Just how full of leads and prospects does your CRM have to get before you finally decide to concentrate on conversion?
Hey, if you got into real estate to become a full-time lead generator, that’s cool. Not much money in it, but have at it.
If, on the other hand, your sales funnel isn’t converting, but you want to learn how to convert a real estate prospect into a client, read on.
How to convert a real estate prospect into a client – Snake oil doesn’t work
There are far too many agents who think that the snake-oil peddling coach, book or podcast will lead them to prospect conversion heaven. Sure, there are a lot of great coaches, how-to books and podcasts out there.
But, there’s no super-secret script or dialog. A magic bullet to close prospects just doesn’t exist.
Perhaps this is because real estate sales is a long game. The truth is, there is no one thing that leads to conversion; it takes a combination of personal qualities, habits, knowledge and more.
How confident are you in your knowledge?
“Customers are more likely to trust sales people who show confidence in themselves and what they are selling,” according to the experts with Business Queensland.
Knowing your business, inside and out, and knowing your “product” also helps you sell the benefits:
- Of working with you
- Of buying this home
- Of selling a home, right now
The southern California agent I once interviewed who took the time to visit every new listing, whether he had a buyer or not, exemplifies getting to know the product.
The new agent who tagged along with a mentor for a solid year ended up with more real estate knowledge than many seasoned agents. That is what knowing your business is all about.
The listing agent who was presented with a problem that might bear on a home’s market value, and came up with a solution in seconds, showed an impressive amount of confidence and knowledge.
By the way, this listing agent so impressed that homeowner that she referred him to her mother.
An older woman with health problems (COVID-19’s favorite victim), she had valid concerns about showing her home. In addition, she fosters homeless pets and had five dogs and two cats.
She had decided that the best option was to sell her home to an investor. While interviewing investors, her daughter convinced her to speak with her agent as well.
The options he offered her were unique and specific to her situation. She used him to list her home and walked away with far more money than any investor offered.
Think about challenges that you and other agents have encountered and their possible solutions. Think creatively.
Get out in the market and view listings in your typical target clients’ price range. When someone asks about the home at 123 Main St. you can offer details, confidently.
Believe me, this is impressive.
When you can answer every question a prospect throws at you, when you can offer solutions to their problems, you’re one step closer to understanding how to convert a real estate prospect into a client.
How to convert a real estate prospect into a client – Trust is a biggie
As you can imagine, confidence is a trust-builder. However, the opportunity to show off this confidence to a prospect may not appear. So, how else can you build trust?
Testimonials.
There is just no substitute for a glowing review of your services, especially if it highlights your knowledge of all things real estate.
Think again about possible challenges that may need to be changed when deciding how to convert a real estate prospect into a client:
- The need to sell a home before buying
- Closing date challenges
- Showing challenges
- Equity challenges
- Problems with the home, neighborhood, etc.
Testimonials that address common challenges and how you dealt with them are like gold.
Those that attest to your trustworthiness are equally as valuable.
Use them on your website, in your email signature, on your business card and every direct mail piece you send to your prospects.
“A potential client [or lead, in this case] must trust you in order to be fully-qualified” as a prospect, according to Jeb Brooks of the Brooks Group, a corporate sales training and sales management training company.
Learn more about how to get glowing testimonials for your website here.
Time is not on your side
NAR studies show that most real estate consumers sign up with the first agent that calls them back. I know, it’s pretty sad.
But it is a lesson for agents who are studying how to convert a real estate prospect into a client: be the first guy or gal to return calls.
“The average first call response time of all companies that responded by phone was 40 hours and 56 minutes,”
according to a Xant Research Lead Response Report
Nearly 41 hours doesn’t seem hard to beat, right?
How about five minutes? Studies show that’s the sweet spot. Respond within five minutes if you want to begin to convert that real estate prospect.
“Measure your response times in seconds and minutes, not hours and days,” cautions Dan Sincavage, co-founder of Tenfold.
“Don’t even consider scheduling first touches beyond a couple of hours,” he adds.
That lightning-fast first touch and an ongoing contact campaign will help convert prospects the rest of the way: into full-fledged clients.
Your competition will most likely send a text or email to thank the prospect or lead for their call.
Not you. You’ll be delivering or sending a follow-up package to begin immediately building trust. Items to include when considering how to convert a real estate prospect into a client through followup:
- Cover letter thanking the prospect for calling.
- Your resume, or a brief outline of your experience, production statistics and awards.
- An abbreviated CMA for listing prospects.
- An invitation to join you on social media.
- Your website’s URL, your contact information and lots of testimonials.
Then, put the prospect on your hot list and nurture, nurture, nurture. The best part is this can all be automated!
For more tips on how to perfect your follow-up, check out this handy guide.
Speaking of nurturing
When it comes to figuring out how to convert a real estate prospect into a client, understanding your CRM inside and out is key.
If your CRM is a mess, it’s time to fix it. The most important fix, right now, is labeling your prospects.
Forget leads for right now and concentrate solely on your prospects. After all, “a prospect is the possibility that something fabulous will happen,” according to vocabulary.com.
Segment them according to their likelihood to transact in the near future. Use “warm,” “warmer” and “hot” if that works for you. As long as it lets you know which prospects are lower in the funnel, any label is ok.
In the market for a new CRM? Read our recent reviews here.
Once you’ve decided to focus on warm-to-hot prospects and segmented your database, it’s time to develop a winning touch campaign that will do the heavy conversion lifting.
Haven’t a clue where to come up with such a workhorse and how to get it started? Take a cue from Keller Williams’ “33 Touch Campaign For Real Estate Agents.” It’s their recommended tactic to “… stay in touch with your database over the course of one year,” according to Michael at revrealestateschool.com.
Based on techniques outlined by Gary Keller in his book “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent,” you’ll find an outline of the process by following the aforementioned Rev Real Estate School link.
Or, create your own campaign by combining a number of different methods. Direct mail is particularly effective right now, so rotate direct mail newsletters, market reports and a quarterly CMA with email and telephone calls.
Here are some tips on how to nurture leads with a tested email campaign.
Have faith in your efforts
When you plant a seed, does it immediately spring from the soil, in full bloom? Of course not.
By the same token, do we dig up seeds to ensure that they’re germinating? Nope. For some reason we have faith that the seed will sprout.
We also have faith that if we nurture the seedling, it will grow and we’ll realize a return for all the time we spent on it.
Yet, when it comes to how to convert a real estate prospect into a client, so many agents tend to give up after a short nurturing period; the results weren’t immediate.
“The average incubation period of an internet lead is 6 to 24 months,” according to coach Kevin Ward. Understand that he has the definition of lead and prospect reversed so what he is actually referring to in this sentence is “prospect.”
Knowing this timeline should give you the patience to hang on, with faith, that many of them will convert to clients.
Don’t go big on lousy prospects when learning how to convert a real estate prospect into a client
It’s easy to stuff everyone you meet who can fog a mirror into your lead database. But, is it a good idea?
Lousy leads make lousy prospects and they’re huge time wasters. When it comes to converting prospects to clients, “… your success is determined by [the quality of] your leads,” according to Chinese-Canadian business magnate Dan Lok.
Often, the quality of a lead is determined by how it was generated. Thus, the difference in quality between a warm and a cold lead.
Which is why we suggested that, for now at least, ignore those cold leads and prospects in your CRM and concentrate on the warm to hot ones.
“Converting prospects into customers doesn’t happen by accident,” according to Lok.
It takes more than canned scripts, dialogs or templates when you’re trying to figure out how to convert a real estate prospect into a client. It takes a strategy. It takes confidence, persistence and faith .