Can you relate to the following scenario?
Someone contacts you about buying or selling a home. You’ve added them to your real estate contact management system and believe that they’re a good lead as you’ve had many phone calls and email chats with them over several weeks. But eventually, time goes by and nothing happens (you don’t hear much from them). You then view this real estate lead as a “dead end” and someone who has wasted hours of your precious time.
If you can relate, you’ll want to read on. We’re going to explain the difference between a hot prospect and one that’s only casually interested in having you represent them in a transaction.
So, what’s a hot prospect?
It’s certainly not someone who simply asked to get your monthly real estate newsletter or called to ask you a question.
Genuine hot prospects are those people who have clearly indicated to you that they will likely buy or sell a home (or both) within the next six months and have a clear reason for doing so.
Let’s break it down a bit further.
A hot real estate lead should meet the following conditions:
1. They’ve expressed that they’d like to work with you (specifically you and not another agent).
2. They know when, where, or why they want to buy or sell, and they know their price range. Ideally, buyers also have financing already pre-approved.
So next time you get a new prospect, make sure you qualify them properly. You want to make sure you spend your time wisely when dealing with new leads.
That being said, it’s a big mistake to discount everyone who’s not a hot lead. Add all of your leads to your real estate contact management software and assign them to a drip marketing campaign for their lead type.
Hot leads go into a high-touch three or four month campaign with weekly communications, while longer-term leads go into a one or two year nurture campaign with monthly communications. A great way to think about this is that there’s no such thing as a cold or dead deal. There are only hot leads and those that are not yet hot. They can become hot over time if you do a great job of nurturing them by keeping in touch and educating them on the exceptional value you provide to your clients.
By leveraging the drip marketing plans built into your real estate contact management system, you can ensure that you’re maintaining contact with all of your leads – the hot ones and the “not just yet” hot ones – in precisely the right way. All of our campaigns are designed in such a way to convert leads into clients. When the client is ready to buy or sell, you’re the one they’ll call!
Be sure to check out our video on assigning a marketing activity plan in IXACT Contact.
Do you agree with our criteria for identifying hot leads? Please share your expertise and leave a comment below!