Replaced

Nicole sat across the dinner table from us Friday night. She was not her usual positive self. Something happened. I decided to pry.

Replaced

A former actress, Nicole followed her true calling behind the camera. She did film. Music videos. And stills. The latter is, IMO, her best work of all.

Her son came twelve years ago. A daughter, sever years later. So she ditched LA and set up a photographer's studio here on the Central Coast.

Many of her stills adorn the walls of my home. Family portraits. My kids. Wife. Dogs. Taken at different times over the last ten years.

Nicole closed her studio on Friday. 

I assumed the economy took its toll. Nicole believes it goes deeper than that. "Everyone is a photographer today," she said. "They own digital cameras, enhance them with Photoshop (or picnik) and post them on Flickr. The value of a professional is no longer recognized I suppose."

That hit home. Big time. Especially as it relates to real estate.

Maestro

In 2004, I presented twenty-five very far-out predictions in a speech given for a large Realtor association. Slide nine read as follows: In the future you will no longer "own" any listings. A nice 3-D rendering of a product box was placed below the title. Across the top of the box the word "Maestro" was printed in bold. Underneath, it read: Orchestrate the entire process of selling your home - yourself.

Maestro included: 

• A turnkey blog site that featured your home
• A unique URL based on your home's address
• Map mashups with local data 
• A huge photo library and video player
• Direct syndication to every listings site on the planet

Maestro was real estate marketing in a metaphorical box. It provided the homeowner tools to recreate everything an agent does -- the many photos they should be taking, the compelling copy they should be writing and the web distribution they should be executing. 

The premise behind Maestro fed into the notion that in the future, by virtue of handling all of their own marketing, homeowners would retain ownership of their listing and simply hire agents to coordinate the sale -- i.e. show property, hash out paperwork, etc.

The audience booed. "There's more to selling a home than that," they barked. I knew that. Just like there's more to capturing a moment than saying cheese and properly framing your SureShot. The problem was, four years ago, when homes were selling like hotcakes, I wasn't sure the real estate consumer knew that.

And I'm not so sure that the consumer knows any better today.

Nostradavison

Several predictions from my presentation have now come to pass in real estate. And honestly, most of what I predicted seemed inevitable anyway.

A few, however, veered towards absurd.

Consider:

"Holographic Search" that allowed consumers to walk through a listing projected from a computer while sitting in their own kitchen.

"Caravan" was a device agents provided to their buyers. Think listing alerts meets GPS (I got this idea one evening waiting at a busy restaurant that handed out devices to patrons that lit up when your table was ready).

And of course Maestro.

I know they are borderline silly. They were offered to stimulate conversation. 

But then today my inbox received a press release sent from the U.K. announcing the launch of EstateCreate, a self-publishing website built to help consumers list their home and market it everywhere.

Holy shit.

Blinders

You'll think the product is simple. Regard it as a basic template website. With few bells and whistles. Much like most agent and broker websites are now. You may also shuck this as silly, much like some of my predictions, pay it no mind and think to yourself, well... even if a seller uses this, they'll still need to sign their listing over to an agent for full commission.

Blinders. 

Products like EstateCreate are trying to tap into the gaping holes left in the consumer mindset all the dog branding, bad websites, lack of transparency, poor search experiences, misguided marketing and lack of professionalism created and continues to create.

These are the gaping holes that today's real estate brands continue to avoid filling with better information. Higher standards. These are also the voids that real estate innovators are trying fill with solutions offered to real estate folks who continue to shun the idea of spending a few dollars a month for new technology.

If vendors can't sell their innovations to real estate professionals to help the consumer, my guess is they are going to start targeting the consumers themselves in greater numbers, tapping into their motivations to market, buy and sell their homes.  

Think TurboTax.

I hurt for Nicole. Being taken out by the economy is one thing. But being replaced because the marketplace misunderstands your value proposition is something entirely different. I'm showing Nicole how to change that and save her business. 

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Show me the market!

You may have noticed I am a big advocate of putting real estate market information into the hands of consumers.

During most of the boom years, buyers and sellers made life-changing decisions based on thin slices of information. A few comps fished from the MLS. County-level market trends. And, too often, uninformed or skewed interpretations from their agent.

Sure, there were the monthly numbers from NAR. Or the Case-Shiller Index. But they lagged badly. "Recent" sales data on the web were not recent enough.

