Empower Your Real Estate Business with Converting Internet Leads Real Estate

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hi there it's Kevin Ward the founder of yes Masters real estate success training and the author of the number one best-selling book the book of yes the ultimate real estate agent conversation guide and today I want to talk about the future of real estate well not really but yes really because everybody knows that the internet is a permanent fixture and a major component in real estate now I'm going to say this up front that it is not the end-all be-all of real estate because most of the things that make make real estate happen is not the internet but I'm going to talk about it and I'm going to kind of help you understand it but the topic that I'm talking about today is how do you what is the best way in the truth about converting internet leads because it's really a hot subject in the real estate market today or among real estate agents and Brokers and that is how do you generate and how do you convert internet leads now I want to be crystal clear that this video is not about how to generate internet leads that's a totally different conversation and the reason I do very little training on video about internet lead generation is Because the Internet is constantly evolving and so this the strategies and the methods of Internet lead generation are evolving so quickly that if I do a training video like this on my blog or on YouTube or on a podcast six months from now it's going to be largely obsolete or out of date so what I'm talking about and how to convert internet leads are things that will not change over time whether no matter whether you got the internet lead from a paid service or from a real estate portal like Zillow or realtor.com or Trulia or any of those or whether you got it organically through marketing on social media platform like LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter or wherever it came from that it's it it's not stuff that changes over time these are principles of converting internet leads that are Dynamic that are powerful and that are that are fundamental of skill and strategy that you must Master regardless of where the internet lead came from how do you convert an internet lead and turn it into money how do you turn it into actual income as opposed to just getting a lot of traffic and then it all just kind of sputtering out and dying which unfortunately happens for way too many real estate agents so let's let me let me say this first of all about real about the real estate about real estate agents and the internet a lot of the talk out there is today is that the internet is completely changing the way real estate is done and it is definitely a dynamic it is definitely a factor in the way we do real estate but it is not does not change the fundamentals and basics of real estate because here are the key parts of real estate number one is a house a piece of real estate right that's the main thing that we're talking about and on both sides of that there is a seller who owns the house and there is a buyer who wants to own the house so you've got a buyer here a seller here a house in the middle and the transaction is that transaction of the seller selling it to the buyer and as a real estate agent your job is to facilitate that transaction and as an agent to represent the interest of the one that is your client so all of that being said everything that's happened in the internet in terms of the real estate has not changed that Dynamic still a buyer has a house they want a buyer wants to buy a house seller wants to sell a house there's a house to be sold boom they'd make it happen and still to this day virtually all of that transaction happens offline okay that transaction does not happen online now it's absolutely true that over 90 percent and in the and the statistics are constantly changing are at least changing gradually up but 95 96 97 98 of all buyers start their search to buy a home on the internet absolutely but they buy it offline they do not buy the house online they may find the house they may find an agent but they're going to make the decision they're going to make the purchase decision and consummate the purchase process offline so the goal for you as a real estate agent is to understand that and understand that with all the changes in the internet the skills and of Mastery and being a professional and massively successful real estate agent still are the same it's all about connecting with people communicating with them building their relationship building the trust helping them find the right house and buy it or if they're a seller helping them put them out position the house in the market right represent them and help them sell it for the best results that's the name name of the game so the real estate industry is not changing when it comes to how buyers and sellers do deals does that make sense the internet's a factor it definitely has changed some things but it has not changed the game so having said that it does change has changed how a lot of us are getting leads just because we're getting leads from the internet and this didn't even exist 15 20 years ago in terms of being a serious tool for lead generation so how do you convert internet leads from the internet into actual transactions to sellers to buyers to closings and so forth so there's five steps five key elements that you've got to understand and that you're going to want to master to be effective with internet leads once you generate an internet lead here's what you have to know number one is that as you generate it what you're actually getting from the internet typically is a prospect not a lead see a lead is someone that you know is going to make a decision in the near future in in the next who I Define it is anytime in the next 30 days whenever they first come online I don't know where they are in the process but most of them are not ready to buy a house today they're not ready to sell their house today and it's important that you