Technology is the new fighting ground for estate agency – that was the message in of a podcast episode.

Ways in which agents can use technology and digital services to enhance lead generation and stay ahead of the competition was the subject discussed on The Home Stretch, hosted by Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals.

In the latest podcast, he was joined by Richard Combellack (CORR), chief commercial officer at technology provider nurtur.group to discuss the importance of technology and innovation in the property sector.

Over the past few years, nurtur.group has acquired four technology businesses, creating what it calls an ‘eco-system’ for agents.

It has combined all its PropTech under one umbrella, creating a funnel which catches leads from all sources.

“At the top of the funnel we have businesses such as Starberry and The Property Jungle that are focused on generating and capturing leads through various activities such as social media advertising, pay-per-click advertising, websites, and portal lead capture,” Combellack told the podcast.

“These leads are then filtered into the next layer of the funnel, where they are qualified through the LeadPro platform.

“From here the lead will either result in a phone call directly with an agent or it will be filtered into a nurture journey through BriefYourMarket, developing the lead until converted.”

Combellack said at the bottom of the funnel were technologies such as Yomdel, a chatbot manning chat from sources such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and live chat on agent websites. Yomdel also books appointments in agents’ diaries.

He added: “The nurtur.group eco-system covers the entire sales funnel of an agent – lead capture, lead qualification, lead nurture and conversation. Off to the side of the funnel, we also provide other services such as mystery shopping and market research with KnowYourMarket, so we are constantly able to reassess the success of process and adjust if needed to ensure optimum results.”

He said the method aimed to simplify everything for agents, cutting down the number of toolsets required to do the job properly.

“While there are other PropTech suppliers in the market the unique aspect about the nurtur.group eco-system is the integration between the various businesses and a joining up the dots so to speak,” he said.

“All of the various elements work together to ensure a lead flows through the process as effortlessly as possible. It also allows us to determine the cost of each lead as well as the return on investment the agent is getting.”

McKenzie commented: “Many within the sector have been waiting for one system that does it all, rather than having various accounts and systems to deal with each aspect of the business.

“Also, being able to determine the ROI and cost of each lead gives agents the information they need to make informed business decisions with regard to lead generation spend.”

McKenzie and Combellack also discussed other aspects of the nurtur.group technologies and how these can be used to generate leads.