In real estate, consistent lead follow up process is key to success.
As many studies state, 80% of home purchases are made by buyers after at least five follow-ups from the agent’s side.
In other words, it is not enough to capture leads in real estate. It is of much greater importance to nurture and warm those leads until they make their final decision during the real estate lead follow-up process.
To help you maximize your real estate follow-up efforts, we have compiled invaluable tips for better follow-up based on our 25+ years of experience as a leading provider of technology for CRE brokers.
Nothing better proves the importance of real estate lead follow-up than statistics:
Looking at those numbers, no doubts concerning the importance of the real estate follow-up process occur. So, what benefits you’ll get by implementing or improving your real estate lead follow-up plan?
Following up with real estate leads increases the likelihood of converting them into clients. Many leads require nurturing and multiple touchpoints before they are ready to make a decision. By staying engaged and consistently following up, you increase your chances of converting real estate leads into actual customers.
Real estate business is based on trust, commitment, and rapport. The follow-up process as a driven force of consistent communication increases the likelihood that prospects will choose you as their real estate agent when they are ready to transact.
Among the myriad offerings and brokers, prospects pay attention to those brokers who manage to stay on top of their minds. Regular follow-up ensures that leads remember your services and expertise when choosing a real estate agent.
Real estate leads may have changing circumstances that impact their buying or selling timeline. Regular follow-up through emails, calls, and text messages lets you stay informed about any changes your prospects have and adjust your offers accordingly.
Effective follow-up not only converts leads into clients but also helps generate referrals that foster conversion rates. Remember, 64% of leads will likely work with an agent by referral. So why not use a follow-up process for building a trusty reputation? Satisfied clients who have experienced your diligent follow-up are more likely to refer you to their friends, family, and colleagues.
Understanding the importance of real estate lead follow-up is just the beginning. The next challenge is how to effectively follow up on real estate leads to ensure your efforts pay off.
Luckily, we have a few proven tactics to help.
We have 20+ years of experience in providing CRE tech services and solutions. We speak real estate language and know how to leverage technology to keep your leads nurtured and warm.
The below list of tips will ensure your real estate follow-up process is easy to implement and execute.
How to Follow Up with Real Estate Leads | Ascendix
Relying on a multi-channel approach brings you much more value than following up with your real estate leads only via email, for example. We advise using a combination of channels, e.g., phone + emails + LinkedIn. How does this work?
Multi-Channel Approach for Real Estate Follow Up | Ascendix
Firstly, you send a connection request on LinkedIn, then follow up using email, and in the end – make a phone call.
When you send a connection request on LinkedIn, you allow your prospects to become familiar with your name and associate it with your company. This memorable introduction sets the stage for future interactions.
As a result, prospects will be more likely to open your email because they will remember you because of your LinkedIn connection.
Finally, the phone call. At this stage, prospects may ask you to send an email, and you can proudly say you’ve already done that. This proactive approach increases the likelihood of hearing the positive response, “OK, let’s get on a call.”
Repeat this cadence every three days for effective follow-up with real estate leads.
As a result, you follow up on real estate leads up to 12 times, so there are no chances for you to lose them and no chances for them to hang up.
The only thing you must be ready for is that not all prospects will appreciate your persistence. Some may decline after the initial contact, while others may value your tenacity and give you an opportunity.
To stay on top of your communications, rely on a real estate CRM. In this case, you’ll minimize chances to follow up on leads that told you not to do that before.
Following up with leads is good, but you also need to capture them in a single place. Otherwise, with large databases of leads it can be easy to get stuck in analysis paralysis and let your leads fall through the cracks.
Your CRM is a core to the successful real estate lead follow up. It allows you to track interactions, set reminders, schedule follow-ups, and segment your leads for targeted communications.
Having an advanced real estate CRM with built-in follow-up functionality, you can apply various filters and create marketing lists that allow you to prioritize leads based on important factors like buying stage, recent communication, website behavior or other custom data.
Ensure timely follow-up on important dates and tasks with reminders. Let’s say you have a lead that has a 2-year office lease with another company. If you were using a CRM, you could set a notification that the lease is going to expire in 6 months, signaling the ideal time to proactively reach out to the client and demonstrate thoughtfulness and professionalism
For instance, you could send a brief note 6 months before the lease expiration date, followed by a well-crafted email 2 months later, highlighting the advantages of your services.
Due to the CRM that serves as a centralized source of information, you’re informed not only about upcoming lease expirations, but any other valuable dates.
Example of Follow-up Activities in AscendixRE CRM
It’s not surprising that different people prefer different types of communication. However, sometimes such evident things may become game-changers in real estate lead follow-up process.
Once you’ve spoken with a lead, make sure to ask for their preferred mode of communication (phone calls, emails, messengers, etc). By letting your leads choose the type of communication you build more credibility and trust. At the same time, you eliminate the chances of receiving “No” from a lead.
Again, this type of information can be easily stored in a centralized CRM system.
Drip campaigns are automated sequences of follow-up email messages sent over time. Create a series of informative and engaging emails that educate your leads about the real estate process, market offerings, pricing trends, and property listings. Starting drip campaigns is easier when your CRM is integrated with tools like Mailchimp, GetResponse, HubSpot, etc.
