Now that many of you have taken advantage of Walter’s retirement sale. We are going to start going through some of his systems so you can make them work for you. We are going to look at how to successfully use your database for lead generation.
The Foundation of All Great Lead Generation Systems in Your Database
(From: GROW YOUR LEADS: JUST ADD WALTER)
Part 1
One of the benefits of working with Sanford Systems is we try to cause one exertion of energy to have multiple effects and outcomes. You are not only generating seller leads right now in order to obtain sellers but you are attracting buyers, creating the leverage of cooperative and double-ended transactions. From the buyers you generate, you can explore unique levels of inventory for them including old expireds, old FSBOs, and past clients in your database, which is tantamount to once again generating seller leads. However, one of the greatest leverages of this business is as you are generating seller leads, you are meeting people who might not only be buyers and investors but who also might be interested in doing business in the future. That is where your database comes in! Soliciting the future leads is an art form. That is why we are spending a lot of time in the next chapter designing your lead card. The solicitation of leads and the proper maintenance and follow up to those leads is a major lead generation system in itself. Therefore, it is important that you understand the system for lead maintenance.
As you are implementing these systems, you are going to be meeting people (hopefully sellers) who want to sell now. Many will want to achieve their goals now or put off the decision. Later in the book, we will be reviewing how to overcome all roadblocks in proceeding with a listing presentation. Some people are very clear that they may be six months to a year (or more) from making a decision, giving you a reason that is compelling and believable. If that is the case, you need to know how to manage these two sets of clients. I have broken these groups down into “Listing Leads A” and “Database Leads.”
Listing leads A group is someone who will be listing in the next six months. They are a product of a non-successful listing presentation or someone who has an obvious need to sell within a six month period. My listing leads A group definitely goes into my database for the consistent contact ratios that we will review later and I also would send them all of my “Just Sold, Just Listed” and “Other Broker Sold” cards. Furthermore, I put all listing leads A in a rack in paper files on my desk. The reason for paper files is because if someone has achieved listing leads A status then there has probably already been information developed on them. Therefore, as I develop listings leads A, they go into my database for my regular database follow-up; however, listing leads A are segmented and put on my desk for a weekly phone call. This was one of my time-blocked activities. The listing leads A group needs to be called once a week. The only way that I could remember to make those calls was to have a segmented hour or half hour each week. My time-block happened to be on Thursdays at 1pm. I know what you are thinking – someone who says they do not want to list for four months probably does not want a phone call each week. However, how many times have you seen these future leads turn into immediate leads because their reasons have changed? The challenge is to come up with a new reason to call them each week. The call might go something like this: “Well, Mr. Johnson, I know that you told me that you will not be ready to list for a few months, but there has been a new sale (sold, expired, withdrawn, cancelled) in your area. I thought that you might like to know about it since it might help you in your financial pricing. Also, there have been some other sales (or other activity) in the subdivision near yours that tells me the market is (give market condition).” By delivering some sort of value your clients will not be bothered by your initiation of service and value each week.
The second category of leads is for everyone over six months who will go into my database as long as I have developed some sort of a relationship for them. If I have created an “IOU” with someone by giving them information over the phone, sharing a common interest or providing something memorable to them, I will put them into my database with what they owe and what they wanted, coded to MLS statistics. This allows me to utilize these leads as potential sellers for my buyer and potential leads for my buyers when they become sellers. Most importantly, they are put into the database with a calendared call back date that they tell me is their time frame for listing. I always believe that the time frame is usually half of what they say or it at least merits a phone call in half of that time frame. If someone is telling you that they want to list in a year, please put them into your database for a six month call back. What if one half of the allotted time period is one to six months? They still do not qualify to be a listing leads A group, but that was good thinking on your part!
What starts to happen is you begin to find that your current lead generation system produces so many calendared call back dates and listing leads A that you will find that the solicitation and follow-up on these leads will be as big of a job as your pro-active seller lead generation systems.
Since I have retired from the speaking circuit, I have my systems (large books with software) that I was selling from the back of the room at about $1500.00. These are my newest products and this package includes everything that I have ever done. As a “pay it forward” opportunity I am now selling these same books and software at my cost, about 94% off. This is the start of your plan to get to the point where you are living the dream. This is not anything but selling you the best real estate training materials in the world for 94% less than they were selling for a couple of weeks ago. You will get 9 books, a whopping 40 pounds of checklists and information that is easy to use. These volumes have been used by agents in the US and Canada to be the best agent in their market place. Go here to pick up your foundation for the future.
