March 14th, 2011 - 9:52 am
 activSalesAgent, the premier provider of live chat service for the real estate industries has recently expanded it service hours to 15 hours per day of coverage. activSalesAgent clients now benefit from having a live agent online from 9am to midnight EST from Monday through Friday. activSalesAgent trained professionals don’t take breaks and your website stays live starting at less than $1.54 per hour. “Our goal is to give every company in the real estate industry the ability to implement and execute a chat solution that may appear to only be accessible to large organizations. We become a true extension of our clients’ sales team online.” Says Frederic Guitton, Vice President of activSalesAgent.
By implementing live chat on their websites, new home builders, REALTORS® and mortgage originators are able to connect with more of their anonymous web shoppers in real time.The majority of web activity takes place during business hours with a slight pickup in the evening hours. By being live until midnight EST activSalesAgent stays live until 9pm on the Pacific coast. This strategy offer activSalesAgent’s clients a turnkey solution to implement live chat concierge service for their web sites.
Having a great website is a must in today’s environment. While getting a lot of traffic to your site is great it is critical to be able to convert anonymous web shoppers into prospects. With proactive live chat invitations and live chat concierge service a website is converted into a true sales center for Builders and Realtors®. With live chat a web shoppers starts a conversation by simply giving a name. This approach is the way to create a true consumer centric website and yields dramatic results. Many New Home Builders across the United States have hired activSalesAgent as their technology provider for live chat as well as their online sales team. A simple invitation comes up offering assistance and when the web shoppers engages, activSalesAgent’s team of trained professional is there to handle the chats and convert this conversation into a sales opportunity for activSalesAgent’s clients.
If you would like to learn more about activSalesAgent feel free to visit us online at www.activSalesAgent.com or reach out directly to Frederic Guitton at 321-441-7717 or (800) 945-5551 x 7717
Happy Chatting!
About activSalesAgent:
activSalesAgent is the premier live chat solution for the real estate industry. activSalesAgent provides live chat technology and services to new home builders, mortgage companies, real estate brokerages and multifamily housing. With activSite the client is able to benefit from a state of the art chat software solution and with activConcierge, clients benefit for a premier full service chat solution. activSalesAgent’s staff is trained to execute chat conversation that yield the highest conversion into sales opportunity for their clients. For more information about activSalesAgent please visit www.activSalesAgent.com or call (321)-441-7717
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
February 15th, 2011 - 2:42 pm
We all understand the value Facebook when it comes to online marketing. Having a business page, gaining more “likes” and being able to share with your audience are great assets. Recently Facebook made some changes to the business pages, these changes make your Facebook business page an asset more valuable than ever.
The internet, and Facebook in particular, are very powerful ways to increase your marketing reach but how can you convert more browsers into prospective clients? Regardless of your approach you are still dependent on the web shopper to take action on their own and that is proving to be a difficult task. At activSalesAgent we are all about converting anonymous web shoppers to prospect. The way we achieve that goal is through conversation and Facebook’s redesign of the business page is now allowing us to keep your business page live even when you are not logged in to Facebook!
 ActivSalesAgent Live Chat Concierge service can be integrated in your Facebook business page, it allows web shoppers to get in conversation in real time about getting more information. Not only does the activSalesAgent live chat feature show on the new left hand side menu it can also be integrated in your Facebook landing page if you choose to use one.
Today’s web shoppers are all about instant gratification and are more evasive than they were. Being able to convert web shoppers in to live prospects is a challenge that all real estate professionals are facing. The key is to offer clears paths to conversation for anonymous web shoppers, lower or remove as many of the obstacles between you and your web visitors. While the internet is a great asset to gain more visibility it has become an obstacle to getting into conversations. With live chat you are now able to bring conversations back to the forefront and as we all know; If you are not talking your are not selling.
Keystone Builders recently integrated activSalesAgent live chat to their website and on their Facebook page. They work directly with Meredith Communication for their web marketing strategy. They wanted to be able to get more from their existing web traffic and the team at Meredith Communication suggested activSalesAgent. Since the implementation of the activConcierge service they have seen a dramatic increase in activity from their already existing web traffic. Within 3 weeks of live chat being live they had recorded a sale directly attributable to a chat prospect. Their website and Facebook business page are now live 15 hours per day Monday through Friday.
