Just like gutters and downspouts, your lead database needs maintenance to keep things moving! Your lead database is the lifeblood of your business, yet it’s surprising how many agents neglect it. As fall approaches, now is a good time to take inventory of all your leads and their status, get a handle on your pipeline opportunities, and maximize your business potential. This work will help you develop an effective lead management strategy that maximizes your effort while preventing lost opportunities.
A real estate CRM will provide many of the features you’ll need for this and it’s considered a “no-brainer” by leading real estate coaches. You don’t have to have a CRM if you can stay organized using other tools to accomplish the same things, but a CRM is generally worth the investment for any agent or broker except those just getting started. Either way, the tools you use are only as good as the information you enter into them, so your job is to keep things documented and up-to-date. Anyone who has spent time with a real estate coach will tell you that effective, productive lead management takes time and effort for results. Keep reading to learn about some important steps that will help fuel your success now and into the future if you stay on top of them.
Lead Stage
If you’re using iHomefinder’s real estate CRM for agents or our real estate CRM for teams, make sure every lead has the correct Lead Stage assigned. If you’ve been neglecting this, now’s the time to update all your lead records with this information. This alone provides valuable insight on your top priorities for your time right now. If you lost track of a lead’s status and you’re in the dark, assign a task to reach out to connect with them. This leads to our next section about having an action plan for each lead.
Action Plans
What’s your next step for each lead? You can’t manage leads effectively without plans for each lead based on their needs. Calling (and lots of it) is par for the course, so be prepared to dial a lot!
Followup Calls
Every lead should have a follow-up call scheduled with timing based on their stage or based on the last time you connected with them. Use your CRM to create tasks in each lead record for the next followup call. If it’s been a while since you’ve connected with a lead, come up with a script you can use to reconnect with leads and learn about their situations and possible real estate interests. Given the current pandemic, you could start by asking how they’ve been managing during the crisis and you could explain how you can help them navigate the changes that may be in place for transactions in your area. If you’re offering virtual open house events, either scheduled broadcasts or on-demand, you can share information with them about that topic as well. If you optimized your site to highlight listings that include virtual tours, make sure they know how to access that content on your site. You may find a lead is a possible candidate for buying a house sight unseen. You can explain how this isn’t that uncommon to get a competitive edge in today’s market with tight inventory.
Don’t forget to take notes on each call and prepare for what you next step should be. Create a new task for the next followup call with notes about where you left off. If you have action items based on your conversation, create new tasks for those as well so they don’t slip through the cracks.
Relevant Email Campaigns
Once you know a lead’s property interests, put your iHomefinder account to work to automate information that keeps them moving closer to a transaction, no matter how far off that may be. You want to be top of mind whenever they’re ready to make a move.
If you have leads in your database that don’t have a Property Organizer account, make sure you create one for them. iHomefinder accounts with MarketBoost and our agent CRM have options for sending automated campaigns with market information, or you can send custom email campaigns that include market related content mixed with your own custom content. For more email marketing ideas, check out our article Growing Your Real Estate Email Marketing.
Even leads who indicate they’re not expecting to make a move in the fall or winter may find that their circumstances change. You’ll be much better positioned to seize these opportunities by keeping every lead informed with relevant market stats and listings to help them with selling or buying when they’re ready.
Optimize Lead Generation Channels
Our real estate CRMs will provide insight on what channels are bringing new leads to your pipeline. If you’re using our CRM and you haven’t taken the time to look at this information, take a look at your lead sources and see if there are opportunities to invest more in channels that are delivering good leads while possibly pruning out those that aren’t.
Need Help?
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Original source: https://www.ihomefinder.com/blog/agent-and-broker-resources/optimizing-your-real-estate-leads-for-fall-and-beyond/