There are many things that can get under your skin as a real estate agent. However, few are more frustrating than paying for or working for a new lead only to have them flat out ignore your calls!
Am I right?!
Many times you could be using a lead generation strategy that has been proven over and over again but you still aren’t getting anywhere.
If you are like most real estate agents, this will leave you scratching your head and wondering what you are doing wrong or if it is just a fluke.
Regardless of the reason or reasons that your leads refuse to call you back, one thing you can’t deny is that you can’t continue to purchase or farm leads that will never go anywhere!
So how do you figure out where the fault lies and fix the problem? You read every last word of today’s post! Get ready because I am about to show you:
The biggest reason(s) your real estate leads won’t call you back
How to get around common roadblocks and objections
When you should be calling real estate leads to get through to them
Exactly what steps to take to FINALLY get your leads to call you back
If you are fed up with wasting your time, money, and motivation on real estate leads that are just flat out ignoring you, this post will cure your frustration once and for all!
Make sure you pin and bookmark this post so you can come back to it every time this ugly little problem rears its ugly head again. Oh, and don’t forget to share it with your team and other real estate friends.
Ready for a cold, hard punch to the fact?
An MIT study found that your odds of reaching a lead decrease more than 100 times after half an hour.
Ouch!
I mean let’s face it, It is nearly impossible for you to manually answer every single time a lead reaches out to you in that moment or within a 30 minute time window. Just think about how many times you have been out with clients showing properties or in the middle of a listing presentation when a lead tries to get in touch with you the first time.
Add to that the fact that people have different schedules and sometimes live in an entirely different time zone and it becomes downright overwhelming to think about being available in the moment a lead shows interest, 24/7 365.
Still, you can’t afford to just let those leads slip by and their future business and referrals too!
How To Fix The Problem
The first thing that you need to do is get some automation tools in place to make sure that every lead that expresses interest gets an immediate response. Luckily, this is easier than ever before thanks to chatbots, automatic email responses, and website widgets.
I suggest that you be careful with your automatic response messaging. However, because you don’t want to engage them in a conversation if you aren’t available. Instead, I suggest that your message tell them you are currently busy with another client but will get back to them as soon as possible.
That leads me to my next point.
You have to actually get in touch with them as soon as you can and engage them in conversation. This is the part where you actually have to act like a real estate agent to draw out key information and follow up as much as necessary until you make the sale.
Let’s assume that you have been calling your prospects or cold leads and following up the way that you are supposed to but its still radio silence on their end.
This could be because those people don’t like to use their phones for calls. For example, if you are targeting Millennials, you would be more likely to get a response bysending text messages using proven scriptsrather than calling.
You could also be calling a home phone number that is rarely ever used or checked for messages. The good news here is that those people are not ignoring you. However, it doesn’t matter because you aren’t getting through to the target.
How To Fix The Problem
It is important when you make contact with a lead the first time that you find out how that lead prefers to communicate with you and make a note of it in your CRM. If you time-block your follow-up process, it may make your life easier to organize your list of contacts you plan to follow up with by how they prefer to be reached.
This alone will make a significant impact but don’t stop there.
If you have leads that you only have a name and phone number for, take the time to try and find them on other platforms like LinkedIn so you can attempt to connect with them there and through their email.
Remember, the name of the game here is to stay in touch and top-of-mind so connect with your prospects and leads in as many ways as possible.
Let’s say you refuse to take myadvice about tactics like cold-callingand have a list of leads that you plan to cold-call that you want to get maximum results for.
You get yourself all psyched up, strap on your headset, fire up your dialer, and whip out your scripts. You’re smiling and dialing away breezing through the scripts that you have memorized.
There is just one problem…
Those scripts almost NEVER tell you to inform the lead how you got their number.
Listen, you know as well as I do that nobody enjoys being cold-called even if they are in need of the services being offered on the other side of that call. Not being upfront about who you are and how you got their number is a huge red flag that will signal you are cold-calling them.
Even if they find you from your website or Zillow and call you based upon finding you there, they may not remember that. Be sure that you include those small but mighty details right away so they don’t write you off from the beginning as most people would.
