Ant Manton

Overview:

Ant Manton is the Principal and lead agent at Ray White Southern Tasmania.

With a strong background in sales and marketing, Ant knows the power of marketing and was eager to find an innovative system which would allow him to take customer communication to a new level.

With this in mind, Ant looked to ActivePipe – a unique Australian-developed software system which automates email communications to the customer on the agent’s behalf.

Only four weeks after implementing ActivePipe into the running of the agency, the results far exceeded anything Ant had expected.

Within days, Ray White Southern Tasmania was receiving requests for property appraisals via the system. After just one month, the agency reported receiving five new leads through ActivePipe, with at least two those expected to become listings.

How long did it take for you to start seeing results from ActivePipe? 

We received our first appraisal lead through ActivePipe within the first three or four days of signing up. We had five appraisal leads in the first three weeks, and all from old leads that haven’t been active for a couple of years.

How would you describe that result?

It’s fantastic. Ultimately, those people would have just sat on an old database getting what –clearly – isn’t particularly relevant information to them, until they just dropped off.  ActivePipe has encouraged them to become more engaged in the system and to ask for our help.

What is this in dollar value to you?

I think it’s fantastic, if we only converted two or three of them, that’s potentially 30 or 40 grand into the business that we wouldn’t have otherwise received.

Do you anticipate any of these appraisals becoming listings?

I would certainly anticipate that three of those five are very strong leads. I would suggest that two to three will certainly be listed in the next one to three months.

What was it like training your staff to use ActivePipe?

Simple! If you can watch a two minute video, you can be trained in it. I mean it is a very, very simple system. It takes very little skill, thank goodness, to actually use it. It is 90% all done for you. A few videos, a few emails, the activation process was very simple. The videos are very clear and easy to watch.

Mel Christie

Overview:

She is only two months into her real estate career, but agent Mel Christie from Ray White Real Estate Coorparoo catches on fast.  With the help of ActivePipe, Mel received four appraisals in the space of seven days.  She credits ActivePipe with giving her an edge when it comes to understanding the needs of her customers, allowing her to respond in a timely manner with the appropriate follow up needed.

How long have you been in real estate for?

2 months, I’m very fresh in the industry.

How long have you been using ActivePipe for?

About two or three weeks.

What do you think of the results you’ve had so far?

I think without ActivePipe I wouldn’t have received the four appraisals that came through last week. I might have received those another time when I touched base with them, but that automated email straight to the client, it so easy for them click on that – and – appraisal organised.

In your opinion, what are the best features of ActivePipe that you’ve noticed so far?

Just seeing client interaction with the property they’re looking at, finding out who is a hot buyer. There were people who I was surprised about. They had led me to believe that they weren’t ready to go but with their interaction with the amount of properties – I’ll definitely be contacting them quicker than I thought I might have been.

Do you expect to get any listings from the appraisal requests you’ve received?

At this point out of four, none of them have indicated they’re ready to sell right now, it’s more gathering of information of what their properties are valued at, at this point. But I am meeting with two of them today and one tomorrow so I will know the finer details when I am sitting down with them.

What was the difference between your first contact with the potential client through door knocking them, and the contact you have had with them via ActivePipe?

My first appointment today – she was a lovely lady we had a really good rapport, she only provided me with her email though, not her mobile number. So the advantage of having her email has outweighed having her mobile. Because I can’t send an email appraisal through her phone. I think just having that email sent to her, should make it a lot easier to get the appraisal.

Scott Burgess

How long have you been in real estate for?

I have an extensive sales and development background, my brother and I took over Ray White Robina in 2008 and have since grown the business to around 40 real estate professionals.

How long have you been using ActivePipe for?

We have been using ActivePipe for around 2 months, recently we have had some more training on this and taken advantage of some features to enhance the way ActivePipe interacts with our data base, in the last 2 weeks or so we have really started seeing the benefits.

ActivePipe features and benefits: 

I think that ActivePipe is a really good safety net to make sure data that was not being connected with as frequently gets the benefit of what our business has to offer. There is more to the software than meets the eye.

There have been several Loan Market Leads, Appraisal requests and Geographic conversions from your database. Are you impressed with the number of new leads so far?

I am amazed by what has been shown to me and our data manager (Carol Birrell) the numbers are impressive.

So far there have been over 25 potential sellers identified, appraisals booked and one of our staff Josh Willatt has added to his pipeline.

How are your agents responding to the new information & insights into their database?

I think that they were equally surprised by the number of people who have interacted with the emails, there were calls to say that people had bought, updated details – some initial chaos as our data base was awakened by the communications. This has all bubbled down now and we are working through the new leads etc. We are interested to see what has come of this in the next few months as we learn to engage with the new found information. We are on the right track now.

What has been the most impressive feature of ActivePipe in your opinion? 

The open rate has tripled, which means that we have less dormant data.

Do you expect to get any listings from the appraisal requests you’ve received?

Yes! We have a really tight follow up process in our office and we are committed to following up all leads. The leads that are generated in ActivePipe will go into that follow up program.

Do you see the value in efficiency and capacity created by ActivePipe?

Obviously having the “High Value Contacts” and “Up and Coming Contacts”  listed is brilliant. It identifies who we should be calling first, this is an addition to the processes we have in place, but sure helps.

Any other comments that you would like to make? 

In Jan and Feb we will be looking to see what has become of the leads so far and how the systems works within our business over time.