Specifically, integration of your CRM with Mailchimp would help you send targeted emails using pre-made templates, create new campaigns right from your CRM, send the collections of properties to the target audience from your database, set up the cadence and patterns for drip campaigns without leaving a system.
Speed is crucial in lead follow-up. Aim to respond to new leads within minutes, a maximum of 1-2 hours. Don’t make them wait for days. Pre-made real estate follow-up scripts help speed up your response time.
It’s even more helpful if, apart from tinned scripts, you have an opportunity to quickly generate comprehensive brochures and property overviews based on the info you have on the property. Ascendix Composer, for example, saves real estate agents a lot of time by automating the property document/flyer/brochure generation process. Using Composer Online, agents can provide prospects with visually appealing documents in a few minutes without leaving a CRM system.
When reaching out to leads, your task is to make them feel special. By tailoring your messages to their needs and interests, you demonstrate empathy and understanding of their circumstances.
Personalized communication often comes with technology, specifically with a CRM tool. It allows real estate agents to make important notes in leads Accounts, e.g., preferred property type, communication channel, neighborhood, current lease expiration date, and further include this information in the follow-up messages.
For example, you noted in your CRM that Client B prefers Class A property. You have several listings of Class A properties. Because you make notes in CRM, you can find Client A in your database and send a personalized offer.
Adding one small detail to your message improves credibility and shows dedication toward your leads.
Example of personalized email in Ascendix Search | Ascendix
AI is being actively integrated with real estate industry, especially in the field of follow-ups. In a short period of time, ChatGPT was recognized by real estate industry as a real time-saver and a great assistant.
Brokers and agents now use GPT to generate texts for email sequences, scripts for cold calls, property listings descriptions, etc. Let’s look at some real estate follow-up email examples.
Real Estate Follow-Up Email Examples Generated by ChatGPT | Ascendix
And here’s an example of a phone script you can use for cold calls.
Examples of Phone Call Scripts Generated by ChatGPT | Ascendix
By delegating much of your email writing and cold calling scripts to ChatGPT or any other AI-powered tool, you’ll save yourself and your colleagues loads of time, enabling you to focus on more strategic tasks and increasing overall productivity.
You need to be always aware of follow-up campaign efficiency. The best way to do that is to utilize the extended functionality of your CRM.
For example, AscendixRE CRM includes advanced dashboards, where you can track lead activities, monitor response rates, measure conversion rates, analyze key performance indicators (KPIs), and much more.
Additionally, you can set clear goals for the number of conversions you expect, quality of leads, or level of customer engagement. Having clear goals will help you track the relevant metrics and measure the success of your campaign.
Tracking Real Estate Follow up Results on AscendixRE Dashboards | Ascendix
It may sound too obvious, but attempting to conduct effective follow up, brokers can deliver too salesy messages without valuable information inside.
Add an actionable value-add, piece of content, an industry report, client testimonial or references when sending an email, in addition to summarizing the previous conversation.
You can send these emails out every 3-5 days. Follow up with your 4th email as a right-hook with listings or offers.
Some of our clients told us that they had success in conversions on the 4th email or even 9th email. You’re basically nurturing your leads this way to keep them engaged and positioning yourself as a trusted realtor.
See how AscendixRE can help you close more deals and improve your prospecting.
You may consider AscendixRE CRM as a trusted tool for real estate lead follow-up due to several reasons:
AscendixRE CRM is specifically designed for the real estate industry. It understands the unique needs, workflows, and challenges that real estate professionals face when it comes to lead follow-up. The CRM is built with industry-specific features and functionalities that cater to the requirements of real estate lead management.
AscendixRE CRM has a track record of broker’s activity, engagement, and client interactions. It has been implemented by brokers, agents, and teams across the industry, indicating its reliability and effectiveness in supporting the real estate lead follow-up process.
AscendixRE CRM allows brokers and agents to capture, organize, and track leads in a centralized system. The CRM has explicit and intuitive dashboards you can use to record and monitor interactions, schedule follow-up activities, set reminders, and manage all interactions within a single platform, ensuring a seamless and coordinated approach.
AscendixRE CRM integrates with various communication channels, including email, phone, and text messaging. The integrations enable you to communicate with leads through their preferred channels directly from the CRM.
AscendixRE CRM provides analytics and reporting features that allow you to monitor the performance of your follow-up efforts. You can track metrics such as response rates, conversion rates, and lead sources to gain insights into the effectiveness of your follow-up strategy. By applying such a data-driven approach, you can make informed decisions, identify areas for improvement, and refine your follow-up process to gain more effective results.
AscendixRE CRM prioritizes data security and privacy. The CRM utilizes industry-standard security measures to protect your lead and client data. With data encryption, access controls, and regular backups, AscendixRE CRM ensures that such sensitive information as lead and client data is secure, giving you peace of mind when it comes to laboring on the fruits of your real estate follow-up campaigns.
AscendixRE is a highly customizable CRM tool. Because each real estate brokerage is different, and each prospect is different, brokers want to decide what their real estate follow-up system should look like. With AscendixRE, every customization is possible.
Feel free to contact us and we’ll discuss how you can leverage technology to follow up with leads in real estate more efficiently.
Kateryna creates engaging content about Salesforce consulting, Ascendix products, and CRM best practices for the commercial real estate industry and legal services. Her articles provide readers with relevant data, stats, business tricks and overviews of new industry trends and CRM updates.
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