Sometimes we believe we lose business due to opportunity cost. We console ourselves with the euphemism, “You can’t win them all.” No, you can’t win them all because that’s unreasonable, but you can win significantly more simply by offering prospective home buyers choices when they wish to receive your marketing information.
Consider this scenario: a home buyer searches the internet and writes down a few properties. He drives by your $600,000 listing. The flyer box is empty. He looks down at the next property on his list and heads there. He also owns a $400,000 property that he will need to sell.
The empty flyer box is your opportunity cost, the result of an exclusive choice you gave that prospect; he had to choose between calling you directly and driving away. Opportunity cost describes the basic relationship between scarcity (insufficient resources to meet demand) and choice (satisfaction).
This lost opportunity cannot be regained. Once we recognize that exclusion leads to lost opportunities, the solution is to offer choices. That means your flyer box can never be empty. You must offer the prospective home buyer a choice to receive information, preferably one that provides you with lead capture. The statistics demand this. The 2009 NAR Field Guide states that the first action taken by potential home buyers was driving by the property.
So what are your choices? Here are three to consider:
- Provide the homeowner with extra flyers and when the box needs re-filling, the owner can perform the task.
- Provide a rider that offers the information via SMS/text or by calling a recorded 800 number.
- Unique URL on the sign rider.
There are pros and cons to this solution. The pro is you keep the owner engaged in how many flyers are being taken; the con is that you still have no lead capture and you are reliant upon the owner to perform the task.
This solution works best because it is virtual so its resource is limitless, and you receive the lead capture when a homebuyer requests the information. The SMS/text or 800 number captures the caller’s phone number.
We believe address specific websites are great tools for Search Engine Optimization. One-way links (property site to your agent site) do more for your SEO than any other criteria. The problem with them on sign riders is that propsects have most likely already viewed the property on the internet and are now justifying the pictures they saw. If the property meets their criteria, they will want the price. So at least consider “gating” the price (the prospect has to enter contact info to receive it) so that you have some lead capture.
Considering the soft market, tighter lending policies and economic concerns, selling real estate is hard enough. Let’s not make it harder by limiting choices. Exclusion leads to lost opportunities. There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the beach.
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