Ever since he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago, Director of Marketing Lionel Sanchez from McColly Real Estate has been seizing opportunities. He worked as a graphic designer for a marketing company years ago, and he worked in the marketing department at Indiana Botanic Gardens prior to hearing about an opportunity at McColly.
When he discovered the opportunity to work as a graphic designer at McColly, he jumped on board and has been with the company for over two years. With the combination of his experience working with marketing departments in the past and his resolution to grow, when the director of marketing position opened at McColly, Sanchez decided to pursue it.
“When I got here, I was hired as a graphic designer, but I did a lot of the marketing things already. I just took more initiative with the responsibility of stepping into that position. I was already taking on a lot, but I was willing to learn more,” Sanchez said. “As time went on, I was willing to step out of that comfort zone and push my boundaries further. I prepared and made sure I was well-equipped in making sure I got that role because I knew that I was going to be a good fit for the position. Being able to excel beyond that is what I am most proud of.”
As the director of marketing, it is crucial that Sanchez is communicative with the McColly team across the board. Over the past few weeks in his new position, Sanchez’s co-workers have recognized that Sanchez always makes himself open to communication and that they can rely on him to lend a helping hand wherever they may need it.
To better assist McColly agents, the marketing department has a CRM tool that they use for their database, emails, marketing campaigns, and tracking agent progress on a day-to-day basis. Agents also communicate with the marketing department to create their own websites and their own version of the McColly app that is branded to them.
“We also give them the tool to provide an at-home evaluation website for lead generation. They can better assist a new client with listing their home using the data provided. There are many different things that can help the agent assist the client better,” Sanchez said. “Another tool we have is our internal platform; we have all the agents connect with each other. So, there’s a lot of internal communication they can use to reach out to their peers and get resources from them as well.”
Over the years, McColly has been awarded for its marketing at the LeadingRE Sales Manager Summit, which is an annual conference hosted for members of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. Marketing is not only crucial to the success of a real estate company, but Sanchez shared that real estate marketing is different from other branches of marketing.
“Marketing for real estate is unique in that you are not only helping with the marketing efforts of the company but also helping agents reach out to their clients, buyer or seller,” Sanchez said. “There’s a lot of intricate parts that tie everything together, so it’s really different from other industries. You’re not just focusing on one thing; you’re focusing on multiple moving parts. We’re not just trying to make the client happy; we also want to make sure the agents are happy. That way, we have fluidity with the transaction. It’s all relative to the organization as a whole.”
