I have come to the conclusion that I need to work one my lead follow up systems. I am a little curious of how they keep in touch with a lead.

typically, I will send out a thank you card after I meet them and perhaps a couple phone calls or other mail outs after that, nothing terribly special. Does anyone have anything to ad to this?

Jon

You can try to get a monthly newsletter going. It's a good soft touch since the lead doesn't feel any pressure or requirement to respond to your newsletter but it keeps your name & face in front of them.

Yeah, thats true but I think I need something more aggressive. The leads I have potentially could sell in 1-2 months, so 2 monthly news letters prob wont be enough. Although, if they were 6+ months then that could work.

If you wanna get aggressive you can hand deliver the thank you card.

I was thinking i would hand deliver certian items of value. How often do people keep in touch with their leads?

Jon, depending on quality of lead and their level of interaction/responses, I would say to contact them at least once every two weeks prior to their purchasing decision. Just my 2 cents, but take it with a grain of salt (very dependent on specific circumstances).

Jon

I have a big problem answering your question. What leads, what kind of leads, etc. Leads have never been, and never will be a one size fits all subject. Different strokes for different folks as we said in the 60's, if you want to be effective.

Want a simple program? "Are you planning to do something in the next 30 days? No, O.K., I won't bother you with things your not ready to do yet, I'll check back with you in 30 days to see if your ready to proceed, or if you would like to wait a little while longer before jumping in and getting done what you want to do."

In the early 70's I happened to be in the office of one of the top agents in California and I heard her interviewing a prospect. She referred him to an agent in another company. After the prospect left I asked her why she dumped what seemed to be a good future prospect. She told me if they were not ready to act in the next 60 days it was her policy to refer them.

She then pulled out a binder and posted the prospect's name and the agent she was referring him to. The front page was numbers and she told me that the first number was the grand total of all the prospects she 'dumped', and the second number was the number of prospects that resulted in a referral fee. The difference was to say staggering. I said maybe the deals with those people would have been much higher if she were the agent handling them. Her figures didn't take into account whether they did something with an agent other then the referred to agent.

She then flipped the pages and showed me markings of follow ups to see if they had bought or sold after a year. Only a few had and that wasn't to say if she would have been the agent in the deal. So I adopted her policy when dealing with buyers anyway and it was great, wasted time with buyer prospects was cut to a minimum, and income went up accordingly. If they were really going to do something I got a referral fee. The few I "lost" was insignificant in the grand scheme, and I'm sure I avoided a lot of frustration.

I would be somewhat skeptical of the accuracy of the data of how many bought after a year. For one thing, many people who did buy with another agent, might not be truthful and just say they didn't and wouldn't, just to get her off the phone.

The other factor to consider is whether you have enough business or if you are prospecting for business. If you are prospecting, then lead follow up is warm calling. Quick call to see if they are ready yet, what could possibly be a waste of time with that?

Deepsea

She didn't call them, to see if they did something, she checked public records, mainly to check up on her referral agents to see if they were holding out, and secondly to confirm her policy was a good one (she was considering adding a licensed assistant just to handle the rejects).

She kept the interview sheets in that binder, and one of her goals was to refine her interview and policy if need be. After about a year of me using the policy I called and thanked her and sent a little followup gift. She was right on.

Don't ever give me the you might as well work with them argument because you don't have much else going on speech. The time you spend with a bunch of losers hoping to catch a deal, will be better spent finding some winners and much more profitable.

If I had an agent thinking that way I would give them the swift kick in the rear. Don't get mired in the mud with the losers, run the fast track. I don't mind if the agent gives the loser an occasional follow up call to ask them if the are ready to quit trying to set a pole sitting record, and come down to earth and do something good for yourself and your family.

They might just do something when you tell them that home you showed them last year went up 6% but the mortgage payment stayed the same, by the way is it true your rent went up 6% too. Are you planning to keep doing that for the next 30 years? Oh, come to think about it that mortgage will be paid off, but your rent will still keep going up, well at least the landlord will be enjoying his retirement.

Wow, great advice"

I was wondering how to avoid such situations.

Thanks for sharing.

I only work seller leads so I look for someone who MUST SELL and will listvin the next 30-60 days. I flat out ask them if they are listing in that time frame. The Maybe leads will kill your business! 30 day leads are best. Only works if you generate leads everyday. If you do not, you get desperate and hold on to the Maybe's.
I tell everyone the same story. If I gave you 2 piles of leads to choose from, which would you pick?
One pile has 1000 maybe leads, the other has 25 for sure leads. The for sures is the right answer.

You make a good point but I remember a post you made
in October of 2010, it was along the lines that a lot
of your calling was only going to bring result in the
spring. This is more than a 30 or 60 day lead. I called
a lady in Nov/2010 she told me she was listing in Feb/2011.
I put her on my girly newsletter program and she called
me in Feb/2011. I listed her home and sold her a larger
place. Her dad is a retired real estate agent, nice guy
I met him at the home inspection of the home she bought.

Many 30 day leads are already working with a agent or are being serviced by one. You have to be a brilliant/highly skilled agent to bump the other agent out of the game unless your name is "Lucky" or "Navarek".


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