really make these funnels work for agents? I began experimenting and noticed the importance of a comprehensive onboarding process, the kind that ensures every client goes through the same touchpoints seamlessly. This shift has been eye-opening, and I see now how crucial it is to connect the dots between initial contact and sustained engagement.
I’ve been tweaking our approach, integrating more backend scripting and automations, and focusing on the symbiotic relationship between content and client relationships. It's still a work in progress, but I'm already seeing a big shift in how agents respond and engage with their funnels.
Want to dive deeper into these insights? Join me in the Business Systems for Realtors Facebook group: https://facebook.com/groups/bizsystems. Let’s continue this journey together and explore what really works.
And if you're curious about refining your own funnel strategy, check out our 7-Day Funnel Challenge: https://orbit.realestate/cnfin7days. Let's streamline your systems and elevate your real estate game.
Looking to team up? Learn more about eXp: https://alexarosario.com/exp.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
Funnels have become like a shiny object for real
estate agents that they get soexcited about, and then, when it
comes time to actuallyimplementing them, they're like,
okay, maybe this is not assimple as I thought it was going
to be.
And so today we're talkingabout the things that agents get
wrong or come in with the wrongexpectations about when it
comes to funnels, and we're alsogoing to talk about why we
(00:22):
stopped building funnels foragents and we're also going to
talk about why we stoppedbuilding funnels for agents.
The first thing is, when itcomes to funnels, the number one
thing that I think agents getwrong is maybe they've heard
about funnels somewhere.
They heard somebody talk aboutit, they read one of Russell
Brunson's books fromClickFunnels.
They've heard aboutClickFunnels, something like
that, and they're like, okay, Ineed a funnel.
And so they treat it like thisshiny object, that they think
(00:45):
that a funnel is just going tofix everything for them, but
they miss all of the nuance ofit.
Right, the reality is, when wetalk about the nuance, it really
comes down to meeting theclient where they are in the
journey and being able todeliver the correct messaging to
the correct person at thecorrect time.
Number two is if I had a dollarfor every single time that
(01:07):
somebody tried to what we callfunnel hack me, which is where
they go through my funnel, right, they schedule the consultation
, they fill out the intake form,they do all the things in the
funnel, and I know that it'sagents and I know that it's
marketing agencies that aredoing it, because I see the
contact information that'sgetting submitted.
I think that really what ismissing here is that they're
missing all the nuance.
(01:27):
Right Like the funnel is notjust about the landing pages,
it's about the scripting and theautomations that happen on the
backend that you'll never see onthe actual landing pages.
And so when agents are tryingto implement this and they're
like this doesn't work, it'sbecause you're not implementing
it in the correct way in yourbusiness.
That would be the equivalent ofbeing like let me just send out
(01:50):
a mailer to a neighborhood andthen expecting to get listings
without having scripting toconvert the incoming calls into
an actual consultation oranything like that.
The nuance is really where themagic happens.
Number three is that agentsdon't take every single client
through their funnels.
So we have five different typesof funnels that we focus on for
(02:13):
Orbit, the one that I reallyrecommend for every agent to
start with is our conversionfunnels, because it focuses on
the onboarding process.
So, before you start focusingon lead generation, before you
start focusing on the content,having a really the onboarding
process so before you startfocusing on lead generation,
before you start focusing on thecontent, having a really great
onboarding process becomes thefoundation of your business, and
so a lot of agents, when theystart incorporating funnels into
(02:35):
their business, they're like,oh, it's on my site, but then
they treat the clients that theywork with almost separately
from the client experience.
Your funnels are the entireonboarding process of signing on
a new client, and so it's aboutthe scripting when it comes to
getting your clients to gothrough that funnel rather than
(02:55):
just saying, okay, it's there ifanybody wants to use it.
No, those intake forms are thefoundation of, number one, what
you're going to use to set upyour property searches for
buyers, and number two, whatyou're going to use for listing
input in the MLS right, havingthem go to the consult page and
seeing all of your past clientsand reviews, and then making
(03:18):
sure that it gets scheduled onyour calendar that they're
getting the automations thatcome along with that.
This is part of thefoundational process.
That would be the equivalent ofgoing to the doctor's office
and the doctor's office onlygiving the medical history forms
to every couple of patients,not to every single one of them.
You can't effectively do yourjob if you don't have enough
data to help the client make agreat decision.
(03:40):
Taking every single clientthrough that process is a
non-negotiable I think we're atnumber four now is that agents
treat their content and theirrelationships as two separate
things.
Now, next week, we're actuallydropping our content funnels
challenge.
It's going to be a freechallenge that you're more than
welcome to join us in, and so Iwanted to touch on this one
really quickly Now.
(04:01):
When we think about our content, that is just a digital
manifestation of ourrelationships online, right?
