Take the internet lead: this type of consumer is quick to browse websites, makes decisions to stay or go in the matter of seconds, and many times is more educated about the real estate process than the average consumer.
If one of your sources to tap is in the realm of online lead generation, mastering the lead conversion process is one of the best “art forms” you can choose to focus in on.
I say “art form” because I truly feel that converting online leads takes talent. This talent could be found in you, or if your business is at a higher level, someone that you hire.
You should not only possess natural rapport building skills, but should also have the motivation to master your scripts when in dialogue with all of your online leads. You should also be someone that can take a phone conversation with someone and naturally convey the sincere desire to help without sounding cheesy. It’s not easy, but then again it’s not impossible to learn what it takes to convert more online leads.
Three Factors
Quick: A lead has contacted you online requesting more help about the real estate process. What do you do? Your ability to convert an online lead will be in direct proportion to your level of mastery with the following three areas.
- Timing
- Scripts
- Follow Up
Timing
Seth Goden would tell you that the world of an internet lead is actually quite small, and when looking for help with real estate the first person to return his call is the best agent for them. Are you the first person to respond?
As a student of the online lead generation game, your systems should be focused on contacting all internet leads as quickly as possible. This is much more important to internet leads than casual referrals from your network.
If you take to long to answer the inquiry of an online lead, you are directly sabotaging your efforts to convert that lead. Make sure you make an effort to call all internet leads back within 1 hour; 30 minutes preferred. Take more than an hour and you could very well have lost a vital transaction to your business.
Scripts
You get the client on the phone, and now you’re at a loss of words. The agent who takes the time to master their scripts when speaking to a new potential client will be the agent who converts that lead. You could be the first to call, but without knowing what to say your efforts are in vain.
A great way to become comfortable and confident in your scripts is to sit down and practice them with a peer. Anyone motivated to role play their dialogue with another agent is a great person to associate yourself anyway; they’re into self-mastery just like you are. Visit with your broker or an experienced agent in your office and ask if they would share their best scripts with you.
If you are a Keller Williams Realty agent, visit KWUniversity.com to purchase a book filled with valuable scripts for multitudes of situations from top Keller Williams agents around the world.
Follow Up
The average online consumer of real estate will take 6-12 months to turn into a transaction. Does this seem like a long time to you? In retrospect, let me ask you the following question. Will you be needing a transaction 6-12 months from now? Your answer is pretty obvious; of course you will!
Your systems should be designed to place all leads that are not ready to buy now into a follow up program respective to their time frame. Your ability to follow up will greatly increase your conversion ratios with online leads, or hinder it to the point of no return. Invest time in creating effective follow up programs to systematically communicate with all leads that come your way.
This is by no means a complete reference guide to online lead generation, but hopefully you’ve learned the areas you need to master. Take the ball and run with it!
To those agents out there where more than 50% of their business comes from the internet: How important are timing, scripts, and follow up to your ability to convert an online lead that comes your way?
-SC-
Related Posts
- Online Social Networking for Real Estate Agents
- Systematic Follow-Up With Online Leads
- Answering Your Cell Phone
- Tadalist Call Log
- Simplifi - A First Look
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Hey Steve, as usual your are so full of important information. This is Great!! Thanks for sending this out. I hadn’t even thought about online leads and how to handle them. But I will now.
Thanks for all your hard work!
March 4th, 2008 at 8:13 am
We do pretty good with internet leads and never ever call them the same day let alone within 30 minutes. For a start, the typical internet lead wants to be contacted by email, so to call them would be breaking the bond we are trying to develop.
Plus, service is still the at the top of the list for most people so the agent that calls first had better have more than scripts if they don’t want to lose them to us.
Finally, we have custom auto responders designed for each web form that gets filled out. Never had anybody who did not think we sent them the email personally.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Hi Greg,
Interesting approach you have. Would you mind sharing your conversion ratios? In more particular, unique hits to registrations, and registrations to appointments on average per month?
I’d be interested to see if your ratios are better than our case studies where response times were within the hour.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Interesting indeed, Greg. Your approach is actually everything I tell my agents not to do. Could I be wrong?
March 5th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Hi Steve,
Great site, very informative. I was wondering what type of internet advertising you would recommend. There are so many to choose from and I don’t want to waste money. I’ve already tried a couple of things which didn’t work.
Take care,
Kathleen
March 5th, 2008 at 10:54 am
@Kathleen: I don’t find myself doing much advertising with my real estate sites that involve marketing dollars. I’m more of a fan of search engine optimization for a website to organically appear in the search results, rather than having to pay for it (PPC).
