The Key to Your Business: Following Up with Real Estate Leads
Following up with leads and prospects is one of the most important aspect of sales. Not just real estate sales, but all sales. Obviously, if you are not making a determined effort to communicate with people you are trying to do business with then why should they even want to consider working with you? Some aspects of following up with leads can change from industry to industry, but this underlying fact remains the same no matter what.
In real estate, however, following up is even more important. This is because a lead means more to you than it does to salespeople in many other industries. Not only does each lead you can turn into a client represent a significant amount of income for you, but according to the National Association of REALTORS, 64 percent of buyers and sellers use an agent they previously worked with or a referral from a friend or family member.
What that means is that for each real estate lead you fail to turn into a client, you aren’t just missing out on a single sale. You’re missing out on one or two or any number of commissions down the road. Needless to say, each potential client needs to be important to you (within the confines of your bandwidth and workload, of course), and you have to make sure you are following up consistently with your leads.
To help you on your real estate agent or real estate ISA journey, here are a few tips to help you follow up and get the most out of your follow ups.
Always Be Helping Your Real Estate Leads
At Smart Inside Sales, we say this all the time: don’t think of leads as just a sale or has potential money in your pocket. Your job is to help them solve whatever problem they are trying to solve. For this, you need to understand where they are coming from—from their own perspective and point of view. Throughout your entire communication with them you have to make it clear that the two of you are partners working towards the same goal. The lead’s goal.
These days, people are busier than ever. If you want them to give you a second look when you are following up with them (whether it is via phone, email, or text) then you have to offer them value on each encounter. You won’t get much traction if you just say you’re “checking in” or “following up.” Prove to them you mean business by actively helping them solve their problems with each call or email or text.
Make Time for Following Up
This tip is a more practical one. As a real estate agent or ISA I know you are busy. You have a million things to do and days can quickly get away from you. Trust me, I get it. I’ve been there myself many times. However, following up with leads and prospects is one of the most important tasks you are going to do each day. Predominantly, because this activity will directly generate business for you.
The key to overcoming this is setting a schedule and sticking to it. It will be hard at first, but if you are able to block out time on your schedule and stay faithful to it, you will notice a massive difference in your time management abilities.
Ask the Lead the Best Way to Contact Them
Since we are discussing following up with real estate leads that means you’ve already contacted them successfully once. But you could have gotten lucky that first time. You want to ensure you are able to successfully reach them again and again if necessary. What’s the best way to find out what the best way is to reach someone? Ask them!!
Additionally, if you let the lead choose whether they prefer to be followed up with via phone call, text, or email, you come off as less pushy and more helpful.
Open Powerfully
On follow up calls you’ve already made your first impression. Assuming they are talking with you again because you made a good or decent impression, you need to keep that going. It’s critical that you continue to build rapport with your leads and get them to trust you and believe what you’re selling – which, in the case of real estate, are your skills, knowledge and experience.
On your real estate calls that means opening with the leads name and showing them that you remember your previous conversation with them. If they said they were making repairs then ask them how those repairs are going. If they said they had to figure a few things out before meeting with you then ask how that figuring out is going. Show that you are engaged and invested in working with them to achieve their goals.
Know When to Stop
Badgering an unresponsive lead won’t make them want to talk to you—in fact, it might turn them off from ever wanting to talk to you. Continuing to reach out after your fifth or sixth attempt isn’t helpful to your prospect, and it doesn’t do you any good, either. At that point, cut your losses and stop trying to reach them. If you’d like to, you can send a final email letting them know you will no longer be contacting them but they can reach out to you in the future.
Following Up with Real Estate Leads
Follow up is key in the real estate industry. As with any job that involves sales, perfecting your technique and being able to successfully convert leads into paying clients is the difference between success and failure. Use these tips and constantly be aware of what is working on your follow up calls and what isn’t. Constantly seek to improve your skills.