How to Increase Lead Conversion by Stretching Out the First Call

Lead conversion is one of the most important aspects of running a successful business. After all, without leads, you wouldn't have any customers! 

The first call is often the most important part of the lead conversion process; it's your chance to make a good impression and turn a prospect into a paying customer. So, how can you increase lead conversion by stretching out the first call?

Focus on confirming the appointment and frame all additional questions.

 

Client vs Customer

 

Roleplaying

 

The Brush Off

Before we move on to the tips, let's address one common response when talking to a lead for the first time: the brush-off. You know, when they say things like "I'm not interested" or "I don't have time for this."

These responses are totally normal! In fact, research shows that 60% of customers say ‘no’ four times before they say ‘yes’ to a purchase. The key is to not take it personally and to keep pushing forward. Remember, you only need that one ‘yes’ to make a sale.

Typical Objections

There are a few objections you'll likely encounter when talking to a lead for the first time. These include:

  • I don't have time
  • This isn't a good time
  • I'm not interested
  • I need to think about it

The best way to deal with these objections is to acknowledge them and then move on. For example, you might say something like:

"I completely understand that you're busy! Can we schedule a time for a brief call later this week?"

By acknowledging their objection, you're diffusing the situation and opening up the possibility for further conversation.

Objection: They committed to another agent:

 

Objectives of the Brush off Prospect

As real estate professionals, we know that the first call is important. It's our chance to make a good impression and start building a relationship with the lead. However, oftentimes we get brush-offs and objections from potential customers.

Leads might give you the brush-off for two main reasons: disengagement and discouragement.

When a lead is disengaged, they aren't interested in what you're saying and they want to end the conversation. They simply want to get you off the phone so they can go about their day.

Leads may also try to discourage you as an agent and to make you believe that they're not interested in working with you to prevent you from calling them back.

Brush off Objections

When you're talking to a lead, it's important to sound confident and helpful. Below are the common objections of leads who try to brush you off:

  • “I'm just looking / not ready for a Realtor … "
  • “Working with another agent … "
  • “I'm busy and can't talk … "
  • “I just like to look on my own … "
  • “I'm not ready for a real estate agent … "
  • “I'm not really looking to buy … "
  • “I'm just curious … "
  • “I'm looking for a friend … "

The goal is to sound helpful without being pushy. You want to come across as an expert in your field who can help them solve their problem.

Overcome the Objections of the Brush Off Lead

When you're attempting to overcome the brush-off, it's important to sound confident and instructional without being bossy. You want to come across as an expert in your field who can help them solve their problem. See some examples below:

  • "Please tell me … "
  • "Share with me … "
  • "Give me an idea … "
  • "Please explain how … "

This may sound small, but it can make a big difference in the way you're lead perceives you.

The first call is important because it's our chance to make a good impression and start building a relationship with our leads. However, we often get brush-offs and objections from potential customers.

There are a few reasons why leads might give you the brush-off; they may be disengaged, trying to discourage you, or they might not be ready to work with an agent yet.

That's why it's important to learn how to stretch out the first call. By stretching out the first call, you increase lead conversion by giving yourself more time to build rapport and trust with the lead, increasing the chances that they'll work with you down the line.

Published on Jun 9, 2022 under , ,

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Coaching Keeping It Real

Keeping It Real: The Resources To Equip Your Real Estate Team for Success with Sascha Chatman

Keeping It Real: The Resources To Equip Your Real Estate Team for Success

 

 

In this episode of Keeping it Real, Sascha Chatman and  Frank Klesitz, CEO of Vyral Marketing, break down how you can equip your real estate team for success.

Learn more about the resources needed to manage your own team of real estate agents. Of course, a capable workforce is one thing for generating leads and obtaining success in the real estate world. However, having the right resources available is one of the critical factors needed to equip your real estate team for success.

Recruiting Presentation 

 
 
 
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Transforming Your Success into Their Success

 
 
 
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Creating a Schedule

 
 
 
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Buying this Year vs Next Year

 
 
 
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Discovery Phase

The discovery phase is meant to determine whether or not the agents being recruited are the right fit for their real estate team while providing the necessary details for the agents to know what their team is about. Sascha first discusses their team goals and strategies to ensure agents know exactly what they're walking into. He also discusses other matters, such as expectations from the agents themselves and their commissions.