have a clear perspective that what I'm getting and from the internet that these these leads are really before I until I talk to them they're just prospects their their potential buyers and sellers and if you'll if you'll understand that that these are prospects not leads it helps maintain a perspective of where's my where is my business what is where are the where are the pipelines in my business filling up because if I can have 150 let's say you're getting 150 internet leads a month what does that mean how many deals is that converting into well those 150 of those there may be only five that are actually going to buy or sell a house this month so initially I have 150 prospects I have conversations with them and I realize you know what 145 of them are going to take some time they're not really leads today they're going to be leads they're going to be buyers and sellers down the road but they're not leads yet now the way I the way to me the way this plays out so you have a perspective of it is anybody that is uh ready to do something now they're going to give you an appointment an app that's what I'm looking for with a buyer or seller who the best thing is to get an appointment with them which would be a listing appointment or a buyer consultation appointment you're going to set an appointment with them they're going to go buy they're going to sell okay if they're not that's if they're ready to do something now now if what if they're not ready to do something for a while but it's near it's it's it's imminent here's what I look at a lead is somebody who will meet with me have an appointment in the next um 30 days or less less than 30 days they're less than a month away from actually setting an appointment making a what I call Signature decision which means to list their house or to buy a house that's a that would be a lead anybody that is over 30 days out okay so it's 30 or more days out than they are what I call per your personal Circle they are a future lead but they're not a lead right now another reason that's important is this is my funnel and I'm kind of drawing it from furthest away from making a decision to closest to making a decision these are people that'll make a decision right away these are people that are going to make a decision sometime in the next month or so and these are people that are over a month out if I understand that these people right here these are internet leads these are real leads these are these are prospects they're down the road a bit then it helps give me a perspective of what can I count on in terms of business immediately and understand you take them through the pre a process through a conversation of pre-qualifying them so that I can find out are they a are they immediate business or are they future business and it just helps you have a great perspective that if when people start out and they start getting these internet leads and they go I got a 50 New Leads I'm so stoked or 20 new leads in a week and they're like yes I I got I got it made and then a month later none of those 20 has turned into a single deal and another month goes by none of them have turned into a single deal or only one of them and they're going like maybe this is the wrong way to go well maybe or maybe it's just you had an unrealistic expectation that you were going to get internet leads what you're actually getting is internet prospects who some will be leads and now and mostly of them will be leads in the future okay so just have a perspective of most of what you get on the internet there's not leads well you get as prospects now how do you convert them from a prospect to a lead and here's the answer number two you got to talk to them the key to converting internet leads is to go from online to offline as fast as possible the faster I can get them from the internet into a one-on-one conversation with me the faster I the the not only the faster can I get business from it but the stronger the connection is the more likely I am to get business from them at all now or in the future so as fast as possible you want to take the conversation offline off the internet portal as long as it's still on the internet portal you don't really have a strong connection because there you're probably not the only agent that they that has them on their radar because if they've gone to your site they put in some information they've asked for some information or whatever they've probably done it with more than one agent and they are they got four or five and they're moving along from this website to this website they saw this property it was your listing they put in your information asking for information on it and then they went right onto the next one so you got to understand that the key to converting and this right here if I'm going to say there's a big one this is the big one get the conversation offline get it personal okay how do you do that call if they're if you've got phone numbers boom I want to be on on a confirm phone call with them immediately now if it's if it's just an email I want to be talking to them say hey great I saw that you were looking at this property great what is the best way for us to connect and see what I can do to help you you want to take it from online to offline as soon as possible number three and this is another huge one if you want to convert an internet Prospect or an internet lead we'll call it but it's really an internet Prospect if you want to convert them to a future client it is the speed with which you connect with them speed is critical it is very important that you get in touch with them quick now here's what I'm seeing with my coaching members and I've got several coaching members that are that are generating tons of business from internet leads and some of them are generating hundreds of leads a month from the internet here's what they have found out you need to talk to them within two minutes from the time they put in their information especially if you get a phone number boom you want to talk to them within two minutes and the best