Automating Accountability and the Philosophy of Process Over Personality

This is Part 4 of our blog series around our most recent webinar "Plugging the Leaks in Your Lead Funnel." Click here for Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3.

One of the benefits of using an automation for the purpose of accountability, according to Will Gray, is that you get to say, "Hey, it wasn't me. Just the way the system works." "You get to let Follow-Up Boss be the bad guy."

This philosophy is more important than most team leads realize. As opposed to continually nagging your agents (which nobody likes doing), the CRM enforces the standards.

The conversation goes from "Why didn't you call this lead?" to "The system automatically pulled this lead back because the 90-minute window for response had expired." Process over personality.

Creating an accountability automation: Speed to lead

The process begins with the most fundamental accountability automation: speed to lead. Will showed an example of this process in Follow-Up Boss 2.0, the lead pullback automation.

The purpose of this process is simple. To ensure new leads get contacted within a certain amount of time, or else they're automatically reassigned.

Flow:

1. Trigger: A lead is created (a new lead comes in)

2. Wait: 90 minutes

3. Conditions: Has the lead been called? (no) Has the lead been texted? (no)

4. Action: Reassign the lead to a new pond or round robin

5. Notification: Agent is notified that the lead was pulled back

Will admitted that this is a bit dramatic. "'Hey, this never happened.' 'We're pulling the lead back. We're putting it in a pond or a new round robin,'" he acknowledged.

"You may take a completely different approach where there's a nudge or it highlights a task for you." The main thing to note is that the automation enforces the standard automatically, consistently, each and every time.

No exceptions, no excuses, no forgetting.

After hours leads

Although this obviously creates a problem. An attendee asked, "What if a lead comes in at 2am? I don't want to reassign it because my agent didn't call him at 2:02 am."

Will's response used a delay step that respected the agent's business hours.

Modified flow:

1. Trigger: New lead is created

2. Wait until business hours (8 am - 7 pm)

3. Activate the accountability automation (the 90 minute timer)

4. Proceed with the marketing automation (welcome email, etc.)

"We use this email step to send first, prior to invoking the automation," Will stated. "And we can set this to your office hours, or between 8 and 7, so that it only runs the next morning after the lead comes in if they've come in outside of your hours."

A lead comes in at 2 am. The delay step stops until 8 am.

At 8 am, the 90 minute timer starts. The agent has 90 minutes to make contact.

If no contact is made by 9:30 am, the lead is reassigned. Simple, clean, fair.

Building smart lists for nurture follow-up

Time frames help, but they don't solve the execution problem. You can't manually remember to call hundreds of people every 14 or 30 days.

Your brain doesn't work like that. Nobody's does.

Smart lists solve this. The CRM surfaces who needs attention, so you're not constantly wondering if you've forgotten someone important.

Short-term nurture smart list

Criteria:

1. Stage = Nurture

2. Time Frame = 0-3 months OR 3-6 months

3. No outbound call OR text in last 14 days

4. Exclude ponds (if applicable)

This gives you your hottest nurture leads who haven't been touched in two weeks. These should be getting called or texted every 14 days at minimum.

Gabe pulled this up during a live demo and winced. "We've got 0 to three or three to six months that have not got an outbound text or an outbound call in the last 14 days. Way too many."

Several hundred leads just sitting there. Which honestly happens to everyone, but at least with the smart list you can see the problem clearly.

Long-term nurture smart list

Criteria:

1. Stage = Nurture

2. Time Frame = 6-12 months OR 12+ months OR No Plans

3. No outbound call OR text in last 28-30 days

4. Exclude ponds (if applicable)

"That's every 30 days for us. I put 28 days on here because I like to give the agents a couple days cushion before we start nudging," Gabe explained.

Long-term nurture needs less frequency but consistency still matters. A touch every 30 days keeps you in their head without being annoying.

You're not calling them weekly about houses when they told you they're moving next year. That's how you get blocked.

Stacking additional accountability automations

Now that you have that 90 minute checkpoint working, you can create additional checkpoints by simply stacking more over time.

• Day 1: Speed to lead (90 minutes).

• Day 3: Did they progress from "New" to "Lead"?

• Day 7: Have they attempted to reach the lead 5+ times?

• Day 14: Are they in the correct time frame?

