Lead Nurturing | LeadingLane Podcast | Ep 32

Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast for Real Estate Pros by Real Estate Pros, with your hosts, Ashley Frederick and Stephen Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic, and raw perspective, you found it.

Okay, welcome back, everyone. This week we are going to talk about nurturing your leads. So I think there is a big misconception as far as leads and instant gratification that you call a lead or the lead comes in and they're gonna speak to you right away and you're gonna sell a house tomorrow. And I think that reality is that's not really how it works in any. I mean, I know, like, I think about. I mean, I might be impulsive at times sometimes, but like a car, right? Like I said, search the car for like a year before I bought a vehicle. And sometimes when people would call me and ask me where I was in my search, I'd get mad and be like, not. I don't want to talk about it right now. Right? Because I had to find that time that was right for me to make that move. So let's talk about that, Stephen, on the real estate, real estate side, and what. What you think people expect, maybe, and what's happening really?

I think first and foremost, like, there's, like you said, this misconception in real estate specifically, but I think any type of business that is generating leads, that this is the easy button. Just because you buy leads, all of a sudden your. Your whole entire business is going to change. And that is nothing further from the truth. Like, that is one portion that you need. And I think that people need to understand that leads are people. Right? Like, so, yeah, you're paying for people to come through. You're paying for their information. And just because they're coming through does not mean that they're ready to buy that vehicle right then and there, buy that house right then. And you have to be able to see where they are in this lead life cycle. And everybody's going to be coming in at different times, different levels. You know, I have people talk all the time that, well, I want more quality leads. How do you really justify quality? And I think it's coming down and truly understanding that, what are you. What are you doing? What is the value that you truly are offering these leads, these people as they come in? So then you can take them through your. Their lead cycle of life, of moving them from extremely cold on up until now, I'm ready to buy. But that's not just an overnight success. Just because you send out one text message or one email or One search alert for properties that are available that fit their criteria. It's going to be a constant over and over and over concept. I believe the, the average right now for online Leads is an 18 month nurturing cycle. 18 months, but for whatever I mean, so that means that people that are saying oh, leads him in easy button, it's going to close. Instant gratification. You need to take that person and map out the next 18 to 20 months. What plans do you currently have in play in process to continue to touch that person over and over for the next 20 months? And I bet you probably the mass majority of the people that are out there don't have a true written plan. They have the plan of let me pick up and have a conversation with them and if they're ready to go, you're going to run. But why not have an opportunity when that one person is ready to run. Have a system in place in the background that is running for you to still continue to nurture your, your people in your CRM, your customer relationship management system. So that now as they, they get closer to their time and their readiness, you're not only getting the instant gratifications, you're getting your sphere, you're getting these ones. I call it coming, you know, giving them CPR as your nurturing and as your lead comes to life per se. Now you can focus on the people that are actually ready versus trying to get every single person to buy right now. It's just crazy to me.

And wouldn't you, wouldn't you agree that a lot of people would get that first contact and maybe they'll either they won't hear back or someone will say I'm not interested right now. And then the agent like it just goes by the wayside. Like they don't actually put them into the CRM. And then lo and behold, I'm sure someone else's CRM picked them up and I think that's the struggle. Right? Yeah, right. We're not putting the time and effort in. We have these fantastic systems between you know, our CRM and property searches. You know, thinking of just I need to do it yet. But a showing that I was at earlier this week and you know, came in off my sign and looked at a condo and we have very, very, very short amount of condos available. I did tell her like I'll sign you up to get, you know, condo alert. It might be another six months before you get one. Right. But I'm just going to throw her in my database because I have her Email and then once a condo does pop up and I did that with someone else, I think I had, I don't think I had talked to them for a year, but I had them in my database that they got condo alerts. And it was a year later they're like, hey, just saw your alert, we're actually in town this weekend. And they bought, I mean, but right in my, in my head like I had kind of forgot about them, let's be honest. Right. But then the, the system was already taking care of itself and it was doing its job so that I didn't lose it.