How To Fix The Problem
This is an easy fix.
Just begin your initial interactions by telling them who you are, how they know you, and why you are reaching out to them. Try something like:
“Hi this is Sarah from ABC Realty, I am just following up from your inquiry about my listing at 123 Main Street.”
Obviously, if you are cold-calling people from a service like RedX then you won’t be able to get around the “ this is how I know you part”. Still, keep in mind that open honesty is consistently named as one of the top three things people look for in a real estate agent so it may pay off to just be honest about that too.
Some people believe that if they don’t leave a voicemail, the mysterious missed call will be too tempting to resist calling back.
WRONG!
The odds of someone going out of their way to call a random number back that doesn’t leave a voicemail explaining the purpose of the call is virtually zero.
How To Fix The Problem
Leave a concise, tempting, and welcoming voicemail that tells them who you are, why you are calling, and how they would benefit from calling you back.
There is still no promise that cold FSBO and expired leads will be racing to call you back because they are being bombarded with calls and voicemails just like yours. All the more reason toniche down and target your leads based on specific pain points,rather than at random.
There are few things as frustrating in real estate than a never-ending game of phone tag with your leads. It is no easy feat to try and figure out the best time to reach everyone.
Many newer agents make the mistake of calling leads early in the morning before they go to work or late at night when they are “sure” to be done with work. People have different schedules, priorities, and lifestyles which means there is no rule for the best time to reach everyone.
I can see where this would make sense to them on paper. However, I always want you to put yourself in the shoes of the people that you are targeting before you try to interact with or sell to them.
If you were rushing around trying to get the kids ready for school before heading out to work for the day would you want to take the time to talk to someone trying to get your business?
If you had just put in a long day at work, run errands, prepared dinner, cleaned, and were trying to unwind for a few minutes before bed, how pumped would you be to get a solicitation call then?
If you are anything like most people, you would be irritated to say the least and much more resistant to saying “yes” to the person on the other side of the phone.
How To Fix The Problem
Remember how I told you that when you make contact with your leads for the first time you should ask them how they prefer for you to communicate with them? You should also ask them when would be the best time(s) to get in touch with them too and make a note of that in your CRM as well.
If this is the first time that you are reaching out to the lead and you manage to make contact with them certainly get those details established but offer to reach back out if it is not a good time. You want them to walk away with every interaction feeling better and more positive about you than they did before so this is a great time to initiate your white-glove service.
Whether you know it, believe it, or not, you are in the business of building relationships more than you are that of selling properties. If you fail to make connections, develop them, and invest in them until they are solidified relationships you will fail in real estate.
If you lead every interaction by trying to sell, sell, sell, you will never give yourself or your leads to develop those relationships. You may not always be able to form a valuable connection from the start and you won’t click with everyone but make sure that is the foot you put forward first.
How To Fix The Problem
This is one of those times when investing in a touch of research can really pay off in a big way for you. If you don’t know anything about the lead you are reaching out to, consider taking a look at some of their social media like LinkedIn or Facebook to see if you have anything in common that you will be able to relate about.
If you have already reached out for the first time and you included a ton of detail in that first attempt, you will want to make this attempt more relaxed. Make sure that you acknowledge how busy they are and don’t be afraid to inflict a pinch of guilt to get that return call.
Try something like this:
“Hi ____, I have been trying to get in touch with you without any luck but I know you are really busy. I just want to ensure that it is easy and convenient for you to get back in touch with me as soon as possible. I am available today between “9am-2:15 pm and tomorrow between 1pm-6pm. Shoot me a text back at 555-987-6543 and tell me which time works better for you.”
Notice how that not only inflicts guilt but graciously offers multiple options for their convenience and closes with a strong call-to-action.
I totally understand that we all have days where we are a bit off. Even the most seasoned agents are going to have days where they trip over their words. If you are cold-calling FSBO’s or expireds there is a chance you may not recover. However, don’t let that discourage you from coming back the next day to lead gen with confidence.
How To Fix The Problem
This is one of those problems that is better prevented ahead of time. If you wake up and feel like you are having an off day and won’t be able to confidently communicate by phone, focus on using written forms of communication like emails and text messages that day as much as possible.
