If I’m Not a Lead, What Am I?

Well. There’s some food for thought. I’ve often said, “I don’t like the word lead”. But that’s because as you point out, it some turned into a four-letter word.

Is “prospect” any better?

I don’t know.

The bottom line is you’re right. They are a lead. A prospect. A potential sumthin-or-other. Whatever one chooses to call it.

As long as one realizes that leads are people too and treat them how they like to be treated, does the word really matter?

So there. I “work leads”. My sites “generate leads”. That doesn’t make me evil or the leads bad.

Nice dive into the AG pool.

Words carry a certain emotional connotation and it ‘s easy to treat a “lead” as statistics rather then a person. The idea of “potential” customer, client implies potential relationship, which is what we are after, right? An analogy would be people looking for romantic matches. they usually look for “potential” boyfriends/girlfriends; not leads:) On the other hand, shop talk is fine and If “leads” is what makes the phone wring,I wouldn’t mind:)

‘Lead’ is certainly better than an ‘Up’, but do not really care for either term. I prefer ‘Prospect’, as in a prospective client. This means they are someone whose trust & future business I hope to earn.

But the worst word I hear is, by far, ‘Deal’. Please people, we don’t ‘do deals’ we facilitate transactions. Sheesh.

I like “prospect”. I tend to refer to mine as “buddy”, though. aka “I got a new buddy.” Because after I make them money, that’s what they’ll be. I treat everyone the same way. There’s no sugar-coating anything. So everyone gets treated like a friend from first contact. There’s no language change, no addressing them any differently, nada. So they’re all buddies of mine.

And Ms. Lisa . . . I totally agree with “deal”. I hate hearing, “Closing another deal.” I always feel like telling them, “Congratulations, asshole. That’s your job.” Like when a wide receiver scores a touchdown and then dances around like an idiot. “Way to do your job, d-bag.” I don’t do deals. I make action happen.

I don’t think I’ve ever used the term ‘lead’ to refer to people who call for info, or who come to my open houses. To me they’re just people who want information – which I have – or to see the open house – which I can show them. They may decide that they want to hire me or they may not. But at least, hopefully, they won’t view me as a “pushy agent”. I think if I viewed those people as ‘leads’, then my behavior toward them would change, because I would be viewing them first and foremost as a dollar sign rather than as a person. But that’s just my own hang-up. I’m sure other agents don’t make that mental distinction.

“You Say Tomato, I say Tomato, let’s call the whole thing off.”

I have subscribed to Elaine’s theory and found that as I “worked” on getting my database in order that I began looking at “people” as “tasks” and “items”. I wasted a lot of money on letters and direct mail that had no “soul” before I realized that it was getting me zero return on investment.

Was it because I called them leads? No. It was because I started looking at them from a different view, that is the four-letter word, treating them as an item/task rather than a person.

I call the first-timers “suspects” and those that get my satirical sense of humor find it quite humorous when I tell them why. They aren’t sure about the house, about me, and I’m not sure about them. We are all suspicious of each other.

Just my strange take.

Confucius say, “Man who wait for Peking Duck to fly into mouth will soon starve.”

Lani, thank you for jumping in, and clarifying I’m talking about the “word”, not the person. I fell asleep mid debate and found this Google Alert in my email now at 6:30 A.M. LOL

When a person calls me they are all treated with respect, regardless of what their needs are at the time. When I talk about “leads”, I am talking mostly about folks that register on my web site, they are a name, an email address, a phone number or whatever information they left behind. ” When I pick up the phone or a team member calls them to follow up, they go from a person (lead) that supplied information to a potential customer, or client.

I am not talking about how people are treated, but the word. That word (lead) had become a bad thing in my mind.

Elaine, I don’t call people “leads” who come to an OPEN HOUSE, or call me. Well, I don’t do OPEN HOUSES anymore but if I did they would be guests or visitors. Perhaps I should have clarified in the post I was talking about web-site visitors. Sorry….

Lisa, I hate the word “deal” too, I use transaction. But, if agents use it, I know what they mean and take no offense.

Jay, thank you, I think you understood, “I work leads, I generate leads, that doesn’t make me evil or bad.”