The discovery phase may be one of the most important parts of knowing how to equip your real estate team for success. In order to succeed, you need to have a reliable workforce on your side that shares the same goals and is willing to cooperate with the rest of the team to move forward. Having a compatible and efficient team is one of the best resources you can have in real estate, as it can significantly affect your business' productivity.

Ad Educated Buyer is Easier to Work with!

 
 
 
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Agent Utility Belt

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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This is the highlight of the entire video. Sascha compares his utility belt of resources to Batman's belt of tools and trinkets. This belt essentially exists to store all resources and keep them within reach. Don't get the wrong idea, though. It's not an actual belt. Instead, it is usually a cloud or a compilation of all your valuable resources, such as videos, links, and other agent tools. Having a utility belt that is curated specifically for your team and your needs could help increase the productivity of your workflow because you won't have to scavenge for resources when you need them.

Not only does it make you more productive within your workplace, but it also gives off the sense that you are reliable and organized. When clients ask for something, you will easily have it within reach. 

Clients understandably have many questions before closing the deal, so one of the best ways to answer them is to grab a resource from your utility belt. For example, you're talking to a client about title insurance. Instead of answering their questions yourself, you could take an informative video from your utility belt and ask them to watch it. This makes it easier to understand and relate to.

Having a utility belt is a great way to equip your real estate team for success. It also comes in useful during business transactions. All in all, it's one of the best resources that a real estate team can have.

Having the right resources is essential in equipping your real estate team for success. Create an agent utility belt that caters to your team by signing up for the Real Geeks platform today. We provide valuable resources that you and your team can use to achieve the best possible outcome in every situation. Get started with us today!

Coaching SEO Keeping It Real Real Estate Lead Generation IDX

The Power of SEO and Area Pages w/ Bob McCranie

 

 

The Power of SEO and Area Pages With Bob McCranie

 The-Power-of-SEO-and-Area-Pages-w-Bob-McCranie

Do you want more lead traffic to your website? In this latest episode of Keeping It Real, we explore the latest SEO best practices with Bob McCranie. Bob is the Broker Associate & Team Owner at Texas Pride Realty Group - HomeSmart Stars and an expert on utilizing SEO best practices and Area pages in his strategies.

Join host Frank Klesitz, CEO of Vyral Marketing, in breaking down the strategies and best practices behind a robust, high-conversion online presence in today's evolving digital landscape.

Bob on Why Real Geeks:

 
 
 
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Bob on Organic VS Paid Advertising:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

If you need some help optimizing your site, tips on how to turn up the volume on your current lead flow, insight into different strategies that have provided wins for agents across various markets, -- Check out Bob's Area Page lead generation strategy!

Bob on Optimizing Your Real Geek's IDX Website:

 
 
 
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Bob on Attitude & SEO:

 
 
 
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Bob on virtual companies & online work:

 
 
 
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Top 3 Ways to Generate Lead Traffic & Boost Your Sale Funnels' Visibility in Your Market

Bob, a Brokerage Associate & Team Owner at Texas Pride Realty Group - HomeSmart Stars, shares the techniques and strategies he deploys to increase overall visibility to prospective clients in his market. 

According to Bob, he deploys three unique strategies to get leads. These strategies roughly refer to attraction marketing, SEO & optimizing his website based on popular search engine optimization guidelines, and demographic farming/cultivating his existing audience. 

Let's dive more into these strategies and find out how Bob executes them to get as many leads as possible.

Bob on Attraction Marketing:

 
 
 
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Attraction Marketing

Attraction marketing, also called event marketing, is Bob's number one strategy. This strategy is based on the idea is that you don't have to run Ads all the time or cold calls but have people gravitate towards you because of who you are in the community. In the case of Bob, he's a well-known Broker Associate with long years in the industry. Newer agents can begin working on their community visibility by hosting events. 

Bob on the fun of event marketing:

 
 
 
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You can draw people to you by hosting events, posting about them on social media, and generally being a social connector. It doesn't have to be a real estate event, but any event that serves as a lure to connect with people.

Bob on marketing his events:

 
 
 
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Some of the events you can host include:

  • Kite Flying, BBQs, & Outdoor Events
  • Theater Events, Movie Nights, DriveIns, Concert in the Parks, etc. 
  • Recycling Events, Food Drives, Community Service Events, etc.

