Real Estate Agents are Losing Customers Hand Over Fist (Here’s how!)

Losing Business Sucks

The lack of follow-up to leads has been a pet peeve of mine since I entered the real estate industry. My brother used to criticize me whenever I didn’t get in touch with a lead or didn’t set an appointment quickly enough. His words still ring in my ears: “Now you f***ing lost the client.”

If there’s something I admire about my brother, it’s his killer instinct and his drive, which has pushed me to understand the importance of being customer-oriented. I was brought up in the industry with this mentality.

Many of my clients still seek me out till today because I became a machine at being quick and the first to get in touch and serve the client. This is why I truly do not understand why so many real estate agents do not

A Reality Check

You probably entered the real estate industry because you thought it would be your ticket to making endless money and living a lavish life. It isn’t hard to get into the industry. You’re told you’re getting full training and/or mentorship throughout your career, but the reality is different.

You’ve been thrown in at the deep end. Given customers, and all your family members and friends want to work with you, but you’ve been given little to no on-the-job training. You’re frustrated chasing several customers and ultimately getting nowhere.

If you’re serious about making it, this article will probably be the most important you’ll read this year. Let me provide you with some scenarios that may resonate with you.

• Have you ever had an appointment with a client and realized that they may have already seen houses that you had prepared for them to view?
• Worse yet, do you remember when a friend asked you to call them about a real estate transaction, and you found out a year later that they bought a property?

Cost of Not Taking Care of Your Leads

I’ll never forget, about 20 years ago, sitting at my desk and receiving a request, and instantaneously replying to the customer with a telephone call. He was a Swedish gentleman looking for an apartment in one of the coastal areas of Malta. The customer was almost taken aback because he had already sent many requests and never got a reply. It turned out that this Swedish gentleman was setting up a software company with his family. Over seven years, I rented several apartments to his family members. The company grew from just four family members to over 300 people. I found office space after office space for them as they grew and several residential spaces for some of their expatriate staff.

Now, can you calculate the cost of not contacting this customer?

The Problem

Today’s market is no different in this digital world. Speed to lead is, if not more important today, the defining element that will make a salesperson a success or a failure.

I have dedicated a part of my career, mostly the last five years, to improving standards, understanding customer pain points, and introducing training within my company. Agents, especially those new to the business, don’t get these three important skills of lead management right, specifically the following:

• Answering their phones.
• Following up with the client after the initial call.
• Following up after a web request.

It’s incredible to think about the amount of opportunity that is left on the table because many agents either aren’t trained to manage their time, aren’t cut out for the job, or are being misled by an agent who was promoted to manager status without adequate management skills.

I have always been obsessed with service, and it makes me cringe when I look at statistics showing the abysmal way agents deliver their service to their customers. Even though there is a major opportunity for estate agents staring them in the face to provide exceptional customer service, they prefer to live in the status quo or don’t know any better.

I’m writing this to further emphasize my perspective and inspire some action. If not the big wigs, perhaps some agents who want to build a career in real estate will be inspired to take action and improve their service (and their wealth). When you read the below statistics, you will understand simply that there is a huge opportunity waiting to be won in the real estate game.

I will break down scenarios proven by research and give you my game plan to take charge of your lead management and start making money you’d only ever before imagine possible.

Here is what we are gonna talk about:

• Industry statistics that make me cringe on lead management
  • Telephone Leads
  • Online Leads
• Proven data, that will inspire you to take action
• Systems used by the Top 1% of real estate agents, laid out simply for you to emulate

Want More Leads? Get my Free Prospecting Guide for Real Estate Agents

32% of Estate Agents NEVER Answer Their PHONE

Estate agencies spend €000’s on their databases, advertising, and training. It’s hard to believe that their agents do not answer their phone and neither call back. In today’s digital world, with smartphones so accessible this is shameful.

Of the 32% of estate agents who did not answer their phones, only 37% (from the 32%) called back, leaving 63% of those customers with bad taste.

I will do the math for you, out of every 100 clients, 20 clients were never contacted.

In today’s business world, customers are looking for instant information, especially Gen Z, the current first-time buyer generation, and will instantly call the next agent on their list, plus will most likely never phone you back.

Here are a couple of tips to make sure that you never miss a call:

• Answer your phone 🙂, and if you can’t:
  1. Create a voice message that will explain to the caller that you may be busy and will get back within a specified time frame.
  2. Create an automatic text message notifying them of the same.
• Block 15-minute breaks between appointments to listen and review your messages. Reply by calling, texting, or sending a warm video message concerning their needs.
• Get back to the client within the timeframe you have committed.

