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Do you need a bigger/better/faster website?

Last week, I had two conversations with two different Realtors about systems they should use because their current website just isn't doing it for them. Both agents seemed to think that the grass was greener on the other side of the web, and after a bit of discussion - I suggested that they both try an experiment for a month, and then if they still wanted to get a better website, I'd help them figure out if they really need an upgrade.

The experiment: Call Leads ASAP. Yup. That's it... According to most sources, less than half of internet leads ever get followed up with, and even those that get followed up with don't get a call until more than 24 hours later. Our company allows for our agents to get text-alerts for each/every lead they get. In fact, they can elect to get text alerts only when certain "hot" prospects sign up so that they're not distracted with leads who don't meet a certain minimum set of criteria. Not surprisingly, there is a very high correlation between our top producers (who follow up within the first hour), and other agents who don't follow up as quickly.

Do you need a bigger/better/faster website? My answer is "absolutely not". Whether you have a multi-million dollar CRM tool custom designed to your specs, or a canned solution that hundreds of thousands of other salespeople are using - there is only one thing you can do to exponentially increase your odds of getting a "worthless internet lead" to the closing table. That one thing is calling your prospects as soon as feasibly possible. Heck -- You don't even have to talk about real estate! Just call, talk about whatever comes naturally, and your odds of getting their business will go up exponentially.

How to improve your conversion rate without changing websites/CRM tools: As long as your CRM tool has the capability of receiving email alerts when you get a new lead, you can convert that to a text alert on your phone so you can follow up with your hard-earned leads ASAP:

To get an instant text message as soon as a lead signs up, all you have to do is find out what your carrier's email extension is. Once you know your "email to text" email address, all you have to do is enter that email address in your prospect alert system. For example, if you are with Verizon and your cell phone number is (555) 555-1212, your email address is 5555551212@vtext.com Here are some of the email-to-text addresses for the major cell phone carriers:

Verizon: 10digitnumber@vtext.com
AT&T: 10digitnumber@txt.att.net
T-Mobile: 10digitnumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: 10digitnumber@vmobl.com
Voicestream: 10digitnumber@voicestream.net
Sprint: 10digitnumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Nextel: 10digitnumber@messaging.nextel.com
Alltel: 10digitnumber@message.alltel.com

See results by next month. Before you go looking for a bigger/better system, make a habit of calling your leads as soon as feasibly possible and I promise you'll see a measurable difference in your close rates. It's that simple. If you don't believe me, take a look at an early version of Automated Homefinder from about 10 years ago. It was only a one page site at the time (and had been that way for 2 years), and it was uglier than roadkill, but it worked extremely well for our sales team for one reason: Because we called our leads as soon as possible.

Of course - a very close second when it comes to increasing odds of getting a sale is having a system for semi-automated long-term followup but without the former, the latter is practically worthless.

Posted by Joel McDonald on 05/11/2009 04:36 PM

Comments (54)

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54 Comments on Do you need a bigger/better/faster website?

MAY

Thank you for this information. I know I have found myself wondering if I should go "bigger & Better". Your post was very helpful.

Thanks for your post. Immediate response is very important for internet leads.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/roykelley

I have called people within seconds of receiving an email and actually surpised them. The response I get after calling that quick is amazing!

I agree with this 100%, "Do you need a bigger/better/faster website? My answer is "absolutely not"

Web sites are great if they can generate a lead, but I don't think you can depend on a site to "convert" a lead.

Joel I was trying to figure out this text to email thing. So how do you actually send something to that? I tried emailing 7158941001@messagingpcs.com It does not work like that. I was trying to think of an application for this. Thanks.

I see what I did. Its a character limit. My signature went over the limit. Thats a pretty cool feature. I am definitely working this into my website. Even just an empty form box so people could text you would be wild.

Hi Joel ~ Excellent point. Doing the basic basics really well is the best way to get business. It's easy to get carried away by bells and whistles - thanks for the reminder about what really makes the difference.

Liz

Mary - Thanks for dropping by! I'm glad it was helpful.

Roy - I just followed you on Twitter. Although it mostly looks like you're using it to announce your new blog posts, I look forward to more interactions with you now that we're on both AR and Twitter together.

