In real estate sales, there are numerous items and tasks that require a salesperson’s attention at some point during the day. Those who are most successful learn to master the prioritization game.
During the day you have follow up calls, new leads, contract work, property tours, building relationships with current clients, and lunch appointments. All of these tasks have varying levels of importance.
Here are a few rules to remember in prioritizing the workday.
Priority 1: Brand new leads. Get in touch with them as soon as humanly possible. Unless you’re in a meeting with a current client, do your absolute best to reach out to new inquiries within minutes of your new lead notification. This will help you increase your contact (lead engagement) percentage and ultimately increase your sales numbers.
Time kills all deals, so get after your new leads fast!
Priority 2: Late stage leads. This is a no-brainer, but a list of priorities wouldn’t be complete without this. By “late stage” I mean those leads that are nearing the end of the sales process and are showing buying signs and asking the right questions.
Don’t ever ever ever assume that those who are really hot and seem ready to buy will actually do so. Many things can happen and obstacles can come out of nowhere so make sure you get those deals closed as soon as possible. Don’t let it drag on, if you need to adjust an addendum do it immediately, don’t wait. Again, time kills all deals.
[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_5]Priority 3. Current clients. In most businesses there is nothing more valuable than happy clients. Happy clients are referring clients and referrals is your easiest path to a faster sell out. Make sure you are building relationships with as many of your clients as possible. Connect with them on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram. Comment on stuff they post and post stuff they might enjoy. The best salespeople build relationships well beyond the initial real estate interaction. Become friends with your clients and they will deliver some tasty low-hanging fruit for you to take home to dinner.
Here are a few ingredients to the time-saving recipe:
1. Get on the phone when possible. Writing long emails to explain something takes forever and they often don’t get read anyway. If you need to, go ahead and summarize what you spoke about on the phone in an email. The one big exception to this rule is if the client has indicated that email is their preference. Then email it is.
2. Use a CRM and set tasks for yourself. Integrate with your calendar if you can.
3. Use the power of analytics in your CRM if possible. The absolute best time to call someone is when they are thinking about you. So a system that alerts you when your leads are actively reviewing your information is worth its weight in gold.
Dialing for dollars is a colossal waste of time and should only be done when you’ve exhausted everything on your Priority list. Salesforce.com with the ClearviewElite.com plug-in is your recipe to professional and efficient follow up. Your sales people will know which leads to reach out to and exactly when, saving time and speeding up the sales process.
4. Use email templates. This will save you a huge amount of time. You will no doubt put together a really great email summary at some point; keep it in a file or an email folder titled “Awesome templates”. When doing this, make sure to limit using the client’s name to only a few instances – beginning and end. The last thing you want is to send off a great email to Marco with ‘Nancy’ in the copy.
You have a life, make sure you enjoy it outside of work.
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