My Usual Suspects Moment- Real Estate Lead Generation

Hand could no longer hold the Kobayashi coffee mug that smashed into pieces all over the office floor. Eyes paced back and forth piecing together snippets of information that had appeared unrelated just seconds ago. Keyzer Soze.

Confused

At the dusk of my real estate career, I was thoroughly confused at the apparently inverse relationship between effort and results. At first, it was all effort, no results: you sent letters, mailers and postcards and made endless phone calls. Crickets. In a few months, it seemed like deals were falling on your lucky lap even though you had already stopped all that inefficient marketing. A few months later, pipeline fresh on empty, back to square one. Made absolutely no sense to me.

Enlightened

Russell Shaw was speaking to a roomful of Phoenix Realtors – as always, candid and funny. Then came this:

Every commission dollar you make today

can be traced back to something you did to earn it 60 days ago

My mind started doing backflips when I heard that. It explained everything – the lagtime between marketing and checks, the later “luck” as well as the drop off after the slack off. HVCC induced longer close times may have pushed the sixty days closer to ninety, but  the principle holds as true as ever today. Understanding it single handedly transformed our business – it made us clench our teeth and push forward even when it felt like we were wasting our time and taught us to not let today’s celebration ruin tomorrow’s harvest.

Plan

So what’s this to ya and why should you care? How about this: You can devise a plan today to crush it in the next three months and every quarter after that. First, divide your pipeline into three sections: Our CRM calls them Leads (90days), Opportunities (60days) and Customers (30days). When a prospect contacts you via your website (or other marketing efforts) and parts with their contact information, they’re in your lead section. (Quick digression: Please don’t start with me about the negative connotation of the term lead – you know what I mean and I don’t have the time). When you make contact with that prospect and either a representation agreement is signed or you start showing properties, move the prospect to the opportunities section. Once a deal is in escrow, they’re in the customers section. With me still? Good. Your 30, 60 and 90 day pipelines are the food, water and air for your business. In other words, if either one is neglected and becomes scarce, your business’ future prospects aren’t looking too good. If your customers section is vibrant and deals are closing, but your opportunities pipeline is weak, you’re headed for a drought in a few weeks. If your leads pipeline is not being fed, the whole system comes to a screeching halt. And if you can get them to escrow but can’t close them, what’s the point?

Now for the most important step: Watch each of these three sections like a hawk. If your leads pipeline is looking like an open house during Christmas, you need to attack it . Whatever you do to generate leads, you must double your normal efforts. If you are generating leads but you can’t get them to commit, you might want to refine your skills — Think: Why should they work with  you? Finally, if your exclusive clients aren’t buying, it could be that you are not showing them the right properties (or showing too many) etc etc. The point is: Do something about it before the inevitable happens. You aren’t closing deals today because sixty days ago you didn’t take the necessary action to bring those closings about. There are no accidents.