Zillow and Trulia improved the situation and should be commended for it. They served up tons of market metrics and nailed the user experience. But they were based on some of the same old data, or used fresher data that represented but a fraction of the total available in a given market.

This lead to my bullishness for the MLS: For they have fresh data, all of it. The problem is that MLSs and the brokers they support generally have no idea how to shape that data into something usable.

That is now changing.

Here are some examples:

The Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS, in partnership with Northstar MLS, recently launched a suite of market reports that are very well done. A detailed summary for their entire region is produced each week; numbers for 100 area communities are published monthly. The visualization of the data is excellent and intelligent commentary is paired with the hard numbers. MAAR even created a blog -- "The Skinny" -- through which they publish and comment on the data.

Jeff Allen, Research Manager at MAAR, tells me the information is being gobbled up by consumers and professionals alike.

There are obvious limitations here (that reports are only available via PDF is the most problematic), but they intend to address them in the coming months.

I have discussed Redfin's use of IDX to create market metrics before. They have done an amazing job. But Estately appears to have made some nice moves in this area as well. They offer neighborhood level market pages that present at-a-glance views of the price median, inventory and days on market. This, again, is based on their use of IDX. 

Top Producer made an early move with their Market Snapshot product. While it's a vastly superior option for agents looking to move beyond marketing with recipes and saccharine proclamations of home ownership dreams come true, it suffers, in my opinion, from some data visualization issues.

I understand MLS data aren't perfect. And, yes, brokers in some markets still play hard-to-get with their listings. But the bottom line is clear: The MLS is the fountainhead of possibility for delivering consumers current, reliable, hyperlocal real estate market information. Brokers, associations and technology companies are starting to tap into it.

And that's exciting.

-- Brian Boero

No, it's not okay

The late morning silence that typically pervades my home was broken by expletives emanating from my bedroom. From my study, I yelled, in a similarly frantic tone, if all was OK. My wife responded, "No, all is definitely not OK!"

What did I do?

Lori is a quiet, introspective lady. Those who know her can attest to her gentle demeanor. And she is quite my opposite in her reserve when it comes to four letter words. So I charged upstairs concerned about what was not OK. 

She was at her desk, facing her computer. As I approached, she swung around and pelted me with a verbal assault. "I'm so damn frustrated," she said. "This whole real estate thing sucks and it's not gotten any better over the years." "I know it's not your fault, but you can do something about this. You have too. People listen to you."

No, it's not okay

The bone of her frustration was clear. She was searching for homes with a sense of urgency. We are seriously considering moving. Next week she will be flying out to what could be our next destination for three days to visit schools, meet with an agent, and tour homes. She is madly surfing websites, saving searches and participating fully in the online real estate experience.

But all is not OK. Many homes lack a sufficient number of photos.  
Or contain bad photos that illustrate elements that have no bearing on the property.
Or contain no photos at all.

"Gavin is 7 (referring to our youngest son) and he's already filled the picture library in my cell phone with hundreds of photos of his Webkin," she ranted. "And they're all good photos! If he can do it why can't every agent take a lousy dozen photos of a home and post it? Why?"

I stood in silent agreement. I've been asking that question since 1998. 

"Maybe we can hire Gavin out to agents and put the income away for his college fund," she said. 

Lori pointed out homes with agent comments that sounded great. But descriptions of homes aren't enough. Not if you are serious about buying one.

According to my wife this presented her with two distinct problems:

1) She could not make an informed decision on which properties to tour with her agent

2) She would have to email said agent and ask her to go look at the homes, determine if they are right for us, take pictures and send them to us ASAP. 

In her mind...

Neither prospect is OK

Not for her and not for our agent, who is now burdened with the task of performing the job of the listing agent.  

As I stood accepting punishment for all that is wrong with real estate, Lori reminded me of a task I performed a while back for a broker who wanted to market a $3.5 million listing here on the Central Coast that wasn't moving. I drove over to the home, took a few pictures and used the Wifi inside the house to get online and upload the photos to an account I set up for her with Real Estate Shows. I spent a few minutes writing the subtitle copy and pressed submit.

In no time she had a compelling tour of the home ready to be syndicated all over the web.

A day later, I had one of the voice artists we work with at 1000watt record the audio of the script and sent the file to Jeff Turner (President of Real Estate Shows) and requested he customize the tour for me just a tad. After all, this was a $3.5 million home.

