Working with a massive database of 56,000 contacts, Parks and River Real Estate Solutions in Louisville, Kentucky, overcame the obstacles of sheer database size to successfully find and focus on the seller leads ready to list now, and the ~5% of seller leads that are ready to list at any time.
This team demonstrates how improving database management with Fello can surface the best opportunities that may otherwise go unnoticed to build a promising pipeline.
Watch Community Leader Jamie Muenchen's entire interview with Rob St. John here:
Rob St. John spent 13 years building Parks and River Real Estate Solutions into a respected name in the Louisville real estate market. The company’s name draws inspiration from Louisville’s famous public parks and the Ohio River, reflecting Rob’s philosophy of creating something “bigger than me.” In the last decade plus, Rob and the team have definitely built something big.
As their business grew, the Parks and River team faced a couple of key challenges. First, they struggled to manage the tens of thousands of contacts in their database and know how to prioritize them. It was difficult to separate who was ready to list immediately or in the near future from those who weren’t, so they could target their outreach accordingly.
At the same time, the team was unable to provide meaningful market insights beyond basic MLS searches. The team knew that to stand out and be seen as a true source of credibility by potential clients, they had to offer information that was truly valuable.
The team needed a more sophisticated lead management system to help them identify the highest-value opportunities within their database and showcase their expertise.
In April 2024, Parks and River implemented lead management and engagement platform Fello as part of their technology stack. Rather than using it as a replacement for existing processes, Rob viewed Fello as a complementary tool to enhance their prospecting activities. “[Fello] is such a powerful tool to add to what I’m already doing,” explains Rob, who maintains a disciplined approach of spending a couple of hours daily on prospecting calls.
Here’s how Fello’s key features and strategies helped the Parks and River team:
Qualify Leads and Find High-Value Opportunities
Implementing Fello completely changed how Parks and River evaluated and prioritized leads. The platform allowed the team to tag, filter, and segment their contacts as well as track MLS status, which provided what Rob describes as “a crystal clear picture” into their pipeline.
For the first time, the team was not only able to organize their 56,000-contact database effectively, they could also identify the 3% of contacts ready to sell now and the 3%–5% of contacts planning to make a future real estate move — helping them see exactly where the high-value opportunities were within their database so they could take action.
Rob explains: “[In Fello], I can see where there’s potential and where there isn’t, at any given time. It really helps you focus where you’re putting your energy.”
Provide Value and Improve Credibility
One of Parks and River’s biggest goals was to provide greater value to prospects and clients — and Fello supplied the critical data for them to do so. Using the platform’s extensive data collection tools, the team was able to offer much more comprehensive market insights to their entire contact list, significantly improving the credibility and authority of their business.
“Before Fello, the best resource I had to offer was an MLS search of similar properties,” Rob says. “Now, the value I can bring to a potential client, to past clients, to literally everybody is massive and just keeps getting better.”
Create Consistent Habits with the 30-Day Listing Challenge
The team adopted Fello just as Rob decided to participate in the platform’s inaugural 30-Day Listing Challenge — a virtual event and coaching series that helps agents improve their skills to win more listings — which Rob then went on to win. His success in the Challenge was the direct result of combining Fello’s lead management and engagement tools with consistent daily activity.
The Challenge gave the team access to Fello’s recommended scripts and strategies, which they used to build and maintain consistent prospecting activities. They also received valuable feedback from other participants which helped them further sharpen and improve their habits.
“To dive into something like [Fello’s] 30-Day Challenge was really key to resetting my brain to this idea that daily activity is what matters, period,” Rob emphasizes. “Then, you couple that with some of the best scripts I’ve ever heard for calling.”
Maximize Platform Benefits by Engaging with the Fello Community
A major factor in Parks and River’s success with Fello continues to be active and ongoing participation in the platform’s community (exclusively for Fello agents). For example, Rob regularly participates in live call sessions with other Fello members. Engaging with their real estate peers is a great way that Rob and the team can continue to learn from others and get the most out of the platform’s benefits.
Implementing Fello gave Parks and River a systematic way to improve database and lead management. With Fello, the team:
Based on Parks and River’s success with Fello, Rob offers several key recommendations for new users of the platform:
Through Fello, Parks and River Real Estate Solutions has not only achieved more efficient lead management, they’ve also been able to enhance prospect engagement and improve their pipeline visibility. The team has gained solid tools and strategies they can carry forward into the future to keep their database in top form and capitalize on high-value opportunities.
Rob says: “Everything that’s offered through Fello — from the software platform, the leadership, the customer service managers, and what it’s doing with the community — is so stellar, and I'm super proud to be a part of it.”
The team’s experience with Fello serves as a model for other real estate teams looking to leverage technology to drive growth while maintaining a focus on relationship-building and consistent activity.
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If you’re already a Fello customer, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email success@hifello.com for strategies and advice on how to get more from Fello. Check out Fello Academy for videos and tips!