"Also, I can expand on this where I'm going to invoke a 7-day audit automation at the end of this," Will demonstrated. "So, add another one. 'Hey, we're going to actually probably before the conditions this is occurring, but do we want to invoke a 7-day audit?' 'Have we made enough calls? Are they in the right stage?'"

This provides a series of automatic checkpoints that you don't have to remember to check. Or rather, your agents don't have to remember either.

They won't.

The no-show appointment automation

That same concept (not relying on agent memory) is equally important when transitioning from new leads to scheduled appointments. This was one of the most impactful automations presented in the webinar.

Remember, Gabe's team went from 97.8 percent of appointments having no outcome to significantly increased tracking and follow-up on appointments. That's a huge improvement.

Automation flow:

1. Trigger: Outcome of appointment = "No Show"

2. Action 1: Tag the lead as "No Show" (for tracking purposes)

3. Action 2: Update the stage of the lead from "Booked" to "Hot Prospect"

4. Action 3: Send an email immediately: "Sorry we missed you!" / "Here's my Calendly link to reschedule" / "Or give me a call directly"

5. Action 4: Create a task for the agent for the next day: "Follow up with [lead name] if they haven't rescheduled"

"If the agent forgets to remove the lead from the booked status after the no show, that can definitely be a leak," Will stated. "So we want to make sure we're automatically moving it to Hot Prospect since they did intend to meet us."

You receive immediate contact to the lead while they are still engaged. Automatic CRM management (update stage, apply tags).

Automated accountability (create a task for the agent the next day). Absolutely no reliance on agent memory to complete the action.

"And making just a reminder to the agent the following day. 'Hey, if they haven't reached out, give them a call. Make some outreach,'" Will added.

Utilizing automation triggers as incentives

This also helps solve a major issue that arose multiple times in previous sections of this series. Will discussed agent adoption, something that is often overlooked when implementing new systems.

"You can use your no-show appointment outcome as an automation trigger. It's a good way to encourage the agents to actually use it because it can automatically send the reschedule email, tag the lead, etc," Will stated.

When agents understand that recording the outcome will trigger beneficial automation processes (and accountability too), they are more likely to record the outcome. The system works for the agent, and that makes a big difference.

The MaverickRE agent text nudge

Helping the agent update the outcome was half the battle. Earlier, Gabe mentioned a feature that greatly enhanced their ability to track the outcome of their appointments.

"We enabled this where after an appointment it sends a text message to the agent. 'Hey, how'd your appointment with Will Gray go? Was it one met, two not met, three rescheduled?' It'll update it in Follow-Up Boss for you because we were simply unable to obtain it."

This is fantastic because it happens immediately after the appointment is completed. Simple to reply to (just type in a number).

It will automatically update the CRM and eliminates the need for the agent to log in. It creates a habit.

Every appointment, anticipate the text.

Creating accountability without being a micromanager

All of this automation creates a natural concern that came up in the chat: "How do you hold agents accountable without being a micromanager?"

Gabe answered: "Transparency and data."

With clearly documented expectations (stages, outcomes), transparent metrics (held rate of appointments, speed to lead, follow-up rate of nurtures), automatic systems (accountability automation, smart lists), and consistent review (weekly huddle with data driven discussion), you don't have to be a micromanager. The data reveals who is following the process and who is not.

The systems enforce the process. Your role is to coach the outliers, not police every agent.

"What I like is that Maverick will also go in and listen to these calls for me, and tell me what was being said on them, right? So I don't have to listen to all of these calls," Gabe previously mentioned.

When AI can evaluate calls, when automations can reassign leads, when smart lists reveal opportunities, you manage with leverage instead of micromanaging. There is a difference.

Complete follow-up framework

Managers with leverage rely upon having all the elements of the framework in place. Although the framework that Gabe and Will suggest is straightforward, it does require a level of commitment.

Phase 1: foundation (week 1)

Document stage definitions. Share with the team and get agreement.

Customize appointment types and outcomes. Calculate the time value (worksheet).

Phase 2: audit (week 2)

Perform 30-day new lead audit. Review for empty last communication.

Verify stage accuracy. Determine whether there are any routing errors.

