What good are leads that never turn into deals?
They cost you money to generate, time to nurture, and they ultimately pay you back by ignoring your calls or deciding to “go in a different direction.”
Of course, you can’t eliminate all tire-kickers and you can’t close every single lead that comes your way.
But you can close more leads than you’re closing right now.
And your first step is to avoid the three following sales mistakes… which contribute to a large portion of lost real estate deals.
Namely, delayed response, too little follow-up, and creating an emotional disconnect.
1. Delayed Response
If you don’t answer the first time that a new lead calls, there’s an extremely good chance that you’re never going to hear from them again.
They probably won’t even answer your return call.
One study revealed that the chance of contact decreases 100 times from a delayed response of 5 minutes to a delayed response of 30 minutes.
And the qualification rate drops 21 times from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
When you’re searching for motivated sellers — people who are in a hurry to find help — fast response is even more critical.
If you don’t answer the phone, they’ll just call your competition.
Want Us To Answer The Phone For You?
2. Too Little Follow-Up
It’s a big question that salespeople argue about…
How many times should you follow-up with a lead before you drop them?
And it’s a really important question to answer correctly, because if you’re like most real estate investors, then 90% of your deals happen during the follow-up… not during the first touch.
Popular online data suggests that you should follow up at least 5 times.
But is that enough?
We don’t think so.
Ryan Dossey’s business has closed 5-figure deals after several years and 50 or more follow-ups. He thinks it’s well-worth it, especially since following up with a prospect will often take no more than 5 minutes.
Whatever you decide, you’re probably not following up enough as it is (few investors are). So follow up more consistently over longer periods of time, prove that you care about your prospects, and you’ll end up turning more leads into deals.
Don’t feel like you ever have to be pushy with your follow-ups. Here are a few non-invasive conversation starters…
- “How’s the family?”
- “Congrats on [CURRENT LIFE EVENT]!”
- “Any progress on your housing situation?”
- “Did you hear about [CURRENT EVENT]?”
3. Emotional Disconnect
Here’s the thing.
Typically, motivated sellers don’t work with wholesalers because they’re trying to get as much money for their home as possible.
They sell to you because they want to sell quickly for cash — which usually means they’re trying to get out of a sticky situation like divorce, bankruptcy, or some other difficult life event.
There’s a lot of emotion involved.
And that emotion is why they work with you. Because they feel that you can help them solve a problem quickly and painlessly.
If you as the salesperson fail to connect with the prospect on an emotional level, then they’re probably not going to work with you.
You’ve got to show them that you hear them, you understand them, and you can help them.
How?
By asking more questions. That’s why top performing sales people consistently ask more questions than their less successful counterparts.
Conclusion
The goal is to close every lead that is close-able.
Sure — you’ll never close 100% of leads… but 20%, even 30%?
It’s certainly something to strive for.
And you can start by avoiding these three critical mistakes: delaying your response, following up too few times, and creating emotional disconnect.