Live Chat is a real game changer when it comes to online marketing for the real estate industries. Web shoppers come in and out of websites so quickly that your opportunity to capture their attention as shrunk a few minutes or less. With live chat the response in instantaneous, there is no better moment to get in conversation than right now. Those that are part of the early adopters will benefit from a significant competitive advantage and in this challenging market it is critical to leverage the internet as effectively as possible because this is where your buyers are.
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
February 14th, 2011 - 4:12 pm
When a visitor enters a sales center or an open house they want to be able to walk around, feel welcome and maybe engage in a conversation. Being able to get in conversation is critical in being able to convert that anonymous visitor into a prospective client.
 Realtors and New Homes Sales Agent understand this and continually refine their conversational skills in order to be most effective. They understand that conversation is the path to a sale, they learn to engage a casual conversation, build rapport and identify needs. The goal is to get that visitor to feel comfortable and move them into a conversation about buying a home. An effective approach is not some version of; “Prior to speak with you I will need your name, e-mail and phone number”. We all know that would not go over well. Visitors prefer to preserve their anonymity until they feel comfortable with the person they are speaking with.
Unfortunately most people go online to shop for real estate. Currently when a prospect is online and wants more information, the first step is to fill out some kind of registration and give up his/her anonymity. This is creating a huge challenge to overcome and limiting the number of people you get to connect with online. Human behavior tells us that conversation is the best path to a sales so how can we use that knowledge and integrate a solution online to answer that need?
A static website is providing information right now but it has also created a virtual barrier to conversations. In order to solve this challenge you have to make your website into a conversational space. The best way to do that is by implementing a live chat concierge service. With live chat concierge your website becomes a true model center or open house. The anonymous web shoppers can remain anonymous all the while engaging into a conversation about their needs. This approach will make your website feel like a traditional shopping experience. It will increase the number of people you connect with.
 Offering live chat is the most logical next step in the evolution of the internet. Live chat is becoming very widely used and is proving to be very effective. It makes sense, it responds to an existing human behavior; the need to interact before taking the next step. activSalesAgent’s approach is to fill that need by implementing a live chat concierge service for their clients (New Home Builders, Realtors, Mortgage Originators and Multifamily Housing). The real estate industries are leveraging the internet aggressively because of the marketing reach having a website gives you. The focus has been on getting as much traffic as possible and some great results in traffic volume have been observed. If you want more out of your web traffic your focus has to shift towards the conversion of web traffic into sales opportunity. In order to do that you have to create an easy path to conversation and live chat is without a doubt that path.
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
February 10th, 2011 - 2:26 pm
 As I am in the process of buying a new car I have been paying close attention to the automotive sales process playbook. Here are a couple of takeaways that I wanted to share with you about my experience thus far.
A focus on getting People in the store:
Like most everyone does I started my search online with major sites to narrow down the 2-3 cars we would want to drive and then to local dealership sites to get more information. We also placed a few calls. The goal that all these dealerships share was to get me in conversation and in the door. The calls to action were not subtle in any way. They want to sell you a car today. There is a real sense of urgency created and while we shopped online we saw live chat on a few sites as well.
Many builders will simply “invite” you to come by and visit when convenient. That is a mistake that could be costing opportunities. Getting in conversation and setting an appointment is key in getting a commitment for a visit. The online live chat is helping getting that goal reached very effectively. By engaging a live chat conversation without requiring the web shopper to give up their anonymity dealers are able to connect with more prospects and that is the single most important first step in a selling process.
Defined Sales Process:
Like it or not if you buy a new car you are probably going to have to negotiate. That is part of the experience (good or bad) when buying a car. The process while not my favorite is very defined and they stick to it. You first meet with a sales guy then a manager once the conversation get closer to a buying conversation. It allows them to create a change of pace and the manager can be the “bad” guy while your “friend”, the sales guy tries to help you negotiate the best possible deal. It can be theatrical at time but it works and they know it. They know what to say, they know the responses to objections as well as when to deflect or address a question.
There is no doubt in my mind that new home builders can use a bit of that strategy. New Home Builders need focus on writing a playbook for their sales professionals to insure consistency and be able to measure results based on the approach used.
Try different strategies and measure results
We all know how aggressive car dealers are. They compete for your attention on a daily basis and invest significant amounts of time and money into different marketing strategies. While it might look random at times they actually track results carefully to avoid ending up with a legacy expense that is not generating sales. We have all seen the ads on TV, newspapers and billboards but those are diminishing favoring online strategies. That is because it works. Dealerships are focused on more than just web traffic. They are focused on sales and the expansion of that investment directly relates to the results generated.
