I am a real estate broker.  I know a little bit about buying, selling, and leasing real property.

When it comes to every other product or service in life, that is NOT real property, I am a simple consumer, and many times I am somebody's lead.

In fact, I have some pretty finely tuned radar that alerts me when I am being treated as a lead.

Here's a true life story:

Somehow, I ended up on a contact list for XYZ Communication Company.  The rep calls me once or twice a week; she faxes rate comparison sheets, and then calls me again to ask if I have any questions. 

I know she is just trying to do her job.  And it is quite possible that changing phone carriers would save me money.  But there is just simply not room on my plate to deal with it right now.   

If and when I am ready to look into it, I most likely will NOT contact XYZ Communication Company, because they have just plain pestered and annoyed me way too much. 

This is not the way to handle internet lead conversion, or any kind of lead conversion.

If I am not ready to purchase your particular product or service, no amount of badgering by phone, fax, email or snail mail is going to cause me to purchase.

If I am ready to purchase your product or service, I will make a decision to work with you based on my perception of how knowledgeable you are about your product or service. 

If you give me the impression that you know what you are doing, and if on top of that, you are personable and likable, you will most likely have closed the deal with me.  And you are gonna need to give me that impression of competency in the first few minutes of our very first conversation.

Is it possible that the people who are my potential clients have the same kind of feelings?

The First Impression is the foundation of any lead conversion system.  I believe that the First Impression trumps almost anything you can do in subsequent follow-up.

In that very first conversation, you must convey the impression that you know your stuff.  Your market, your neighborhood, the angles of financing, how the how process of purchasing works.

If you succeed with the First Impression, you can get away with ignoring the potential client for the next two months, and they will still remember you.

And in that same conversation, you need to explore the who, what, where, why, when and how of the potential client to begin to get an idea if the possibility of a strong working relationship exists.

In original 2009 edition of Gary Keller's book titled "Shift, How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times" there is a chapter titled "Get to the Table - Lead Conversion".  Keller suggests some scripts for mining the client's who, what, where, why, when and how when having that initial conversation.

Although, truth to be told, I cannot see myself saying to a potential client "Thanks for sharing that" with a straight face.

For other methods of converting internet leads, be sure to check out giftofshift.com/activerain where you can purchase a limited edition hardcover of Gary Keller's book SHIFT, which comes with a free version of the eBook Soci@l: Attract Friends, Followers and Connections to Your Business, written by Ben Kinney and Jay Papasan (in which Ben shares his 'ten days of pain' lead conversion method) as well as free audio versions of Millionaire Real Estate Agent and Millionaire Real Estate Investor all for $19.99.

Disclaimer:  This is an entry in Bob Stewart's most recent contest for which I may or may not receive Active Rain Bonus Points. :-)