Just read a post titled “Lead Generation – ROI” and my opinion is that we spend way to much on Lead Generation systems that really do not work, or we have never, properly set theses systems up for optimum return. In addition, while lead generation is the life-blood of any agents business, a lead is nothing unless we have the skills to convert it (and that is a topic in itself!). If you really analyze just how much you pay for your leads and factor in the quality of them and the conversion rate - the question is, are you really getting any return on your investment.
Anyone buying leads on the internet? My experience with this, is that you get leads that provide a hoax name and no phone number and all you really have is an email address for you to endlessly send them homes for sale. We then look at our database full of leads (even though the majority of these leads are useless) and because it seems like we have lots of leads, we neglect to do some good old-fashioned propsecting that would in fact generate a bunch of "solid" leads that would in fact put money in our banks!
So with this said, I felt I must give everyone the step by step approach that I use to generate hot qualified leads – and plenty of them – I guarantee you. And it does not break the bank at all. In fact, the Return On Investment is huge for me. So I thought I would share the strategy here. I have also included some links for your review.
Here it goes:
Subscribe to The REDX – Cost = $79 per month. (For those of you who are not familiar with this service - The RedX (Real Estate Data X-Change) is the real estate industry's leading provider of research services for expired MLS listings). You can learn more about this service here.
Get yourself a 800 Call Capture System (I use Proquest Technologies) – Cost = $49.99 per month for unlimited use – 1000 extension lines and all the marketing tips and strategies you could ever need – You can really learn a lot about this here.
(You get 1000 extensions with your 800 number – to lessen the monthly cost, lease your extensions to another agent; for example 500 extensions for $25/month– each extension can be set up individually for email/text message/paging etc.). (Go one step further and lease extensions to your lender or broker the buyer leads to the lender for $1 per buyer – see my blog for more on this!)
Total monthly cost at this stage is $128.99.
1) The REDX will enable you to pull in the expireds every morning and will provide you ALL the information you need for each seller – the system is nothing short of phenomenal. You will have in front of you all the contact information you need to start calling expireds – it will also indicate which sellers are on the Do Not Call list. Send a postcard to those on the DNC list (I have a great oversized postcard that I use, if anyone would like a copy let me know and I will email it to you or post here – I have them printed through VistaPrint.com – very cheap!).
2) When you call the seller, have your elevator speech ready – you’re USP – i.e. why should this seller do business with you as opposed to doing business with anyone or not doing business at all. THIS IS KEY! If you don’t have this prepared – do it now. Look at what you do best - Talk to satisfied clients! Look at your own or your company statistics – especially Average Days on The Market, Percentage of List Price to Sold Price and the Percentage of Listings Taken To Listings Sold (These are all key statistics that are relevant to expireds). Also, compare your statistics with your Boards statistics – for example: My Average Days On The Market are 38 DOM while the Boards Average DOM is 115 – This allows me to explain to a seller that this statistic allows me to save them making 3 extra mortgage payments verses going with other agents within our Board! Prepare a 30 second speech that will have the seller thinking “Wow, I should listen to what this agent has to say!”
3) When you send out the postcards, offer the seller something – Free Report, Local Statistics, A Free Property Audit (as opposed to the free CMA that all the others are offering) – a particular favorite of mine is the Market Trends Report which offers great insight into their neighborhood/school district area and explains what exactly is going on in the market. Whatever you offer, make it so enticing that they will want to call your 24 hour recorded information line to get the offer – It’s a recorded system that they can call anytime without the worries of getting a salesperson. When the expireds call – they have automatically taken themselves off of the DNC list (at least for 90 days). Through your call capture system, you will get a text message, paged, emailed - notifying you that a seller has called, the number they called from and their address (99% of the time). Call them back immediately. If they are concerned about you having their information, etc. explain that you use high-end technology within your business – the same technology that enables you to get more buyers through their door to view their home, thus vastly increasing the opportunity of you selling their house faster and for more money than any other agent! Explain that’s why you are positioning yourself as the Expired “Specialist” or Real Estate Marketing “Expert” in their market – people pay attention when they hear the words “Specialist” or “Expert”. Then get an appointment and secure the listing!
4) When you have the listing – advertise it without any pricing! Include your 800 number for perspective buyers to call for details of the home (advertise a full detailed recorded audio tour) and off course for pricing. In your advert put something like this: “Due to the rapidly changing market, please call our 24 Hour Recorded Information Line for up-to-date pricing on this property. Call 1-800-218-7715 Ext: 5000.” This will get you buyers, I guarantee!!
This is an inexpensive, surefire system to generate leads on two levels – 1) Expireds through The REDX , and 2) Buyers through advertising with your 800 call capture system.
By the way, with regards to using the call capture system, honestly, I have only skimmed the surface on ways to use it! (And Proquest has a really neat Showings Feedback tool that is free to their subscribers that enables you to get feedback from all agents that show your listings – with this information you can easily get the necessary price reductions needed to sell those expireds! I also use it within the Short Sale process to get the bank to agree to offers).
I hope this has been helpful, especially to those trying to do their budget and business plan for 2010.
If anyone is interested in having a look at the template I use for my business planning (I was previously a Chief Financial Officer), please let me know and I will be happy to share that with you and then you will only have to enter some numbers and the worksheet will do the rest. We all should be working on our 2010 business plans NOW and have them completed by the end of this month or no later than October – at the latest.
Good Luck and be sure to check this out and even pay it forward to those agents in your social networks.
John Mc Kenna
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