Dealerships have prominent calls to action online, getting more out of their web traffic is critical to their success.The latest trend is a focus on making websites more interactive, we find the first takeaway highlighted as a clear focus here again. Getting prospective buyers in the door is the goal and for that you have to get in conversation right there and then, online. activSalesAgent’s mother company (activEngage) has been providing live chat for dealership for over 3 years now and the results are clear. Dealership are getting a great return because they are sticking with it. With a live chat concierge these dealers are converting their showroom into a sales center. I believe it is time for more builders to copy that page from the dealerships playbook. The shift in behavior of new home buyers towards leveraging the internet for information is a perfect opportunity and such approach is without a doubt more cost effective than deep discounts, billboards or full pages in a new paper. Let’s chat about it!
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
February 1st, 2011 - 3:08 pm
 As the home building industry continues to evolve and aggressively manage their marketing spend I wonder where builders could make some gains. Here are expenses that I believe should be included in your sales acquisition costs then divided by the total number of sales for that year;
- Total commissions paid out to sales agent plus base
- Real estate commission paid
- Cost to produce brochures and handouts
- Cost of traditional advertising (Billboards, print adds, mailers)
- Cost of online presence (website design amortized, website hosting, ILS, PPC and time allocation if person is not counted in the cost of sales already)
- Cost to build, maintain model center or lease back.
I am sure there is much more we could add to this equation but there is no doubt that it is a big number.
So let’s look at a couple of ideas that could help drive that cost down.
1/ Staffing costs: If you have a staffed model center see how much and when traffic comes through the door as a walk-in and verify this is a worthwhile investment. Setting up appointments might just be as effective. The other approach would be to set up a strategy to track the activity of your staff while onsite with a good CRM system and explore ways to maximize that time your are paying for.
2/ Brochures and hand outs: Print less, e-mail more. Is printing lots of brochures a really good idea? I don’t think so unless they are very generic which could actually diminish their value. You also have to consider the cost to design and consider an integrated design approach between your website and brochure. Everything you create should be available in a digital format, there is something to be said for offering to e-mail the detailed information over instead of giving the visitor a stack of paper to carry around.
3/ Real Estate commissions: While working with real estate agents makes a lot of sense it is important to pay commissions for sales that are truly generated by that agent. I realize this is a touchy subject but checking and verifying whether a client is working with an agent as early as possible is key. It is my opinion that the first visit with the builder should be in person with the agent. I also start tracking whether a prospect is working with an agent should start online.
4/ Traditional advertising: Legacy spend is one of the costliest mistake in business. We tend to do what’s comfortable. I don’t see how advertising in newspapers or on billboards is a wise strategy for a new home builder in today’s market. Make sure to review the marketing spend against results carefully and think about reallocating that money to better use. A builder we know terminated a billboard campaign to focus these dollars on driving traffic to their website and enabling live chat. The results are very good and I doubt billboards will be a part of their marketing spend going forward. Mike Lyon asked about advertising in a newspaper and posted some of the responses on one of his blogs check it out here.
5/ Websites and online advertising: You have to track it! Don’t waste more money or time online unless you are seeing results. I often hear about this love-hate relationship with the internet. We know we need it but we don’t like the results or we feel we should be able to get more from it. Some builders are using the web very effectively and making adjustments to their strategies as they see the results because they have good tracking systems. I recently spoke with a group who had spent more than $150K over 2 years with one online marketing strategy without being able to show results. It was all invested on faith, they did not know if it had worked or not. Check out how much you are spending online as well as the leads generated and lead conversion to sales by source, stop spending on the lowest performers today. Your website should be your primary focus and while there are many programs out there promising exposure to your communities nothing is better than getting web shoppers to your website.
As you start digging into these numbers you might like what you see or you might not but knowledge is power and to stay competitive you will have to continue to drive your marketing costs down so take a moment and look back at you P&L. Ask your sales team about last year’s activity and results you will probably find a few (maybe more) dollars that could be reinvested in more effective programs to help you sell more homes and drive down your cost to acquire sales.
