Today, real estate agents generate leads in multiple ways: portals, social media, referrals, etc. But what happens after the leads are generated, and how do you get them to convert?
Through lead follow-ups and leads nurturing!
In this workshop from Bayut Academy, we take an in-depth look at understanding both follow-ups and nurturing. , with some proven strategies to effectively move a lead along the sales cycle and improve conversion rates.
In real estate, leads are your revenue and business generators. Without leads, you have no transactions, no commissions, and no revenue.
But just generating and qualifying leads is not enough. Conversion is the name of the game and there are multiple steps and touchpoints to get a client from a lead to a completed transaction.
When you receive an inquiry, it simply means that a lead has shown interest in buying or selling property. A prospect mentioning arranging funds or wanting to wait things out is just a sign of them planning for the future.
This is your cue to not just focus on conversion, but to ensure that you also support and educate your clients. The idea is to stay on top of mind so when they decide to move forward, you are the only person they contact.
Before responding to your leads, it is essential to understand which factors you can and cannot control. A real estate agent should focus on the controllable factors, such as their own response times, communicating pleasantly and personalising all interactions.
While agents cannot control things such as a lead’s intention or timelines, all leads can, in turn, be sources for referrals – which is why professionalism is always crucial.
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Factors We Cannot Control
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Factors We Can Control
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|---|---|
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Factors We Cannot Control
The lead’s intention
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Factors We Can Control
Our response time
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Factors We Cannot Control
The lead’s behaviour
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Factors We Can Control
Our communication
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Factors We Cannot Control
The lead’s timeline
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Factors We Can Control
Our first interaction
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Factors We Cannot Control
The lead’s finances
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Factors We Can Control
Our subsequent interactions
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Lead Response Time
Lead response time comes down to one factor, speed.
Being first is free!
Being responsive is great, but ‘impact speed’, or the time you take to respond can be directly proportional to your revenue and success in real estate. If you aren’t responding quickly, chances are someone else is.
The Golden Window
The first five minutes from the time an enquiry is made is the golden window.
This ‘window’ is the best time to contact and establish rapport. When you respond within five minutes, it is guaranteed that the enquiry is fresh in the lead’s mind, and the client is fully mentally prepared to talk about property.
Taking advantage of the golden window can lead to a significant competitive advantage.
Why does speed matter?
- Presence: Delayed responses can result in the lead forgetting about their initial enquiry. Responding quickly guarantees that your lead actively recalls their search and can best respond to your questions
- Engagement: Responding swiftly, while your lead is thinking about their needs is the best time to engage with them.
- Rapport: A fast response time builds confidence and allows you to start building rapport. This is key for your future relationship with the lead; clients want to work with agents they trust, and establishing a connection at an early stage can help you build this trust
- First Interaction Advantage: Being the first agent to contact, connect and understand the client’s needs gives you the highest probability of retaining them. Use this opportunity to make an excellent first impression and demonstrate your capabilities.
Lead Follow-Up
Due to the price point of real estate, most clients will require multiple interactions before you can close the deal. Many deals are lost due to the agent’s lack of strategy to follow up with leads.
Follow Up Through Lead Segmentation
Lead segmentation is the process of categorising your leads based on their intent, need, timeline, budget and readiness.
This technique can be used to plan your follow up activities after segmenting your enquiries into hot, warm and cold leads. Let’s take a look at the differences in the chart below.
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Hot Leads
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Warm Leads
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Cold Leads
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Hot Leads
Clear intent
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Warm Leads
Semi-clear intent
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Cold Leads
Unclear intent
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Hot Leads
Specific need
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Warm Leads
A vague idea of need
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Cold Leads
Unidentified need
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Hot Leads
Clear timelines
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Warm Leads
Short to medium timeline
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Cold Leads
Medium to long-term timeline
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Hot Leads
Clear budget
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Warm Leads
Average budget
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Cold Leads
Large budget range
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Hot Leads
Ready to meet
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Warm Leads
May be ready to meet
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Cold Leads
Not willing to meet immediately
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How do you segment your real estate leads?
Lead segmentation starts with asking the right questions.
Below, we’ve outlined six questions, which we recommend asking, to help segment your leads.
Hot leads are more likely to respond with clear, detailed answers. If your lead seems unsure or tries to dodge the question, they may be a cold lead.
- Intent: What’s brought you to the decision to buy/sell property?
- Timeline: Do you have a timeline in mind?
- Knowledge: Are you aware of the current market price trends?
- Location: How well do you know this community?
- Preferences: What specific requirements are you looking for?
- Meeting: When are you free this week to meet?