Dan, hound them endlessly is not my style, calling folks who ask for information to assess their needs and see if you can help then is the point of advertising. In this market, or should I say the Ann Arbor market you have to be proactive and not sit and wait for the phone to ring.

Here is a quick example, resident at U. of M. registers on our web site, I assign the “lead” opps person to my daughter, she picks up the phone and calls, “Hi this is Christa, you were on our web site, can I help you with anything specific?”
Person, “Thank you for calling me, I have had so many Realtors, just emailing me.”
“I need to buy a house or condo”.
Appointment is made, find the condo first time out, and closed 4 weeks later

If she had not called, the poor busy physician would still be looking. She connected with him on the phone, he went from a shopper to a client and now a friend. She becomes friends with 99% of all the clients.

This is fun, nothing like a discussion where people have different opinions.

I’d like to clarify as I think what I wrote was somewhat misconstrued – I was watching the debate on TV while writing – so probably didn’t do a good job. 😉

I really never thought much about the word ‘lead’ until I read this post. When I thought about what I call people, I decided that I don’t really assign a name to them other than ‘people’. But then I work as a single agent, so I’m not having to communicate with other team members. I can understand why a team would want to assign various names as a way to easily communicate with each other what stage the person may be in the database list.

Elaine, I didn’t take offense at all, it is just a word, and not a bad 4 letter one. LOL

Mack, not my intention, but I knew it would be somewhat controversial as it has become a no, no word since the video came out and I found myself trying to be PC.

Missy,

I think you misread my point. It wasn’t about anythng YOU do. After misreading me, and telling me you treat people with respect, you call my point “ridiculous.” I’m not feeling the respect.

You suggest that every drip campaign should have an opt out. I’d – respectfully – suggest that no campaign should ever be initiated without a carefully explained opt-in. Semantics aside, agents who don’t request informed consent to e-mail campaigns are treating people as leads, rather than as people and are profoundly disrespecting them.

To follow up on Joe’s point, to do it right, it should be a closed loop double opt in system. That would involve sending an opt in link via email. This verifies the email address while protecting them from being spammed by others using your sign up.

Marc, I like most folks loved the video, it was point on. I think I’ll try that with my team on Wed, “Ok ya’ll we are now calling our leads, guests”. I’ll flip video it so you can see their reactions, Seriously, my issue as you know is with the word, not the essence of the video. I’ve watched it multiple times. 🙂

It’s all semantics from where I sit – lead, prospective buyer or seller, buddy, dude who called off a sign – all of these represent people who may do business with us if we offer value and treat them right. It seems far less important to worry about to call this group than how we handle the group.

Here’s the other thing … the business side of real estate is a numbers game. That’s why I turned on the registration on my website. If x people sign up and y percent of them buy or sell in a given year, this is going to be my income. Or work it backward – this is the income I want, knowing y percent convert, I need x.

So the question from the back end of things becomes how do I get x number of leads, contacts, whatever.

Avoiding the word lead can be a little disingenuous. Someone in my office is trolling coffee shops and book stores hoping to start conversations that might lead to real estate. These are just ordinary folks and at the end of the day the goal is to turn one or more of them into leads. And then we hope to turn them into clients and then into closed transactions.

Not to dismiss the human side of things as relationships play a role in real estate. But there’s no reason to be ashamed of the pure business aspect of it all.

Tom, I know you were kidding and some folks do call just for a price, I give it to them right away, then probe. However, most are not qualified and if we don’t connect or hit it off on the phone I don’t follow them up either.

Jonathan, you asked “So the question from the back end of things becomes how do I get x number of leads, contacts, whatever.” I know what works for me and I’ll share in another post. I know some won’t like it but it works for me, so I’ll share.

Agent Genius’s

Allow me to share a quick story.

About 14 months ago, while shopping for groceries, I met a shopper wearing a Realtor pin. I was with my wife and we had been in midst of our own conversation about the changing marketplace. Noticing the pin, I excused myself for intruding and asked if she was in fact an agent. She smiled and said yes. I explained my reason for stopping her and asked if she could tell us what was going on out there in the marketplace.