This is the result:

I know, no big deal. And that's my point. In less time than it takes an agent to explain to a seller why a listing is sitting on the market longer than it should, a simple show (minus the audio track) that effectively merchandises the listing was created.

Such an effort also creates a better experience for the prospective buyer (My wife, for example).

"Real estate is stressful enough," Lori said. "Agents should be doing what they can to reduce the stress, not add to it." 

Yup. 

Settling a great debate

Not long ago, Rob Hahn's post What Makes a Realtor Good launched a debate that tendered only a vague definition of what makes a Realtor good or bad. Well today, I can clarify that definition:

A bad Realtor is one whose marketing effort for a six figure listing pales in comparison to a seven-year old's playful regard for his $11.95 pet dinosaur.

A good agent is one who says "no problem, I'll take care of that" when asked to compensate for the bad agents job. 

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

A little broker website sucess story (and desperate wake-up call for big brokers)

We’ve received a ton of great feedback on the “Top Ten Real Estate Brokerage Websites in America” report we published with Real Trends back in October. Brokers big and small have come out of the woodwork to share their stories and seek our help.

Jonathan Kaufman’s story is one of the best. Here’s an excerpt from an email he sent us last week:

"I launched my own real estate brokerage in August 2008 because I know the industry is changing and I didn’t want to be under the umbrella of my old brokerage.  Although I don’t know the model of the future, I know that I need to get out there and try new things…something I couldn’t do in my old situation.  I figured it was much more of a risk to stay where I was versus breaking off on my own.  So, I took the plunge.

As a start, I wanted a top-of-the-line web presence – something that spotlighted my real estate beliefs, something that set me apart, and something that would allow me to connect with the type of buyers and sellers that I wanted to work with.  I spent countless hours researching other brokerage web sites and read your ‘Top Ten’ report in late October.  It was a wealth of information and made me think about a lot of aspects of my site (and business).  Along with my web designers, we picked the report apart and took a lot of great ideas from it."

Take a look at the results here.

What’s he’s done is killer. There are some things I might change, but I’m not going to quibble here. The point is Jonathan created something excellent. It’s worth serious study.

Jonathan’s site is better in terms of design, usability and brand coherence than almost all big broker sites. Indeed, some of the major brands could benefit from going to school on it.

So congratulations to Jonathan.

But this is about more than a website. Think again about what Jonathan says above:

“… I know the industry is changing and I didn’t want to be under the umbrella of my old brokerage.  Although I don’t know the model of the future, I know that I need to get out there and try new things…something I couldn’t do in my old situation.“

Big brokers, pay attention: There are thousands of Jonathans out there right now. They’re smart, skilled, and confident. They have no need for the mother’s milk of a desk, of shockingly remedial “training”, of the legal backstopping required by the average recruit.

They are businesspeople. And they are leaving.

Kris did. Jay did. And so did Jonathan.

Brokerage companies are in for a serious brain drain unless they can use their assets in a manner that supports, rather than inhibits, these stars.

What are those assets? Well, at the top of the list – hopefully – is a brand. Not just a recognizable icon, but a marker imbued with some sort of meaning. Most real estate brands have been suffered the whips and scorns of thousand agent glamour shots, but for many companies, there’s something there worth saving.  Save it. How this is done is a long, always complicated process we’re working on with several clients right now.

The other lies in scale. Theoretically. The average big brokerage, being big, has people and resources the average agent or solo broker does not. The problem is that in many cases, it’s the wrong people using resources the wrong way. The typical brokerage marketing department has little to offer the Jonathans of the world, but it could. Doing so involves cutting the cord on lots of non-productive initiatives and creating a strategy (as opposed to halting, half-baked forays) for delivering new value to agents and consumers.

But I digress. And Jonathan’s broker has lost his opportunity anyway.

 -- Brian Boero

Buyers stretch the boundary of real estate blogging

Well, it's a blog -- technically. Newman's own is the newly launched diary of a young couple - Nora Krug and Michael Newman - who are proclaimed members of the "highly discriminated against minority - renters,"  and their pursuit of a home in the "post -Bush, pre-stimulus, late-bubble" Washington, DC area. 

Their diary is published through Slate, an online daily owned by the Washington Post (for which the couple work).

