Objections can be a stressful, albeit unavoidable, part of your job as a real estate agent. Whether you're working with a long-time client, a first-time home buyer, or a soon-to-be seller, there will always be hesitations you’ll have to work through. Buying or selling a home is a big life decision, so naturally, clients will have questions and concerns.

Objections can come from many sources, from the housing market to personal preferences. The truth is, there’s no way to anticipate every client's hesitation. However, you should know how to handle most common objections effectively and confidently.

So how can you become a more confident agent when faced with client objections? The key is to practice — and there’s no better way to prepare than an objection-handling tournament.

What’s an objection-handling tournament?

Stacey Wyatt, Founder and CEO of Stacey Wyatt Real Estate Group in Atlanta, GA, shared in a recent Homeward webinar why he prepares his agents for client objections through these rapid-fire sessions. “You shouldn’t practice on our clients,” he explains.

Stacey and his team host weekly practice sessions to ensure they can address client concerns. The market changes on a dime; these sessions ensure they have relevant answers when a client has concerns. It’s also, as he explains, a fun and engaging way to connect the team and help his agents gain confidence.

But overcoming client objections is more than just memorizing scripts or talking points. Your clients need to know you’re an expert. And that all comes with time and practice, which is why hosting a regular objection-handling tournament is so important.

Fired up and ready to host one of your own? Here’s how to do it.

How to host an objection-handling tournament

1. Find your participants

To start, you'll want to gather a group of real estate agents to participate in the tournament. You can do this by sourcing participants from your team or brokerage, social media groups, or contacting other network agents. The more agents that participate, the more diverse the objections will be, which will help everyone involved to learn and grow.

2. Write your objections

Next, you'll want to gather a list of common objections real estate agents encounter. These can include objections related to the housing market, such as "I'm waiting for the market to improve before I buy/sell," or objections related to personal preferences, such as "I don't like the layout of the house."

3. Create a bracket

Once you have your list of objections, you can create a bracket-style tournament where agents compete against each other to see who can handle objections the best. You can do this by randomly selecting objections for each round and giving each agent a set amount of time to respond. Judges can then score each response based on how effective it was in overcoming the objection.

The tournament can be a great way for agents to learn from each other and practice their objection-handling skills in a low-stakes environment. It can also be a fun way to build camaraderie and community among each other.

4. Review your answers

After the tournament, debrief with the participants and discuss what they learned from the experience. You can also use this as an opportunity to discuss any particularly challenging objections and brainstorm strategies for handling them in the future.

Become an objection-handling pro

Hosting an objection-handling tournament can be a fun and effective way for real estate agents to prepare for client objections. By practicing their objection-handling skills in a safe and supportive environment, agents can gain confidence and become better equipped to handle objections in the real world. So gather your fellow agents, create your brackets, and start practicing!

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The content of this blog post was inspired by a recent Homeward webinar, “Objection Overruled: Creating Client Confidence.” If you’d like to watch a recording of the webinar and see a live objection tournament in action, click here.

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Are you tired of sifting through your client database, unsure of who to reach out to next? You know there are valuable clients in your database somewhere. But working them? That’s another story.

Many agents find themselves in this predicament. While it may feel daunting, it’s manageable if you focus on a few key actions. You just need organization and a tight plan.

Before you send another client email, text, or DM, take some time to declutter your client database and transition to a well-oiled, lead-gen machine. We’ll show you how in the following article.

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In this article, you'll learn:

1. How to segment your leads
2. How to create touchpoints that profit
3. How to measure the effectiveness of your outreach
4. How to create a path to predictability

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Let’s dive in.

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Step 1: Segment your leads

It all starts with segmentation. By segmenting your database, you’ll be able to identify and target specific groups of people with tailored messages rather than sending the same generic message to everyone. And once you know who you’re talking to, you can craft a relevant message and engage effectively.

Leads generally fit into one of four categories: Icebox, Active Sales Pipeline, SOI/Past Clients, and New Leads.

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What are Icebox leads?

Icebox leads are those in your pipeline who know about you but are not hot enough to work. They’ll likely be outside the 12-month mark when buying or selling property.

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How do I identify clients in my sphere of influence (SOI)?

Clients in your sphere of influence know your name and what you do. Consider clients who actively engage with your social media posts, clients you’ve worked with in the past, or clients who have referred others to you.

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What is my Active Sales Pipeline (ASP)?

If you know someone actively buying, selling, or investing within the next 12 months, they’ll fall into your Active Sales Pipeline. These clients should get your deliberate attention.

Clients within your ASP will be further classified as either “hot,” “warm,” or “cold” leads. 