By implementing a system to capture all your calls, you are automatically showing you are a professional, that you mean business, and that customers are a key priority to you. To make life easier, you should implement templated text messages via the Message app or WhatsApp. My preferred method of communication is pre-scripted video messages because they seem more personal.

By utilizing templates and ready-made scripts, you can save time and create a consistent way of communicating with your clients.

Watch this video taken 7 years ago by Tom Ferry on leads. He is one of the most world renown trainers.

23% of Online Leads Never Get Answered

Similar to the above, agents tend to ignore email requests. Whilst only 15.5% answer within 12 hours, the majority answer requests between one to five days, making the average request answered within 60 hours.

According to Lead Simple, answering a request within the first five minutes, “aka” the Golden Window, is twenty-one times more effective than calling within thirty minutes, whilst if you get in touch within five hours, it is forty per cent more effective than getting in touch within twenty-four hours and so forth.

The National Association of Realtors in the United States reports that 64% of buyers and 66% of sellers will work with the agent that talks to first.

If we use the 80/20 rule (20% of the agents make up 80% of the revenue), one can assume that the best agents are answering leads systematically and ensuring that they contact every lead, qualify the lead, and then add it to their lead funnel. They are closing more deals than the rest of the Industry.So let’s follow some proven methods that the Top Performers use, where you can capture leads effectively and become a top earner:

1. 100% of top performers use a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) to manage their leads.
2. Today, there are inexpensive CRMs. Appsumo.com, Stacksocial.com, and dealmirror.com have special lifetime access offers for several different CRMs.
3. Use notifications and automatic emails to notify the customer that you will get in touch with them within a timeframe.
4. Do your utmost to get in touch with your customer within the first 5 minutes. This time send a message acknowledging the customer in a more personal way. Mention the property, or specifics of their request, so they will know you have read the request.
5. Get in touch with them with an appointment.

Here is a seven-minute video from Mike Novak, Realtor in the USA, who simplifies your leads management.

Lead Qualification

The hardest part of lead management is qualifying your customers. Nobody wants to spend more time than you need on a customer who is not buying now or is going to buy later or not at all. You need to categorize your leads accordingly once you have done the three “Ws’ test.

1. Where are you thinking of moving to?
2. When did you want to move by?
3. Why are you thinking about moving?

Start disqualifying leads immediately before you fill your pipeline

The most difficult action of qualifying leads is asking the right questions. As we are taught in every real estate playbook, your job is to understand if the customer is able to purchase. Now often a customer, especially a first time buyer, a customer will not know the ins and outs of the financial aspects of purchasing. Whilst an agent can be reluctant to ask questions that seem that they prying in to the customers personal life. The truth is that as a professional agent, you are somewhat obliged to ask questions to undrestand the timeline of when the buyer needs to purchase and also the price they can afford. Questions that will provide you the answers you need are the following:

• Have you spoken to the bank to get prequalified for a loan?
• Are you aware that you need a down payment, and are the funds readily available?
• If I find you a house today, will you be able to sign an agreement?

Depending on the answers you will be able to consciously decide which category your leads should be placed in. Their importance should be based on a four-category system: A, B, C, and D.  

Then you must set a schedule of follow-ups accordingly:

• A Leads: Contact daily/weekly
• B Leads: Contact bi-weekly
• C Leads: Contact monthly
• D Leads: Contact bi-monthly

By adding them to a funnel you automatically know when to deal with them.   Consistency is the key to mastering the lead qualification process.  If you ignore or do not follow up with any lead, you are simply leaving money on the table for your competition.  

Conclusion

I have outlined here a synopsis of the current status of the real estate industry when it comes to leads. These stats are pretty much universal and in some places even worse. Meaning Malta is not unique, in that this problem is encountered around the world from east to west, north to south. What is important to note, is that if you want to make it in the real estate industry, you need to get these habits right.

By building a reputation of being reliable, promptly getting in touch with customers and qualifying them properly, the rest of your job will be easy.

Key Takeaways:

1. Promptly answer phone calls and return missed calls to avoid losing potential clients
2. Respond to online leads quickly, ideally within the “Golden Window” of five minutes
3. Utilize a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to organize and track leads effectively
4. Implement a lead qualification process to prioritize and categorize leads for efficient follow-up
5. Maintain consistent communication with leads based on their priority level

By adopting these practices, you can demonstrate professionalism, build trust with potential clients, and maximize their chances of converting leads into successful transactions.

The principles haven’t changed. The Top 1% have been outshining the real estate industry because they get them right, every time. Now it’s your turn to leap. Good Luck!

– Jeff B

Want More Leads? Get my Free Prospecting Guide for Real Estate Agents