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
January 31st, 2011 - 4:38 pm
The real estate industry has many opinions and beliefs marketing real estate online. There are a few recurring beliefs that are quite inaccurate but drive how people choose to market or behave when it comes to connecting with buyers online. I would go as far as calling three of those myths as they are not supported by the data we see at activSalesAgent.
1/ The key to success is web traffic volume
While having a lot of traffic is important, not having a lot does not mean you should not focus on it. At activSalesAgent we are focused on converting more anonymous web shoppers into prospects. One of the common response we get when offering a concierge live chat is; “we need to increase our web traffic first then we will work on making our site more effective”. The goal of your online marketing is to sell more homes. Getting more opportunities from your website is what really matters. So the key to success lies in your ability to convert more of your traffic into prospects. If you already drive thousands to your site and yield not prospects, driving more traffic to your site won’t be the answer. The answer is to find a strategy to get more of that traffic to convert into prospects.
With activSalesAgent’s concierge service we are seeing new home builder websites with less than 1000 unique visors per month outperform sites with over 3000 unique visitors. With concierge live chat the results have been immediate. Getting the traffic from 1000 to 3000 would take a very long time and there is no guarantee that it would results into more prospects.
2/People shop online at night
Here is a look at a typical a few daily traffic distribution curbs for some of our clients.  
People shop online when they are at work. When outside of our work environment we are often too busy to conduct online research so why not doing it while at our wok desk in a quiet environment? activConcierge from activSalesAgent gives you coverage from 9am to 9pm without any interruptions this way you won’t miss out on prospective opportunities while you are going about your daily business.
3/ Internet leads are of poor quality, trash them
This one is the mother of all myths when it comes to marketing real estate online. NAR has reported that over 90% of home buyers shop online. Since almost all of those that will buy a house search online it is clear that some of these prospects turn into leads. When it comes to internet leads the opportunity lies in lowering the average response time (or at all) and marketing strategy to convert these leads into opportunities and active clients.
The internet is used much too widely to be ignored. Selling real estate require a strong online marketing platform. The goal is to get in conversation with more buyers, with activSalesAgent as a part of your online sales team you will achieve that goal and make your website your most powerful marketing asset.
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
January 27th, 2011 - 4:29 pm
If  you want to win football games there is nothing more important than being able to convert plays in the red zone into points on the board. The difference between winning and losing lies within that 20% of the field. While gaining the first 80 yard is tough, how well a team performs in the red zone will often determine the outcome of a game.
When it comes to internet marketing the challenge is not all that different. While 80% of the work is about driving traffic to your site, your website is your red zone and you have to play offense. The goal is to get in conversation with your anonymous web shoppers by getting them to take action and give up their anonymity. Connecting is how you will win your online marketing game. You have to get them to take action so you can make your move and get in conversation.
Here is a play that is not being tried enough but has proven to be very effective; Simply engage the web shoppers in a conversation right at the very moment they are viewing your product. With today’s live chat technology and online concierge services you can do just that and with this strategy you might just win the Superbowl. Conversations are the cornerstone of selling real estate. A proactive live chat invitation is a powerful move and is converting as much as 300% more anonymous web shoppers into prospects than traditional online marketing strategies. It makes sense, with live chat the web shoppers can get in conversation by simply giving a name.  By asking the right questions activSalesAgent’s team is able to drive that conversation into a discovery about that consumer’s needs. The web browser is now looking for additional information about your ability to answers their needs and the close is a simple: “Mr. or Mrs. X, What is the best way to get you that information?”. In the world of internet marketing a touchdown is getting name, e-mail and a phone number and a field goal is name and e-mail. With live chat you get much more than that, you get a conversation and granular information about the prospective client that will help you have a very targeted conversation from the start, now that’s a competitive advantage!
When you are in the last 20 yards you have to execute plays perfectly to win. So what is your red zone strategy? Web shoppers will not give up their anonymity easily, they don’t want you to call and e-mail them just yet. They are browsing. ActivSalesAgent’s team is all about the red zone and by enabling activSalesAgent live chat concierge service you gain access to a whole new playbook. So let’s chat about taking your online game to a whole new level today.
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
January 25th, 2011 - 10:29 pm
Building a fan base, get more likes and gaining more followers are fast becoming priorities and could prove to be expensive for builders, Real Estate Broker and Mortgage Companies. Social media is important but it is important to keep things in the right order.
