13 Key Lead Follow Up Tips

Hello and welcome to Mike Ferry TV. This week of April 24th, for those of you who may not know me, my name is Ira Naiditch and I’m one of the Coaches and speakers for The Mike Ferry Organization.

Mike asked me to talk to you today, this week about lead follow up. You know, I wonder, am I the only one who has ever lost a deal because I didn’t do a very good job of following up on one of my leads? Never feels good. How does it feel to you when you see a listing that you thought or you knew was yours and someone else’s name shows up on the sign? Well so far this year with almost four months gone, have you taken as many listings as you wanted and where are most of your appointments coming from? You know, Mike teaches us that 70% of your appointments, 70% of your appointments will come from lead follow up. Not from your first contact with these people. Hmm. How many listings have you taken so far this year and how many would you have taken if, in fact, 70% of your appointments came from Lead follow up? I’ll bet it would be a lot more than it has been. Well, at least for a lot of us.

Okay. We all are in this business to make money or at least I think we are. So if you’re not in the business to make more money. Why are you in the business? Well, productivity is the bottom line of business. And if you’re not producing, you better either be related to the boss or be related to one of his children, because otherwise, you’re not going to last, at least in real business. So great lead follow up. is key to that bottom line. Especially if we remember that 70% of our business can come from lead follow up.

Mike Ferry’s 7 Real Estate Rules

Now, Mike has seven rules relating to Real Estate and our jobs as Real Estate salespeople to make us more productive.

They are number 1, Find qualified people to buy and sell Real Estate. You can’t have too many qualified prospects.

Number 2, we need to follow up with them daily. The more often the better. In some cases, you’re going to follow up with them four or five times a day. No, we’re not going to talk to them four or five times a day. But if they’re not answering the phone, keep trying. And if they’re not answering the phone during the workday, try them later on in the evening when they’re home from work after rush hour.

Number 3, Qualify them carefully. You can’t know too much about them.

Number 4, Go on presentations daily. If you want to be a strong presenter, you need to go on presentations just as often as you can.

Number 5, Close them, close them, close them. They will sign if you make a great presentation.

Number 6, Handle the objections. If you do receive an objection, remember, it’s not a bad thing. An objection is simply a question that remains unanswered in the mind of the prospect. Have a strong objection handler and you’ll get the contract signed.

And number 7, is the hardest one. Start over every day. Start over every day. If you want to build a strong, duplicatable, and profitable business, you must start at zero every day like you have zero listings. Zero Pendings. Zero buyers. By the way, did you notice how rule number two was followed up with them daily? The more often the better. Number two. That’s because next to generating business or prospecting, the most important thing we do each day is follow up on the leads we have.

To become more effective in lead follow up, use the following ideas:

Number 1: Selling is a numbers game

Number 1. Remember that selling is a numbers game. You’re going to go through a lot of leads. It’s part of the game.

Number 2: Turn Leads into appointments ASAP

Number 2. Your objective is to turn leads into appointments as soon as possible or get rid of them. Do you know the key to a quality lead is their motivation to do something and their ability to do something?

Number 3: Remove poor leads

Number 3. Keeping poor leads simply buries the good ones and makes the good ones hard to find.

Number 4: Poor Leads will ruin your attitude

Number 4, poor leads will ruin your attitude and diminish your desire to do lead follow up and to do more prospecting. We’ve all had that problem. Remember, with regard to your leads, lead cards have no value. Only motivated, qualified people are valuable. I mean, if you think differently, I have an idea for you. If you think your leads have value the next time you get your Mastercard, Visa, or American Express bill, don’t write out a check to pay it. Instead, send the bill back with your lead cards enclosed in the envelope along with the value that you’re placing on those leads and submit them for payment. See if the credit card company agrees with you and gives you the same credit for that value that you think they’re worth.

