December 3, 2020
Hassan Riggs
And Why 15-Minute Phone Appointments Are Best
So in our world, the world of real estate lead conversion, there are a few companies out there that deliver their results via live transfers and truth be told we might’ve considered it under different circumstances.
After all it would be much easier for us than setting 15- Minute phone appointments directly in agent’s calendars like we currently do.
(Steal our screenshots, examples and templates from our blog post 2 Things You Need To Get A 90% Appointment Show Up Rate With Real Estate Leads).
As it stands now we have to check your availability while we hold a conversation with the prospective lead and try to match their availability with yours all while we help qualify them for you so you can attend the appointment with as much info as possible.
If we switched to live transfers we could just press a button and wash our hands of the whole thing as soon as a lead showed a little interest.
But, and this is a big but, we refuse to do something just because it’s easier for us. Whenever we make a decision about our methods or service, it has to pass one simple test;
“Will this help our agent clients earn more money from their online leads?”
Unless the answer is a resounding yes, we don’t do it.
And ultimately we decided that Live Transfers are no better than just getting the leads Name and Number in your email inbox... in most cases live transfers are actually worse.
Here, let's explore the 2 main reasons we believe that live transfers are really a disservice to our clients.
Something that we see time and time again with top producing real estate agents is that they’re not lazy, they have no problem doing a lot of hard work in order to see results.
That’s not the reason they decide to hire an ISA Provider like us.
(Download The Ultimate Checklist For Choosing The Right Real Estate ISA Provider For Your Business).
Instead, they’re just insanely busy. Once an agent gets to the point where they are selling several homes per month, you could throw a dart at their calendar and odds are you’d hit an appointment or some type of obligation.
You see, all live-transfer services really do is call or text your leads and once the lead answers or responds they initiate a live transfer to the real estate agent.
This does a great job of reducing the number of leads that you have to follow up with by whittling out the ones that wouldn’t have responded any way but like I said before real estate agents aren’t lazy and don’t need an ISA to simply filter their leads so they have fewer leads to follow up with.
They need an ISA to be available 24/7 so they can run their business as scheduled.
That’s why we focus on the problem of agent availability. Our ISAs are available around the clock 24/7 so you don’t have to be.
And when they contact a lead that’s ready to move forward they don’t just Hot Potato them off to you the first chance they get, instead they look over your busy calendar for a time that you can afford to make a 15 minute phone call to meet the client and build a rapport with them.
This ensures that you can continue to run your business and manage your extremely busy day without having to scramble to answer live transfer calls in the middle of your listing appointments.
I remember when Zillow first rolled out their live transfers (and I was still buying Zillow leads), it was an exercise in extreme anxiety. First of all, you’d save the number in your phone as something obnoxious like “$$$ LEAD $$$ ANSWER NOW $$$”.
And they couldn’t come at a worst time, you’re always either sitting down at a listing appointment or pulling out your phone to unlock a lockbox at a showing.
You hear that ringtone and see $$$ LEAD $$$ ANSWER NOW $$$ and know you have two options:
It didn’t take a long time of dealing with those 5 second surprise panic attacks to realize that I’m better off going with a service that just emails me the lead info that way I can respond on my own time and not have to spaz out in a cold sweat when I’m with a client and the live-transfers come in.
Listen, if you’re a top producer then I’m sure you do pretty well even when you’re not prepared to talk to a potential client. You won’t sound awkward or unprofessional and you know enough about your market to still sound like an expert.
Still, when you’re unprepared you tend to forget a few key parts of your conversion process. And that’s the part that will actually cost you money.
The two most important parts of a high converting phone appointment that we often see missing when agents aren’t prepared are relevant listings and a viable next step.
Relevant Listings
On a great 15 minute phone appointment with a buyer, you should always have at least 2 listings in mind that will be available for them to tour in the near future.
This will give you something tangible to focus on when speaking of the available homes on the market and you can even see if they have more insight for you on what they are and are not looking for in a home.
Viable Next Step
A viable next step is a time slot you have available to either take the prospect out to tour homes or schedule a buyer consultation.
This will help save you from the last second shuffle when they actually agree to an appointment and keep them from using an excuse about your availability to get out of taking the next step with you.
The whole point here is that you can continue to drive people down the pipeline more effectively when you’re actually prepared for the call with them.
What I see when I look at live transfers is really just a band-aid. A simple bandage to fix a broken limb is not the solution.
That's why at Smart Alto we chose to fully commit to 15-Minute Phone appointments.
At the end of the day we actually solve the problem of your jam packed schedule not allowing you to drop what you’re doing and respond to online leads (or answer a live transfer) at a moment's notice.
And on top of that, our 15 Minute Phone Appointments are the perfect opportunity for great agents like you to take the momentum we’ve built and keep your clients moving toward their dream home without missing a beat.
This isn’t just an idea or something either! Our founder Hassan Riggs actually got his start as an ISA and set over 10,000 real estate appointments. He took what he learned from those ISA days to launch an ISA company that actually delivers ROI instead of just convenience (don’t get me wrong, Smart Alto is convenient but we’re not ONLY convenient.)
He even teaches all of our ISAs the secret sauce, the BANTAR principle, a proven conversational framework that delivers highly qualified appointments to our agents.
If you’re ready to join our community and start receiving our world-famous 15-minute phone appointments then schedule a demo today.
The Smart Alto Appointment Setting System guarantees your team never misses another sales opportunity.