At Fourandhalf, hundreds and hundreds of our happy clients have managed to grow their property management companies and get more leads. So today we are going to share some of our wisdom and discuss three ways to close more leads in 2015. We aren’t talking about the process of getting more leads – we’re helping you close those leads. There are three crucial, key steps where we see the greatest opportunities for property managers right now.
The 10-Minute Test
Make sure you get to that lead within 10 minutes of contact. I cannot overstate the importance of this. You spend a lot of time, effort, money, and sweat equity to get to the point where people are calling you or emailing you. You don’t want to lose them. If they can’t reach you right away, they will go somewhere else. Understand that every time you get that lead, it’s a five thousand dollar opportunity that you can’t afford to lose. If you’re in a restaurant or unavailable, try to pick up the phone, thank them for the call, and set up a time to talk later on. That qualifies as a response.
A Designated Number, A Designated Person
Designate a number and a person to be the first contact for every lead. There needs to be a qualified person picking up the phone and talking to a potential lead. Prospects will most likely come to you with questions or issues. Maybe they have a problem, or they inherited a house, or they are having issues with their current manager. If you don’t have a qualified person talking to them, or you leave them on hold forever, that will disrupt your entire business development process. It needs to be clear to this person that answering those inbound leads is an important – no, essential – part of their job.
At Fourandhalf, we have a call tracking system and I listen to five or ten calls a day just to see and monitor the quality of your sales people when they pick up the phone. Most calls are good but sometimes I cringe. We’ve seen customers left on hold for three, four, even 10 minutes. We’ve seen potential leads try and call you back and only get a busy number. This is devastating because it means the potential deals are flying away just because you don’t have a designated number and qualified person taking those calls. Establish whose job it is to get to it first.
Follow Up Strategy
A follow up strategy is easy to implement, but few companies do it. Beyond the initial phone call, we recommend starting with two calls and two emails a week, for two weeks. During the first week you will follow up with two calls and two messages to your lead. If you don’t get to them, do the same two calls and emails the next week. Then, do one call and one email each week after that. After four weeks pass, this lead moves to another part of your sales funnel; you’ll put them into drip marketing or a drip campaign. There, you send an email with good content such as a blog or a video once every month or every three weeks.
So, remember these three elements: respond immediately, use a designated number and person to receive contact from your leads, and have a dedicated follow up strategy.
There are tools you can use for lead management. We use Capsule CRM, which is simple. You could also try Lead Simple, a company that has an incredible CRM tool for property managers. The tool is a bit more advanced but it’s very useful and we’ve had great feedback from our clients who use it.
Attend the Webinar with our friends at LeadSimple on How to Redefine Your Lead Distribution Process.
Hopefully this was helpful. Good luck in 2015, and let’s close more business. If you have any questions or you’d like more information on how we can help you, contact us at Fourandhalf – Internet Marketing for Property Managers.