Right. And just imagine if you, if you didn't continue that then would they even remember you at that point? More than likely I'm gonna, I'm gonna go, no. If you've never met this person before and you know, it's not like they have any sort of loyalty you, loyalty to you or anything else, it's not like they're going to pick up that phone and call you and say hey, I now see this in your market, in your, so I want you to go show it to me. No, it's drip smart campaign that you want to go out there so that again the system's working for you. I just pulled up the lead activity statistics and this is from nar, I believe. So the lead comes in and the first contact attempt, if they don't have any success or conversation with them, 50% of people have given up after the first contact attempt. Then once you go to Contact attempt number two, 65% of salespeople have given up. Then we go to contact number three. 79.8% of people have given up to contact. Go to number four. 89.9% of salespeople have given up. And then they, you harvest the Low hanging fruit 5, 6 and 7 is going to now start creating this awareness that they are starting to understand who you are. And then it isn't until contact by number nine that they have a 90% chance of converting that lead if they make it all the way to contact number nine. So it's nine contacts, right? Like, and that's just an average statistic. So if you're only reaching out to people once a month, it's going to take nine months. But that's not keeping them in top of mind for you. So like you have to have that continual rotation of conversation with them, engagement for them to be able to want to reach back out to you. So anytime that I teach about leads, it's what type of value are you reaching out with people, right? We're wanting all of them to, we want them to buy from us, but we're. It's only being one sided. What is the, what are you actually bringing to the table for that? Lead that person to be able to start trusting you and gaining confidence in you that you are the best choice to help them with either buying or selling real estate or whatever it's going to be.

And I think that we can all do better, right? Like I'm guilty of not putting everybody in all the time. Right. But I think that also comes back to being in charge of your schedule. So I've tried to put in my schedule like just a time block of catch up. Literally, it's what it says in my calendar is ketchup. Right? Because we get so like not ketchup like that you eat, but you don't like to catch up anyway that you get so bogged down in like your meetings and your showings and your listings or whatnot. I might have talked to three or four people throughout the day, but then I just want to remember that either I have like the people at the condo put them into that system in that catch up time or someone that contacted me that maybe, you know, they haven't looked for six months, but like I'm their trusted advisor. And then they call and they're like, hey, we had a job change. My pre approval letter is going to increase by X. You know, so then I go in and I update those. So I think it's just a matter of it doesn't take that long. We just have to really focus on. It's so simple to do, but we don't do it. But if we just took 30 minutes, even a week, I mean, honestly, like if you just spend a good 30 minutes, but even five minutes in the morning to just try to quickly input those people or do a touch what that would mean, you know, 12 to six months, 12 to 16 months from now. And I think that's the part though is we're so focused on instant gratification. It's the world we live in. But it's funny we're actually having this. What's that?

Go ahead. No, you're good.

I was gonna say it's so funny that we're having this conversation. So I was weed whacking the lawn. That's like the most quiet time I can have.

What are you doing?

Weed whacking the lawn.

Okay, okay, you're watching. Okay.

Anyway, I was going to send you a picture because I thought of you. I Had on my white skirt for golf, and it stayed white the whole entire golf time. And then I was weed whacking while Ben was mowing. And then he came inside, and he was like, what happened to your skirt? And it was, like, all black. And then I said, this is why I don't do manual labor. He was like, what's that supposed to mean? I was like, remember when Stephen dropped the table? He said, I don't. He thought it was the funniest thing. But anyway, I thought you'd appreciate that.

Thank you.

Anyway, while I was weed whacking, I was thinking about these things because I was in the backyard, and I really want this fire pit in the backyard. So it's like a concrete fire pit that comes out. And I had someone come and measure, I think, in, like, May or June. No, probably, like, April. And I have never heard back. And partially that was on me. I was supposed to get them, like, a color or something, which is fine. Like, I. I completely forgot. But I was. I guess in my mind, I was like, that's just crazy. Like, to me, like, I was willing to pay to have you come and do this concrete fire pit for me. And not, like, once have you followed up to be like, did you change your mind? Is there something I can help you with?

Right.

