A series of smart plays helped Kris Lindahl create a team that rose to the Top 10
The clock is ticking down on the giant digital scoreboard. The puck drops. The world moves in slow motion. Two players fight to take control. One man reigns supreme and drops back to pass. The puck slides from player to player across the ice. A lightning-like windup powers the slap shot through the air and it sneaks by the goalie’s glove for the game-winning goal!
No individual could have made this play alone. But anything’s possible with cohesive players, sharpened skills, endless hours of practice, a common goal, and the leadership of a coach with vision.
That’s the formula driving The Kris Lindahl Team of RE/MAX Results in The Twin Cities of Minnesota. The members are entering their third year as a team – and are more focused than ever on crushing their goals and providing an unsurpassed experience to every client.
They’re already RE/MAX all-stars, very likely ranking in or near the year-end 2016 Top 10 teams for the entire RE/MAX network.
The Kris Lindahl Team’s winning combination of brand recognition, shared values, culture, systems and strong leadership enables it to flourish – just like a hockey team that scores the winning goal in the final seconds.
In 2011, a partnership between Lindahl and Sarah Pickens put everything in motion. The forward-thinking, marketing-minded Lindahl came to the table with a passion for all things digital. He developed websites in the wee hours of the morning and had an early-adopter command of social media.
Pickens, a skilled real estate pro who’d helped close thousands of sales as part of a top-producing team, was a master of systems and communications. She’d spent countless hours perfecting lead follow-up, connecting with clients, sharpening her negotiation skills, and creating lifelong relationships with potential referral contacts.
As they entered the first period, Lindahl knew they’d build a larger team in the near future. The first priority, though, was developing a brand that would produce the volume of leads necessary to sustain a group of high-caliber real estate professionals. The secret: creative, cutting-edge marketing tactics tied to social media and digital strategies.
Introducing Lindy!
Agents
Kris Lindahl took a cue from the Minnesota Wild and developed his very own team mascot, who turns the home-buying process into a family-friendly activity. Lindy, just about 1 year old, is featured in coloring books and on bracelets. He attends events and is prominently featured in the team’s marketing.
“The best thing is the way kids smile when they see Lindy,” Sarah Pickens says. “It’s so much fun to watch their faces light up!”
An early adopter of Facebook, Lindahl easily gained traction for The Kris Lindahl Team business page, which with 28,000 followers is now the No. 1 Facebook page in the Minnesota real estate market. The largest brokerage in the area has just 7,000.
Lindahl also purchased MinneapolisRealEstate.com and SaintPaulRealEstate.com, giving the team enormous organic reach with the most popular real estate search terms in the state. No longer dependent on pay-per-click marketing like much of the competition, The Kris Lindahl Team was free to spend its online budget on domain optimization and targeted social media reach.
Lindahl supplements those digital efforts with just the right amount of tried and true traditional advertising, making The Kris Lindahl Team a household name in the community. The team publishes a monthly newspaper, which in the beginning hit just Blaine (its home city). Now, it’s delivered to more than 66,000 mailboxes in the team’s wide geographical farming area. The team sends postcards for new listings and all its events, keeping The Kris Lindahl Team top of mind whenever a consumer might be considering a move.
The biggest shot on the marketing goal was The Kris Lindahl Team being named the “Official Partner of the Minnesota Wild,” the state’s NHL hockey team. Fans in Minnesota are devoted to their hockey heroes – and Lindahl’s name is prominently connected to them in many ways.
The relationship with the Wild continues to grow, and in 2016 Lindahl was able to secure a celebrity endorsement from a top player and fan favorite, Charlie Coyle.
The Kris Lindahl brand thrived, and in 2014, after just three short years as partners, Lindahl and Pickens sold 175 homes.Time to start the second period.
Lindahl’s next step – before considering possible new team members – was to define the mission, vision, core values and team culture. The Kris Lindahl Team would not be a loose-knit collection of agents falling short of the leaders’ sky-high standards. The team would be a family of real estate professionals resolute in its shared core values and mission.
In 2015, with those important building blocks in place, the interviewing and hiring process began. Because of all the prep work done by Lindahl and Pickens, it didn’t take long for agents to be on board and systems to be in place.
A strong finish is key to being a winner. The Kris Lindahl Team of 16 full-time real estate all-stars ended 2016 with 677 homes sold or under contract totaling more than $180 million in volume. That’s a per-agent production of more than 42 transactions! Those are staggering numbers for a team wrapping up just its second year in business.
Investing in each agent’s personal development is one of my top priorities.Team Leader Kris Lindahl
Lindahl’s leadership provides the spark. And many factors drive success:
Monthly training on topics from improving listing presentations to time management
Conversion tools such as Follow Up Boss and BombBomb
Morale-boosting team outings such as helicopter rides or canoeing trips
Monthly contests promoting friendly competition
High-quality leads
Two remarkable administrative staff members – a listing coordinator and a closing coordinator – back every agent and keep sales on track.
10 Steps To Building A Top-Ten Team
1. Craft a strong brand
2. Create core values and a mission statement
3. Generate leads to sustain the team
4. Put systems and processes in place
5. Hire agents who cultivate team culture
6. Mix digital with traditional marketing
7. Give agents conversion tools to succeed
8. Continually invest in your agents’ development
9. Always be on the cutting edge
10. Provide a world-class customer experience
Impressive stats may give others reason to ease up, but not this family. Lindahl and Pickens are continuous learners, and that mindset carries to everyone else.
They lead by example, attending multiple Brendon Burchard events and obtaining their Certified High Performance Coach Certifications. Pickens, who the agents lovingly refer to as Mama Bear, devotes an hour a month to each of her rock stars to guide them through this internationally celebrated coaching program.
“Investing in each agent’s personal development is one of my top priorities,” Lindahl says. Living a high-performance lifestyle both personally and professionally is extremely important to the success of The Kris Lindahl Team. As the third period comes to close there’s no doubt this team is coming out ahead of the competition as better people – not just better agents.
The Kris Lindahl Team is ready for overtime against any team (or even a shootout if is comes down to it) and their talented agents are frequently scoring hat tricks for their clients. This success is evident: The team has the No. 1 profile on Zillow in Minnesota, with more than 330 five-star reviews. In 2016, Lindahl and his team averaged 3 percent higher sales price than their local MLS, which translated to more than an additional $1,000,000 in their sellers’ pockets.
For 2017, the goal is to help at least 1,000 clients with their buying and selling needs as well as increasing per-agent production to an average of 50 transactions. No one should bet against it.
In real estate – just as in hockey – you need a team that maintains a united front, passes the puck, and keeps up with the latest techniques so they’re always on top of their game.
Kris’s Top 10 Tips for His Agents
1. Always be authentic
2. Live with a generous heart
3. Lead by example
4. Spread positivity
5. Outwork everyone
6. Be a continuous learner
7. You are your biggest competitor
8. Find your motivation
9. Bigger is better in marketing
10. Never be the smartest person in the room
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