In our recent article about capturing web leads, we talked about the lengthening of the time that prospects are using for research. The Internet allows them to start much earlier, take longer, and remain anonymous a great deal of the time. They love it, but it presents challenges for the real estate website. In that lead capture article, you read about how to covert a suspect to a prospect, getting that email address.
Getting the prospects’ contact information is like getting a base hit. You’re on first, but it isn’t a score (commission) until you make it to home plate safely. Much like that baseball analogy, getting from first base to home can take a while, many times 6 to 12 months in real estate. You may be trying to steal the next base. Or you may get to the next base due to a walk or a base hit by a teammate. It’s a process, and never a certain score.
The key is to NEVER minimize the importance of these leads. Just because they aren’t planning on a transaction for some months into the future, they WILL result in a commission for someone. And, once your website is generating leads, your pipeline can be filled and you’ll seldom have dead periods again. The trick is to not lose them once you get on first base.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management "Integrated"
Yes, you’re “managing” these relationships. These leads are the starting point, and your follow-up is what will carry them through to the closing table. It’s all about the management of the customer relationship, which is to say the management of your activities in staying in touch and keeping them in your fold. There are several components to this process:
Getting the prospects’ contact information is like getting a base hit. You’re on first, but it isn’t a score (commission) until you make it to home plate safely. Much like that baseball analogy, getting from first base to home can take a while, many times 6 to 12 months in real estate. You may be trying to steal the next base. Or you may get to the next base due to a walk or a base hit by a teammate. It’s a process, and never a certain score.The key is to NEVER minimize the importance of these leads. Just because they aren’t planning on a transaction for some months into the future, they WILL result in a commission for someone. And, once your website is generating leads, your pipeline can be filled and you’ll seldom have dead periods again. The trick is to not lose them once you get on first base.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management "Integrated"
Yes, you’re “managing” these relationships. These leads are the starting point, and your follow-up is what will carry them through to the closing table. It’s all about the management of the customer relationship, which is to say the management of your activities in staying in touch and keeping them in your fold. There are several components to this process:
- Monitoring – What would be valuable information about your customers that you can get without asking them? How about which pages they’re visiting on your site? Or, wouldn’t you like to know which articles they’re reading and the characteristics of the listings they’re viewing?
- Follow-up Management – How many more deals would you close if you had a system to automate your daily tasks, prompting you to follow up and contact prospects? This is more the personal contact, if they gave you their phone number. How valuable would it be to combine the monitoring in the previous item with a phone call about a newly listed home that seems to fit all of their search criteria?
- Drip Email Marketing Campaigns – It’s always interesting to hear about a real estate agent who is stressed out because they’ve been successful with their website lead generation. Why the stress if they’re getting leads? They are trying to figure out how to stay in contact with them and not lose them before they’re ready to act. What if you had a system that would allow you to pre-build a set of emails to go out on an automated schedule to each new lead as they enter your CRM system? This would keep them informed, keep your name top-of-mind, and make you the person sitting next to them at the closing table.
After the successful implementation of lead capture on a website, the next and greatest challenge for the real estate professional is to keep those leads viable and get them to the closing. Finding a real estate website and IDX provider with an integrated suite of services is the stress-free solution. RealtySoft.com provides an end-to-end solution to capturing leads and working them through to a commission.
Check out this short 3 minute video demo of RealtySoft CRM solution. OOPS are bad for business!
Check out this short 3 minute video demo of RealtySoft CRM solution. OOPS are bad for business!
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