Many real estate professionals who have an active online presence and regularly receive email inquiries from prospects have difficulty dealing with these prospects. Some are more used to dealing with prospects who call them on the telephone and make the mistake of handling email prospects the same way. Others are perplexed when they receive no response from the prospect or the email conversation ends abruptly. Many of these sales reps therefore conclude such prospects are a waste of time. These people are worthwhile prospects, but these reps just aren’t engaging them properly. So here are a few hints for improving your interaction with email prospects and turning more of them into clients:
Give Them What They Want
Today, many people begin researching homes on the internet well before they begin actively looking. But many real estate professionals assume everyone who contacts them is actively looking, so if a prospect is treated this way, they’ll think them pushy and will quickly recoil. So it’s critical to ask the prospect what stage they’re at in the buying process. If they are 6 months away from buying a home, offer to help them along with their research. Find out the gaps in their knowledge. If they haven’t looked into financing, offer advice on that. These are great ways of getting them to sign up for your mailing list.
Don’t ask old model qualifying questions about income, marital status, family, employment or anything like that. Online prospects won’t want to answer such questions, at least early on in the relationship. They will just feel like you’re sizing them up, and then won’t want that, especially if they’re not yet in buying mode.
Don’t Restrict Access To Information
The internet provides customers with all the control they want. They know that a virtually unlimited amount of information is available to them. So don’t try withholding information from them to get them to sign up for your mailing list and speak with you on the telephone. In most cases this will backfire on you. If you give only part of an article and require them to give you an email address to get the rest, most will input a fake email address to get the full article. Online prospects need a real estate professional is needed to help narrow down the massive amount of information to them and help them find the best sources of information for them. The more you do this, the more they’ll trust you and want to continue working with you.
I teach more on converting email prospects into clients in my course The Awesome Power Of Email. This course was been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 4 Credits.
