Amazon Prime. Walmart. Google Express.
What do these behemoths have in common with real estate? Instant gratification.
We live in a world where 2-day delivery is two days too long. It’s same-day or bust. The same goes for real estate, except the window of time to deliver your services is even smaller. If one of your agents doesn’t respond to a lead in two to three minutes, it gets passed to the next agent, and the next one, and…well, you get the idea. Next thing you know, the lead goes cold and poof — it’s gone.
How can you improve your lead conversion problem? Two words: healthy competition.
Sure, too much can be as destructive as The Hulk, but just the right amount leads to better results — both in the service you provide and the revenue you make. Here are three ways you can start to cultivate healthier competition among your team:
Speed up your speed to lead
Traditionally, speed to lead has been about how fast one agent can convert one lead. But what if all eyes were on all leads? Way more efficient. Way more client focused. Way more business potential.
Create one place where every valuable lead from all your sources can live — Zillow, Realtor.com and others — and notify all agents at the same time. That means every lead is first come, first serve. So not only do your agents have more opportunities to go after more leads, it ensures you don’t lose another piece of business. Let the (friendly) games begin!
Centralize unassigned leads
We won’t beat around the bush: it sucks when a lead goes cold. All that time and effort, lost. Or is it?
Instead of locking all of those leads in a cold dark place and throwing away the key, centralize unassigned leads in one place. That way, when your agents are having a slower day (hah, good one), they can check the list and try to revive a cold lead. Nurturing inactive leads may seem like a chore, but by keeping all eyes on all leads, you minimize losing a potential sale.
Improve accountability
In real estate, accountability starts with making sure your focus is on the service, not the sale. Maybe you always pictured owning your own real estate company. Maybe you didn’t expect your business to grow so fast. However you ended up with your superstar team, you took the time to hire the right people. You know they can do the job, so you don’t want to micromanage them (who has the time for that anyway?). But it’s important to be attuned to how they’re nurturing their leads, so you know if and when they need some coaching.
Some signs to look for? Maybe your agents are pulling leads quickly but aren’t following up frequently. Perhaps they’re gobbling up leads but waiting three days to make a call. Whatever the behavior, workshop a follow-up plan to help boost your agents’ lead conversion percentages. You could also dig into your CRM and listen to your agents’ client interactions to learn if their scripts could use a little fine-tuning.
If you’re like us, you’re always looking for ways to be more efficient, agile and generally more in control of your business. It’s time to finally take the the pain and complexity out of lead conversion by introducing a little healthy competition to your business. Your agents and pockets will thank you.
Never lose another lead. Discover Lead Ponds, a new lead conversion tool from Firepoint, the company delivering real estate solutions that are built by agents, for agents.