{"id":19892,"date":"2020-11-05T13:39:42","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T21:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=19892"},"modified":"2020-11-05T13:41:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T21:41:45","slug":"agent-speed-to-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/agent-speed-to-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"How Top Agents Master Speed-to-Lead and Land More Clients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI had someone reach out to me today and I called them within five minutes. We set up a showing in the next three hours, and scheduled a listing appointment for tomorrow because they need to both buy and sell,\u201d says HomeLight Elite agent Tony Baroni<\/a>. \u201cThat all happened within 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baroni is an agent with 15 years of experience in and around Tampa, Florida. While he\u2019d always been mindful of the benefits of responding quickly to new leads, a Tony Robbins business mastery<\/a> seminar in 2015 further drove home the urgency.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobbins talked about how if you contact leads within five minutes, you have an 80% chance of doing business with them. If response time takes 10 minutes, it drops to 5%,\u201d recalls Baroni. \u201cIt was that point when we decided to start an inside sales department for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it may seem obvious in conversation, in day-to-day practice it\u2019s easy to lose sight of why speed-to-lead is more crucial than ever to success<\/a> in real estate. In this article, we\u2019ll dig into data to spell out the importance of an ultra-fast response, and speak with three top agents to learn how they work to improve their response times.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
<\/a> Source: (Austris Augusts \/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A digital world demands speed-to-lead<\/h2>\n

A 2019 report by the National Association of Realtors<\/a> indicates that 80% of millennials and 78% of Generation X home buyers found their homes on a mobile device. With 68% of baby boomers also finding properties from the palm of their hand, it\u2019s clear that mobile connectivity has changed the way people shop for homes \u2014 meaning that agents must be responsive to stay competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t respond within the first two to three minutes of getting any lead from any lead source, you\u2019re just not going to get in contact with that customer,\u201d says Mike Constantine<\/a>, a Trinity, Florida-based agent of eight years and winner of a 2019 HomeLight Achievement Award.<\/p>\n

Constantine emphasizes that HomeLight leads, like those from some other sources, are distributed to multiple agents. If you want first dibs on that potential client, you\u2019ve got to beat other agents to the callback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI generally respond within 30 seconds of any lead coming in, unless I\u2019m in an appointment. If I\u2019m in an appointment, I\u2019ll send a text message or I\u2019ll have another agent call on my behalf,\u201d says Constantine, whose team remains in constant communication to ensure that a new lead is always attended to as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

Constantine remembers how even just five years ago, agents could easily wait up to 30 minutes to call back a new lead and it was no problem; but as the data shows, the times have changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the past two or three years, it\u2019s gotten so incredibly competitive that you\u2019re not going to get the client if you wait that long,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The power of process and technology<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s all fine and well to commit to answering your phone and responding to emails right away, but during the hectic workday of a busy agent, this is often easier said than done.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why top agents like Mary Murphy<\/a> of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, implement efficient strategies to improve their speed-to-lead.<\/p>\n

Murphy uses Chime<\/a>, a customer relationship management (CRM) system that allows her to set up automated responses via email or text message. She also connects quickly with potential clients through the use of chatbots on her team\u2019s website. She believes this gives her a competitive edge over other agents, while also catching the interested party when they\u2019re in the right mindset for discussing a home.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to get people when they\u2019re thinking about it at that exact moment,\u201d says Murphy, who has sold nearly 150 homes since joining the industry just four years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they click a link or they want to see a house, they\u2019re looking for an agent and that is what is on their mind at that minute. If you wait even a few minutes, they may be at a point where they\u2019ve moved on to something else and may not be open to really having a conversation with you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This may sound suspiciously fleeting \u2014 after all, if someone is serious about buying or selling a house, surely they won\u2019t have changed their mind within the hour, right? Well, consider that a 2018 Microsoft study demonstrates that the average human, who is constantly inundated with stimuli in this digital age, now has an attention span<\/a> of approximately eight seconds.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all been there: Absentmindedly picking up our phones to scroll through social media while watching TV, or opening a new tab to Google something only to realize we\u2019ve already forgotten our search topic. With this in mind, perhaps it\u2019s not so hard to understand how that lead from 20 minutes ago may have already expired \u2014 even if another agent isn\u2019t the culprit.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
<\/a> Source: (True Agency \/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Find what works best for your business<\/h2>\n

Not everyone loves a CRM-generated auto-reply email. If automation isn\u2019t right for you or your team of agents, there are other ways to improve your speed-to-lead.<\/p>\n

In Baroni\u2019s case, his inside sales department consists of three people whose number one responsibility is to respond to leads. Between everyone, the team has active coverage from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM every day of the week, and after-hours voicemail lets callers know that they can expect a callback first thing the next morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just kind of hit capacity to do it all myself,\u201d Baroni remembers. \u201cThen I was trying to leverage other agents on my team, but they\u2019re out showing [houses] everyday so it\u2019s like, okay, here\u2019s this predicament of, \u2018How do I do this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Baroni took the idea of dedicated inside sales seriously after that 2015 seminar. He flew to Houston to shadow a team of agents and learn how to implement their strategies with his team back home in Tampa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put our own twist on it and we\u2019ve done it consistently since then,\u201d says Baroni. \u201cWe respond immediately [to leads] and we answer their questions. We see if they want to set up a showing, we go ahead and make sure they\u2019re pre-approved, and we do all of those things prior [to showing a home] to avoid wasting anyone\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Baroni highly recommends hiring someone in-house to answer your phone during the times you\u2019re unable to do it yourself, he acknowledges that this option may not be financially feasible for everyone. In that case, he suggests hiring a call center<\/a> to document information with a live human, giving you a better opportunity to contact the lead as soon as you\u2019re available.<\/p>\n

Advice to heed for speed-to-lead<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s inevitable that even the most well-prepared, well-connected, hyper-responsive agent will sometimes miss a lead, but it\u2019s worth stepping back and reevaluating your current response strategies if you suspect that there may be room for improvement. Try asking yourself (and your team, if applicable) these questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Where are my leads coming from?<\/li>\n
  • How quickly am I responding to new leads?<\/li>\n
  • Am I reading the important notes regarding the lead from the lead source?<\/li>\n
  • When I can\u2019t reply to an email or answer the phone right away, how do I establish contact with a lead?<\/li>\n
  • Do I have the budget to incorporate a CRM, inside sales agent(s), or a call center?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    These answers can help you paint a clearer picture of where you may have opportunities for upping your lead-response game.<\/p>\n

    Alternatively, you could take Mike Constantine\u2019s advice:<\/p>\n

    \u201cI\u2019m more than happy to call, so, you know, go ahead and take your break, go to the gym, do whatever you want to do \u2014 I\u2019ll make the call!\u201d<\/p>\n

    Header Image Source: (Rohit Tandon \/ Unsplash)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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