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.
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