January 3, 2022
Ginger Crosbie
Take Our Quiz To Find Out Why Your Real Estate Leads Aren’t Responding To You
Oh no she di’n’t!
Of course your lead source matters! How could she say such a thing? Pfft, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about…
Or does she?
You can get a lead from anywhere at anytime, like:
The possibilities are endless when it comes to possible lead sources.
So the question becomes which lead source is the best?
At Smart Alto we are in the business of helping busy real estate agents, like yourself, qualify their leads and help them close 5 additional deals per year so they can crush their revenue goals.
Naturally, when you’re in the business of qualifying leads you have the unique ability to really see if a lead source really matters.
Let’s break down why there might be some truth to what Amber says.
A lead, is a lead, is a lead.
It doesn’t matter where a lead comes from:
At its core, a lead is a name and way to contact a person. It’s someone that has said ‘yes’ to something and is looking for someone to help.
That’s it.
The name and contact information hold no weight… a name from your mom holds no more valuable than a name from zillow if you don’t do what matters most...
Your follow-up.
You’ve probably heard the saying before, “fortune is in the follow-up”.
It’s true.
It doesn’t matter where your lead comes from if you don’t do anything with it or if you don’t have the right systems in place to follow-up with the lead.
“But, I’m funny, charismatic, and can get the job done better than any other agent in my area…
That may be true, but listen, it doesn’t matter how great you are if your follow-up sucks. What really matters are things like:
Even the lead you get from your mom is useless if you never follow up to better understand their needs, wants, and expectations.
But let’s talk about online leads, and what it takes to finally get an ROI on your lead generation program.
If you’re too slow getting to the lead and they talk to someone else before you then it doesn’t matter how great you are because 75% of buyers and sellers work with the first agent they talk to.
That stat alone should tell you that your charisma doesn’t matter if you can’t get to the lead fast enough.
Your first objective when you get a lead is to make contact. Even if the lead tells you they aren’t interested, because that will happen, getting a response and being the first person they talk to still carries a lot of weight.
How are you following-up with your leads?
Do you call them? Email them? Text them? Send a carrier pigeon?
Seriously. You might not think it matters, all follow-up is follow-up, isn’t it? It is, but not really.
Keeping in mind the first point, speed to lead, what’s the fastest way to get in touch with someone? A phone call, right?
Wrong.
Think about yourself. How often do you answer your phone when you get a phone call? Especially if it’s a number you don’t recognize?
I’ll go ahead and say it, never. I almost always send it to voicemail. I even send people I know to voicemail if I’m in the middle of something. Even my mom is hard to get a hold of when I try to call her! It can literally take 2-3 days of calling before she will answer if her schedule is crazy.
So no, a phone call is not the fastest and best method to get a hold of someone.
So what is? A text message.
We are all glued to our phones (I know, it makes the not answering a phone call thing even more frustrating). So use that to your advantage.
Even if someone won’t or can’t answer a phone call, they will most certainly see a text message.
95% of text messages are read within 3 minute so use that to your advantage. We break this down even more in this post, Texting VS Calling: Which Is Better For Converting Real Estate Leads?
When you reach out to a lead your ultimate goal is to earn their business. But before you can earn their business you have to do one thing. Do you know what that one thing is?
You need to get them to respond to you.
How do you increase your likelihood of getting a response if you’re already reaching out quickly and via text message?
You ask the right questions.
You want to lead with questions that are so easy for the lead to respond to that a response doesn’t require thought. A couple of quick keystrokes is all that’s needed.
If you were at a bar thinking about asking out the person on the other end of the room you wouldn’t walk up to them and ask them to marry you. That’s a quick way to get rejected.
Instead, you might start with something that requires little to no commitment on their part.
Similarly, leading a new conversation with a lead with, “So, what does your dream home look like?” Could stop you dead in their tracks. That question requires a ton of thought and effort. Are they even looking for their dream home?
Instead, leading with something like, “How many bedrooms are you looking for?” Is much easier for someone to answer and only requires 2 keystrokes… the number and ‘send’ button.
Amber is right.
Your real estate lead source doesn’t matter. What is more important is what you do with the lead and the systems you have in place for supporting the lead on their journey.
If you can’t get to the lead quickly, reach out to them via the best channel - text message, and ask the right questions... It won't matter how many leads you have or where you are sourcing them.
You need to reframe your problem from being about ‘lead source quality to being about ‘follow-up quality’.
Ask yourself honestly. How is your follow-up system?
If you still think your lead source matters and you’re not getting the response rate from your leads that you should be getting, Take Our Quiz To Find Out Why Your Real Estate Leads Aren’t Responding To You.
This quiz will help you identify kinks in your systems that might be contributing to your lead response rates.
The Smart Alto Appointment Setting System guarantees your team never misses another sales opportunity.