“Remember, you only have so much time to convert them or throw them away”

Now, some of you are thinking, what’s he talking about with lead cards? What are these lead cards I was talking about? Well, remember what Mike tells us in terms of what a lead follow up system consists of. It consists of a stack of three-by-five cards, and that three-by-five card identifies whether the prospect is a buyer or a seller. Then put their name, address, and phone number on it and the date you acquired the lead. Okay. And remember, you only have so much time to convert them or throw them away. We’ll talk about that in just a couple of minutes in terms of the time frame for leads. And then call them and ask them the following two questions. This is the lead follow up script question one, “Do you still have to buy or sell a home?” And when they say, “Yes.” “Can we set an appointment for this week?” “What works best for you?” “Monday or Tuesday at 4:00 PM”

I mean how much more simple can it get? And then just carry your lead cards with you. You know, keep them in your pocket or keep them in your wallet or your purse. You know, just like your American Express card, as the old commercial said, don’t leave home without them. Now, some of you are too young to remember that commercial, but the message is the same.

Number 5: Leads ? Security

Number 5. Remember, leads do not represent security in the Real Estate business.

Number 6: Everyone has your leads too

And number 6, everyone has your leads. You’re not the only agent that knows these people, so you’ve got to do a better job following up.

Number 7: Do not overprotect leads

Number 7. Don’t overprotect your leads. Overcall them. Okay. You can’t call them too often. Now is it possible, just possible that somebody could say, “I’d never list with you! You call too often!” Well, of course, that’s possible. But guess what? They weren’t listing with you before then either. So you didn’t lose anything. Call them more often.

Number 8: Higher Quality = Less time spent

Number 8, The higher the quality of the lead, the less time you have to spend working on it.

Number 9: Whatever time they told you to call them… Half it

And number 9, remember whatever time they told you to call them, cut that in half. If they tell you to call in a month, call them in two weeks. If they tell you to call in next week, call them in three or four days.

Number 10: Excessive leads take time, be careful

Number 10. Having excessive leads is the same as having a geographic farm. If you work it long enough, you’ll get business from it. But it takes a long, long time and a lot of work.

Number 11: Contact motivated leads more often

Number 11. I must call every lead at the exact moment that they’re thinking or talking about signing a contract. The more non-motivated leads I keep, the less chance I have of calling them at the right moment.

Number 12: When have you lost a lead from OVER contacting them

Number 12. Here’s a question for you, “How often do you lose leads because of excessive lead follow up?” And the answer is, “Never.” So remember, call them, call them, call them. Because you can’t call them too often. We talked about the fact that they could say you call too often, but that’s not the case. Keep calling.

Number 13: Only keep leads that align with your goals

Number 13. Only keep leads that will buy or sell in X number of days. Now define a lead based on the goals you set. Okay, the number of days is based on the goals you set. If your goal is to do 0 to 10 deals in a year. You could keep your leads for a year. What’s the difference? If your goal is to do 11 to 20 deals, maybe you’re defining leads as anybody that’s going to buy or sell within six months. If your goal is to do 21 to 40 deals a year, we’ve got to cut that time down to defining leads as somebody that’s going to sign a contract within four months. And if your goal is to do between 41 to 60 deals a year, we’ve got to cut that down to 45 days or we’re going to have too many. If you’re going to do 61 to 75 deals. Now you’re getting into high production business and you better be defining leads as somebody that’s going to buy or sell, sign a contract within 15 days or you’ve got to get rid of them. You won’t have time for anything else. And if you’re one of the real Superstars doing more than that, it’s seven days or less. Would you like to be a Superstar? Reduce the number of days you use in your definition of a lead. Each week take a careful look at the total number of leads you have and see how many of them will sign a contract within seven days. If they won’t sign a contract within seven days, throw them away or refer them to another agent in your office.

Lead Follow-Up is not easy, but very worth it

Remember, our job as agents is not really complicated. In fact, it’s rather easy. All we need to do is A. Generate leads. B. Convert leads to appointments. And C. Go on appointments, which brings us more deals faster and makes us more money. Who wants to make more money? Hopefully all of you. After all, that’s why you’re here. So go do more lead follow up, set more appointments, and make more money. Thanks for being here today on Mike Ferry TV. I hope this session helped you and I look forward to seeing you real soon at one of our upcoming events.