In the last week I've spoken to one agent who swears his Zillow leads are the most qualified leads he receives, and another agent who thinks otherwise. At RainCamp last week there were a number of people who touted how well the Active Rain system is working for them, and I could easily find just as many people who would argue the opposite and even more who think blogging is a waste of time. Really you can find a blog post about just about any service and you'll see there are those who love it, and those who don't.
So this really has me thinking about lead quantity, quality and the follow up processes. If someone has a great idea on how technology can help optimize it, please email me, I'm all ears! But I think it really comes down to the individual person and what they are willing to invest from a resource standpoint in the product and process('resource' being time, money, personnel, or all of the above). Of course the person who blogs once a day is going to get better long term results than the person that blogs once a month! So when someone says 'blogging doesn't work', it is important to understand the investment the person has made in blogging, same with other systems.
Another curious thing about leads in the real estate industry is the time frame it can take to work a lead.
From the time a person starts dreaming about buying a home to the point where they are actually getting the keys at the closing table, can very often be up to 2 years! I definitely get the importance of the 'immediate' lead, those are ones that are making you money today. But I very often see agent throw the leads that are 6 months, 1 year, 2 years out, considering them 'bad leads'. I think this a big mistake because it ignores the valuable 'sales funnel' of opportunity. Working a funnel of long, short and immediate terms leads, is how any sales person builds a business.
I was reminded of this when I heard Ben Kinney speak at RainCamp last week. He said he subscribed to a lead service a few years ago, which at the time he deemed a failure because very few of the leads converted. However, he had held on to the list of leads, but didn't do anything with them. He found this list a few years later and did a mailing to it, and it turned out to be one of the best things he did from a business generation standpoint.
Then this morning I got an email solitiation from Stefen Swanepoel's organization entitled Make Money From Your Own Database, talking about drip marketing campaigns and scheduling. In the last eight years my husband and I have bought 6 homes and sold 2- so 8 transactions. Only ONE agent has ever kept us in any sort of drip campaign or ever contacted us post sale (disclosure, the one who did is the broker who has my license, but I think he would keep in touch regardless). This also includes any agent we've ever emailed, or contracted with on some level. I would think considering our buying activity, we would be considered a fairly good 'lead'. But I am sure there are agent out there who we've tried to engage, that have told their peers we weren't. And what a huge opportunity loss to have not kept up with us post-sale.
Are there good and bad lead sources, of course. But I think it is important to 'systemize' whatever source you are using to it's fullest. Yes, the immediate leads are great. But don't discount the long terms leads, which are vital when it comes to building a business. It may come down to simply hitting the right person at the right with the right message for where they are in the real estate life cycle. Please feel free to leave a comment about any good lead management systems you are using, and why you like them.
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