The great benefit of an IDX plugin solution for teams is that it allows you to fully control and own your own website. There are many WordPress IDX plugins available, and they all come with different features and options. Most are IDX data-only options, but others also include basic lead management, and some have fully developed and integrated CRM systems for teams.

So, what should you be looking for, and how can you choose the best IDX WordPress plugin for your real estate team?

Team Support on Your Website

Your team website is where clients and leads will probably first encounter your team online. So the first thing to ensure is that your team members are presented appropriately with their contact details, bios, and skills, along with their active and sold inventory too.

Buying Buddy is a WordPress IDX solution that gives you these options including indexable agent pages with unique page addresses to present each agent with their contact details, active listings, sold listings, and even private listings.

Common Team Contact Methods

Many teams will use a common phone number providing a single method for any prospect or lead to contact the team. This means that the team's number must be displayed on IDX widgets with all listings and agent profiles.
This may seem like a minor issue, but support for features like this will make it easier to organize your team and keep your agents supportive of Team processes.
You need a WordPress IDX solution for teams that allows these options to be chosen and set by the team leader.

Lead Capture

Lead capture must be included within your IDX components and should also support all your desired policies of lead assignment and distribution within the team.
You should choose an IDX solution that has flexible options for allowing multiple policies and rules so that everyone in the team supports how leads are captured.
For example, when listings are displayed, most agents want to have themselves show up against their listings if they are the listing agent. But in some teams, this may be something they wish to avoid, so you need the ability to turn this option on or off, to match the way your team works.
Additionally, when leads register, your IDX WordPress solution should provide a method that allows the lead to select the agent they are working with.

Lead Distribution and Assignment

Once new leads have been processed through the various IDX lead capture policies, many leads will still be considered to be unassigned.
For a team, unassigned leads should be distributed according to agreed rules that make sense for you and your team, so that all team members are supportive of team processes.

Sales territories for agents usually form the first tier filter for lead distribution.
Creating a simple territory for your agents based on city areas or price ranges can be extremely important for those that do focus or specialize in such sales areas.
After this, leads can be assigned using various round-robin methods.
Round-robin needs to accommodate different policies, such as a straightforward assignment of leads, or a time-based 'offer–accept' approach.
Round Robin should also allow for agents to be in the round-robin distribution more than once to allow for bias as needed.

So pick an IDX plugin for WordPress with CRM, such as Buying Buddy, that gives you these options.

Sales Automation

It's important to make your team as productive as possible by automating repetitive manual tasks, especially for lead incubation and lead management.
You need a CRM that automatically starts the follow-up process for you, and sets up each lead with the best possible plan to ensure successful lead incubation.

The first action should be to set up leads with automatic property alerts. These have been shown time and again to be the most effective way of long-term lead incubation to convert leads to clients. New listing alerts should be based on the lead's property interest profile that has been generated based on any of their interaction with IDX components on your website.
The ability for AI to automatically set up relevant and meaningful property alerts for leads can be one of the most effective productivity advantages of having a CRM that is integrated into the IDX widgets.

Additionally, leads should be set up on action plans and drip campaigns for automated follow-up.
Action plans should include emails, SMS messages, and tasks that are all defined in your lead follow-up workflows.

Buying Buddy is an IDX plugin for WordPress that gives you these options.

Automate Workflow

Successful teams have consistent processes. So choose an IDX CRM solution that will automate sales processes for you. 

With the drip and action-plan campaign system in Buying Buddy, team leaders can create repeatable processes described in any number of action plans. 
These will coordinate the appropriate activity at the right time between your team members and leads, and ensure that team processes are followed.

Support for Multiple Team Roles

Many teams consist not just of real estate agents, but possibly also a designated lead coordinator that may provide first contact and overall management of leads, and perhaps a loan officer, and an additional support agent, too.

So your IDX CRM solution needs to support these different roles that can all interact with leads at the same time, and be part of your workflow.

Templates and Calling Scripts

As a team leader, one of the most significant investments you'll make is the creation of your unique processes, email responses, follow-ups, and calling scripts for use by your team.
So the ability to create calling scripts, email templates, and standard SMS responses is a critical part of your team's capabilities to succeed in their markets.

Reports and Insights

Team leaders require timely insights into team member activity and engagement of leads. You need an IDX CRM solution with team dashboards that show team leaders how leads are being worked on in the team, and how team members are performing. 

This should highlight each team member's activities, provide confidence that team members are following team processes, and identify any issues for the team leader.

So what is the best IDX WordPress plugin for teams?

If you have a real estate team or are considering creating a team, then you need IDX and CRM solutions that are designed to support your team processes.
Buying Buddy provides a complete solution including the IDX WordPress plugin and a sophisticated CRM for agents and teams.

How are you supporting your Team with IDX? Do you have any additional insights? Comment and share below.