Comments on: When Are Web Leads Ready?

By: Jacci - Round Rock Realtor

Jacci - Round Rock Realtor — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:03:50 +0000

Your right, I see a better conversion rate 120 – 150 days after their initial visit to my site. Some leads will be ready to buy a house right away but most are 6 months or so out. Thanks for the post.

By: Lisa@Logan Utah Real Estate

Lisa@Logan Utah Real Estate — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:08:54 +0000

I have been finding that leads I thought were dead in the water, have started to come to life again. Your observations are right on here, and I have all my leads on drip campaigns to keep in contact with them over long periods of times. When they start to show activity again, I jump on the horn and try to get them into my car. Very good post.

By: Chino Hills Home

Chino Hills Home — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:54:31 +0000

Lou I am going to have to do more research on this topic. You have got me rethinking my approach.

By: Lou Lynch

Lou Lynch — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:38:47 +0000

@ Sam – Great question, I get this a lot from agents during training sessions.

I do my best to feel the customer out a little. There are some that naturally assume you have been tracking their activity, there are others who are (like you said), uncomfortable with the idea that someone may be “spying on them”

Before I get into my approach on high activity customers, I would first like to say that full disclosure is always the best policy. Your real estate website should have a terms of service agreement that fully outlines what type of tracking you are doing with each registered and unregistered users.

With that said, I am very careful with my approach when contacting customers that have been registered for a while and have recently picked up their activity/website usage. The increased activity is a sure sign of what I call buyer behavior and warrants a call in almost all circumstances. So how do you do it?

I start by introducing myself and asking if this is a good time to speak or if their is a better time we could talk. Next, I tell the customer that I saw that they had registered quite some time ago and wanted to see if they were still looking. I don’t make mention as to how many times they have logged in or that I saw that they were looking in a certain price range until after I have made certain they are comfortable with me having the information. A lot of times they will volunteer making it a non-issue. To directly answer your question, I find it is best to develop rapport with the customer before giving away all your secrets. Of course if the topic comes up or am asked questions about the type of tracking I do I am 100% honest and will refer them to my terms of service agreement.

By: Sam@Lake Travis Real Estate

Sam@Lake Travis Real Estate — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:10:46 +0000

So how do you approach people who have ramped up their activity on your site? Some are very uncomfortable when they find out that you can see what they are doing online.

By: phillyrealestate

phillyrealestate — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:20:30 +0000

Follow-up is the key, I recently sold a home to a client that I 1st contacted 6 months ago. He told me that I was the only one who kept in touch... phillyrealestate’s last blog post..How Much Insurance Does My Mortage Company Require Me to Have?

By: Lou Lynch

Lou Lynch — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:33:34 +0000

@James

Good point James. While reading through my blog you will often hear the term rapport. Rapport (or respect as you put it) is the most important milestone in the lead conversion process. Once you have achieved rapport with the potential customer, your chances of doing business with them spike dramatically. I also agree that it (rapport) should be maintained throughout the sales process and not merely achieved just for conversion purposes. Remember, we want repeat customers . In addition, rapport or respect is one of the things we as professionals OWE the people we work with.

Thank for the comment.

By: James in Houston

James in Houston — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:51:42 +0000

With how agents in the past have treated web contacts as nothing more than a lead I think it is difficult to expect them to be warm and responsive from the begining. I believe that those intial 90 days is the time that most of us would have pass before someone could earn our respect. In the end it is always about respect. If either party is missing this element the transaction process is just waiting for a roadway stuffed with potholes. James in Houston’s last blog post..$165,000 :: 8835 Aberdeen Park, Houston TX, 77095

By: Lou Lynch

Lou Lynch — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:31:04 +0000

Yes indeed . . . gain trust and rapport and you will be the one they call. Working hard on getting my next post out there. I think I am going to write it on implementing a full-time lead coordinator. We’ll see.

Thanks for stopping in.

By: Robert Masse

Robert Masse — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:29:12 +0000

As always Lou, you speak the truth. I find that in the beginning, people are just kicking the tires and want to see what you have to offer…kinda like a courtship. When there is a level of trust established, they will give you what you need to better help them in their home search and eventually, their home purchase!

Good job man!