Same thing. I was thinking about, like, somebody that was supposed to do a spring cleanup at the house that, like, never came. Same thing. Like, again, I was just thinking about all of, like, the lost opportunities that people have by not following up. And you think about a lot of those trade laborers. They probably don't have a CRM type system that they use like, we do, you know, so either you could use an Excel spreadsheet if you don't have an actual CRM. But it's funny that we're having this conversation because I was literally just thinking about, like, it's so simple. Like, somebody just wants to hear back. Somebody just wants to know that you're thinking of them and how much more business you could do in it. Same thing. Like, that concrete patio might not happen until next year, but if you would just follow up with me, like, we'd be on the same page and you'd know to reach out again.

Well, it's. It's about building the relationship, correct? Like, so in that scenario, if you're waiting on a color and I am the contractor and I'm waiting on a color from you, I would be going, getting swatches or samples or whatever, and then coming over to you and saying, okay, here you Go now, what's next? So, like, now, and that's my point of what are you bringing to value to your. Your consumer? So him bringing you over these examples is an easy way to start that conversation with you providing value. And it's moving you down the. The cycle or the. The journey of the lean of where you are in the buying process. And so it is. There's so many missed opportunities that are happening left and right. And I'm guilty of it as well. I mean, when I first started in real estate, I didn't have a CRM system. I had a sticky notebook spreadsheet. I didn't even have that at that point. Right. You know, and I got so angry when I would see that, you know, a lead that came in didn't buy through me. And finally it was an aha. Like, I have to figure out a system for myself. I have to be consistent with what I'm doing to be able to actually get the outcome that I want, which is increasing my business. And then I know that I'm not gonna be able to remember everything in my brain whatsoever. So my goal is to basically schedule my future self. And when I open up my computer, I want to be told, who do I need to reach out to today? Who do. Whose birthday is it? Whose anniversary, you know, is it that I can reach out and have these conversations with? And then who do I need to follow up with to move them down through that. That cycle as well? So I had to really change the way that I operated. And you already said, like, you know, you took that, you know, time management. For me, it's. I call it focus management. I have to take a time to focus intently on what my outcome is going to be so that I'm not hurrying up and going on to the next thing and feeling like I'm too busy. Because I have to remember the people, the leads that I'm working are true humans. And I need to make a human connection.

I just picked this up off my desk. So I bought this like two weeks ago. So it's like 10 minutes, 5 minutes. So it's on my desk, right. So when I'm trying to get something done and I feel like it's overwhelming to get something done, like at home, I'll do it for cleaning the kitchen counter because I can't leave the house with anything on the kitchen counter or so. Like, right. I'll just be like, set timer for 10 minutes. It seems like it's going to take a half hour. It literally takes like seven minutes.

Yeah.

So I think like, this has been a really good thing for me. Like, okay, like, I know I just need to do it. Let's just set the timer for five minutes. Whatever I get done to get done.

Right.

So I think trying to just use your time a little bit better. And I think, you know, the lead, the part of that too is that yes, this might be a new lead, but I think it also comes true with your current database of people that you have worked with, you have closed with. So I like to send anniversary cards, like when it's their one year anniversary. So we sent one, you know, like a month ago. And again, not a lot of people get handwritten things. So it means a lot to them.

Sure.

And I got an email the next day and you know, hey Ashley, thanks so much for the card. That was super sweet. By the way, do you happen to know any housekeepers? Right, right. So like it was a response for them to be like, oh yeah, I bet Ashley could help us with that. And then I was able to get them some names. So I think even. Right. That makes you continue on their train so that when they need your help in the future, you added value. Even a year later.

And very early on in my career, somebody told me that you need to be the mayor of your community. Not, not meaning that you actually need to run, you know, in the political race or anything, but meaning that you want to provide so much value to the people that are in your group, your consumers, that when they say, hey, who, who do I use for housekeeping or who do I use for a contract looking for recommendations, the very first person they think of is you. And you know, so people saying that, you know, and I say it all the time, you know, you want to be the top of mind. And when, when people think real estate, you want them to think you, but really when you encompass real estate as a whole, and then you go even further as now you're the, you're the, the go to mayor of your community. And you know, all that changes the dynamic of how you have to sell. It's no longer selling you, you're literally selling the, your own community, which what you're supposed to be doing anyway. You're creating a deeper, deeper connection and relationship with those vendors for turnaround and going to help you out later on. It's all a trickle effect. And it again, it goes back to the value because you don't know that that ripple effect of yes, you gave that one recommendation. Where is that now going to go and how far is that Reach going to get you.