So when we think about ourrelationships, that is a
one-to-one sort of experience.
Think about your content as aone-to-many or a one-to-one at
scale type of mindset, and sowhen we start looking at our
(04:25):
content and our relationships asseparately, it's no wonder that
the idea of building contentfeels so overwhelming and so
frustrating and so difficult.
Right, but if we focus ontreating our content as a way to
deepen our existingrelationships, all of a sudden,
it opens up a whole new world ofpossibility, and so when we
launch the content funnelschallenge next week, we're going
(04:46):
to take you through all thenuance of that.
Now, the last thing I wanted totalk about in today's episode is
why we stopped doing thedone-for-you funnels.
Now, when we originally started, we used to have a done-for-you
process.
We charged agents a little bitextra to go and do the funnels
for them, but what we found wasthat in order for us to deliver
(05:08):
that effectively, we still needto capture a bunch of
information from you, and wewould take that and turn it into
the funnels, and then therewould be things like the domain
connection and things like thatneed to be done.
And so now, as we've evolvedthrough our own kind of
onboarding process to make iteasier for agents, we have that
same form that actuallypre-fills most of the funnel.
(05:29):
And so when we were doing itfor agents, what we were finding
was that the issue that we wererunning into with agents was
not that it was too difficult,it's that the agents did not
even want to take the time toput together their logo, to get
us their bio, to put togetherthe past client photos, to get
(05:51):
us their bio, to put togetherthe past client photos.
While we've made the process assimple as possible for the
agents who are willing to dothat, we can't build a funnel
for someone if we don't have theassets that we need to do that
for.
And so now, like I said, wehave the form that pre-fills
your funnels for you, and sothat will take you to 80 or 90%
and makes it really easy for youto just finish out the rest of
(06:12):
it.
And with our challenges welegitimately could not make this
any possibly easier.
If we can't get our agents togive us the assets that we need
to finish their funnels, then wecan't do a funnel for you.
And so we found that happymedium in the sense of making it
really easy that you fill outthe form and then pretty much
takes you to 80 or 90% in termsof getting your funnels up and
(06:33):
ready.
And then we have our weeklymastermind to make sure that if
an agent gets stuck, they knowexactly what to do.
We have like hands-on help thatyou will get your questions
answered, and we found that hasbeen a great kind of happy
medium for getting agentsadopting really quickly, getting
them the results that they need, while also making sure that
(06:54):
our team is not chasing downagents begging for something as
simple as hey, I literally justneed your photo, I just need
your logo, I just need this andthat, and so it saves our agents
a lot of money, and that's howwe stopped doing our done for
you option.
So, with that in mind, join usin the Facebook group.
As always, we have ourdiscussion questions going on
there, and so I would love tohear your thoughts about today's
(07:17):
episode and about the thingsthat agents get wrong about
funnels as well, so I'll see youin the Facebook group.
Funnels have become like a shiny object for real
estate agents that they get soexcited about, and then, when it
comes time to actuallyimplementing them, they're like,
okay, maybe this is not assimple as I thought it was going
to be.
And so today we're talkingabout the things that agents get
wrong or come in with the wrongexpectations about when it
comes to funnels, and we're alsogoing to talk about why we
(00:22):
stopped building funnels foragents and we're also going to
talk about why we stoppedbuilding funnels for agents.
The first thing is, when itcomes to funnels, the number one
thing that I think agents getwrong is maybe they've heard
about funnels somewhere.
They heard somebody talk aboutit, they read one of Russell
Brunson's books fromClickFunnels.
They've heard aboutClickFunnels, something like
that, and they're like, okay, Ineed a funnel.
And so they treat it like thisshiny object, that they think
(00:45):
that a funnel is just going tofix everything for them, but
they miss all of the nuance ofit.
Right, the reality is, when wetalk about the nuance, it really
comes down to meeting theclient where they are in the
journey and being able todeliver the correct messaging to
the correct person at thecorrect time.
Number two is if I had a dollarfor every single time that
(01:07):
somebody tried to what we callfunnel hack me, which is where
they go through my funnel, right, they schedule the consultation
, they fill out the intake form,they do all the things in the
funnel, and I know that it'sagents and I know that it's
marketing agencies that aredoing it, because I see the
contact information that'sgetting submitted.
I think that really what ismissing here is that they're
missing all the nuance.
(01:27):
Right Like the funnel is notjust about the landing pages,
it's about the scripting and theautomations that happen on the
backend that you'll never see onthe actual landing pages.
And so when agents are tryingto implement this and they're
like this doesn't work, it'sbecause you're not implementing
it in the correct way in yourbusiness.
That would be the equivalent ofbeing like let me just send out
(01:50):
a mailer to a neighborhood andthen expecting to get listings
without having scripting toconvert the incoming calls into
an actual consultation oranything like that.