I found their first two entries to be well written, funny, insightful and a welcome divergence from the cacophony of inside real estate banter. It's not often we get to peak inside the consumer experience and view things through their lens. 

Of particular interest to me was the back story regarding the home they almost bought before they started blogging:

"Why move to the suburbs just to live in a smallish house with a long, unlovely walk to the train and be able to send Joe to an underwhelming school? But you'll move before Joseph goes to high school, Denise, our gung-ho agent, assured us. But hey, Denise—the economy could get worse! In fact it almost certainly will. We may have to stay in this house till Joe goes to college."

Nora is right. And perhaps this calls attention to the struggles consumers face trying to buy into neighborhoods and homes they can't afford and the struggles agents face trying to assuage them with advice wrapped in a false sense of comfort. How often did buyers of the recent past hear things like "money's cheap, you can afford to bid $50,000 over list" or "don't worry, in two years when the ARM adjusts, you'll be making more money." 

Nora sends a signal to her agent -- who they apparently like -- that what's paramount to them is being guided by truth and realism in their quest for a home. These days, truth and realism might very well be an agent's most prized value proposition. 

Honestly, though the story is only two entries deep, I am already emotionally vested in Nora, Michael and Denise. The one person I really can relate with is 17-month old Joseph, whose need for more space is something my own six-member family is currently dealing with.

And, Joseph: Something tells me this search for a bigger home may mean Mom and Dad might give a brother or sister pretty soon! 

Good luck Newmans. 

And Denise too. 

- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Let's call it Zulia

Brian wrote this toward the very end of December 2007. I remember both of us flying down to Los Angeles (each from different destinations), meeting at the airport and grabbing a cab to meet with a client. We were throwing ideas around and before long we realized the cabbie was completely lost. In the few minutes I spent trying to get the cabbie back on track with the directions we had, Brian hatched this idea and presented it to me. It was one of those moments when I wished we still had our tech company so we could build an app that enabled our customers to do this. I loved this idea then, and I still love it today. ...Marc

On Friday, Davison and I gave a presentation to a group of top producers at a large real estate company here in the Bay Area. At these things, I usually play Ed McMahon to Marc's Johnny (minus the pre-show hi-balls). I keep things moving and laugh at all the jokes.

But this time I wanted to take a few minutes to share an idea I had with the crowd. I offer it for your evaluation below.

I've been thinking that if I were to sell real estate in my neighborhood, one of the things I would do would be to create a comprehensive database of images, sales histories and notes on every single home in the neighborhood (in my case, about 1,200 homes).

In other words, I'd create my own private Zillow or Trulia -- or, really, something even more valuable to my clients and prospects. Maybe I'd call it Zulia.

The data would be impeccably accurate, the images would be clear street level views, and it would be frequently and meaningfully updated. Each home would have its own page. Heck, I could even run this on Wordpress. Every home would be a post.

But -- and the real value would lie herein -- all of the data, all of the images, would be complemented by my own assessment of the home. This might include observations taken on a broker tour at some point in the past ("next door neighbor raises German Shepards"; "living room gets very little light in winter"), or notes on sales prices that would make such data much more meaningful than a list of out-of-context comps. I might, for example, note that an unusually low sales price could be attributed an out of area listing agent, not a marker of a market shift.

This database could be used in a couple different ways. I could either use it as a tool for myself and my clients and keep it password protected. It would be helpful in discovering buyer preferences or helping shape sellers' perception of their home's value. Or I could leave it wide open.

Either way, I'd be using the Web to leverage my valuable experience and knowledge in a new way that would help clients and differentiate me from every other agent in my neighborhood with a stack full of comps from the MLS.

The agents in attendance liked the idea. But in reality, most were selling super high-end homes and don't get their fingernails dirty in the nitty gritty of technology. With a more time and effort, this could even be done at a brokerage level.

Your thoughts?

-- Brian Boero

Tips from the 1000watt grab bag

We're consumed with work, but here are a few tips from the 1000watt grab bag we hope you find useful.

More writing from us later in the week when we have some down time (i.e., flying time).

1. Set up a unique conference line for every deal. You can get them for free and it will end the pain of cell phone conferencing and playing double phone tag with spouses/families/partners you have as clients. We've used one of these for the past year and have yet to find a reason to switch to a paid service.

