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Bernice Ross
Would you like to make your lead generation dollars go further in 2021? An excellent way to achieve this goal is to laser focus on your top three lead generation activities that produce the highest number of closed transactions.
Most top producers schedule time to “work on” their business at least once a month. That is, they take time to evaluate where they are relative to their business plan, what is generating the best return at the moment and where they should alter their focus due to market shifts. Many even do it once a week.
The next time you carve out this “working-on time,” consider homing in on what really works
No matter what type of prospecting you do, your most important goal is to be the first agent to speak to the seller when they decide to sell. The National Association of Realtors’ annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers has for years shown that the first agent to discuss listing a home with its owner gets the listing 77 percent of the time.
Consequently, speak daily with at least five of your past clients or others in your sphere who are most likely to transact or send you a referral. Even in the age of COVID-19, you can always use Facebook Live, Skype, or Zoom to do this face-to-face, or just call them.
Sixty-seven percent of sellers found their agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative or used an agent they had worked with before to buy or sell a home.
Based upon this finding from NAR, devote at least two-thirds of your time and money marketing to your sphere and staying in contact with past clients. You don’t just have to stick to one-on-one interactions, either. You could go “live” from a sporting event, a street festival, or even a city council meeting where they’re discussing a topic that impacts the people in your market area.
As you “work on” your business, calculate how many of your closed transactions resulted from a phone call or face-to-face prospecting activity. No matter what you do for lead generation, increasing your face-to-face interactions, even if it’s virtually, will help you close more transactions.
Watch the Numbers
Your website plays an important role in this entire process. Is it up to date with your current listings? Can people who are considering working with you easily find you on the web? If you answered “no” to either of these questions, seriously rethink the money you are spending on web marketing and whether this money would be better spent on other more profitable activities.
If you haven’t done so already, start tracking which lead generation activities generated each of your closed transactions as well as which activities generated the greatest number of new leads.
Next, rank–order each lead generation source.
There’s only one criteria that matters here: the number of closed transactions coming from each different source. Your goal for 2021 is to focus 80 percent of your efforts and marketing dollars on your top three lead sources.
The 80-20 Rule says the top 20 percent of your activities are responsible for 80 percent of your results. By the same token, the bottom 20 percent of your activities provide about one percent to your total revenue. This means you can eliminate the bottom 20 percent of your current lead generation activities and it will have virtually no effect on your business. Use this time and money to experiment with new strategies that can give you a competitive edge.
Once you have completed your evaluation, rework your business plan so you spend the bulk of your time on your top three lead generation activities and zero percent of your time on the bottom 20 percent.
Bernice Ross is a nationally syndicated columnist, author, trainer and speaker on real estate topics. She can be reached at bernice@realestatecoach.com.
