How many leads do you get in a day? How many of those are warm leads, such as referrals, and how many are Internet leads?
And how soon do you respond to any of them?
Unless someone calls and says “I just talked with my friend and he’s waiting for your call,” you can probably safely wait until a convenient time to follow up with referrals – but Internet leads are something entirely different.
Some studies say it’s the extensive use of cell phones for browsing that has caused the impatience, but who knows. The reason doesn’t matter as much as the facts.
When someone fills out an inquiry form on your website, they expect a response – right now.
How soon is right now? Five minutes – or less. Research shows that after 5 minutes, an 
agent’s chance of even contacting that lead drops by 80%. By the next day, you might as well cross them off, because if they’re a real prospect, they will have already chosen an agent.
That was another part of the research – 78% say they choose the first agent who responds to them. So, unless that first agent says something to put them off in some way, there’s not much point in trying to come in second.
The good news for you, if you’re quick on the draw, is that only 5-8% of Internet leads are followed up within that 5 minute time frame. And – a shocking 50-55% are NEVER followed up.
It’s not just agents doing this, either. It’s people in all sorts of businesses. I won’t even fill out one of those forms any more, because I’ve come to believe that they just go in a junk bin somewhere. If I can’t find a phone number and talk with a live person, I move on – just like real estate prospects move on.
So – Back to how not to do it.
Because I’m writing about this subject for a client, I decided to experiment a little. I filled out a form on a site that promised “instant” response, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That was at 3:25 yesterday afternoon.
They returned the call at 6:30 a.m. I didn’t get up to answer it, but when I played the recording later, I got the rest of the “How not to.”
My caller demonstrated a classic example of what not to do.
Using one of the “flattest” voices I have ever heard, she raced through the introduction. “My name is ____ from ___.” I’ve played it twice and still don’t know her name. I am certain of the company. I couldn’t understand what she said, but the name showed up in my caller ID.
She said she was responding to an inquiry about ___. Then she rattled off the street address of the house and said I could return her call at ____. I’m not sure what the number was, either. She spoke too quietly and said it too fast.
I did catch parts of it – and it was a different number from the one on my caller ID.
This person sounded like she was thinking “I have to do this, so I’ll get it over with as fast as I can.”
How to do it correctly:
- Make that call immediately – not 15 hours later.
- Put some life in your voice – sound like you’re happy to speak with a new lead.
- Speak up.
- Slow down.
- Enunciate clearly.
- State the call back number one number at a time. Don’t rattle it off like you can’t wait to be finished.
- Repeat the call back number – again, slowly and clearly. Not all phones have caller ID, and you may wish for them to return the call on a different number.
Of course, this advice for leaving messages applies to everything. If you actually want someone to return your call, make it easy for them to understand your name, the purpose of your call, and your call back number.
Another call I had over the week-end had me re-playing the message over and over – and I still don’t know the man’s name, even though he spelled it.
If you have a contact form on your website…
Hopefully it includes some kind of instant response – either someone at a call center who can answer a few questions, an email that provides information on a specific property, or an email that assures people their message has been received and you’ll call personally as soon as possible. If you’re available, that call should happen just as soon as the contact is forwarded to you.
After that, you have the challenge of hanging on to those leads until they turn into buyers or sellers.
A few months ago an agent wrote me to say she had “hundreds” of Internet buyer leads and no time to follow up with them after the initial contact. Naturally she didn’t know how many of those leads were going to turn into buyers, so wanted a way to stay top of mind with all of them over the next several weeks.
That’s when I wrote the Nurturing Buyer Leads letter set. This is a set of 12 letters plus a special report on buying new construction. Each letter offers a bit of advice for buyers as they prepare to begin the search for a new home.
For sellers who haven’t quite decided that now is the time to list, we have the Seller Advice Letters - a set of 18 letters discussing everything from pricing, to getting the house ready to list, to advice on negotiating offers.
In addition to these letters, send your market reports. And - if the sellers happen to be near a neighborhood where you’re going to send “just listed / just sold” letters, put them on that list as well.
And of course, if your system allows it, be sure that every buyer and seller is set up to receive MLS alerts about new homes on the market in their neighborhood(s) of interest.
It still amazes me that when my son was searching for a house, only one out of more than a dozen agents he contacted set up that search function. But then, the others didn’t bother to follow up at all, even after they’d shown him a home. (Guess which agent got the sale when he did find a house.)
Just my opinion...
There really is no point in investing time or money to set up systems to gather Internet leads unless you're going to respond to those leads, then follow up with them.
UPDATE:
These folks called again this morning - again at 6:30. This time it was a different caller and I was able to take down the phone number, so I called. After waiting on hold, I was connected to an agent - a very pleasant woman who apologized and promised to take my number off their call list. Interestingly, she said they hadn't received the information until yesterday morning.
One more bit of advice:
If someone fills out your online form late at night and you respond in the morning, do take time to look up the area code and check their time zone before responding. If you're in the East, they may be in the West, but thinking of moving. So they may have filled out the form at 8 p.m.
The same can be true in reverse. If you're in the West and you're using evening hours to return inquiries that came in while you were out with clients, check to make sure that you're not about to call someone at 11 p.m. in their time zone.
Impatient man image Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Can't understand Image courtesy of iosphere at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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