2. Set up a wiki for every deal. If you don't know what a wiki is, it's basically an online white board and storage box where you and your clients can share notes, documents and more. They are free or nearly free and are likely a lot easier to figure out than the transaction management software you've been using.

3.Start using Web conferencing to search along with your buyers. It will save you time and money by surfacing preferences more quickly. It really shines if you have a Relo client. Try FreeConference or Yugma. They're dirt cheap and, in our experience, perform better than higher-priced offerings like WebEx or GoToMeeting.

A case for a strategy of quality

In the run-up to the housing bust, many buffered doom and gloom predictions with the observation that a downturn would likely run real estate's boom babies -- the horde of inexperienced, under qualified agents that entered the business in recent years -- straight out of town.

The real pros would be left. Fewer Realtors would do more transactions. Median Realtor income would rise and the industry would no longer suffer the embarrassment of knuckleheads.

As it turns out, this has not happened. As of October 1, NAR membership has declined just 8.42% year over year. Like dinner guests that won't leave, many under qualified agents remain at real estate's table, picking at crumbs.

The reasons why aren't hard to figure. The cost to maintain one's license and association memberships are relatively small. The absence of meaningful standards for entry into the industry is matched by a lack of consequences for under performance once inside. Weak agents may be struggling, but they'll hang around to pick up the occasional fluke or friends and family deal. 

Moreover, because competitors also cooperate on transactions on real estate, there's little peer pressure on bad agents. That bad agent may just deliver Uncle Marty as a much needed buyer. And brokers often have little incentive to jettison these folks given their relatively attractive splits.

This is all understandable. Times are tough. But those healthy enough to escape the closing-to-closing view can make a leap forward.

Let me explain:

Among the many interesting insights to be found in the California Association of REALTORS 2008 Survey of Home Buyers are two findings that seem at odds at first glance, but may offer a glimmer of hope.

First, only 20% of "Internet buyers" (an increasingly meaningless distinction marking buyers who use the Internet in the real estate process) picked their agent because he or she was most qualified. 44% chose their agent because he or she was perceived to be the most responsive.

Second, buyer satisfaction with their agent dropped significantly, falling from from 4.4 to 3.3 on a 5-point scale from 2007 to 2008. The number one reason cited for dissatisfaction was a perceived lack of aggressive negotiation by the agent. 80% of dissatisfied respondents cited this complaint.

There are many conclusions that can be drawn from this, but here's mine: To win a consumer, you need to answer your email; to make them happy in this market, you actually have to know what you're doing. 

For several years, in many markets, moving a listing was a two-week stroll to a big payday. Offer strategy was reduced to "Offer as much as you possibly can." We all know those days are over. For all you agents and brokers out there capable of hitting a higher standard, now's the time to move.

That means marketing. If you're a broker and willing to cut loose the weak agents in your organization you may lose a few deals in the short term, but will have the freedom to leverage the experience and skill of your best agents in a effective campaign. Many companies claim "The best agents," but what if you could prove it? Make bankable statements of about your hiring standards? Compare the average years of experience and productivity of your agents versus that of your competitors'? Leverage social media to show this expertise?

Quality can win in this market. If it's for real.

I may be asking too much here. That's fine. Forget about me. Listen to the customer. They're asking too.

-- Brian Boero

I am a lead

As drab as the market feels, I just closed on my investment home in Portland.
Sold.
Check just came in the mail.

Granted, the sale price established though a CMA was obliterated by a Zestimate -- the tool the buyer chose to trust rather than the conventional real estate pricing formula performed by my agent. It missed the important things like upgrades and improvements, specific location, view, and the overall stability within my particular neighborhood.

But these days, many out there don't know who or what to believe. Some view the Zestimate as a mis-marked price tag. As the Blue Book for real estate. And when the cashier rings up a different price they argue on principle. Frankly, I don't blame them a bit. I would do the very same thing.

So it goes in the wacky world of real estate. And with things so unstable, I was happy to have a buyer willing to even make an offer.

I have to hand it to my agent - he worked hard to close this sale. Dealing with a difficult buyer during a difficult time was no easy feat considering how desperate I was to make the last three years of ownership account for something more than a $20,000 loss.

I'm not bitter at all. Given the market, I'm grateful for the small things, like how the buyer qualified for a loan. And how the bank had a few bucks left in the vault in make the loan. And I'm grateful for my agent, who is a good man and did a great job.

