Showings, contracts, leases, networking, closings, more paper work…you get the idea. How are you supposed to find the time to prospect or work those internet leads you’ve been receiving?
Don’t let your marketing dollars go to waste. You CAN effectively and efficiently manage your internet leads. And yes; you can still get everything else in your day completed. It’s all about time management and the tools you have to help you.
Below you’ll find tips to creatively create time in your day with the use of different mobile devices.
Finding the Time to Call Real Estate Leads
In his article titled “5 Productive Things To Do During a Slow Open House,” Steve talks about things you can do if no one shows up at an open house. You can also use this time to work your internet leads. These same tips can be applied in numerous situations like showings, inspections, etc.
More importantly, it is necessary to make an appointment with yourself each and everyday to set aside times to make calls to leads. Smartphones make it easier to keep track of tasks, reminders, and daily schedules.
Recommended Tools
- Smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows)
- Bluetooth Earpiece
- Laptop & Mobile Hotspot
- Tablet With Cellular Data Service
Should I Contact All Leads Through My Cell Phone?
In our offices, we teach agents how to be efficient and multitask among many other things. One of the recommendations we make to the agents is to always call leads from your cell phone. You want the person you are calling to have your cell phone number; especially an internet lead.
Your cell phone is always going to be with you. If a lead happens to return your call, you won’t miss the opportunity to get them talking. First, fast, and frequent: that’s what we teach our agents when it comes to internet leads. The Realtor who is going to win over an internet buyer is the Realtor who is going to get back to them first, gets them what they want fast, and stays in touch frequently.
Every first phone call & email to an internet lead must be completed from an agent’s mobile phone. The call is simple: when you are notified by email to your smartphone that you have a new lead call the number of the lead immediately AND send an email. Almost all smartphones these days hyperlink telephone numbers so that when you click on them, your phone will dial the number.
Setting up email templates in your phone will cut down on the amount of time it takes you to email that first message from your phone. If you’re using a Blackberry, you can use templates. If you are using an iPhone updated to the new iOS 5, you can use what’s called keyboard shortcuts in the settings app under the general section, then keyboard.
The Bluetooth Earpiece
Earpieces are valuable as they allow you to multitask much easier. A bluetooth earpiece like the Voyager Pro HD, can sense when the product is actually in your ear and also allows you to answer your phone more quickly.
Using an earpiece allows both of your hands to be free. This will give you an opportunity to look through your notes for a particular lead while the phone is ringing. Most people do nothing while the phone is ringing; they wait to see if someone will answer the phone or if a voicemail will pick up.
Don’t take the time to look through the lead data before you call them. Just dial the number and then look. If a voicemail is what you get, leave a message. While you’re listening to the voicemail, leave a note on the lead in shorthand like “1/12/12 LM (Left Message)” in your CRM tool or lead management tool. So let’s review:
- Dial the number from your cell phone.
- While the phone is ringing, review the details of the internet lead.
- If a lead answers do more listening than talking and take notes while the lead is speaking.
- If you receive a voicemail, while the message is playing, leave a shorthand note.
- Move on to the next lead.
Tablets, Laptops Make Prospecting Easier
With tablets (including iPads) becoming more popular, it’s becoming easier for businesses to conduct business from anywhere. Laptops and tablets can be excellent tools for becoming more efficient and help you to add time in the day where you didn’t think you had it.
Whether you are in the office or on the go, having your iPad or laptop handy to make prospecting calls while you have free time is definitely dollar productive. For example, we had an agent in our office who told us that when he and his family were headed out to go shopping, his wife drove the car while he sat in the passenger seat, iPad in hand, earpiece on, making prospecting calls to his internet leads. On the drive to the mall from his house, he was able to make 6 prospecting calls, bringing his total call number to 102 for the day.
After all, the more calls you can make, the more irons you have in the fire.
Email Templates, Apps & Alerts Make it Easier
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In a Blackberry, you can set these up as templates for a quick email to your new lead. Not only will you be calling the lead (from your cell phone) immediately but you’ll also be following up with an email.
iPhones make this relatively easy now with the iOS 5 update. They use something called “keyboard shortcuts.” This simply means you can simply type “futc,” (follow up to call) and then the spacebar key which will actually produce your templated email to your new lead.
Android phones make this possible through the use of an app made specifically for use with Gmail.
You may want to have additional email templates that you use for prospecting that you will setup in your CRM tool or store on your laptop, computer, or tablet. Using templates will speed up the amount of time it takes you to prospect.
Another very useful feature of smartphones is the ability to set different alert tones for different emails based on subject, sender, etc. This doesn’t work on the iPhone, you say? Oh – but it does! There is an app called MailTones available through iTunes that makes this feature available on an iPhone. The MailTones app also assists in mimicking ‘push’ email like on a Blackberry, allowing you to receive emails more instantaneously. Setting a specific alert tone for internet leads will allow an agent to know when they need to respond quickly to lead with a phone call and an email. The faster you respond to internet inquiry, the more likely you are to convert that business.
Get creative and you’ll be able to find many more opportunities for additional time in your day. Cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc. are tools to make our lives easier and more efficient if applied in the right way.
10 Comments on "Efficient Internet Lead Management With Your Mobile Devices"
Nice one, Lisa! Keyboard shortcuts for template emails. Genius! I had only thought of using them for simple shortcut replacements, but it totally makes sense to use them as you direct.
Any ideas if there is a character limit?
Steve, I have not encountered a character limit yet. However, I have only been using my keyboard shortcuts for short, quick response emails. Test out the shortcuts and let me know how they work out for you.
I have found that upgrading the iOS on my iPad and using the templates from there, have been fabulous as well. Looking forward to seeing how others are using their mobile devices.
Lisa great tips! Now I just need to get more internet leads. Have any magic tricks for making that happen more?
Build a search engine optimized site showcasing all the real estate listings in your market, create content to drive traffic to your site or pay for PPC campaigns to get a jumpstart, and force registration. That’s pretty much the gist of it, but it may take some time to get in a search engine position high enough to drive enough traffic to your site consistently.
This is great insight! Thanks for the information! I agree setting up email templates on you phone is a great shortcut!
Some seriously great tips here, Lisa. Tablets are making things a lot easier these days in showing and keeping track of information on properties and websites. Email shortcuts sounds like the way to go!
I don’t have the tablet PC but, it is in this year’s budget. The e-mail tips from the phone will certainly be a huge help! Awesome!
Good stuff Lisa. Especially like the advice for contacting leads through your cell phone. Amazing how many use an office phone and call backs can go to a receptionist with no idea who called.
Something as simple as Gmail’s built in ‘canned responses’ has saved my clients a lot of time. Requires no additional software – you just need to enable it from the ‘labs’ gmail tab. Outlook can also be used for the same thing using ‘insert’ and then ‘quick parts’ where you’ll see the email message contents you’ve saved. Unfortunately, I don’t think these work yet on mobile phone clients
If you’re on a Mac, you can also use programs like TextExpander to hotkey certain responses. Definitely agree that having canned responses is a huge time saver.