those that are going to having the best impact are the ones that have themselves and a team member either a a customer service person or an Isa an inside sales agent another licensed person who can make the call immediately if you can't so they're literally getting notified boom you just have an internet lead immediately the agent you want to call them which is a little bit of a challenge can be a little bit of a bit of a challenge because what happened is they went on to your website or they went on to a website they found your listing boom they put in their information well they're looking at that house that they put in their information on they're looking at it they're looking at it they're looking at it they're looking at it boom phone rings it's been less than 60 seconds or less than two minutes they're still on your house they're still on that property and they're going like wow how did that happen but now they talk to you there's a connection and they'll actually answer the phone and boom now you've got them but what happens is they're only on that page looking at that house for about two minutes and then they're gonna go to another house and they're going to see the agent that pops up on it boom they're going to be putting their information in then they're they've gone they've moved on the further away you are in in calling them back from the moment they put the information on the less likely you are to get a connection with them to actually get them to answer the phone and talk once they've got off the internet looking at houses they're not they they're much less likely to actually answer the phone at all so speed to connect with them to call them back and actually make the effort to talk to them is critical call them immediately and then call them multiple times that day three or four times that day if you don't get in touch with them to do everything you can to connect with them quickly the first agent that the first agent to contact the first one to make the connection is going to win the battle most of the time because now you've taken the conversation offline into a live relationship where you've not connected with them off the internet portal that they found you on all right that's number three number four is simply patience again you have to understand that the average internet Prospect the average internet generated lead if you want to call it that the incubation time for them is 6 to 24 months most of the time when they come to you online they are just beginning the search they're just beginning the process of getting ready to sell their house or getting ready to buy a house they're not ready to do anything today and so when you have the conversation you contact them you immediately get in touch with them there is a high probability they're still not ready to do anything today now there's always going to be some that are ready to do something right now beautiful awesome get an appointment with them boom you got business now you have converted the internet lead because you took action immediately and they were a lead you talked to them you took it offline you connected with them fast and now you can generate you can convert them into a listing or a buyer but you you've got to plan on it's not going to happen fast now another thing is a lot of the way internet leads are set up internet lead generation models are set up the vast majority of Internet leads on most portals are buyers and one of the things that I do with my coaching members is is that you learn and build learn to build a strong listing based business and to to focus your internet lead generation toward getting Sellers as opposed to getting buyers because it's it's just the way you control your business listings are the name of the game and if you're going to do a lot of lead generation and you get a ton of buyers that are prospects and they're six to 24 months out you can fill up so much time and especially unless you're really skilled at how do you how do you work only with buyers that are ready to do something now you can spend your you can spend 60 80 hours a week showing non-buyers in other words showing prospects who are not going to buy for six to 24 months and you're literally really wasting your time and starving and going broke because you're spending all your time with people who aren't actually ready to do something today okay I hope that makes sense so you got but so you've got to be patient and be realistic that when I'm getting these internet leads most of them are prospects it's going to be six to 24 months I've got to be willing to nurture them and not get frustrated and quit if you're going to do an internet lead generation model you've got to know that in general it's not a churn and burn boom boom boom you know get a lead convert it get a lead convert it it's going to be giddly Italy get illegally and it's going to be nurture nurture nurture nurture nurture nurture convert and it may take you six months before you convert a single one now you'll probably if you're consistent and you're getting generating enough leads you'll probably convert one a little bit quicker but the numbers and odds are it's going to be on average 6 to 24 months with any online generated uh Prospect so number five if you're going to make all this work and you're willing to be patient with it the fifth thing that makes the patients pay off is that you must have a nurture system in place to take care of them for that six to 24 months until they are ready to do something so it go it goes this way I've got somebody they come online they find me they're interested in selling their house but not today I talked to them I made a connection with them I got in touch with them quick boom conversations offline but they're not ready to sell a house right now they're not ready to move I can I can do one or two approaches I can either try to convince them to move now which typically just leads to frustration and resistance they're going to resist you and avoid you because you're pressuring them to do something they're