Let’s say you’ve been diligent readers of my first two Agent Genius posts, Adwords I and Adwords II, and you actually implemented the strategies. Right on!
What’s going to happen next is you will start pulling in registrations (leads) on your website IDX at the rate of 100-200 per month. In a year, you will have 1200-2400 leads! How you handle these leads will determine if it’s all been worth it.
LET’S TALK LEAD MANAGEMENT
Consider these guidelines regarding internet leads:
- Homebuyers searching real estate web sites are typically 6-9 months away from maybe being serious. You’ve got to stick with them.
- Internet leads convert at roughly the same rate as print leads: 1-3% ….but it’s not so clean…
- The lead may no longer be yours by the time it converts. Especially if you drop the ball somewhere.
- A homebuyer lead is never expired unless it opts out or the email bounces..or you lose it.
What does all this mean? It means that you are going to need to store these leads and manage varying levels of contact with every one of them for as long as you are in the business.
ENTER THE GOOD CONTACT MANAGER – AND A SYSTEM
I use a CRM system called ACT! for lead management and here’s the system I came up with:
- The Lead comes in as an email from my site IDX and Outlook routes it into my RE LEADS Folder
- I enter it into ACT, give it a status of “LEAD” and immediately send a short intro email.
- I then set an alarm for two Saturdays forward to send a “T2” email, or second touch.
- After sending the T2, I then change the status to “OLD LEAD.”
- Once every 3-6 months, I send an email to all the “OLD LEADs” and delete any bouncers.
So, in plain English here’s what happens: The same day the lead arrives, I send an email, or call. Eight to fourteen days later, I send another email. If I don’t hear back from either, I change the status to “OLD LEAD” and I contact this entire old lead group approximately three times a year. Unless they tell me to go away, or their email bounces, they stay in this system indefinitely.
Now hopefully they email or call back at some point, and some of them do! When they do, I change their status to “PROSPECT” and put in notes of our conversations and set appropriate follow-up calls with them in ACT.
Sometimes a new lead initially emails or calls right in with a question or showing request or whatever and they become “PROSPECTs” right from the get go.
The LEAD Management never ends…
After a prospect purchases a home, I change their status to “CUSTOMER” and track them accordingly. I schedule calls about four times per year to just say hello. I can also quickly look up all customers and send them all seasonal things, like Christmas cards, etc.
Work your database to keep busy…
Any time I’m bored, I can look up all customers, or leads, or prospects and initiate contact with someone. Also, after a year or so, you will have daily activities scattered all over your ACT calendar as a result of you setting alarms all year. This makes you very organized and no opportunity ever gets dropped or missed.
Currently, I have about 2500 contacts in my database and this creates some activity nearly every day, seven days a week. When my database is say 10,000, then this becomes a very serious business. At that point, I’ll have to buy a Georgia Realty Group Balloon!
All this sound simple? Who else is actually doing anything like this?
Anyone else have any interesting lead management ideas or tips?
Let’s hear it!