• What are “hot” leads? Hot leads are any clients looking to buy, sell, or invest within 90 days.
• What are “warm” leads? Warm leads are any clients who want to buy, sell, or invest within the next three to six months. Think about new parents who need to upgrade or recent retirees who need to downsize.
• What are “cold” leads? Cold leads are clients buying, selling, or investing within the next 12 months.

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Which clients count as New Leads? 

Did you recently host an open house? Run a marketing campaign? Make a connection at a happy hour? Those are New Leads.

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Once you’ve identified which clients in your database fit into which category, label them in your CRM for easy sorting and identification. Additionally, as a general rule, keep your Active Sales Pipeline within 100 leads at a time.

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Step 2: Create touchpoints

Now that you’ve segmented your CRM, it’s time to create your touchpoints. Here’s the kicker: every one should get at least one touch (email, text, social post, etc.) from you within the next 30 days. (Yes, even your “Icebox” clients.)

Start with an action plan within your CRM. One study found you’re 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. An action plan will ensure you’re on track and always working towards your next lead. 

Review your current (and previous) efforts. Take a trip down memory lane. Can you host a happy hour like no other? Got a penchant for postcards? Think about your strengths and lean into those as you begin building your action plan.

Here’s a framework for how often you should be reaching out to your leads:

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Create a “10-Day Plan” for New Leads. If you’ve ever watched a true crime show, you know the first 48 hours are crucial. It’s like that when working with New Leads, too. 

A “10-Day Plan” is an intense outreach plan for — you guessed it — the first ten days. Making contact with your newest contacts fast is crucial. You need to stay top of mind and begin building a foundation with them. Doing so will build trust and help you better understand your lead’s real estate goals. Invite them to happy hour, take them to lunch, shoot them a text — whatever it takes to make that initial connection.

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Step 3: Measure your effectiveness

There’s no time to waste in today’s market. Home prices, buyer and seller sentiment, and interest rates can shift on a dime. That’s why it’s so important to have milestones that can help you predict the success and strength of your database.

Write down your goals. Before you make a call, figure out what you want. Write those down. Is it more transactions? More clients in your “hot” pipeline? Your goals help you stay focused and know when to activate specific leads. 

Track your progress. After 30 days of outreach, review your inputs and outputs. Were clients picking up your phone calls? Were texts going unanswered? Count them up, and use these successes and misses to create an “accuracy percentage.”

Refine your strategy. Once you know how successful your efforts were, you’ll be able to create more predictability in your pipeline. You may discover that open houses lead to more clients or that your phone scripting needs work. Tracking your efforts will give you the most transparent picture and help you pivot.

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Create the path to predictability

The goal of segmenting your database, building an outreach plan, and creating an accuracy percentage is to create predictability. You can’t control the market but you can control how you react to it. The more organized and deliberate you are in your outreach, the better you can manage any wave of change within the market and build a strong moat.

Remember, real estate is typically a 90-day cycle, and consistent effort is the key to creating more favorable outcomes.

Consider these questions:

• If I am to segment my database, what do the next 0-90 days look like if my accuracy percentage is 100%? How often am I 100% right?
• In the next 90 days, if I did ___ transactions, am I on the path to where I want to be financially?

Keep going — and remember, Homeward is always here to help you win more business with powerful products, marketing campaigns, and client support.

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The content of this blog post was inspired by a recent Homeward webinar, “Turn Your Database into a Lead Generation Powerhouse.” If you’d like to watch a recording of the webinar, click here.

Team –

I know the past few months have felt uneasy.

After a period of remarkable growth and success in our business, it’s been difficult to watch the rapid cooling in the market and the impact it’s had on our near-term ambitions. I know that layoffs across the industry, and especially at our competitors, have led many of you to wonder whether Homeward would take similar actions. As I shared in June, we’ve taken these challenges in the market seriously. But I did not want us to make knee-jerk reactions, especially one that would negatively impact our people.

However, I am now writing to you with sad news: Homeward will be laying off ~20% of its workforce today. I know that this message is hard to hear, and it’s something I had hoped never to have to deliver. People are at the heart of everything we do here. We have navigated the highs and lows of real estate – together – and built a business that helps people achieve their dreams of homeownership. I’ve always been so proud, and remain proud, of this team.

But, meeting the moment sometimes requires a business to evolve. Despite having a strong financial start to the year, we are currently staffed for more growth than we’re now forecasting. This reduction today is necessary for our future success, but that doesn’t make it easier to part with so many of our colleagues. Layoffs carry real consequences for people, and this isn’t a decision we make lightly.