Imagine if she produced a form for us to fill out before responding. Imagine if her response was automated and brief, followed by a serious of free reports that would drip into my mailbox.

Absurd you might say. But that is how most Internet leads are handled. And in your wildest dreams you would never imagine doing that to a person you meet in the real world.

The agent gave us an in depth explanation providing us with a much needed sense of relief. She asked us if we were thinking of selling. We said no. Just worried about falling prices and the value of our home. She understood completely. Handed us her card and told us to call if we had any other questions or needed advice. We parted ways.

Guys, our video was never about a word. It was about a state of mind. And a perception that Internet people are somehow different than someone you meet in the street. That Internet people are not individuals, with different needs and levels of interest. That they are all the same – leads – to be dealt with accordingly and automatically.

Our video was made to spawn this type of discussion and remind real estate folks that at the core, beyond your sales ability and services, you are the only people who we, the consumer, can look up too for advice on what is a frightening, sickening reality in America. Some may want to hire you, some may simply want to engage you for a second, have a question answered and feel like someone in real estate cared.

By a strange turn of events, agents were taught to forgo that experience and forgo their natural instincts to help people online.

This is not semantics. This is about the membrane that was placed around real estate as it entered the Internet world circa 1999 when 5% of your total inquiries came from early web adapters who were, dubious possibilities at best. These were the days of Genstar, Homeseekers and Advanced Access – website companies that architected the entire lead generation paradigm online.

These companies knew nothing about the consumer or the web. They ignorantly manufactured a paradigm that stands as the sickening legacy of what lead generation is today despite the fact that now, 85-90% of real estates customer resides on the web. Yet most lead gen tactics have not changed as a result.

I am not indicting the entire industry or you individually but rather, just this ancient practice that may never has, and might not be a justifiable one.

If you treat guests who enter your online space the very same way you would if they walked off the street and into your office, then you can call them a lead, or whatever you want. Your sensibilities are in tact.

But if your web antics are vastly different from your street practice, if you treat my inquiry about a home value the same way you treat a person’s need to relocate immediately and buy a home, then perhaps our video may persuade you to consider treating each inquiry with a new air of dignity and respond personally. These are amazing opportunities to touch people with the warm hand of real estate – your hand.

I still have that ladies card on fridge door. You could say that in some way, I am a lead. I would not argue. But she treated me as a person. And I can tell you, there is a big difference.

Stay busy!
Marc

Marc, nothing more to add, except I hope you don’t think Realtors would pull out a form in the grocery store, or anywhere else we are engaged with questions about the market. At least I don’t know any that would. Great discussion. 🙂

Teresa, love it.

Sorry, I’ve only glanced at the assortment of comments – Here’s my few points.

1. I know you are all tired of me saying this, but I HATE semantics and that’s what this is. The point is that you either respect your future clients and consumers as a person and treat them as you desire to be treated or….you’re just like the other 80% of agents out there. How we refer to them isn’t as important as how one cares for them. Unfortunately those who get this concept, already get it and don’t need to understand the difference. Those who don’t already get this – most likely won’t by calling an person with an interest in your services, “not-a-lead”.

2. I think we should all stop trying to apply consumer traits in shopping for apples, lawyers and doctors to Real Estate. It’s different. The basic reptilian responses of human nature do have a place, but the situations are different….

3. While T is trying to seduce clients…. I mean captivate them…. the rest of the agents are still trying to figure out how to find them. What you call them, isn’t as important as knowing how find and care for clients in a manner that will reflect well on you and the profession.

(I love T’s “captivate them” – I will be sure to use that in the future)

Marc,

No offense at all. I appreciate your point of view and feel that the “blogging” venue is a great way to allow all sides of a point to share, so long as it’s directed at a better awareness and done respectfully (as is often the case here on AG.)

I agree. I do not hate semantics, in as much, as I do not wish it to never existed. I do find it intellectually exhausting, because while I lecture about Agency issues; I keep finding myself having to find new phrases and words to relay to my students what a “lead” is. I’ve gone to using phrases like “consumer with an interest in your services” however, that’s always what I felt a “lead” is/was and always treated each one as a consumer with a problem they needed help solving. The problem maybe needing to sell or buy a product; but it’s still a problem. Practitioners should be honored and take a servant-leadership role when assisting a client. To be sought out because of one’s knowledge or expertise, is flattering. The issue here is the lack of respect most agents have for their clients not IMHO what we call them.

