ReboGateway is all about information which you can turn into leads, “life events” which make a home owner more likely to sell. But the focus of this week’s Real Life Real Estate is not on getting the leads, it’s on following up on those leads once you have them.
No matter how you find the prospective buyers and sellers you hope to work with, it’s vitally important to have a follow-up system in place. As coach Dan Smith emphasizes in this video, it’s not enough to just text these people when the whim strikes you, or to automatically send out email newsletters to your whole mailing list every month. In order to convert a lead into a client, you have to have to make sure to be one of their choices when they decide, which means you need to be in front of them.
As Dan says in this video, “There is no such thing as being too good at follow-up.” Even if you think you’re already pretty good, you can get better. Take a few minutes to watch this video, and use it as a jumping-off point to improve your follow-up policies and plans. Part of being at the “right place at the right time” to get business is to actually be in those places, and with a bit of planning and a focused mindset, you can make that happen.
What I want to talk about this week is lead follow-up. I have a lot of agents that I work with who are constantly asking me, or having me remind them, “What should I be doing with lead follow-up? What should it look like? What kind of system should I have in place? How often should I do it? How should I do it?” All of that good stuff.
And this is a pretty big topic, guys and gals, so we’re not going to really be able to cover it here in this couple minute video. But we can get out some really important things in this video to at least get you going in the right direction. If you have any questions on top of what we go over, feel free to reach out to me, dan@versatilityinsales.com, that is my email. I’ll get those answered for you. But here’s a really great overview, and things that you can put into practice starting right now if you want to, as soon as you’re done watching this video, start doing it. Ok?
Number one. You have to adopt this mindset. There is no such thing as too much lead follow-up. A lot of agents that I work with, a lot of you probably, you should be nodding your head right now, thinking to yourself , “yeah, he’s about to talk about me,” a lot of you probably think “I don’t want to follow up with them too much. I don’t want to bug them. I don’t want to annoy them. I don’t want them thinking that I follow up, you know, too much with them, and then they don’t want to work with me.” I don’t want you to… you have to lose that mindset. You have to adopt this mindset: there is no such thing as too much follow-up. Check this out.
Have you ever lost a lead because you followed up really good? Probably not?
Have you ever lost a lead because you didn’t follow up enough and then when you did follow up, they’d already done something with something else? Probably so.
You don’t lose business because you are an awesome follow-uppererererer. (is that a word?) Right? That’s not why you lose business. You lose business because you don’t do it enough. Change your mindset. There is no such thing as too much follow-up.
So I’m going to give you some ideas for how often you should be following up with people, ok?
If they’re a hot lead – now, we all have our own definition of what a hot lead is, but most of you, most of us agents, are going to say a hot lead is someone who is going to list or buy in the next 30 days. Some of you it’ll be shorter, some of you it’ll be longer, but 30 days seems to, tends to be a general answer. So if they’re going to list their home or buy a property in the next 30 days, they’re on the verge of doing it, you should be following up with them a minimum, min-i-mum, that means ‘as little as’, right, you can do more. Minimum of 2 times a week. Now some of you might say “two times a week?!? For a whole month?!?!? Oh my gosh! That’s EIGHT times!” Yes. These people are on the verge of doing something. You need to be in front of them more than anyone else. Minimum of two times a week.
Now maybe they’re not going to do anything for 60-90 days, maybe it’s like a B lead, not a hot lead but just a B kind of lead, A B C, right? Those guys and gals you should be following up with a minimum of every other week. Once every two weeks. Ok? Pretty easy stuff. Once every two weeks, I think you guys and gals can make that kind of a phone call, all right? I know you can.
Then there’s the C leads, if we’re going A B C, or hot, warm, sorta cold. There’s a C lead, and those are everybody who’s going to do things probably 90 days or further out. Hundred and eighty days, six months, nine months, five months, right? And those guys and gals you probably want to be following up with every two months. We don’t want a whole quarter to go by with them. We don’t want a whole three months to go by. But they’re not really doing anything now. Maybe 40-45 days, but, eh… right? Thirty days may be a little bit too soon. So that’s your range. 45 days to every other month and you’re following up with them. Making sure that they’re not doing anything without you.
Now a lot of you have As and Bs and Cs. I get it. But you follow up with them however you feel comfortable following up with them, you don’t have any rules for how you’re going to treat As, Bs, and Cs, and they do not all get treated in any sort of systemized way. You need to change that. There is no such thing as being too good at follow-up. It does not lose you deals. That’s what you’re changing with your mindset.
So how are you going to follow up with them? That’s the last thing I want to talk about real quick. Let me tell you what does not get included in follow-up. A text. Or an email. Or a postcard. Or a letter. Follow-up is verbal. You are speaking with them. Either in person or on the phone. If you were relying on email, text messages, or anything else that’s non-verbal to follow up with people, you’re going to find out it does not bring good results. It brings very sub-standard results. So I have a suggestion for you. You ready to write this down? Stop doing sub-standard activities! Actually get on the phone and talk to them! Go to their door and talk to them. Have live conversations with them. That is what we call follow-up, guys and gals, ok. That is a very good way to spend your time, not a sub-standard way to spend your time. So now you have a little bit better idea of how often to do it, you have a little bit better idea of how to do it. Take those ideas and run with them! Start doing them today. Like I said, you can stop watching this video here in about 30 seconds, you can pick up your phone, you can get in your car, and you can start actually doing this follow up plan. Make it happen.
For more great coaching ideas, videos, make sure you keep coming back here to ReboReports.com. You can also go to my website, Versatilityinsales.com. Ok? Thanks for tuning in this week, and until next week, remember this, remember this: To get what you’ve never had, you must do what you’ve never done. Make it a great one.