We are committed to doing everything we can to support the employees leaving today, and those staying. And it’s important that we are as transparent as possible in how we reached this conclusion.

Understanding why

Homeward has built our brand around giving agents and their clients a new and better way to achieve their homeownership goals. In our early days, we helped customers simplify the buying/selling process with Buy Before You Sell. As the market intensified, we launched Buy With Cash to help customers win among a crowded pool of offers. Most companies never find product-market fit once, let alone twice. Our successes catalyzed extraordinary growth – growth that required rapid hiring to simply keep up with demand.

Thanks to your hard work, May was our strongest month ever for the business. At that time, we felt confident that we were armed with the necessary cash to keep the business humming. We planned for a future built upon our strengths and the desire to help more customers, in more states, with more innovative products. Given our Q2 results, I do not believe that our optimism and excitement about the road ahead was misguided.

But – the market has changed dramatically in recent months: high inflation has persisted, interest rates are rising dramatically, and home sales have fallen from historic highs. Coupled with affordability concerns, fewer buyers are seeking homes. There is also less demand for cash offer products that differentiate buyers in the homebuying process.

Our original product, Buy Before You Sell, remains as popular as ever — and we feel confident it will continue to be sought out by buyers and sellers no matter the strength of the market. Still, losing demand in part of our portfolio - specifically, Buy With Cash - has had a sudden and sizable impact on our business.

When we talked with you at the All-Hands in June, we believed our cash runway was sufficient to bridge this period of lower activity. We reduced our non-people costs and planned our spend to hedge against further decline. However, the continuing acceleration and severity of the market shift has forced us to consider deeper changes to our business. It’s become clear that these headwinds are part of broader challenges facing our economy. We don’t know how long real estate will continue to soften, so we must plan for a less active market.

As a result, we are refocusing on our core promise: to make buying and selling homes easier and more accessible. Customers and agents today face very different challenges than only a few months ago. And while we have great ambitions, we must stay focused. Moving forward, we will concentrate investments on more evergreen solutions that provide value to our agents and their clients in any market, while reducing our spend in areas that aren’t as essential to this promise. We're doubling down on efforts to achieve profitability and ensuring our team is properly staffed to match these goals.

I know these changes are painful and disruptive, so our leadership team has made every effort to ensure that our new roadmap can carry us through the next phase of our business.

To our impacted employees

There’s no doubt that these layoffs will introduce challenges to your lives and we want to support you as best we can during this time of transition. First, we will be offering tenure-based severance pay. While your health benefits already extend through the end of August, Homeward will contribute two additional months should you elect to extend further with COBRA.

We also want to support your efforts to find a new role elsewhere. Homeward will be offering outplacement services through our recruiting team and removing the non-compete clause for impacted employees.

Finally, we want to recognize the contributions you made here with two changes to your stock options. First, we are removing the vesting “cliff” for all impacted employees so that your stock options will now be vested based on the number of months you have worked at Homeward, even if you worked here less than 12 months. Additionally, we are extending the time period you have to exercise your stock options from 90 days to one year.

What you can expect moving forward

Over the course of today, those of you impacted by the layoff will receive invitations via your personal email to a 1:1 meeting with a leader in your department and a people team representative to discuss the details of your transition and answer questions.

For those of you remaining at Homeward, we’ll talk more as a team at our All-Hands this afternoon (invite to be sent shortly). I recognize that this news may come as a shock and will mean changes to how you work. We’ll share more about our path forward in org-specific town halls tomorrow, along with details about changes to teams and reporting relationships. We will also hold another All-Hands next Friday (August 19th) to address any questions that arise as you digest the news. It will take time to get everything right – and we want you to feel supported in the months ahead.

Closing thoughts

It is especially difficult to share this news at a time when I feel so proud of this organization. Everyone here has contributed to helping agents and their customers achieve their dreams of homeownership. You all have embodied the “One Team, One Dream” value and brought so much joy and purpose to work here at Homeward. I’m grateful for your contributions and your spirit.

For those of you staying, I want you to feel assured that I have full confidence in our team and in the future of our business. This is an incredible team that can lead us through the coming years. I remain enthusiastic about Homeward’s promise and ability to make real estate more accessible, and a better experience for the homebuyers and sellers of the future. We have a strong foundation to build on. And customers are still seeking us out to help guide them on their home ownership journeys. Your continued partnership will help everyone’s efforts live on as we build the Homeward of tomorrow.

For those of you leaving, I am sorry. I know that you put your faith in us by joining our mission. And I let you down. Please know that your time here mattered and that your contributions will continue to serve as the groundwork for the next chapter of Homeward. We are so grateful to you.

Thank you for believing in us.

Tim

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