How to progress the customer

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Prospecting is all about lead generation. You generate leads through activities like meeting people at open for inspections and sending market reports to homes in your market area. Most agents are clear on this and are successful in gathering plenty of leads, but often they fail to think about specific next steps to move the sales process forward.

The process between lead generation and lead conversion is called lead nurturing. This is how you prepare your client to enter the marketplace. Whilst we tend to focus on “how” the client would prefer to go to market and “when” they might wish to do so, the most important element is the “why”–the client’s reason for entering the marketplace–because it occurs on an emotional level and therefore drives the client to decide and act. Once you know why your client might wish to sell their property then you can create a sense of need and urgency for them to move forward.

There are two ways to approach lead generation:

• Geography
• Relationships

The geographical approach involves contacting people living near a property that sells to provide them with a market appraisal for their home. The point is to add more people to your database and send them your market reports. That’s fine, but what is the ultimate goal?

The fundamental goal of lead generation is to get face to face appointments with prospects. This is where you gauge whether a client is hesitant to list, is interested in learning more, or is ready to jump into the market and sell. From there you will help the client decide on a satisfactory price. Many agents stop here, but you want to follow up with the client to see how they are feeling about everything you have discussed. If you don’t do the follow-ups you won’t move those market appraisals into active listings.

Generating leads through developing relationships starts from the moment you meet a new prospect at an open for inspection or other event, and continues with a series of follow-ups. These are prospects who are already searching online real estate portals, coming through open homes, and possibly making appointments and meeting with agents.

Having a follow-up procedure in place and operating lets you begin pursuing new prospects as soon as you make first contact with them. A basic follow-up procedure can include an open for inspection callback, a second round callback, a 10-day callback and ultimately the just sold call. This approach is very effective in not only converting prospects into buyers, but it also establishes your relationship with that client as their trusted advisor for future real estate activity.

One mistake a lot of agents make is to try to push a client into buying the first home they show even when the client is obviously not interested in that home. You need to listen to your clients and pay attention to their needs and preferences so that you can find them more suitable properties rather than pushing them to buy the one home they have seen. This level of customer service and attentiveness is most likely to make your clients lifetime customers.

Always remember that today’s buyer is tomorrow’s seller. Stop thinking in terms of prospecting for business right now, and start prospecting for business in the future. This way of thinking will assure you a long and successful real estate career.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next week.