I know, I know… You hear this all the time and it’s usually a few minutes before you hear this one… “If this product accounts for just one sale then it’ already paid for itself”… right?
This is a little different though. This doesn’t just earn you more money in half the time, but it does it for LESS THAN HALF THE COST as well. If you’ve ever attended the Made Simple Sites “Cure Your Real Estate A.D.D.” class then you already know what I’m talking about. If you missed it, click here to watch it.
If you have ever found yourself at an industry trade show (I don’t even care what industry it is) you will find the majority of the vendors in the vendor hall are selling leads.
If you attend most productivity and training classes you will find the majority of the classes are about capturing buyer leads. If you’re lucky, you may find a class about listing leads (why is it that there are so many more buyer lead classes than listing lead classes anyway???)
If you go online and get involved with forums and groups talking about making more money in a lead generation industry you will find the majority of ideas are about finding more leads.
When was the last time you discussed increasing productivity and thought about getting more business by increasing your “top of mind” and earning more referral leads? Probably when you attended one of my classes. It’s not a common or popular subject for most Productivity Specialists. If you’re wondering why, read on…
The job of most Productivity Specialists is to sell you a product (selling you a product to “help” you capture more leads) or a service (usually “coaching”) Their job is not to give you a solution that you can use without their help to increase your productivity. As a result, they really don’t want you thinking “top of mind.”
Here’s something I ask in almost every class I teach. “If I had 2 leads, a buyer lead that comes from Zillow or any other “haven’t met” lead source including open houses or a referral lead… Which one would you take if you could only have 1? Almost everyone (except for one real estate agent in New Jersey) answers they would rather have the referral lead. Of course, as any good salesman would, I follow up the answer with a “why?” and eventually we come to the conclusion that referral leads are:
- easier to make initial contact with
- Referral leads will take your call in 1 to 2 attempts, while cold “hand waver” leads take 6-8 attempts on average.
- more likely to work with you than someone that hasn’t been introduced to you
- more likely to stick with you and actually buy a home.
In other words, they make you more money in less time… AND what costs less?
Option 1: Making sure everyone you know knows that you sell Real Estate (or mortgages, or cars, or websites, or travel, etc) and that you work by referral
or
Option 2: Paying for leads or products that help you capture more leads.
Unfortunately, we spend most of our productivity time and money on the “hand waver” leads. Even though they cost us more money AND it takes us a lot longer to close a lot less of them, we keep spending on the less effective leads.
You may be wondering why, but the odds are that you already know. Here are several reasons why we do this:
- First and foremost, most Productivity Specialists are NOT teaching people how to capture more referral leads. The more referral leads you get, the less you need them!
- Referral leads come from “Top of Mind” and “Top of Mind” comes from consistent and systematically reaching out to your friends, family, past clients, neighbors and others. Even though this is quite easily accomplished with a good strategy and a little discipline, most lead generators fail at the consistency part and simply don’t receive enough referral leads to keep it up.
- Some lead generators are afraid of making the phone calls required to achieve the goal.
- Some lead generators don’t have a good CRM and can’t manage email campaigns.
- Some lead generators don’t have the technical ability to create social media and blog posts to stay top of mind.
When you think about it, it’s a lot to commit to. At least 4 phone calls a year, an email a week, a Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc post displaying your knowledge of real estate (or whatever industry you’re in), blogging, videos, and text messages. All while you’re still having to meet with clients, show houses, sign agreements, enter listings, inspections, appraisals… you get the idea.
It doesn’t take as long as you think, and if you are committed to really making money in this business, you’re going to need to make it happen, and we are here to help. We have a variety of courses in the “members” section of our website (click here), or if you want it done for you, check out our “top of mind” solutions where we will do all of your touches for you! To find out more, click here.
