Real estate lead follow- up and prospecting is a lot like actual old timey gold prospecting… Have you ever read the book, Think & Grow Rich? If you haven’t, you’re missing out on one of the best success manuals ever written. But if you have, you’ll remember the story of the Darby family who traveled to Colorado during the gold rush.
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When the Darbys began digging, they quickly pulled up a vein of gold, but after the first load, the vein disappeared. They kept digging for a while until finally deciding to give up. But then men they sold their equipment to returned to the site and found that the Darbys had stopped digging just three feet from hitting a literal goldmine.
If this story sounds ridiculous, then you need to check out a new study conducted by BoomTown which shows that most real estate agents are just like the Darbys when it comes to prospecting and lead follow up – and you’re potentially leaving the vast majority of business on the table for someone else.
We're human. Real estate agent mistakes happen. In this blog, I’m going to break down what this follow up study means for you, then give you a couple practical tips for following up until you strike gold.
Here’s a graphic that shows the average time that most people decide to act on buying or selling a home after first meeting with an agent.
The reason so many real estate agents fail is only 8% of people act in under 30 days, and 27% in two or three months. And that’s where most agents GIVE UP TRYING.
Is it giving you Darby vibes yet? Most agents are scraping up the gold that’s right on top and then leaving the other 65% just below the surface after putting in all the work.
Think about all the leads you’ve given up on after six months of follow-up. Now imagine that one month later another agent comes along and signs them in under 30 days. Feels almost dirty, doesn’t it?
No more letting that happen. It’s time to commit to commitment, and the best way to do this is to make it as easy as possible for yourself to not give up.
And what’s the best way to make something easy???
HAVE A SYSTEM FOR IT!
That’s why I’m about to give you a couple of rules when it comes to creating a system for your real estate lead follow-up. We’re not going to get super technical here, because remember, it’s all about making it easy.
From what I’ve seen, most agents who give up on pursuing a lead don’t actually realize that they’re giving up – they just forget after a while.
That’s why I always say that every agent who works in real estate should be living inside their CRM. Every conversation you have and everything you said during it should be recorded, and every touchpoint you plan to make in the future should be scheduled well in advance.
Have you gotten the idea that I’m a big fan of knowing what you’re going to say before you have to say it? There are scripts that work and scripts that don’t, and my organization is passionate about testing and providing them, but for right now, I’m not even talking about making you more effective… I’m just talking about getting you to make the call.
Fear and a lack of confidence are the main reason that agents fail to make the calls they said they were going to. If you know who you’re calling and what you’re going to say when they answer (or don’t), there’s nothing to fear and just something to do.
Pick a script and get going.
Every good lead follow-up system has a methodology for timing and a mixture of delivery channels. If you’re making calls and not getting responses, then have you tried shooting a text? You need a step-by-step process for multiple attempts to connect, because life gets busy and not everyone is going to call you back.
How about this: you send out an email, followed by a text message that says you sent them an email, and then you follow up with a call a couple days later. I’m not saying this is exactly what you need, but experiment until you find the system that works for you – because all that really matters is that you’re comfortable with doing it.
Check out this podcast episode where Jeff Mays offers some awesome tips.
No one wants you to call them simply to ask if they’ve changed their mind about selling their home. “Just checking in,” isn’t a line that inspires much trust coming from a salesperson.
You should always have something unique to offer them, even if it’s just an update on the local market or an article you read that you think they’d find interesting. The more personal you can get, the better you’ll feel about making the call and the easier it will be to have a genuine conversation.
Look back again and really think about all the leads you let slip through your fingers because you stopped following up. If you added up the dollar amount of every one of them, you’d probably in a pretty different position right now, wouldn’t you?
It’s time to get a lead follow-up system in place and commit yourself for the long run. This isn’t a sprint but a marathon.
I really hope that this has helped. Let me know in the comments what you’re going to do in your future follow-up.
Oh, and by the way, here’s the full BoomTown report if you’re interested.
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