08/09/2023
23 Steps for Generating More Leads
The salesperson who converts the most leads wins. Here are tips for capturing five of the most steady sources of business.
Expireds
1. Block off time regularly to research the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for listings that are about to expire.
2. After a listing expires, call, send a letter, or make a personal visit to the seller.
3. Instead of asking for the business, be prepared with a list of services you offer, such as a free value analysis or a free prelisting consultation. If the sellers aren’t home, let them know they can visit your web site for a list of your services.
4. Be more persistent than the competition. Start with two phone calls, then send a letter, then try a personal visit during a three-week time period. If there’s still no activity, move on to the next lead.
Foreclosures
5. Identify delinquents, either through a subscription service that tracks default filings or by following notices in your 8 1,200 Great Sales Tips for Real Estate Proslocal newspaper. Solve the homeowner’s problem with a sale and you’ve solved the bank’s problem, too.
6. People who bought at the top of a real estate market cycle might find themselves with a loan-over-value problem. Contact these people and, if they’re interested in selling, work with them and the lender on a short sale. Again, you’re solving a problem for both the seller and the bank.
7. Assemble a team of handymen, painters, landscapers, carpet people, board-up companies, and other service providers so that you can offer one-stop service.
8. Promote your workout and bank-owned property services to lenders in your area, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
FSBOs
9. Block off time every week to research FSBOs. Leads can come from family and friends, local newspapers, and FSBO web sites.
10. Team up with a lender who can call FSBOs and offer services such as buyer preapproval. The lender can offer to refer them to a reliable salesperson (you) for a chance to handle the loan for the buyer.
11. Have third-party endorsements from former FSBOs, success stories, marketing ideas, and other materials ready to share with those who haven’t been able to successfully sell on their own.
12. If your lender partner handles a loan on a FSBO sale, ask for a referral to help the FSBOs find their new home.
Prospecting Online Inquiries
13. Add all leads to a database, and contact each lead three times over the course of two or three weeks. No response? Discard it or move it into a lower priority group for later follow-up.
14. Implement a database mailing plan so that everyone in your database receives a mailing from you each quarter. Since these communications most likely will be through email, keep each lead in your database until told by the recipient to delete it.
15. Match seller “haves” with buyer “wants.” That is, use your knowledge about what online prospects want to win listings (“I know of three potential buyers who are looking for homes in your neighborhood”). And use your knowledge of the inventory to win buyer clients (“I know of or have several listings that meet your criteria”).
16. Test offers on your web site to see how effectively they generate incoming leads. Keep popular offers, such as determining the price of a recent neighborhood sale, and expand your offer list over time.
17. Test strategies for maximizing site visits. Two popular methods are paying search engines for prominent placement and increasing the number of reciprocal links with other web sites.
Open Houses
18. Arrange an open house caravan for eight listings—including possibly the listings of colleagues—that are within five minutes’ drive time and within 20 percent of a target value.
19. Work with your colleagues and the sellers to arrange a day in which you’ll host a 15-minute open house for each listing, with time between each for driving.
20. Place an ad in the newspaper promoting the eight open houses, yourself, the other salespeople whose listings you’re showing, and your lender.
21. Send invitations, with a schedule and maps of the route, to neighbors of all the sellers. Aim to send at least 50 invitations. Serve refreshments at all the houses, and have a drawing for a prize, such as a lottery ticket or gift certificate to a local restaurant, at the last home.
22. Have the lender go with you to prequalify prospects.
23. Make the last two stops secret homes, such as FSBO properties. Get permission first.