Best Practices For Lead Follow-Up
Before Following Up On Leads: Identify the lead’s needs clearly and create a schedule for how often you should follow up to remain consistent and stay fresh in the lead’s mind. If the lead is hot, you should respond within 24 hours; with cold leads, you can take 3 to 4 months.
Schedule Follow-Up: Ensure you respond on time. . If a client has specifically asked you to avoid calling on weekends, do not call on weekends. If the client has specified they are only free between 2 pm to 3 pm, make sure you call only within this time range.
This is also the stage where you should customise your communication to suit the lead’s preferences in order to start building a strong relationship to help reach the conversion.
For example, if you are working with investors, use up-to-date market data and highlight price trends with last-sold transaction data (available on Profolio™) and Dubai Transactions. If you’re working with families, include facilities near the property such as a dog park, playground, or schools in the area.
After Following Up: Use a CRM or an excel spreadsheet to track your leads and move them across the sales journey. Follow up with valuable content to keep the lead interested and nudge them towards a transaction. Sharing resources like Area Guides can be critical at this stage.
Part of lead follow-up is understanding when to let go of a lead. Some leads do not have the potential to work out, and that’s okay.
If the lead indicates some level of communication, interest, motivation or intent during the follow-up process, we would recommend having a strong plan of action to stay in touch, as they may wish to interact in the future. If not, it is okay to let them go.
The Do’s And Don’ts Of Lead Follow-Up
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Do
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Don’t
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Do
Respond quickly
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Don’t
Delay the first follow up
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Do
Be persistent
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Don’t
Become pushy
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Do
Add value at every follow-up
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Don’t
Reach out to the lead with nothing to offer
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Do
Make several attempts to understand all requirements
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Don’t
Give up until the 8th attempt
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Do
Use a schedule
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Don’t
Forget to track your leads using a CRM
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Do
Ask about their communication preferences
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Don’t
Spam your lead
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Lead Nurturing
Lead Nurturing is the process of building relationships with your prospects in order to earn their business when they are ready to buy.
In the real estate industry, lead nurturing has various benefits such as:
- Boosts lead engagement
- Creates opportunities for sales
- Establishes a loyal customer base
- Increases lead retention
- Helps you identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities
- Moves the lead through the sales funnel
- Improves ROI on advertising costs.
Lead Nurturing Strategy
Your Lead nurturing Strategy will change based on lead segmentation.
Hot leads (A Leads)
- Plans on purchasing property within the next 60 days.
- Says that their mortgage approval or tenancy contract is expiring.
- Requires prioritisation and to be contacted multiple times – we would recommend three times a week
- Requires you to always have the next appointment/step scheduled, to move the lead along the sales process.
Warm Leads (B Leads)
- Plans to purchase property within the next 60 to 120 days
- Requires you to alternate between a phone call and text message each week
Your goal should be to maintain constant contact so that you are the first agent in mind when the lead is ready to move forward.
Cold Leads (C Leads)
- Plans on purchasing after 4 to 6 months
- We recommend alternating between a phone call and a text every two weeks for lead nurturing.
- With each interaction, determine when you can move the lead from cold to warm.
Lead Nurturing Techniques
- Email marketing: An effective lead generation strategy is to share emails with data, testimonials, or new properties that meet a client’s needs. Ensure you use professional, engaging language and provide value with each email you send.
- Personalised messages: Personalisation adds a human touch to your text messages. Using the lead’s name, asking them how they’re doing and customising your messages based on their needs can go a long way. This helps to improve customer retention and shows that you are willing to invest your time and efforts in assisting them.
- Face to face meetings: In-person meetings can help to establish your credibility and foster a strong relationship. During the first meeting, make sure you are prepared with all relevant market data, CMAs, etc. A strong first meeting can set the tone and differentiate your professionalism and expertise.
- Social Media: Creating and sharing valuable content on social media shows that you take your job seriously. Social media gives you the opportunity to build your brand, gain a following and communicate directly with your audience in an effective manner.
Some great content ideas for social media include
- Property price trends in the area you specialise in
- Content using last sold property transaction data (from the DLD, available on Transaction Insights on Profolio™)
- New and exciting property listings
Top Tips For Effective Lead Nurturing
- Put most of your energy into leads who are more responsive
- Push for a face-to-face meeting
- Foster a sense of urgency or at least a high energy approach
- Ask questions to keep the conversation going
If you found this information useful, register for one of our interactive sessions at Bayut Academy where we dive into the skills agents needs to be successful in today’s market. You can also check out our various real estate focused articles on Content Corner.