Yeah, right. I think that goes back to like I call it my treasure trove of people. Right. Like we have this treasure trove of people to help and that's what we're supposed to be here, is to guide through those. But you're right, it is like a mayor of your town because people know that you have the right connections or think it's also a matter of them knowing that you're going to get the job done. So like, hey, if I call Ashley and we need help with this real estate related or not, like I know she's going to get it done because she has the right people that can help us do it. You know, I think the other thing that sometimes I forget about is for example, if we I get a lead, somebody that I don't know might be like a random 60 acres in the middle of nowhere, I might not feel like that, extremely comfortable going by myself. So sometimes I'll have, you know, Ben meet me there or I'll have an agent that knows where I'm at. And then I always feel super guilty because they end up being like the sweetest humans on earth, right? But I think about like all the people in my life and many of them came from a real estate transaction and they came from a lead, a name that came through that I had never met before. And there's so many times I think to myself, like, what would have happened if we never met? Like, these are some of my closest friends, like been there through, you know, hardships, life changes. And it's all because it was a lead that I nurtured and they decided to pick up the phone at some point in time. And now we're lifelong friends that will, you know, stand past any real estate transaction. And so I think that that's what we have to remember is that these are real life people. I think that on the opposite side too, right? As far as a lead coming in, there's such a misnomer of realtors because there are not so great realtors. There are some super hungry realtors that will be like the telemarketer that will call you a thousand times. Which is not what we're talking about, right? Because that's not value add. Not just picking up the phone like on a roto dial, but, but those are people too, that they're like real life people and they have real life things. And if we just treat them like humans and truly wanting to help them, not just make a deal, but show them how we can help them, how we can better serve them, how we can connect them to the community, how we can connect them to, you know, school districts, all of those types of things. Like those are all just things that we should be experts on and if we can help them, them understand that like that's a real human, that we just helped impact their family.

Absolutely. And, and that's forever going right, like getting you know, the kids into a fantastic school and then as they grow up and they're going on to the next steps of their lives, like this is a multi generational lead, you know, lead for life, customer for life that you are creating. And that's the goal, at least that's my goal is I want to make sure that I'm creating customers for life. And I, I think I find it funny with this, the nurturing aspect, the follow up aspect is people over complicated. They think that they have to do everything by hand and they have to remember everything and they don't have a system in play. But then also I think the other part of this is when people truly do lean into the systems and you know, if you're doing email campaigns and all of this fun stuff, like I think people have a hard time understanding how much of an impact that really has in the nurturing process because it's not tangible for them. They don't see, they're not typing that email out, they're not typing that text message out, they're not seeing that email in their inbox, you know, because it's an indifferent system. And so therefore it's like out of sight, out of mind. And having something that's not tangible in the nurturing then all of a sudden becomes a low value for people that don't understand what that true lead nurturing process looks like. So I think that's kind of interesting. You know I pulled, I was telling you that I pulled a, one of our clients reports in the last 90 days when we set up their, their CRM system, we sent out like 32,000 emails on their behalf and the leads that were coming through, 32,000 emails being sent. And it was told me like, but we don't have a return of investment on that. We don't see any money yet. Well, yeah, no, like, because we're, we're nurturing. That's what it's called, right? We're here nurturing. But when was the last time you ever sent out 32,000 emails in a 90 day period? Never. And you know, I thought it was really funny because she said well we can pick up the phone and call 10 people and get deals going. So what's preventing you? Why don't you do that then? Because if you do that and you have those people that are hotter leads, if you will, and you are nurturing those that are lesser likely to buy right now, just imagine when all of this starts matching up, you're working your sphere, which is the biggest return of investment that you can ever get off of anything, and you're getting these little sprinkle in of leads that are now coming to life without you having to lift a finger. But you don't find value in it. I mean it's more because they don't see the tangible in, they don't understand since it was set up and done for. So.

