Part 2: Tips to Convert Sales Leads into Valued Clients

In a blog post last month, we shared four things you can do to make a prospective home buyer – or seller – want to hire you as their real estate agent. This month, we’re back with four more tips to convert sales leads into clients:

Use CRM software

“Customer relationship management” software helps you manage all your sales leads more effectively. Wildly popular with sales people from a wide variety of industries, there are a number of very good CRM programs designed exclusively for real estate professionals. With a good CRM solution, you can:

• Determine which leads are the most valuable, the most pressing and the most likely to turn into clients.
• Keep track of which leads you’ve contacted, and when.
• Be reminded when it’s time to reach out to certain leads.
• Easily manage all the contact information for your leads.
• Communicate different marketing messages to different types of leads.
• Track the social media postings of your leads.
• Plus much more.

Leverage those kudos

Compliments from past clients are very effective at swaying prospective clients. Keep a record of all the kudos you get (the more specific they are, the better), and hire a graphic artist to help you format them into an attractive flyer. Even better, use the complimentary quotes in a simple postcard marketing campaign: Mail a new postcard to your sales leads every four to six weeks, each featuring a different complimentary quote from a past client.

Flaunt your expertise

Anyone can say they’re the best person for the job. But it’s far more alluring to a prospective client if you demonstrate your abilities by offering some of your expertise for free.

People are inundated with too much information today. What they really want is an expert to help them sift through all that data and show them the best path. Provide a little assistance there (in the form of free advice), and the person will be begging to be your client in no time:

• Share a few comparables with a prospective seller (but save the full market analysis for later).
• Share a few new listings with a prospective buyer.
• Offer to answer their two biggest questions.
• Keep a file with a few really good, authoritative articles about mortgage news, moving expenses, average selling times and other real estate matters, and offer them to anyone considering making a move. (Be very selective; you don’t want to overwhelm the person with information.)

Get personal

Likeability is a huge factor in converting leads to clients. If the person both respects your talent and likes you on a personal level, your chances of earning their business nearly double. There’s no substitute for personal chemistry, of course, but mimicking the behaviors of the other person is a great way to stimulate a friend connection:

• If they dress conservatively, you should do the same.
• If the person is impatient, take extra time before each interaction to make sure you have everything organized for fast decision-making and, once your meeting begins, get right to the point.
• Make a habit of using whatever form of communication they seem to favor. If they text you, you should text them. If they write long emails and you’re more of a phone person, adapt to be more like them.

Now is the time to take action on these tips to convert sales leads

Generating sales leads is tough. It takes time, money and perseverance. So once you have a prospective client in hand, it’s imperative that you do all you can to give the person that last bit of motivation. Time is of the essence, and there’s no telling which of the ideas above might be just what the person needs. Choose two of the ideas to try this month, then try two more next month.

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