For those calls that you must make, here arefour easy ways to be more confident on the phone:
Start by making less important calls to get into the swing of things. It is natural to be a bit rusty when you first get started so give yourself a chance to find your rhythm again.
Listen to a song that pumps you up. Sometimes you just need to listen to a little motivation and inspiration to get back into the groove. I also recommend having a fun victory song that you play when you book an appointment or make a sale.
If you are using a script, take the time to say it out loud a few times before you start calling to be sure you have it memorized to the point where you can make it sound natural. Reciting those scripts every day will help build your confidence all the time.
Stand up, walk around, and pace if you need to. Sitting in a hunched over position will do nothing to help you but standing or walking will allow you to project your voice and message with more confidence.
At the end of the day, you will only get better at these often uncomfortable interactions by forcing yourself to practice them as often as possible.
One of the biggest factors that play a role in the buying decision of people today is what other people have to say about any given product or service. No matter how you first come into contact with your leads, you better believe that they will go looking for social proof that you really are the best real estate agent for them.
So let me ask you this…
If I Googled you right now, what would I find?
Google, your real estate website, Zillow, Realtor, LinkedIn, and all other relevant websites should be bursting at the seams with an outpouring of love from your past clients and referral partners.
How To Fix The Problem
Obviously, if you are a new real estate agent you are probably pretty limited on the number of reviews you will be able to display. However, you can still utilize LinkedIn to reach out to former professional connections and ask them to speak on your skills, talents, and professionalism. Moving forward, be sure to follow my next tip!
If you are past the beginning stages of your real estate career, you should already be actively and aggressively collecting reviews from your clients. I strongly urge you to set up a system of collecting reviews that makes it as easy as possible on the client.
One way to do this is to verbally ask the client what they enjoyed most about working with you during the closing. From there, send them a simple email asking if you have their permission to use their words (have them in quotes in the email) as a testimonial and provide links for them to copy/paste that testimonial on Google, Zillow, and Realtor.
Don’t be afraid to post a happy closing picture with your clients, being sure to tag them and thank them as well and include them in a special album on your Facebook Page to make it easy for a prospect to find.
Sometimes you will do everything right and the leads still won’t call you back.
This is often because the leads suck.
They might not actually be interested in buying or selling, the contact information could be wrong, or maybe they were just tire-kicking. Although this can be frustrating and most real estate agents will look at them as a waste of time I encourage you to adopt a more positive mindset. Even if those people will never become clients, those people are offering you valuable practice to perfect your pitch and practice your tenacity.
How To Fix The Problem
These are not people that you should become concerned about calling you back...at least not right now.
Instead, get them on adrip-campaign that has been properly segmentedso you can continue to keep in touch with them, provide them with value, build their trust in you, and ensure they know to call you when that time finally does come for them.
What few real estate agents understand about marketing is that there are two very different types of marketing that are meant to be used very differently in order to be effective; inbound and outbound marketing.
What we have been talking about today (calling, emailing, texting, etc.) is known as outbound marketing. These methods are ONLY effective when you have already initiated a relationship with the lead.
If you want to attract new leads, however, you are going to need a powerful inbound marketing strategy in place. Examples of effective inbound marketing tools are real estate blogs, podcasts, books, and video series.
Of course, as a real estate agent, you probably already know that starting a real estate blog, podcast, video series, and/or book is no easy feat and is certainly not done overnight. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t still get the highest quality leads!
The way I see it,you have three options at this point:
You can ignore everything I just showed you and continue paying to chase after crappy leads.
You can start spending your limited free time trying to study and learn how to produce all of those inbound marketing tools at an expert level.
You can enlist the help of someone like me who already knows exactly how to create high-conversion inbound real estate marketing tools like those (and more) to do it all for you.
Which option is the most appealing to you?
If you would rather skip over the learning curve and save yourself thousands of hours of learning and extra work on top of your already demanding job,schedule a complimentary strategy call with me.
When you schedule your call with me, we will get to the root of what has been holding you back from attracting your ideal clients on autopilot and I will give you a custom strategy to move forward immediately.
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