Tricia: Hey, its Tricia behind the camera for those of you who are listening to my voice and I’ve got Holli McCray here and I just like grabbed her and she doesn’t even know what questions I am going to ask but Holli you gave a wonderful testimonial last year at Keller Williams Mega Camp about the success of your short sale system and how you had done a press release and as a result you [Holli: It was a great press release] had done about 30 thousand in closed commissions as a result from that so what I want to do is put you on the spot and ask you a little bit more specifically about instead of the short sale market let me just go ahead and change because we met as a result of the short sale system but then you came said hey we are looking to really take our brand to the next level and also do some extreme target marketing. Can you share what happened over the last year and what did Pro Step Marketing do with you in that process to help you?

 

Holli: You know one of the things we wanted to do was we wanted to create a mega agent team and we are well on the way to doing that. And you know it’s not rocket science that all you have to do is figure out what people who have done it before you have done. And so we went and looked at Kristan Cole and some of the other clients that you had that were doing a great job and they were gosh what top 100 or top 150 in real trends and I mean when you got a team that is doing something like that you copy what they do. So as you know we sat down and decided to build a brand and since building that brand it has been phenomenal. I mean lead generation is no longer an issue for us.

 

Tricia: That is awesome. Let me ask you something I mean I am going to go ahead and turn the camera for those of you that are watching to see the screen. That is your look and feel of your site and there is your brand and so forth up there. Can you talk about the branding process because I believe that branding is a lot more then just a logo and popping a logo and having maybe a company from India or online doing it? What did you experience in that relationship and then how did your mind change as far as your brand taking it with your mega team now? Just anything.

 

Holli: Oh gosh, well first the process is certainly not a short one, it’s not an easy process. You have to decide who you are, what you want to feel like in your market place. Do you want to feel like an high end agent? Do you appeal to most buyers? Are you looking for investors? Do you want to be a short sale specialist? What is your brand and your market? And so to determine that, I mean, you know, for us as agents, most of us don’t know where to start with that [Tricia exactly] It was a great process of getting with your team and saying “Okay, what about this” “What do you think about that?” and going back or forth so it takes a little while to really drill down and feel good about what you’ve got, but once its up in running the general public absolutely responds to it.

 

Tricia: Now one thing I’m constantly coaching on is sharing with them how to do more target market, like what do you want the outcome to be? How do you want to be represented in the market? And you have pages on your site about golf course homes in the Knoxville market and you work the Knoxville TN market, your website is HolliMcCray.com so we’ll have this on the video so people can link over to you and see that, but one thing that you’ve done is you’re really drilled down and said “Hey what are people looking for? Like homes with acreage or luxury homes?” Do you feel that really important? And if you were coaching even a new agent like mentoring back to them, What would you tell them to make sure they do on the first round on their website?

 

Holli: You make sure you know what sells in your market. I mean drill down and make sure you understand what’s selling in your market. [Tricia: good] It makes no sense to advertise a property that nobody’s buying.

 

Tricia: So did you see that people were compelled to look at homes with acreage and stuff like that? Did you run MLS kind-of-queries?

 

Holli: Yes, ran through the MLS to kind of figure out what are people looking for. What’s selling, What do they want? [Tricia: Perfect] and then there it is [Tricia: Perfect, I love that] And it will change as our market changes of course we’ll get with you to change these little tabs at the top and put something else there. [Tricia: You know I love talking to you because you totally hit that, like, what’s trending now]. You have to follow that money and that sounds terrible but you have to understand where your market is and what’s selling in your market, I mean if you’re in a market and you want to represent million dollar home sellers and home sellers and home buyers, but the majority of your market is $125,000 and only 5 of those properties have sold all year in your entire MLS its probably not the arena that you want to pull yourself into this year.

 

Tricia: Okay and the last piece is how important do you think it is to have a really good MLS search in your website. An agent came up to me yesterday and they were with another franchise and they’re visiting mega camp and he goes “on I have a free MLS search form my MLS board”

 

Holli: Oh, don’t we all? We all have that, however I don’t know any of my clients that aren’t savvy enough to go find a great one. I mean let’s be honest, our website provides a great MLS search. [Tricia: and you’re the agent of contact on every listing?]And I’m the agent of contact and once they login, they want information from us, they don’t want information from any other agent so listen consumers are smart enough to go find a great MLS search and the ones from our, our board any, isn’t a great MLS search and it doesn’t bring me all the buyers for everyone else’s listings. [Tricia: Absolutely] that this site does.

 

Tricia: Fantastic, Holli thank you so much for sharing about web strategy and brand and as always I just really appreciate you so thank you.

 

Holli: Thank you