So what now? I received a check yesterday -- the deposit on the home. I'm basically back to where I started three years ago. Almost.

So anyway, I hear that now is great time to buy. That's what I heard three years ago and that didn't work out like we planned. But I'm willing to go at it again. After all, I've got some cash for a down payment, rates are low and if I can find something that flows positive with 10 or 20% down, in a market where prices have fallen and rentals are hot, and...

Well, not so fast, Davison.

Yes. I need more than a few superficial reasons to jump back into the pool.

Perhaps someone can explain to me exactly why now is a great time to buy. And where. And provide me with facts -- and an analysis of those facts -- to back that statement. Like many consumers out there, I'm a bit shaky and not ready to simply believe an ad campaign. But you could say I am motivated.

I suppose, when it comes right down to it, I am a lead.

- Davison

From the 1000watt Archive: Lead generation is dead

We're a little light on posting this week because Davison is on vacation. So here's a piece we published about a year ago. It's tongue-in-cheek, and there are a hundred nuances we leave out, but it raises questions that are important. I'd be interested to hear what you're seeing in terms of online lead gen these days.

Lead Generation is dead

The following fake press release appeared on my desk this morning:

Tampa, Florida – October 2, 2007

The National Association of Tired Ideas today issued a brief statement noting the death of online real estate Lead Generation. Lead Generation – which emerged on the scene scarcely ten years ago – met its demise on Saturday, September 29th at 2:30 a.m. on a template website belonging to Don “The Deal Maker” Davies, an agent who “goes the extra mile for his clients,” but rarely checks his email. 

“I noticed a glitch in our lead system and found that it was trying to pass along the name ‘Boris Yeltsin’ to Mr. Davies” said Steve Hendstrom, the attending technician. “I tried everything I could to free up the system, but in the end, all I was able to get it to do was belch, make a clanging sound, and utter the word “Rosebud” to absolutely no one in particular … Lead Generation crashed, just like that." 

Lead Generation was born on March 22, 1994 on the website of Minneapolis agent Dale Montrose, who was able to get trusting consumers to give him their names, contact information, social security numbers and sexual histories in exchange for an offer of “FREE REPORTS”. Recalls Montrose, speaking from his vacation home on Grand Cayman, “Those were the salad days. I stacked leads in my inbox like cordwood. Thank god for my autoresponder."

Soon, companies emerged that took Lead Generation nationwide, using it to sell thousands of agent and broker websites. In 1996, a website product called “Agent e-Generator Gold: Platinum Edition” set a new standard by using Lead Generation on no less than forty three forms on a single site. Lead Generation was the talk of industry listservs, feted at conventions and touted in real estate offices across America.

In the late nineties, Lead Generation went big time, cutting deals with several high profile internet companies. These firms worked with Lead Generation to scrub, verify, incubate and route leads – which were previously known as “people” -- to eager real estate professionals. Thanks to Lead Generation, millions of homebuyers and sellers were successfully captured during this period.

In 2000, Lead Generation partnered with Drip Email to deliver hundreds of millions of holiday greetings, recipes, high school football schedules and inspirational messages to consumers hungry for random information from salespeople. 

But by late 2005 Lead Generation was in trouble. It was stretched across thousands of stealth websites, pop-ups and landing pages; tucked behind millions of “contact me” links and “home search” forms; and, sadly, taken advantage of by lead arbitrage outfits and black market dealers peddling “human free” leads. By early this year, many saw the end coming.

“Nothing will ever replace Lead Generation” said Don “The Deal Maker” Davies. “Some incredibly famous people passed through my inbox over the years: Moses, Louis Pasteur, Gary Coleman, Nancy Reagan, Flava Flav, Dick Cavett … those were just a few of the celebs that took the time to fill out one of my Website forms.”   

Mike Nesbitt, a recent college graduate who purchased a condo in Dallas, Texas in 2004, was not so sentimental. “It took me forever to find a decent Realtor and I had to sift through so much fluff … all those dog pictures -- WTF?” Continues Nesbitt, “In spite of Lead Generation, I did end up finding an agent who actually got back to me in a flash and took the time to answer my questions – she was awesome.”

Lead Generation is survived by Customer Engagement, its decidedly more social, open and confident offspring. Some industry observers familiar with Customer Engagement note that it also shows the influence of its grandparents, Conversation and Value. 

-- Davison/Boero