How To Get A Lead From A Realtor.Com

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1 TIPS FOR CLOSING LEADS

2 TIPS FOR STEP 1 Respond promptly To establish a client connection and begin building a relationship, it s critical to respond to incoming leads within five minutes. When prospective buyers attend an open house or visit your office they generally receive help within a minute or two of arriving. They are not asked to sit in the lobby for an hour or more. Leads coming in via phone calls, s and form leads should be given the same level of attention and service. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Why? The lead inquiry comes in when you are working with another customer You re busy with other things and wait for a quiet moment to return the call You re with friends and family and they need your attention You re unable to distinguish the incoming or call as a real customer lead There are legitimate reasons why leads go unanswered in real time. However, the expectation for a customer searching for homes online is access to immediate information. Most web experiences result in instant gratification, especially when seeking information. When customers make an inquiry through realtor.com ConnectionSM for Co-Brokerage, they have their web browser or mobile application open, looking at a house they re interested in. Chances are they will quickly move on to view another property if they don t receive a prompt response from you. This increases the likelihood that someone else may answer his or her questions, costing you a potential client. According to the National Association of REALTORS, 43% of homes purchased in the U.S. are found by the buyers themselves when searching online.1 If they reach out to you, it s critical to respond before they reach out to another agent. Why should you respond immediately? The property is fresh in the customer s mind. The customer may be on their smart device at the time of inquiry. This gives them the best chance of receiving your response. Realtor.com leads come with a phone number. If you are viewing the lead on your smartphone that phone number is clickable on your lead notification. This is enabled so you can initiate a call the moment you receive the lead.2 Customers view multiple listings and may fill out other inquiry forms. 1 National Association of REALTORS Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 2014 Move, Inc. will verify phone numbers and addresses by submitting them to a third-party service for the purpose of confirming that the phone number or address does in fact exist. However, we are unable to determine whether the phone number or address actually belongs to a person with the name provided by prospect 2.

3 TIPS FOR Prepare to respond: Set-up your customer leads to route to a specific phone number or address, so they stand out for immediate follow-up. Have pre-written texts and s available on your mobile device, to immediately let prospective clients know that you ve received their inquiry and will be with them as soon as possible. Use a natural, conversational style rather than a canned response such as, your call is very important to me. Set expectations with your clients, so they are aware that you may need to take incoming calls or messages while helping them. Ask permission to take a moment to respond, and let them know you would afford them the same courtesy. I see someone is trying to contact me. Would it be okay with you if I take a minute to let them know I can t talk right now and that I will follow up with them later? The realtor.com lead comes with a phone number. Call them. If not, them back right away. Once you make contact with the lead, set up a time to talk. Our Top Producer solution has mobile tools which let you schedule appointments instantly from your smartphone. Wait to share important information about the listing (positive or negative) until you re able to speak with the prospective client at length or, ideally, to meet with them in person. Why? If you reveal too much information up front, prospective buyers have no reason to respond to you. Even if a property is pending, it is important not to focus all of your attention on one house that may not work out. Keep in mind that the primary reason the buyer contacted you is for help in finding a home. Establishing a relationship first positions you to sell them other, more suitable homes you may come across. Providing information before the prospective buyer has a chance to get to know you decreases that possibility. If there is negative news about the property, find out the specifics about what the customer liked about that property, and discuss similar properties before giving them the bad news.

4 TIPS FOR STEP 2 Keep the relationship alive Start by encouraging the prospective client to discuss what they like about properties they ve seen so far. This will help break the ice, discover their interests and needs, and find comparable properties. The key is to get them talking so they feel comfortable working with you. Realtor.com may provide additional information on the consumer (when available). This can help guide the conversation. We recommend you don t quote directly from their social profile information as that may be perceived as too intrusive. After reaching the prospective buyer by phone, arrange a face-to-face meeting as soon as possible. If you are unable to get them to attend a showing, suggest meeting for a cup of coffee where you can review property details together on your laptop or tablet. Meeting face-to-face helps to solidify the relationship. When a buyer is out of town or unable to meet face-to-face for other reasons, you can still effectively connect with them in a number of ways. We recommend follow-up calls, , text, social media channels and Skype. Staying in touch with the client builds the relationship. The bottom line is that you want buyers to contact you about any additional properties they may find online. Your prospective buyer should clearly understand that you want them to contact you when they have questions about online listings. This happens when you build a strong connection. Take positive actions: Whenever a lead contacts you, be sure to respond in a helpful way. Never ignore contact from a prospective client. Remember, best results are achieved when you reply to leads immediately. If the lead fails to reply to your original within 48 hours, try one of the approaches detailed below: the prospective buyer with details of three or four comparable properties that are currently active. This demonstrates your knowledge of the market. If you don t receive a response, create a two or three lined professional bio and it to them. This shows the buyer your expertise and inspires confidence that you are the right REALTOR to help them. the prospective buyer a link to all MLS listings (affording the buyer the chance to see what the market has to offer). Set-up automatic listing alerts for properties in the same market and the same price range to send to the buyer. Automatically maintain close contact by using the professional tools available to you.

5 TIPS FOR Send the prospective buyer an informative along the lines of, As a professional real estate agent, I have access to cutting-edge data that isn t always available on the local MLS. If you provide me with your phone number, I will be able to share data giving you an advantage over other buyers in our area. I will also be able to reach out to you with real-time data. Please call me at or me your phone number. The examples shown above can be sent out by you one at a time, or you can configure Top Producer CRM to do this for you automatically. Hello. This is. That s a great property you inquired about on realtor.com. Please send me your phone number or call me at to discuss it. When would be a good time for you to see the property? Best regards,. STEP 3 Keep the relationship alive Continue trying to contact the prospective buyer. Research shows 95% of internet leads convert between the 2nd and 12th contact attempt.3 It is well worth your time to keep up the communication. Most people have busy lives and procrastination can lead to months of inactivity. If you take the initiative with regular follow-up, buyers will often warm up and respond well. Ideally, use contact relationship management software with automatic drip marketing to keep in contact with your leads. Make yourself memorable: Send prospective buyers a variety of information to retain interest. Set customers up for new listing alerts. New listings matching their search criteria route to them from your MLS as soon as it hits the market. In a separate , send market trends or a buyer s guide. In further s offer additional opportunities to receive valuable information free-of-charge. Put buyers on a monthly newsletter (the realtor.com Housing Trends enewsletter is free) or similar drip marketing, so that longer-term buyers or sellers will contact you once they are ready to transact. Always be quick, follow-up, be persistent and vary the content you provide. Consider investing in technology to convert consumer leads automatically you will save time and close more business. Source: How Much Time Do You Have Before Web-Generated Leads Go Cold? Lead Response Management Research Summary, Marketing Sherpa s Business-to-Business Demand Generation,

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