Christine Crane is the co-founder of BoldLeads, a company built upon the principle that real estate agents perform exceptionally well when they have access to a self-sustaining pipeline of leads that can ultimately be converted to clients. In developing the concept around which BoldLeads was founded, Ms. Crane leaned heavily on her own experience as a successful real estate broker and worked diligently to create a system capable of reducing the inefficiency inherent in the lead-generation process.
As a real estate broker, Ms. Crane’s professional drive made it possible for her to sell millions in real estate and to enjoy tremendous and consistent success. Despite her profoundly impressive results, Ms. Crane recognized that her opportunities were often limited by a relatively small database. This recognition served as the impetus for BoldLeads, as Ms. Crane knew that access to an expansive database would be necessary to ensure her professional efforts would be appropriately rewarded.
Along with her son, Danny, Ms. Crane utilized her deep understanding of lead generation to parse out the inefficient aspects of traditional strategies from the effective aspects. The end result of this cooperative effort was a system designed to provide real estate agents with an efficient and automated system for generating leads on a consistent basis, which in turn allows agents to spend their time in a far more efficient manner and provides the opportunity to generate commissions at a far greater rate than ever before. As the co-founder of BoldLeads, Ms. Crane has succeeded in positively addressing an issue that was both time-consuming and a source of significant stress.
How did you get started in this business? What inspired you to start this business?
I was putting so much effort into generating leads, but I wasn’t getting results that were commensurate to those efforts.
How do you make money?
Access to our system for lead generation is exceptionally valuable and is billed on a subscription basis. Real estate agents who take advantage of BoldLeads are able to secure far more clients while reducing the time spent doing so.
How long did it take for you to become profitable?
We have been profitable since day one. Danny and I are sole owners and were able to start selling our product immediately. We have had amazing success and are proud that we own the company in total without investors, loans, etc…It’s just us.
When you were starting out, was there ever a time you doubted it would work? If so, how did you handle that?
No, I knew this was an issue that needed to be addressed and we have perfect market fit. Danny is an amazing marketer and designer. He designs all of our landing pages, ads, and our site. He understands marketing and I knew he would keep our company on the cutting edge. With a perfectionist like Danny at the helm, I knew we were destined to be the number one lead generator.
How did you get your first customer?
We began advertising on Facebook. I was the salesperson and explained our product to agents as they called in and expressed interest. Word spread quickly once those agents saw how well our system worked for them.
What is one marketing strategy (other than referrals) that you’re using that works really well to generate new business?
Our video demonstrations have been exceptional in generating new business thus far, but we are always looking for new strategies to employ.
What is the toughest decision you’ve had to make in the last few months?
Our goal is to keep our system exclusive to one agent per geographic area, and it’s not exactly easy to turn someone away when they have expressed such sincere interest. But we want to keep our advertising working well for our clients so limiting our sales to one agent per zip code works for us. We have an extensive waiting list.
What do you think it is that makes you successful?
Danny and I are both driven to succeed. We constantly push through changes to better our software and advertising. We are not satisfied to let things rest. We are always upgrading. We have many, many imitators. So, I think we are on to something.
What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Anytime we receive a testimonial from an ecstatic agent that has listed or sold a home using the leads we have generated for them.
What does the future hold for your business? What are you most excited about?
We are very excited about reaching out to more real estate agents and showing them what we can do to help.
What business books have inspired you?
“The Startup Playbook,” by David S. Kidder.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your entrepreneurial efforts?
The opportunity to create a business with my son has been unbelievably rewarding.