I’ve reluctantly decided to join the ranks of people who say that the “old way” of doing things is wrong, and I’m right blah blah blah. If you’re hoping to learn something from this post with very little reading here it is….

Over time your database will contain more opportunities than your lead generation can produce. Structure your business accordingly.

Start shopping for any piece of real estate software with a connection to sales, marketing, or CRM and you’ll inevitably find a (much prettier) version of this graphic.

The Old Sales Funnel

A funnel! Leads come in, you talk to some, and you close a few. Now to be fair this is a fairly good way to represent how online ad campaigns are structured. However this is a horrible example of how real estate professionals should be thinking about reaching their sales goals.  I’m convinced this graphic is responsible for stunting the growth of many teams when it comes to increasing sales volume.  Here’s why…

  1. Get 100 leads, 10 appointments, 1 deal.  This creates a horrible habit from the beginning. Yes you only got 10 appointments, this month, but what about when you call those 90 back next month? That’s what should be happening, and often doesn’t. The very idea of trashing leads is extremely harmful, and wasteful.This creates a common problem I’ve observed since day one of entering the RE software industry. There’s never enough leads, and even teams with very high conversion rates of 5%+ have an incredibly difficult time scaling their business due to “lack of lead volume”.
  2. The funnel comes to an end.  Again another terrible habit to start.  The idea that when the transaction is complete the lead has exited the funnel. This is a fantastic way to think if you like working your ass off with nothing to show for it.

If you’re goal is to generate more business with less effort, grow a brand, and create an asset you can sell in 20 years then your sales cycle should never come to a point, but rather continuously build a base.

ugly sales graphic

Brian Ostrowiak Ugly Graphic™

This horribly asymmetrical bunch of shapes is what the reality of real estate sales with online lead generation should look like.  Things to take notice of…

  1. The middle is greater than the top: Continuously generating leads from online sources will eventually leave you with more leads to follow up with than you can generate on a daily basis. (that’s a good thing!)  What this means is that in order to expand a team we don’t just need to constantly grab at more “new” lead volume. We can get new people started right away working with existing prospects. The vast majority of online leads are not ready to buy today, but they will be some day. This is why those with the best systems for lead follow up will always be ahead of those who can simply generate interest.
  2. The Closed/Past client base expands: The more people you help the more opportunities you have down the road, and the sturdier your business becomes. Plenty of coaches have been preaching the gospel of past client follow up for years so I won’t bore you with a repeat of what they’ve said better than I.

I don’t think a new graphic is going to change the world, but I do hope this changes the attitudes of RE pros who have tunnel vision on new lead acquisition. Keep it simple. Build a database, market to that database, leverage that database as your competitive advantage, because frankly it is.

 

 

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