Many Real Estate and mortgage websites have links on the front page (landing page) directing anonymous web shoppers to visit their fan page, twitter or YouTube channel. While building social presence is important you have to really think about the risks of linking to these web traffic powerhouses. What do you expect happens when a visitor who has landed on your site clicks a link to your Facebook page? They will be either logged in or will need to log in to “like” you. Once there, the messages and the posts will be hard to resist over returning to your site. It is hard enough to be found online, why take the risk to drive traffic away from your site?
Here are a couple of ideas to avoid taking such a risk:
1/ Don’t place a link on your homepage. Focus on driving traffic to take action within your site.
2/ Use the widgets that are available to avoid redirecting the traffic to your social media networks.
 
3/ Use a social media toolbar to allow web shoppers to access you social media network without leaving your site.
Regardless of the strategy you choose it is not wise to expose the traffic that you work so hard to acquire to another site and take the chance to let that traffic walk away all together. Successful online marketing means generating more selling opportunities. While social media is important you should never allow it to distract anonymous web shoppers away from looking at your product and connecting with you by completing a contact form,a registration, chat live or download a white paper.
For this very reason activSalesAgent has built a fully integrated social media toolbar. This toolbar is an add-on service to activSalesAgent live chat services. It gives access to your Facebook page and see posts without leaving your site, access to Twitter, your YouTube channel, your blog as well as access to directions, contact information and of course integrated live chat.
The builders, Realtors and mortgage companies that will win in the critical internet lead generation business are those who will identify the risks and leverage the best strategies to engage more of their web shoppers. Investing time, focus and money into these strategies has to be priority. With prospective home buyers and borrowers shopping online more than ever you have to be able to offer solutions to connect and retain the traffic that comes to your site. These risks and opportunities are why activSalesAgent offers live chat technology, live chat concierge services as well as our fully integrated social media toolbar. Take a moment to visit our site and see the social media toolbar work live, chat with one of our agents, the experience of or trained professionals will give your company an edge that will help you get more business, let’s chat about it!
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
January 24th, 2011 - 12:53 pm
Selling more homes starts with getting on conversation with more prospective clients. But how do you get in conversation with all these people that shop you online? With the incredible growth of the internet we have seen a new challenge arise; getting web shoppers to take action from their web visit. While having a website is getting more eyeballs on your homes and communities, is it driving more buyers into your sales center?
Builders have started to work with different strategies to improve on their online engagement rate. Different calls to actions and testing has help some builders optimize their engagement rate but the results are still leaving over 98.5% (and often over 99%) of anonymous web shoppers leave without connecting on average.
With live chat we are seeing some dramatic results without having to go through nearly the kind of exercise required to optimize your calls to action. Here is some aggregated data:
We have consolidated the results from a group of builders over the second half of 2010. The live chat was live from 9am to 10pm from Monday through Friday. During these days and hours there were an aggregated 104,070 visit and 68,413 of those were unique visits. 1968 chats were executed and 1489 of these chats resulted in contact information. The lead to new visit ratio documented was 2.2%. This is a vast improvement over their past results. Most reported improvement exceeding 300%. The other finding is that, even with live chat being available, their other calls to action are losing very little of their effectiveness and the majority of the chats leads are incremental.
For over a year activSalesAgent has been offering concierge live chat solutions for new home builders. activSalesAgent is working as the online extension of builders’ sales team. A great deal of new business is being generated with this approach. While builders are working on making strategic changes to their calls to actions others are choosing to leverage activConcierge from activSalesAgent and taking their online engagement rate dramatically higher.
The goal of the chat is not to sell a house right there and then, it is to engage in a meaningful conversation with an anonymous web shoppers and convert that conversation into a selling opportunity for the new home builder. By having such a defined focus activSalesAgent is able to deliver very strong results at a fraction of the cost and time it would take a builder to implement live chat and acquire the knowledge necessary to yield great results.
New home builders websites are a critical entry point for prospects, by implementing activSalesAgent’s live chat concierge solution builders are now able to connect with more buyers and sell more homes.
For more information please visit ActivSalesAgent.com
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The Home Builder Association of Metro Orlando is hosting their annual Parade of Homes from April 2nd through April 10th. This year, Therese Swanson from Florida HomeBuyer Orlando and Aldo Martin from Rey homes (HBA Vice-President) are co-chairs of this important event. wanted to create more opportunities to connect prospective buyers and new home builders participating in this years event.