Bob on building collaborative events:

 
 
 
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Starting successful community events takes consistency and patience. Make a schedule and stick to it when promoting your events. You can put up physical signs around your area. Put up flyers at your local coffee shops and gyms, and utilize social media ads. These have proven very effective no matter which markets you are located in. 

Bob on using creative postcards for marketing:

 
 
 
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Putting in a constant effort will build attendance over time, and before you know it, you will have collected a community of regulars at your events that can also serve as a potential client base. Networking greatly helps get leads, even if not by a massive count at first.

Your Website

Bob on the importance of having your own IDX website: 

 
 
 
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Bob on making IDX websites work for you:

 
 
 
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The second and perhaps most important is internet marketing, specifically SEO. Your primary medium is your Reel Geeks website, which helps you draw in more organic leads. You still run Google ads, which brings you steady business.

However, you must have a website to lead your potential leads and provide them with the information they need.

Of course, just having a website is not enough – you need area pages. Bob stresses the importance of area pages and being specific about where you want your leads to go. He combines social media and SEO, focusing locally on his pages.

No one looks for real estate in the main city. People always look for the suburb or neighborhood they are looking into.

You create business pages for each suburb of the city you're covering. Each page must have a call to action that takes the reader to the actual area page on your website. It has to lead to the direct page for the city or suburb, not the homepage. It helps to pre-fine all searches as much as possible, directing leads where they want and giving them satisfaction.

 

Bob's Take on Ads & Real Leads

 
 
 
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How Bob Determines His Area Pages

 
 
 
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Building a Backlink Strategy

 
 
 
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Backlinks & Area Pages

 

 
 
 
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Demographic Farming

Bob's last strategy has to do with demographic farming, which is about cultivating or nurturing your lists.

Using Funny Postcards in Demographic Farming:

 
 
 
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In this example, he developed his holiday list using postcards sent creatively and in good fun. For instance, he would send a holiday postcard in June or Valentine's Card with a humorous caption. Of the many postcards he sent, the most creative and successful is the tagline, "No, I don't want to buy your house." Bob doesn't want to buy your house, but he can sell it at a 30 to 40% better price than others in the market. The idea is to keep it fun, so people will look at the cards or mail and know what Bob has to offer.

Per Bob's experience, the strategies that can help you bring in leads are – attraction marketing/events marketing, SEO and area pages, and demographic farming. Add them to your process, and you can turn up your current lead flow to the highest volume.

 

Keeping It Real Real Estate Lead Generation

How To Generate Seller Leads in Low Inventory Market w/ Lisa Chinatti & Jason Posnick.

How-to-Generate-Seller-Leads-in-Low-Inventory-Market-w-Lisa-Chinatti-1

We are excited to welcome back one of our favorite guests, Lisa Chinatti, for this episode of Keeping It Real. Lisa is a top producer based in Westford, MA, with over ten years of Real Estate experience. 

Jason Posnick, the Sales Manager for the Chinatti Realty Group, also joined and has an enormous passion for developing others, solving problems, and conveying positivity into people’s lives.

The market is hot right now. A shortage in housing inventory has been a problem faced by real estate agents for years. As times change, you also need to adapt and learn how to generate seller leads even in low inventory areas. Lisa gives you her tips and shares what she and her team are doing to maintain their seller lead flow.

Lisa and Jason break down the most effective approaches to 5 different lead sources and how to create a plan that meets your needs regardless of which market you are in.

 

 

 Online Home Value Leads

People want to know what their home is worth. For this, they usually go to a landing page or web form where they have to input information that will help them discover just how much their home is worth in the market. How do you lead traffic to this page?

Lisa shares that the best way to get online home value leads is to be diligent with retargeting and email work. Some strategies you can do to approach this lead source is to also take advantage of Google Pay-per-Click (PPC) and Google My Business.

Having a lot of photos and geotagging them will increase your visibility as Google tends to favor local experts. Google reviews will also help drive traction, as well as links to your other content or social media pages.  

Circle Prospecting/Door Knocking

While circle prospecting or door knocking are considered older, traditional techniques, they will never die. How to generate seller leads through this lead source requires some timing and knowing the five touchpoints for circle prospecting. These five touchpoints include:

  • On the day of signing the listing

  • Before the listing goes to the market

  • Once the offer is accepted

  • On the day of the inspection

  • When the deal closes

Each of these five touch points necessitates a different message from which you could build your business. Instead of feeling like they’re talking to a company, which may be off-putting, consumers can view you with trust, which will convince them to do business with you.