Shane - I agree. There is nothing more fun than when you call someone before they've even stopped looking at your site. (Actually, one thing that is more fun is calling an existing subscriber "just because" even though you're actually calling because you got an alert that they were looking at properties you sent them, and they say "wow - your ears must have been burning! I was just on your website!") PS - I'm glad you got the email-to-text thing figured out. (I emailed you a text message just before I saw that you got it figured out. You can ignore it ;-)

Mark - Yup - We've got plenty of agents that get closings from never picking up the phone and relying solely on internet leads and automated tools but they almost always tend to be the lower price-point customers that everyone else is ignoring. Polar opposite of the quality of the closings that come from the exact same leads, but actually engaging in conversation with them. (See my last post about 311,000%+ ROI)

Liz - Yeah - bells & whistles are great when you know how to use them in addition to the basics, but if you're not doing the basics, it's like going to a gunfight with your best set of swords.

You are the man! Great post. We talk and talk and talk on here (and i love it don't get me wrong) about what we can do better how we can do it better and why we don't to it better but doughnuts to dollars the same issue usually comes up. Why did you lose the lead? You sucked at helping the person solve the problem. Either you didn't call fast enough or some other issue. Come on folks we live with google and chacha. we can have any answer in 2.5 seconds so if your much slower then that your folks have moved on to those sources. Thanks again.

Joel- another great featured post! I think you are right, follow up is the most important task and yet it is the least used.

I did get your email. Been swamped with multiple offers on short sale listings. I will catch up with you. Katerina

Marcus - I used to be hesitant to call so quickly for fear of seeming too eager, but finally learned that the majority of the time, prospects are pleasantly surprised. (The best is when they've (admittedly) already signed up on half a dozen other sites, and say that you're the first person to call them... SOLD!)

Katerina - Follow up is certainly the least exciting part of the job, but I'm sure you & Nestor know - it's the part that gets the bills paid! Everything else is just glitz & glamour. re: the email... Take your time. You know how to get a hold of me ;-)

Thanks Joel that is very helpful.

Thank you for sharing. I had wondered about bigger better faster etc - but will hold off for now.

Web sites are for attracting leads. A great salesperson closes the deal. It does not need all the bells and whistles just look good to the eye.

Joel - Thanks for the post. We have found that the first call must be made within 3 minutes with 3 additional calls in the next three time blocks (morning, afternoon, early evening) for success. I would like your advice. Our company developed a mobile lead alert system so that agents could respond immediately and have higher Internet lead conversion. We expanded the capability by sending the lead to multiple agents and the first responder receives the contact information back on their cell. The process is a feature of our CRM system which was designed for online lead management. The question is - would brokers find value in our system. Cost would be $50/month per user for the CRM, lead alert and support. The CRM has most of the features agents would want -drip, blast, call prompting, scheduled activities, activity plans, etc. Thanks, Fred

Thanks for reminding me to call sooner than later. Sometimes I just don't do that.

I have been kicking around a text widget for the blog... maybe I'll have to roll that out.

The experiment: Call Leads ASAP.

Hi Joel,

I agree with your advice. In fact, I tell my clients to use the Fifteen Second Rule! This is the Internet Age. Many home buyers expect almost instantaneous response. FAST response definitely closes more deals.

Hmm. Good to know, and even better to practice-the calling leads within hours. What to do if that's almost impossible?

You are so right - people are amazed and appreciate quick response.

Thanks for the info. I have also been wondering about a better website. I need one with lead capture. One that gets people to give me their contact info so I can contact them.

Hi Joel -- Hard to argue with a simple and very effective answer. It's worth pounding this topic over and over again until it becomes automatic. Thanks! :-)

With technological advances and the ability to receive emails on one's cell phone, timely response is necessary. But this may be relative.

Another factor is for the response to speak to the questions the website visitor asked. Phone calls are great, but emails within a short period of time also work. Auto responders don't cut it.

Another thing that does work is a timely (not necessarily 3 minutes) response that is intensely personalized. For example, I respond when I can to general website sign-ins where the visitor doesn't tell me anything except his name and email address. But if he writes me a note telling me what he is looking for (location, price range, etc.) then I will do a search on his behalf and send listings. Even if the response is several hours from when he first signed in, I have found that an extremely personalized response may still capture leads and end up converting these website visitors.