To get started, you might want to try PPC with Google Adwords, or you could sponsor some local club message boards that in return would allow you to market to their members. If you try PPC, try not to go for your “big fish” keywords just yet (like area real estate).
Instead, try to focus on niche markets like subdivisions or popular areas in and around your city.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Very informative article. I am always looking for ways to make my marketing better. I’m wondering whether anyone here has any experience with “live chat” features. I see them pop up on so many sites (not just real estate sites) and I wonder whether this would be a good way to grab the attention of internet leads. On the one hand, live chat would allow the interested lead to get personalized, very fast information, but how practical is the live chat feature for the average agent? Does anyone have any insights?
March 9th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Steve, Great post. I think that many agents have problems at some point with their internet lead conversion. It takes time and some trial and error to get the right formula. We still have some fine tuning to do. We have actually found that for follow up the best thing to use is outlook and piggy back a program called “respond”. It is a contact management system designed specifically for real estate used in conjunction with outlook.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
You are absolutely right about time. That is why you need a Blackberry or similar device that will notify you immediately when you get a new registration on your website. Without quick response, the rest of almost unimportant.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:42 am
We are currently getting 10-20+ leads a day so calling all of them would not be feasible. There are cool, warm and hot leads. The hot (minority) get called. The warm and hot are contacted through email which is how they contacted us. Remember, one of the things consumers like about internet shopping is the anonymity and not having to deal with a pushy agent. There is an 800# everywhere but they choose to email instead of calling so we respect that.
They all go into an automatic listing update program. This is the key. We can be the last agent to contact them but if we give the best follow up and the most follow up we win in the end.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:26 am
IMHO, the idea that consumers go from website to website filling out contact forms goes back to the idea that consumers are looking for an agent. If this were true then the first agent to contact them would appear to be the best agent. My experience shows consumers are not looking for an agent and the last thing they want to do is give their contact info out to a bunch of agents.
Consumers are looking for real estate. When they find a site that has a good IDX they stay there and come back to the same site repeatedly. The closer they get to making a purchase the more detailed questions they start to ask. Internet shoppers typically are going to buy 6 months to some years out so what you do right now is not as important as what you do during the whole process. Repeated follow up is the most important thing. When they are ready, be there.
I have been working internet leads since the mid 90’s.
April 5th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Steve,
Thanks for a good article. You are dead on. I too have studied online lead generation for 8 yrs now. I must admit, the first 3 yrs were a dud but I’ve closed more than 100 transactions from my websites in the last 6 yrs. Other than my sphere, it is the very best thing I have ever done.
I believe the reason for my success is because I get it. I get that less than 15% of the online consumers who contact me will be ready to buy a home in the next 30-45 days. I understand that I have to gain their confidence and trust.
Most agents can’t see beyond 30-60 days; if that long.
The prospect who ends up closing with me had come into my website 5.5 months prior to their closing. I’ve had numerous ones that closed over a year after coming in. My record was 42 months after website entry. That was also a commission check for nearly $18,000.
I have also learned that most people are not gifted at nurturing those leads. Believe me, I’ve tried. VA assistants, other agents, part time hourly people, full time hourly people.
Guess what? I do it now. And, it’s becoming ALL I do. I have found that other people know how to show, negotiate and sell real estate. So THAT part is what I now farm out.
I can get em’ in the door, I let agents take care of the rest.
Thanks again for the great tips.
John
April 5th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Oh, I failed to mention.
Immediate contact is crucial. I’ve contacted many people so quickly, they were still on my website.
Contrary to what I read here, if they have a phone number, I will call them. NOT to sell them a house, but rather to “discover” their plans. What I say is not important, what THEY say is. Also to find out if I have a good prospect. If they have a loser attitude, I let them go. Quickly.
If I’ve got a physical address and for some reason I am unable to get in contact with them, I will drop a handwritten note in the mail to them. Too much time? Maybe. But I have found that 15% of the people who receive that note, will pick up the phone and call us.
I want to be the first one in their inbox, the first one in their mailbox and the first one on their voice mail.
Whatever it takes.
John
April 18th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Internet leads will sharpen sales skills because of the intense competition. You will learn rebuttal skills and how to build trust as there is a short window of time for conversion.
Jim
May 1st, 2008 at 9:39 pm
This is a great article, I think the thing I agree with most is that you need to respond as quickly as possible. I try and follow up within the hour if not sooner and the client will really seemed surprised if you are the 1st person to contact them. The Internet lead can be a great source of business.
Does anyone have any tips or experience that we should know about?
May 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
[...] up with your registrations is one of the most crucial segments of converting online leads. Systematic follow up is what you really need, but will any follow up suffice? Any type of follow [...]