After speaking with many virtual assistants and real estate professionals, I'm starting to realize that many of you are unclear of the difference between lead management and contact management. I would like to open up the floor, so to speak, to learn what you think the difference is, if you feel there is a difference.
I pose the question, "Do you think there is a difference between lead management and contact management?" Please explain!
Definitely! I would consider contact management to be how you manage your referral sources, sphere of influence, etc. How often do you contact them, what you send or write to them, how often you stop in (with business in mind).
Lead management is a bit different. You manage a lead, which I would categorize as someone who has expressed interest in doing business in the near short term) on a much more frequent basis and may even open up a file (electronic or otherwise) to track the progress of the lead.
Examples:
Contact management : Bob and Sue Jones who bought a home last year. Purchase anniversary card, monthly items of value sent or dropped off, christmas wreath or halloween pumpkin dropped by, ask for referrals at point of contact.
Lead Management: Casey Smith who called inquiring about what she can afford to purchase. I take extensive notes when pre-qualifying, follow up with a note. Call a few days later to check progress, follow up with her Realtor, and touch base 2x/week until she becomes a client or decides not to buy.
I believe there is a definite difference!
I think you summed it up nicely Jennifer, I agree with you. I've recently started using Sharper Agent to manage and market my contacts and leads.
There is definitely a difference between lead management and contact management. Jennifer summed it up well, but there is something else to keep in mind. Contacts are just as important as leads because each and every contact you have is a source of potential leads and referral business. The most important aspect of managing your contacts is the systematic follow up that you apply to them. If you are looking at your contacts as being less important than leads you might dismiss some people (friends, family, service providers) that could be your biggest source of referrals. If you are using a comprehensive lead management program and/or a good CRM, you should be able to create sales action plans (SAPs) and assign them to your contacts. You should have different plans assigned to your cold contacts and your hot leads, but you should be in touch with everyone in your database. When your existing contacts are in a situation to pass on the name of a good Realtor, you want to be the first one that comes to mind. If you don’t have a good lead management and/or CRM set up to help prompt you to ‘touch’ these people at regular intervals, you could be missing out. LeadtoClose is a lead management program that has a built in CRM which will allow you to do this.
To learn more about referrals, I highly recommend the book: Get More Referrals Now! by Bill Cates.
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