The nuance is really where themagic happens.
Number three is that agentsdon't take every single client
through their funnels.
So we have five different typesof funnels that we focus on for
(02:13):
Orbit, the one that I reallyrecommend for every agent to
start with is our conversionfunnels, because it focuses on
the onboarding process.
So, before you start focusingon lead generation, before you
start focusing on the content,having a really the onboarding
process so before you startfocusing on lead generation,
before you start focusing on thecontent, having a really great
onboarding process becomes thefoundation of your business, and
so a lot of agents, when theystart incorporating funnels into
(02:35):
their business, they're like,oh, it's on my site, but then
they treat the clients that theywork with almost separately
from the client experience.
Your funnels are the entireonboarding process of signing on
a new client, and so it's aboutthe scripting when it comes to
getting your clients to gothrough that funnel rather than
(02:55):
just saying, okay, it's there ifanybody wants to use it.
No, those intake forms are thefoundation of, number one, what
you're going to use to set upyour property searches for
buyers, and number two, whatyou're going to use for listing
input in the MLS right, havingthem go to the consult page and
seeing all of your past clientsand reviews, and then making
(03:18):
sure that it gets scheduled onyour calendar that they're
getting the automations thatcome along with that.
This is part of thefoundational process.
That would be the equivalent ofgoing to the doctor's office
and the doctor's office onlygiving the medical history forms
to every couple of patients,not to every single one of them.
You can't effectively do yourjob if you don't have enough
data to help the client make agreat decision.
(03:40):
Taking every single clientthrough that process is a
non-negotiable I think we're atnumber four now is that agents
treat their content and theirrelationships as two separate
things.
Now, next week, we're actuallydropping our content funnels
challenge.
It's going to be a freechallenge that you're more than
welcome to join us in, and so Iwanted to touch on this one
really quickly Now.
(04:01):
When we think about our content, that is just a digital
manifestation of ourrelationships online, right?
So when we think about ourrelationships, that is a
one-to-one sort of experience.
Think about your content as aone-to-many or a one-to-one at
scale type of mindset, and sowhen we start looking at our
(04:25):
content and our relationships asseparately, it's no wonder that
the idea of building contentfeels so overwhelming and so
frustrating and so difficult.
Right, but if we focus ontreating our content as a way to
deepen our existingrelationships, all of a sudden,
it opens up a whole new world ofpossibility, and so when we
launch the content funnelschallenge next week, we're going
(04:46):
to take you through all thenuance of that.
Now, the last thing I wanted totalk about in today's episode is
why we stopped doing thedone-for-you funnels.
Now, when we originally started, we used to have a done-for-you
process.
We charged agents a little bitextra to go and do the funnels
for them, but what we found wasthat in order for us to deliver
(05:08):
that effectively, we still needto capture a bunch of
information from you, and wewould take that and turn it into
the funnels, and then therewould be things like the domain
connection and things like thatneed to be done.
And so now, as we've evolvedthrough our own kind of
onboarding process to make iteasier for agents, we have that
same form that actuallypre-fills most of the funnel.
(05:29):
And so when we were doing itfor agents, what we were finding
was that the issue that we wererunning into with agents was
not that it was too difficult,it's that the agents did not
even want to take the time toput together their logo, to get
us their bio, to put togetherthe past client photos, to get
(05:51):
us their bio, to put togetherthe past client photos.
While we've made the process assimple as possible for the
agents who are willing to dothat, we can't build a funnel
for someone if we don't have theassets that we need to do that
for.
And so now, like I said, wehave the form that pre-fills
your funnels for you, and sothat will take you to 80 or 90%
and makes it really easy for youto just finish out the rest of
(06:12):
it.
And with our challenges welegitimately could not make this
any possibly easier.
If we can't get our agents togive us the assets that we need
to finish their funnels, then wecan't do a funnel for you.
And so we found that happymedium in the sense of making it
really easy that you fill outthe form and then pretty much
takes you to 80 or 90% in termsof getting your funnels up and
(06:33):
ready.
And then we have our weeklymastermind to make sure that if
an agent gets stuck, they knowexactly what to do.
We have like hands-on help thatyou will get your questions
answered, and we found that hasbeen a great kind of happy
medium for getting agentsadopting really quickly, getting
them the results that they need, while also making sure that
(06:54):
our team is not chasing downagents begging for something as
simple as hey, I literally justneed your photo, I just need
your logo, I just need this andthat, and so it saves our agents
a lot of money, and that's howwe stopped doing our done for
you option.
So, with that in mind, join usin the Facebook group.
As always, we have ourdiscussion questions going on
there, and so I would love tohear your thoughts about today's
(07:17):
episode and about the thingsthat agents get wrong about
funnels as well, so I'll see youin the Facebook group.
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