That being said, I CANNOT instill Ethics nor Respect in a new agent, if they do not already posses this traits. I’ve been teaching “Ethics and Standards of Practice” for several years now. I can teach the learner the rules, but I am simply not skillful enough to make them “ethical.” To put it this way, I cannot correct 40 years of immoral parental influence in 40 minutes of lecture.

I happen to also preach regularly in my church – even in that venue, I have to trust that what I am saying is ordained to change someone; my words alone will not correct a crooked path. I know, I’ve been on the receiving end of many well spoken individuals and I am too much of a skeptic to be lulled by the most influential vernacular.

Therefore, I don’t feel that I can instill respect for a client, simply by changing the name of the individual. Do words have meaning? YES. In agency, you are legally (In Virginia) to treat a “Customer” and “Client” differently. We’ve been teaching this since 1997 when the Buyer Agency law changes, and still only about 10% of agents really “get it.”

I fully respect and understand the sentiment behind not referring to a consumer as a “lead.” However the word itself is not the problem – the actions and mindset of the practitioner is.

Equally Respectful,

~Matthew 🙂

(BTW it was nice meeting you at VAR)

Matthew,

Yes, nice meeting you too.

I agree it’s hard to change people and you can’t teach ethics. I am done worrying about the salty old dogs of real estate who can even spell ethics. But this industry is going to last much longer than we are and I believe that a difference can be made for all the newbies entering along with those advanced enough to dialog on a group blog. Here, is a center for higher learning and I trust the folks here have both ethics and the desire to change. I want to give them that chance,

Here’s how I see it:

The form = the lead
The sender = a person

Imagine if God viewed everyone who prayed to him as a lead rather than a child worthy of his love.

Stick with calling them people and you will be fine.

LOL. Well said. You have my blessing. Amen!

Marc, I appreciate your point of view. I respect it, but calling someone who visits your web site, and asks for a CMA or showing or information a “lead” when their contact information hits the web site is not a 4 letter word and has nothing to do with how they are treated, or respected when a conversation occurs.

Regardless of the word,”lead, prospect, shopper, guest, person” until they move into a relationship as a customer or client it is irrelevant IMHO. It is all in how you treat a person in ascertaining their needs. All they are at that point in time is a person who needs help and hopefully we are there to do that.

We use the word client once they are under contract to purchase or list. Until that time if we are working with them they are a customer. There is no client relationship.

Following up leads is what I do. The hard part is converting them just like the floor calls of past generations. Some of them you do and some you don’t. Regardless you are still respectful of them as a human being in need of information or help.

As I said in the first sentence I loved your video, it was all about caring for people which is what I believe most Realtors do. But, I also said the word is no reflection on that.

As having a background in Social Work I did not find any difference in the treatment of folks in counseling or real estate, which if I read you correctly you do if you call them a “lead”.

I get your points, all well versed, and will strike this up as a dead issue.
Thanks for allowing me to participate.

Marc

I’ll never get this 10 minutes back.

“Nothing “wrong” with any of that. The leads, prospects and clients never know they are called that!”

You sure about that? The 2009 Harris Poll results just came in. Agents rank as the lowest, I mean the very lowest end of consumer trust. Might want to reconsider that way of thinking.

For those interested in the Harris Poll Marc references, here’s some info: https://bit.ly/4ToIX

No fight. I just disagree. I do however believe that all your sales experience most likely makes you a great salesperson and if you are successful, a great customer service person.

But until you get a grip on what a marketer does and the research we do to learn precisely how consumers feel, your public interaction with them will be somewhat skewed. As you stated, “you do not think the RE Agent stigma is coming from this” – marketing would help you know once and for all.

That’s funny. I appreciated that.
A good marketer does attract leaders.
But a great marketer helps build brands that attract customers.

Good conversation man. For sure.

Anyone reading this can send me email for Harris Poll if they want