So with that, can you break that down for me a little bit? So for people that maybe don't have a CRM or aren't necessarily sure what you mean by, you know, 32,000 emails sent for them, can you explain that a little bit more in detail?

Yeah. So with our CRM and pretty much anyone out there that you have a smart campaign or a direct campaign, meaning that you have a, an exact plan, an exact template that you apply to the leads that come in. So for instance, maybe in the first 10 minutes a text message is going to go out introducing yourself and then day one.

But that's not actually like the agent that is sending the text.

The system is sending it out on behalf of the agent. So.

Right, so it's like a. Done for you.

Yeah. To the consumer side, it appears that the agent manually sent that text message to them. Manually sent that email to them. But that's not really the case. The, it's just putting their email signature that is on there and it's applying the, the template and then sending it directly to the consumer with all of the agent's information on there. So that plan continues to go on, you know, it's, you know, day three, then you have a day seven and day ten and so on. Whatever the, the sequence is like that goes on for like we have people on a two year campaign and we have people coming back to us now from two years ago that we have been consistent with sending this email out. And because it's automated, we don't have to mainly do anything. We set it and forget it. And then now they're coming out of the woodworks and so we can then take them and start showing them houses. But what the system allows you to do is yes, that's nurturing them, but allows you to focus on the People that are right there in front of you ready to go versus trying to over complicate handling on juggling all of these leads that are coming through. So the what happened for this company in particular is since this was applied to their agents and as they come through, the agents didn't have to lift a finger whatsoever. So not only does the from the broker perspective don't see those emails going out, the agents aren't necessarily paying attention to it either because it's all automated. And when I said 32,000, yeah, that's a big number. But it's something that 32,000 clicks that you did not have to make in 90 day process. Like I would love to save 32,000 clicks. And now I'm talking to people. That's pretty simple. So.

Well, I think too like depending on your app, you know, it almost like you said, like text messages too. So I might be out on appointments and a lead came in and the system's already set up so that I don't touch anything. Like an email has already been sent to them. You know, like one of our first ones is, you know, are you currently looking, like actively searching or just browsing? And so somebody has already responded. Actively searching, right. And then another response will go, I was at an appointment, I didn't send any of those. But they think it is. And then I open it and I see that they have responded and then I see actively looking, I'm like, oh, that's a great opportunity for me to jump in.

Right, right.

So I did that last week and jumped in and was like, great. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you're looking for? And I mean, turns out she needs a rental, which is still fine. But like now I've made a connection with her. I gave her some numbers for a rental and now she's in my database so that when maybe the rental doesn't work out or it's time to buy, like, right. I gave her that information and now she sends mine. Like we do it too. That a lot of my new leads that come in get put on my newsletter. So they might not know who I am, but they get my monthly newsletter and by default they start to know who I am. Because my newsletter has my tone, my types of things.

Right, well, and then I saw that you posted like things that are happening in Marshfield, right, These upcoming events, what you're doing is doing, you're being the mayor, right? You're letting people know these events that are happening in your guys's area. And if they buy from you or not, like, that's perfectly fine. Right? But you're providing value and you're selling your community and getting people involved. And then that's the connection that eventually when they are ready or if they know somebody that's looking to buy or sell, they're going to say, hey, I met Ashley. She's freaking phenomenal. That's why I went to Hub City Days, you know, and I was able to go there. So it's about the connections and the connectors that you're going to meet. Not every single person is going to be a true 100% close. But you don't know what that is going to convert over to another part with this too. Like, how many freaking telemarketer calls do we get every single day? How many text messages? I mean, right now I get text message. I got four while we're on this podcast. And there. One was about health insurance, another one was about life insurance. Like, my God, right? So are you going to get people that are going to get irritated and say, stop, don't send me something. Of course you are. Like, that's going to naturally happen. But we can't take offense or take it to heart that they're angry at us. And it's a rejection. I think a lot of people get.

Just wrote down fear of rejection, but hurry of rejection. Yeah, yeah.

And it's funny how the word stop makes people, like, want to stop their entire business and operation because one person said stop.

