Converting a real estate lead into a listing or buyer's appointment can be one of the difficult tasks in the real estate agent's job. This is because it involves personal contact with the prospect. Usually in the form of a follow-up phone call.
Some realtors are good communicators and turning the lead into an appointment is easy for them. But other real estate agents fare poorly in their follow-ups with potential clients. Getting an appointment with your real estate lead is also a matter of not getting discouraged.
It's so easy to give up when you've heard one lead after the other give you reasons for why they're not ready to buy or sell. Or, that they're already talking to another realtor. Your attitude slips and this comes through in your follow-up phone calls. So, what can you do to convert more real estate leads into appointments?
Well, you've probably used real estate marketing tools like the internet, phone hotlines, and lead management software to capture the real estate leads you phoning to follow up with. So, why not use a realtor marketing tool to get the listing or buyer's appointment?
Here's a real estate marketing strategy I got from my neighbor, Mike, when he got his realtor's license went to work for a local real estate agency a few years ago. He told me how discouraged he'd become when he heard all these excuses making follow-up calls. But he said he'd finally figured it out. You have to create a dialog with the lead, even when the lead told him that they weren't interested.
He found that the way to begin a dialog was by asking "open-ended" questions. Questions that couldn't be answered with a simple yes or no. This made the prospect have to continue talking and would often lead into another opportunity to ask another open-ended question.
He had come up with his own real estate marketing tool to aid in this process. Nothing fancy, but it worked. He simply kept track of all the excuses he was hearing. Those like, "I found out that I can't afford to buy a house right now" or "I realized that I'm not ready to buy a home at this time" and "I'm now working with another real estate agent". The fact is, I was surprised how many excuses he'd been hearing.
He took this list and prepared scripts that addressed each one. Each script was warm and friendly with an open-ended question that begs the prospect to answer and begin conversing. For instance, to come back from the "I can't afford to buy now" response, he would answer "I can appreciate that. There are many folks that are in your position. May I ask what brings you to that particular conclusion?"
After hearing why, he would say "Many of my clients have felt the same way. But with my contacts in the mortgage and lending field, I have managed to hook them up with the right lender that understood where they were coming from and arranged loans that met their needs and allowed them to purchase the home of their dreams. If you'd like, we could set up an appointment and discuss the options you have open to you. Maybe it is possible for you to get into that house on Oak Street that you're interested in after all."
Mike had a few scripts for each excuse and a comeback to each answer. He gave these to me and I made a simple program for his computer with hotlinks that would allow him to click on the excuse and up would come the scripts he had prepared. When he was on the phone talking to his lead and heard "I'm not ready yet", he quickly brought up the response and continued the conversation.
Mike also practiced using these scripts. He'd call me and I'd give him an excuse. Then he would use his scripts. We did this until he became quite fluid with his responses and then he was ready to put this system into practice.
How did this work out? Mike's number of lead conversions to appointments almost tripled. This was the answer to his problem and it could be yours too. You could develop your own set of scripts and make them into your own, personal real estate marketing tool.
Converting real estate leads to appointments is mostly attitude on the part of the agent. But a simple set of scripts that you've developed, and that work, can go a long way to increasing the number of clients your real estate business has in its files.