not ready to do now you can try to BS them which is what some agents do but that's the work of amateurs not a professional or you can't build a relationship with them and be ready when they're ready the trouble is you can't do it with a ton of people if you don't have a system because what will happen is you're getting 100 leads a month boom boom boom all those hundred leads turned into one deal this month there's 99 that could be a deal in the next year or two but I don't how do I stay in touch with them you create a system and again one of the things that my coaching members learn and what I teach is you'll learn what's called my personal Circle system and what it is is what it is is if they're not ready to do something now they're not a lead today they're just a prospect they're a future lead I've got to have a system to nurture them that will work for six to 24 months that does not they that allows me to build that relationship with them in a way that doesn't overwhelm me and where they don't fall through the cracks now I'm just going to lay out for you the basics let's say you've got somebody that is six to 24 months out how do you nurture that relationship here's what you do you put them in what I call a personal Circle in that personal Circle I want to talk to them now they're not a lead yet they're not ready to do anything yet but I want to talk to them one time per month until they are so I may have to call them once a month or six months once a month or 12 months once a month once a month for 24 months it doesn't matter and my goal is to be constantly building credibility in the relationship and positioning myself as their go-to realtor that's your goal so when they are ready to do something you're the one that they're actually calling one time a month you're actually going to talk to them you want to be sending them again this is the nurture system is you want to be sending them an email two times a month now I recommend the two emails every month are very simple it's something that you sit out to everyone in your database everyone in your personal Circle one is a market update what's happening in the market in your city in your town and in it's better if it's itemized by suburb or by market area so that when if it's their specific area they can click on it and get more details and it's basically a simple market update here's how many homes are on the market what's the average days of the market how many homes sold in the last 30 days what's the average list price average sales price and and so forth very very simple but it's a graphic that they can it just gives them an update on what's happening in the market but it mainly reminds them that you are in the real estate business that you are their agent the second email is simply a my featured listings of the month and it's basically an email that has the front page the front picture of each one of your listings in that email with the hyperlink maybe the address and the price and the picture of each listing whether it's one listing or 10 listings on that email so they just see wow and and they're looking at it going like wow Kevin Ward's in business he does real estate and he's got listings he's got featured listings if they're a buyer you got something they want which is houses for sale if they're a seller they go like wow he has featured listings when we're ready to sell we want our house to be a feature listing and either way with that what you're doing is you're establishing credibility with the seller with the prospect until they are ready to do something and that's that's a very simplified but I want you to understand if you create a system that for everybody in your personal Circle where that if they're looking to do something in the next six to 24 months I just simply know I need to talk to them once a month on the phone and just say hey wanted to touch base I know you guys we're not planning to actually put your house on the market until August after your you know your youngest son goes away to college I just wanted to touch base and see if you're still on track with that time frame and they go yep we're still on track with that time frame still six months away great is there anything you need right now any questions you have any information I can get for you nope we're good all right awesome well I'll look I'll look forward to talking to you soon in the meantime if you know anyone else or who do you know that's looking at buying or selling right now that I can help and you can ask that question occasionally the key is I'm not trying to convince them to do something that I want them to do I'm simply positioning myself as this as someone who's there to help them I'm professional I'm consistent and I let them know here I am when you're ready and they like that and they're that consistency tells them they can count on you that they can trust you that you're a professional and so when they are ready they're not going to be calling anyone else you're going to be their go-to agent because you had a system in place that allows you to nurture them without them falling through the cracks and yet you are realistic that they were a prospect now a future lead not a lead today and if you'll do that then you've got the time and you've got the perspective and you've got the structure and system in place to know that as these leads come in they're gonna convert some are going to convert fast summer King and it converts slow it doesn't matter the key is when you build it right and and I'm going to say right in here the ones that are leads you've got to have a good lead follow-up system when you have a good lead follow-up system and you have a great personal Circle system in place it allows you without people falling through the cracks to convert all the potential business whenever they're ready I'm ready to make it happen for them so let me know what you think about the video if you like it give it a thumbs up make any comments or questions that you've got put it here be consistent stay focused and always expect yes