Well, and I always think, like, okay, everybody's community size is different. So mine's like 25ish. 25,000. Like our area. I don't know what. What yours is similar. Ish. I mean, right. If you think about that in a. In a scale, and let's say that, like, you just do 100 transactions a year. That is like such a minute number when you're looking at 25,000 people. So, like, if five people right back, stop. But 15 people get nurtured for a year, like, really, what's the better return? I mean, the 15 people that are being nurtured and I mean, you still have your own sphere that you're working through. Right? Like, we're just talking about leads. The other thing I wrote down is just like warm leads. I think that people kind of forget to nurture their warm leads. So you have the leads that you've never met before. So kind of cold.

Ish.

Right. But they've also requested information. You have your active ones that are like, hey, like, we've Looked at houses this week. I know that their listing is coming up, but like, what about those middle people? Those people that maybe house hasn't come out for a while, they're not gonna be ready to. You know, when I read the ninja selling book, like it really talks about still touching base with your warm leads.

Absolutely.

I've worked really hard on that. And it's actually, to me, it's very interesting when you're still just staying in flow with them, how it seems to move them up into the hot lead, like much quicker. But if you weren't reaching out to them, that's kind of where they stay in this, you know, mild area because they're not engaged, they're not thinking about it, they're not getting any value. So I think it's just important that, I mean, really have to have a plan with your active leads, your warm leads, your cold leads. Like there's a place in time for everyone and there are metrics that we can use for everyone.

Absolutely. And the again, where wherever they are in that lead cycle and your job is to be able to get them to and match them where their mindset is. So it's understanding that if somebody's hot, you're going to be more apt to start showing really quickly. You're matching it. Somebody's cold, you need to match it. It doesn't need to be aggressive. Right. And those mild ones is really being able to be able to see, you know, give them the, the possibilities of what their future could be. So it's matching them where they are in their current mindset, showing them those future possibilities and showing those, the. The pleasures that could come with it. And then being able to give them the stepping stone, be able to see. This is the easy path if I want to get from where I am now to where I want to be able to go. And Ashley is the one that'd be able to show me how to get there from point A to point B with the least amount of issues. Right. So it's constant and there's so much leads and CRM system is such a huge portion of our career that you have so many different type of campaigns you can put people on, so many different newsletters, emails, offerings, events, you know, education. There's so much, and especially with the time that right now with everything going on and the changes within our industry, being able to educate our people and making sure that they know that you're the one that is to be loved and trusted. And if they're not loving what they're Receiving. Maybe they aren't your cup of tea and that's perfectly fine. There's so many other people that are out there that want to hear from you and want to be felt that, you know, they are actually real live people versus just a lead.

Agreed.

Good talk. I can talk about leads all the time and managing everything. So I. What different CRM systems have you used in the past?

Salesforce was one I used in when I was in healthcare. And then was it Top producer? Is that. Was that what it was called? Yeah. And then now obviously KVCore.

Yeah. And then you obviously had Excel. Right, like just the good old Excel.

And all the legal pads.

I mean, let's be honest, the legal pad. I will never forget my grandma having her Rolodex, right, Like on her. On her. Her desk. And like, like that. That was her CRM system. So there. I mean, there's so many great things that are out there, system wise. KVCore, Chime, Zoho, ActiveCampaign. There's. You just do your research. Oh my gosh.

And that's just it, right? I think you need like an apples and like apples and oranges, pros and cons. Like, what are the costs involved? What can they really do for you? Who can help manage them? You know, like, are there actual span Spanish smart campaigns, ones that actually mean something to you too? Because ones that don't sound like you obviously don't necessarily help that situation either. But I think that not having a CRM at all could be very detrimental to your business.

I agree. Could you imagine where I would be if I would have started with a CRM?

I just think about, like, the amount of clients I would have lost, likely because I forgot to follow up or they found someone else. So, I mean, really, it's just, I'm thankful that we have one, that we're really getting delved into it and that we can help these people, you know, fulfill what they're looking for.

Absolutely. Well, great conversation today. I appreciate you as always and thank you for everybody that tuned in. Please go like and subscribe and follow us on Facebook. Tune in next time.

Bye too.

Lou.

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