Buyer Leads From Buyers Who Have a Home To Sell

Using ads strategically in your follow-ups can lead you to discover that a lot of buyers have a home to sell before they can make any purchase. There’s a big chance you can get buyer leads who have homes to sell by marketing Facebook posts towards listings and open houses.

In a low inventory market, it can be effective to market every new listing as a “coming soon.”

However, there are some workarounds that won’t get you in trouble with laws concerning coming-soon marketing. Along with Google PPC, this can prove to be an effective way to generate seller leads.

Google Local Services

When using Google services to generate seller leads, reviews are crucial. Reviews don’t just get you credibility, but they also tell Google that you’re a local business or service, which is more favored by their algorithm. Many potential seller leads also rely on Google reviews to see if an agent is right for them.

That said, building reviews increase your chances of being more visible while also convincing seller leads to contact you directly — especially when they want to know the value of their home.

Agent-to-agent Referrals

Agent-to-agent referrals are all about nurturing relationships with other agents regardless of your industry. Usually, people who want to sell their house will be moving to a different state, so they contact an agent in the state they’re moving to.

This agent can then send you a referral, so you can help them give the client a smooth transition and experience. This is only possible if you build relationships with other agents by giving value and sharing knowledge.

Put Yourself Out There

Learning how to generate seller leads in a low inventory market can take some time, but the effort is well worth it when you start generating an incredible amount of leads.

Begin by putting yourself out there and taking advantage of online tools like Google PPC, Google My Business, social media marketing, and email marketing.

Real Geeks' Real Estate Cost Per Lead Breakdown

Throughout our masterminds, exchanges with real estate industry professionals on The Keeping it Real podcast, and our every day, — a metric that everyone agrees is key to formulating your route to success as a real estate professional is the cost per lead metric.

Understanding your cost per lead metric will help you assess the amount of inventory in your market, understand your clients’ and prospective clients’ needs, assess where clients fall in their buying or selling cycle, and better understand your market. With your cost per lead metric, you can create a budget and a plan for any market or season you find yourself in.

Fill out the form below to receive an instant download of The Real Geek’s 2022 CPL Report that breaks down the cost per lead in the top 10 most prominent markets of the last year, the top 10 lowest cost-per-lead markets of the previous year, and the cost per lead breakdown of the 50 largest markets of the previous year.

Through our work managing Google and Facebook ad accounts for hundreds of real estate teams across the USA and Canada, Real Geeks can get a unique perspective of the market as a whole. Based on what we’ve seen, now is the best time in history to start investing in PPC leads.

Once you have assessed the cost per lead in your market, there are many ways to apply this metric to your strategy. Last week's Keeping it Real: How to Generate Seller Leads in Low Inventory Market w/ Lisa Chinatti & Jason Posnick, Lisa and Jason address the current issue of low inventory markets. As well as, break down the most effective approaches to 5 different lead sources and how to create a plan that meets your needs regardless of which market you are in.

 

 

In addition to constructing a strategy in response to low inventory markets and examining different lead sources, lead flow is also a factor to consider. If you have a small real estate team or have become overwhelmed with the number of incoming leads, you can deploy a texting assistant like Real Geek's Robin Geek AI to your workflow. Also, check out Keeping it Real's: How to Hire a Virtual Assistant to Cold Call Homeowners for Seller Leads w/JP Wells.

 

 

If you are getting started with building a workflow, check out: 4 Drip Campaigns You Can Activate Today and Get Huge Response, where Greg Harrelson & Abe Safa break down their favorite drip campaigns you can activate today using your Real Geeks workflow library, as well as a drip campaign of their own. 

There are plenty of ways to take your cost-per-lead metric and create a bulletproof lead workflow that works for you or your team. Check out our Keeping it Real: Bulletproof Real Estate Lead Follow-Up Plan w/ Brendan Bartic. We sat down with Brendan to discuss how his Denver real estate team sold 230 homes last year. He broke down his "bulletproof" real estate internet lead follow-up system.

 

 

If you’re spending money to generate online buyer and seller leads and are not happy with how many people respond to you or book an appointment, you’ll learn how to improve your results with our Keeping it Real: How to Convert More Online Buyer and Seller Leads to Appointments w/ Anna Krueger.

 

 

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