How To Effectively Follow Up With Real Estate Leads

You have a good amount of leads, and you have started with the initial contact however you are too busy to consistently follow up. This is the common issue real estate professionals and entrepreneurs face. When you are able to consistently follow up with real estate leads, you will have much more success landing appointments.

Consistent follow-up is a crucial part of the business. You don’t want your leads to go to waste, especially after going through the trouble of finding them in the first place! You might be thinking right now what’s the best way to follow-up with your leads and is there someone who could help you with this task? 

Did you know that on average only 2% of sales close at the initial meeting?

You can’t expect everyone to convert the first time you try and sell them something. If they do, there is a good chance they have already done their due diligence researching the product or service and sifting through the available options.

So, if you’re giving up after the initial meeting with no follow-up, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Check out these interesting statistics on how often individuals fail to follow up.

According to a study by Marketing Donut (1), the average sales follow-up drop-off rate breaks down like this:

• 44% of sales reps stop following up after one rejection
• 22% stop after two
• 14% stop after three
• 12% stop after four

That means 92 percent of people are done trying after the fourth “no.” So if you’re following up at least five times, you’re already way ahead of the competition!

Listen to this great clip about the importance of following up and how REVA Global CEO Bob Lachance implements this with his own team.

Keep reading to learn the most effective ways of following up with your leads and how to implement this process.

Email

Most clients are checking their emails regularly, thus this one of the best ways to reach them. Modern technology has made it easier than ever to check your email wherever you are, whether you're out of the office or traveling. Don’t overlook email when it comes to staying in contact with leads, some people prefer this over a phone call as well. 

To make things easier, draft an email template that can be scheduled every 2 weeks, 1 month, etc.

Here’s an example of a follow-up email:

Hi [NAME],

Last time we spoke, you requested that I get back in touch in July. I may be 2 weeks early, but I figured it would be worth checking-in.

Have you given any additional thought to my proposal? I’d be happy to touch base with you on that and give you a call to answer any questions.

Let me know if you have some time on your calendar for a quick call.

I hope to hear back from you!

Thanks!

– [YOUR NAME]

Emails are 100% trackable, you would know who’s opening your message and you would be able to identify what’s not working.

Text Messaging

Text messaging has the highest response rate and one of the highest open rates. Why? Mostly because people always have their phones with them! They can easily respond to your messages when they’re available.

This can also generate instant results due to the high open-rate. Note: Keep your message to a maximum of 160 characters to avoid multiple text messages send to your client.

Here’s an example of a follow-up text:

Hi there, [Name]! This is [Your Name] with [Company]! I wanted to check if you have read through the offer we sent you a couple of weeks ago? I am reaching out to see if you have any questions I can answer for you. Please let me know if it would be more convenient to discuss this over the phone, just message me back with the best time to give you a call. Thank you!

Just like email, this is 100% trackable and is very cost-effective. Sending a message for one or two cents is worthy to spend just to check with your leads.

Persistent Contact / Cold Calling

The more you try to engage with your leads, the higher the chance to get a conversion! This approach is effective and a lot of businesses are still doing this. We all want to talk to a real person and get our questions answered.

This is a perfect task for a Virtual Assistant to do for you. Have them follow your process, and follow up with leads on a consistent basis to set appointments for you.

 A good follow-up script would sound like this:

Hey [NAME]!

This is [NAME] with [YOUR COMPANY], we spoke a few weeks ago about [XYZ]. I hope everything has been going well for you!

I wanted to follow up on the offer we made to see if anything has changed and if that’s something you might be interested in now?

I understand things change pretty quickly so I thought of checking with you to answer any questions you might have about the offer.

Implementation

Now that you have follow-up strategies in place, how are you going to make it work?

Here are some helpful tips and techniques for implementing your follow-up plan:

• Make time to follow-up – Create a follow-up schedule, it should be complete and with notifications. This way, it’s more efficient and saves a lot of your time.
• High response time – As soon as clients reach out back to you, they are expecting a quick response from you. You should be able to cater to their needs promptly.
• Create a follow-up plan – Map out a month follow-up plan for consistency purposes, here’s an example:

Day 7 from the initial contact – Call the client

Day 10 – Send a text message as a reminder

Day 14 – Reach out via email stating the purpose of your email

• Know your clients’ preferred communication method – This will create a lasting connection with them. If they would prefer to be called, go ahead and schedule a callback, if they are into social media, use this platform to follow-up. Everything is available, use whatever works for them

You can always overlap some of these strategies as well. If you try calling with no answer, leave a voicemail and send a friendly text or email as well.

Activate Automation

What if you could remove yourself and still have all your leads being followed up with on a consistent basis according to your systems and processes? Well, you can! 

Enter trained Virtual Assistants. Virtual Assistants (VA’s) are an incredibly powerful resource for affordably automating your processes. By automating, you are making your business and operations more efficient. 

The best part is, following-up is just one of the many tasks your VA can take off your plate for you. Need help with social media management or marketing? Task it to your VA. Adding leads to your CRM? Task it to your VA. 

Anything that can be done on the phone or on the computer can be passed off to a Virtual Assistant so you can focus on the income-producing tasks that scale your business.