What's a real estate sales funnel, and how does it get me leads?

Whoever came up with the “funnel” analogy when referring to the journey a sales lead unknowingly embarks on got it all wrong.

A funnel’s sole purpose is to deliver something into a small opening. There is but one hole in a funnel. Anything you pour into it is forced out of that opening – there is simply no other way out.

If only real estate deals were so easy, right?

A “path” would be a more apt analogy, in our opinion. On a path, there may be many exits and, as you’ll learn as you progress in the business, leads are notorious for taking them.

But, since we have no say in the matter, we’ll stick with referring to it as a real estate sales funnel. Like this:

Those little blue people up at the top of the real estate sales funnel are leads. You can generate leads or you can buy leads and many agents do both.

A real estate lead is anyone who gives you their name and contact information. For instance, Joe Smith wants that First Time Buyer’s Guide e-book you’re offering on your website. To get it, he has to give you his contact information. So, instantly transforming himself into Brad Pitt, he fills out the form and downloads the book.

You’ll be amazed at how many Brad Pitts there are in the world but even fake names qualify as leads as long as the contact information they provide is valid. Even if it’s just an email address.

Leads will follow the little red arrows in our diagram, above. Not willingly, of course. You’ll need to push them off the edge and into the funnel.

Because most of your leads aren’t ready to buy or sell right now, and if you consistently go about generating real estate leads, the chances are good that it’s pretty crowded there in the top part of the real estate sales funnel.

Your job is first, to be patient. A lot of these people will buy or sell real estate at some point in the future. Your second job is to guide them through the funnel until they do – to remind them often that you’re the only agent they should consider when the time comes.

Soon, some of these leads will engage with you. When they do, the lead fairy transforms them into prospects and they scoot down into the middle section of the funnel.

Now your sole job is to convert these prospects into clients and you do that by “nurturing” your prospects – by staying in touch with them, consistently, until they’re ready to act. Just like you did when they were mere leads, right?

There are lots of ways to nurture prospects. In fact, since this is “sales funnel” month at EAP, keep checking back because we plan on sharing many of them.

What about bad leads?

You’ll hear a lot of talk from other agents about “bad” leads or leads that “suck.” The reality is that any lead that makes it from the edge of the real estate sales funnel to any of its three sections is a “good” lead. They may not be ready to act on your schedule, but that doesn’t mean they won’t, eventually.

If few do, it’s not the leads that are bad, but the agent’s nurturing system.

“3.5 years. That’s my personal record for time between a contact first registering on my site to them raising their hand saying, “We’re ready to buy” (and sell).” Jay Thompson at Inman.com.

And if that doesn’t prove to you the power of consistent follow-up, consider this:

Michael Boyette, guest blogging at Marketo.com, claims that

55 to 60 percent of your leads will eventually close

That’s huge, right? The caveat is that they will close with someone. Whether or not that someone is you depends on how consistently you keep in touch with them.

If you assume that they’re a “bad” lead because they aren’t ready to act right now, they’ll end up closing with someone else.

As a new agent, you don’t have any bad real estate habits to break. So vow to do create two good habits right now:

Understand that there are no bad leads.
Vow to treat every person in every part of your real estate funnel as the gold mine they represent.
Followup with these leads, consistently, no matter where they are in the funnel.

Following up with them, as well as with those in your sphere of influence and former clients, and you may eventually be free of the drudgery of generating new leads.