I have had many potential clients tell me that I was the only one who responded. And a personal response is essential, especially if the email gives information beyond name and email address. What this means is that agents who don't respond in a timely manner or respond with a canned response will lose the potential client. I have also found that a phone call (not necessarily within 3 minutes, but within 24 hours) helps cement the conversion.

Over 87% of buyers and sellers chose their agents on-line.....

Over 70% of those people go with the VERY first agent that makes
contact with them.....

These are hard and FAST numbers.....

GREAT post!!!

Right on the money... literally! So many of my 'competitors' lose out simply because they don't follow up quickly enough and I do. Plain and simple.

Joel - I have never believed that a bigger, faster, glitzier website would do the trick, and this just confirms it. The quick follow-up is key (and we know that lack of follow-up is a common complaint of Internet buyers and sellers). I try to do what Judy does, with a personalized response and providing information or an article or something will generate interest without being intrusive. I know I need to be even more consistent, especially when I am really busy with things away from the phone and computer.

Jeff

Always looking to make improvements to my website.. I just don't like spending huge upfront fees when I'm paying monthly fees.

MAY

Kathy, Alice & Eric - thanks for the compliments!

Fred - 3 minutes - that's fast even when you have a text alert, but yes, I agree that prompt followup is key and it sounds like your system would help with that. Good luck with it.

Russ - yup, we're all guilty of prorcrastinating the things we know we should be doing. I think it's in most salespeople's genes.

Lane - That sounds like a bell and whistle that might coordinate with my proposed "bootstrap method" - as long as it was used. It probably doesn't even need to be that hard. We already know there are "click to email" widgets out there (and "click to call" for that matter). All you'd have to do is use your cell phone email address to get a text message instead.

Holy Cow, Bruce - 15 seconds for followup!?!? I don't even think I could dial the phone that fast. I guess we'll just have to call you "Bruce Andretti" from now on.

Mines pretty simple, but informative, it's not canned with stock photos like some. But yes, sometimes, I wish the CEO of GOOGLE would build my website for me!

Thank you for the suggestion on receiving the text messages. My biggest complaint is conversion.

William - Congratulations! If it's almost impossible, I'm guessing you have the fortunate problem of having more leads than you can handle. Time to add some buyer agents to your team ;-)

Virginia - Yeah - there is nothing more fun than catching someone when they're still poking around your website and having them tell you they're going to quit looking now.

Bridgette - Preachin to the choir on that one. I fully believe in having a good lead capture mechanism. (In fact, I built a custom-solution because I didn't like any of the ones out there.) I'm a huge advocate of required registration lead capture, but I know that's a controversial topic. I've tested both ways, and have never found optional opt-in websites to be nearly as productive.

Chris - Agreed - It can't be stressed enough. In my opinion, all of the other followup methods combined can't be as effective as a personal touch in a timely fashion.

I agree fully - Judy. We don't require phone numbers, so we often only have email to go off of, but as I tell my agents, "If I thought that an automated initial response was effective I'd have automated it, but there is nothing more effective than an email written specifically for the prospect. Googling them, paying attention to what their email address is & looking up details about their company or school when appropriate & just paying attention to what they're asking for are all great ways of giving them the personal attention they need with that first point of contact.

Alexander - I haven't heard that statistic about 70% of people going with the first person they talk to. Interesting. Do you know where you got that stat?

Ryan - It's funny - we've planted a lot of mystery shoppers in our time (and we plant them in really attractive price ranges, and agents STILL skip the followup!) It's amazing how much business is out there for those who just do the little things to go out & get it.

Jeff - great suggestion about including relevant/useful information with that first followup vs. just going for the sale. That's just as important - especially when all you have to go on is an email address.

Roland & Cindy - Yup, bigger/better websites are always nice, but I'd still bet on just implementing an instant-alert system on your existing sites would get a far better ROI than a complete site overhaul.

Christine - Don't get me wrong - I don't think any of us wouldn't love to get a better conversion rate from our marketing efforts. I just feel (pretty strongly) that all of the other tools combined still aren't as powerful as prompt, courteous, and relevant followup.

I always thought bigger better and faster was the way to go. None of that matters if the proper skills and follow up aren't in place. Great post.

Thanks Brad!

BTW: I'm looking forward to seeing you at REBCdenver next week.

Hi Joel - in this day of increasing automation, it's amazing how good common sense goes a long way. I really enjoyed the post and the comments.

