Bad News for Old School Sales People

Traditionally, sales people are taught to spend their time on “hot leads” (ready to look) and devalue customers that take longer to buy. While working with “hot leads” is probably a good idea for commission based sales people that are looking to efficiently allocate their time.  The bad news is that this approach is leaving a good amount of business on the table. The problem is that traditional sales people will only attempt follow up directly after registration and will abandon leads after a few attempts not knowing that 7 out of 10 are not ready to be contacted (in my office it was more like 9 out of 10).  In short, it is vitally important to contact the lead as quickly as possible but it is also important to understand that most of them just aren’t ready yet.

The right way to do it

When training my agents, I continuously used the words “prompt and persistent” when referring to the follow up of real estate web leads. Even though only 3 out of 10 will responsive, you risk losing even those 3 if you don’t get to that lead before they move on to a different website. Another thing that is very important to understand is that the remaining 7 ARE NOT POOR LEADS. They are simply not ready to be contacted. You as a sales person must figure out how to be in contact with them at the point where they are ready to be contacted. There is a systematic approach to recognizing the readiness of a lead using proper lead data analysis. I will go into details of this in Part 2 of my “Analyzing Lead Data” series.

Here are a few ways to analyze your leads to better prepare you for follow up.

1. Start with the easy stuff, look at how complete the inquiry/registration form is. Leads that take their time to fill out the form with full names, valid email addresses and phone numbers are generally more serious and better qualified.  This isn’t to say that the lead is no good if these elements don’t exist, but it helps to categorize the lead and make a better follow up plan.
2. Secondly, see if the email from a good ISP? In some cases, users will setup a free email address with hotmail or gmail to avoid being identified (which isn’t always a bad thing). Not always the case, but emails from a well known company or organization is usually a better qualified lead. i.e. matt.cutts@google.com vs ihaterealtors@hotmail.com.
3. How does the phone number look? Is it clearly a bogus number i.e 555-555-5555? Is it from an area code I recognize?  We do a lot of work with people from New York City, so 212 numbers are usually hot.
4. Are there user comment? Things like don’t contact me are a dead give away (although I have seen these converted too). On the other hand, specific comments made about the customer’s requirements are very important. I use them in my initial response later in the process.
5. Look at the leads user activity. A user tracking feature shows us every log in, every search and every page visited by the lead. From this, we can get a pretty good idea about what the lead is looking for (price range, area, etc.) and again I use this information in our follow up to develop rapport.

Now that I have analyzed the lead data, what do I do with it?

Better categorize the lead.

In my opinion, no lead is a bad lead unless the ALL the contact info is bad.  If I have a good email address, phone number or both . . . game on.  Understanding that every lead deserves a certain amount of attention, it is best to categorize the lead so I know where best to focus my attention as time allows. I have a follow up plan for every lead that comes in regardless of how serious they seem to be, as it is my idea that every lead will eventually buy (may not be true, but that is my mindset).

Setup a Drip Email Campaign.

Although this is the least effective of all follow up techniques, it is worth a try.  As long as you have a good unsubscribe feature it behooves you to set your leads up on a drip email campaign.  I usually have a different campaign for every category of lead that comes in.  After I analyze the lead, I set them up on the campaign that I think is most suited to the lead.  If by chance the lead stays subscribed, the branding and name recognition achieved by drip email will pay dividends in the end.

Setup a saved search (listing alert).

With a full lead analysis done and your user tracking feature in full gear, it is easy to set up a saved search that will send your lead new listings as they come on the market.  You know what the lead is looking for . . . now give it to them.  In my opinion this is the most effective way to get return visits.  If your lead isn’t ready to see homes now, they will be at one point, be sure to have your name in front of them when they become ready.

Make the call.

This is the most important part of the process.  Until human contact is made, the salesperson is regarded as just an email address and not much more.  The good news is that because of the great job you did analyzing the lead, you are armed and ready to make the call.  Before you make the call, try to pick out a piece of personal information from the lead profile like where they work (from the email address) or where they live (area code).  Try to make a connection with the lead using the information you have.  By the end of the call you will almost always know the full intention of the lead and can best place them in the correct category for follow up.