Phase 3: build smart lists (week 3)

1. Nurture short term (0-6 months, 14 days)

2. Nurture long term (6+ months, 30 days)

3. Buyer priority (tags from integrations)

4. Appointments with no outcome

5. Appointments that were not held

6. Missed calls that were not returned

Phase 4: accountability automations (week 4)

1. Pull back due to lack of response to lead (90 minutes)

2. Follow up after no-show appointment

3. Follow up after cancelled appointment

4. Audit after 7 days

5. Progression of stage after 14 days

Phase 5: reporting and nudges (ongoing)

Weekly review of outcome of appointments. Daily monitoring of missed calls.

Bi-weekly reminders of follow-up of nurtures. Monthly audit of entire operation.

The single most important metric to track first

If you are overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin, both Gabe and Will concurred that the most impactful metric to focus on first is appointment outcomes.

"Not saying the other leaks aren't important," Gabe clarified. "However, you're almost feeding the fire when you don't know the outcome of your appointments."

Why track this first?

The bottom of the funnel (this is the hottest lead). Greatest opportunity for conversion (they already agreed to meet).

Closest to generating revenue (much closer to closing than cold leads). Easy to measure (binary: did it occur or not).

Immediate actions can be taken when you know the outcome.

"Appointments are fine. When the agents are holding onto them and running with them, that's even better. However, how many times you guys set appointments and they don't result in an outcome, or you have no idea what occurred during that appointment? Drives me nuts."

By fixing this single leak, you will see immediate returns on investment. Not in six months. Not eventually. Right now.

Recommended technology stack

Fixing these leaks means having the proper tools. During the webinar, several tools were brought up again and again.

The suggested technology stack includes:

1. CRM core: Follow-Up Boss for lead management, communications, and automations

2. Accountability & analytics: MaverickRE for tracking appointments, grading calls, nudging agents, monitoring rules

3. AI communications:

   1. Betty/Ylopo/Call Action for auto-text messaging engagement

   2. Follow-Up Boss AI for alerting on listing and buyer engagement

4. Lead generation: Ylopo/Zillow/Realtor.com/BoldTrail for generating leads. Having integration to CRM is vital.

"This isn't a jab at FUB. FUB can't build everything the way everyone would like it, right?" Gabe acknowledged. "Therefore, they have integration partners. What Maverick specializes in is the metrics, the accountability, sealing the leaks, and helping you find the lost deals."

It's about respecting the opportunity

Those lost opportunities all trace back to the same underlying issue. The underlying theme throughout this entire webinar was respect.

1. Respect for the lead's time. When someone gives you their information, agrees to a call, or shows up to an appointment, they're giving you their time. Honor that by following up, showing up, asking for the next step.

2. Respect for your time. At $200+ per hour, every minute matters. Don't waste time deciding who to call when smart lists can tell you. Don't waste time manually checking appointments when reports can show you.

3. Respect for your team's time. If you're a team lead, your agents' time is valuable. Give them systems that work. Show them what matters. Coach them with data.

4. Respect for the opportunity. Every lead in your database represents a potential transaction. Maybe not today, but someday. Treat them accordingly.

"Don't be afraid of the data," Gabe encouraged. "Look into it, embrace it, and those are your fastest ways to increase your ROI and profitability."

The challenge: pick one leak to fix

Embracing the data starts with a single step, though. Rather than trying to implement everything at once, the challenge from Gabe and Will: Pick one leak to fix this week.

Maybe appointment outcomes. Maybe missed call follow-up.

Maybe short-term nurture cadence. Maybe speed to lead for new registrations.

Maybe integration partner tags.

Pick one. Fix it. Measure the impact. Then move to the next.

"Find one leak to fix. It could be that you're obsessed with the new stuff coming in that's not getting speed to lead, right? Whatever it is, do you have the tags in there? Is it creating automations?" Gabe summarized.

Key takeaways from part 4:

1. Automations enforce standards without micromanaging (let the system be the bad guy)

2. Chain automations for multiple checkpoints

3. No-show appointment automation is a game-changer (immediate email, automatic staging, next-day task)

4. Start with appointment outcomes

5. Use technology to create leverage

6. Respect the opportunity

7. Fix one leak at a time

Closing thoughts

This four-part series has taken you through the complete framework for plugging leaks in your business.

• Part 1: Understanding your worth and auditing your lead funnel.

• Part 2: The appointment management crisis.

• Part 3: Nurture follow-up and smart list strategies.

• Part 4: Accountability automations and putting it all together.

The tools exist. The strategies work.

The data is available.

The question is: Will you do the work to plug the leaks?

👉 Stop Chasing. Start Converting.