My biggest problem seems to be getting people TO my website!

Great info and advise Joel, I was wondering how to get text notification from my site.

Thanks so much for the information! Great post!

Mary

Thank you Joel, great information.

Margaret - Yeah - we have a very automated site (hence the company name ;-) Sometimes I wonder if that's the best for our agents because some of them use it as a crutch thinking it can replace personal attention.

Sarah - I have one word for you: "Adwords". All the targeted traffic you can handle. I've been working on a report to help people get started. I'll have to let you know when I have it done.

Kim, Bruce, Mary & Diego - Thanks so much for the compliments!

Better may not be a bad thing if it drives more people to the website.....or maybe an agents website doesn't even have ability tto search for homes or track who is on their search. I think once an agent has this abilty on the website then it boils down to sales ability on the phone. I'm surpirsed at ho wmany agents don't have websites i my market......probably only 15% have sites and some of those are just web pages that their broker offers with no google juice.

Joel,

I do agree with the assessment that one needs to call all their leads, however I also firmly believe that your website needs to be upgraded on a regular basis. Using the same Homes.com, Advanced Access or Z57 website only gets you a templated website but its hard to keep up with the look and feel of the stronger web presence in the marketplace and you likely won't be generating enough leads to actually turn your real estate practice into a real estate business.

Glenn

Great post today and good tips. Thanks for getting it out there.

Patricia Aulson/Portsmouth NH Real Estate

Brad & Glenn - Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying better isn't good. I'm just saying that (as long as they have a lead capture mechansm in place), I bet 99% of agents would see a better ROI by just driving adwords traffic to their "non-updated" site, and picking up their phone to talk with leads vs. chasing "bigger, better, cooler" any day.) My clunky old 1-page form KILLED it for about 5 years without an upgrade to the front end during that period. We focused solely on the back end, and conversion.

I'll take "Traffic (even if paid) + lead capture + effective followup" over 100% automated with no followup every time (Even if the traffic is free).

I think that's a sensitive issue. Some say call right away, others don't. I think I will start calling right away & see how it goes for 2 months. The last 3 leads from my site the buyers filled in the 555-1212 phone number so that means 'don't call me'. I'm not really sure you need a website anymore, blogs seem to be much more versatile with information, etc. I have a site that I've worked very hard to upgrade and update to make it not like 'every other agents site'. Good post, thanks for your advice on the subject.

Joel - Right you are. This is one of the reasons I contacted you in the first place! I didn't need more traffic or a nicer looking website, just the ability to follow up and track leads better.

Joel, you are right about one thing. The bigger better website will not help one bit until the solid fundamentals of prospecting are in place. Until you are returning calls instantly and following up religiously on every lead, the bigger better website will only generate more leads to waste.

On the other hand, I notice your website is bigger and better than most of the Realtor sites I see. Your site is coded using W3C compliant div tags for layout rather the old fashioned frames or table based layout. So your site is naturally favored by Google and other search engines. I am willing to bet that your site contains sophisticated back end applications that provide you excellent intelligence about visitors to your site.

Based on this, I believe you might modify your message to read get squared away on the basics first, then look into the bigger better website.

It seems the typical Realtor website today consists of a nice electronic brochure, a link to MLS, and some means to contact the agent. There are some technologies available today that will deliver a great deal more business intelligence to their owners than what is available from this model.

You don't want to be the only one with this advantage, do you?

Sincerely,

Bill Fletcher,

www.lightbrightlistings.com

Fast follow up is the most important tool.

Joel,

Less than half of Internet leads get followed up on is a scary stat. True, lots of them are useless, but you don't know which ones unless you call.

Joel, our highest Rate of Return is calling, calling asap.

I hammer my team about this ALL the time. If fact I just emailed them all this post, so they will say, "there she goes again".

JUN

Thanks Joel. I like this so much, I'm reblogging it and presenting it at our tuesday technology workshop.

Thanks Larry! I'm honored. Let me know how the presentation goes.

JUN

Another great post Joel! Back to basics, Real Estae 101, call your leads immediately. I can't tell you how many times people say to me "wow you're fast." The first one to the carrot gets it. Are all of the leads great? No, but it's a numbers game and in my experience people usually stick with the first agent who calls them back. It's winning the business and showing you care!

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