Simon Taylor chats in this video about the challenges that Estate Agents face in managing lead qualification.
It's a common issue that we hear a lot, but taking an uncommon approach may be the solution which unlocks growth in your agency.
In this first video in our short series, I’m examining a key issues Estate Agents face in managing customer enquiries, and what can be done to create a better outcome for the business, its staff and your customers alike.
So, focusing on inbound lead handling – we often hear that agents receive too many leads to be able to process them all.
Which is actually understandable, because with a finite staff resource, and limited hours in the week (not to mention more recent limitations) the process of sorting the wheat from the chaff seems endless and too often not rewarding enough for the effort required.
Staff naturally prioritise their time to existing customers first, and then identified high value tasks within the agency, which often puts evaluating and following up inbound leads at the bottom of the pile. They get whatever time is left when all else is done.
But leads cost money, and whether they come from portals, your own inbound channels or your outbound marketing, leaving any unattended, simply pours money down the drain. So how do you get an effective return on that upfront expenditure?
When you’re very busy, you tend not to worry about that equation, but if there’s a fine balance between revenue and cost, this can be a nasty dilemma. Saving money by switching off lead generation is not an option, but spending more money to process leads is equally unattractive, and seems counter-intuitive to the problem.
So inevitably you find yourself in a constant search for the fastest, cheapest way to identify the best leads, to then follow up and try and convert. But to do that, we have to be prepared to completely break apart the way it’s being done today in the agency.
Very often the biggest limiting factor is legacy structure or approach to the task. Over time a business gets locked in to having every stage of the lead qualification process done by the same finite team of agency staff, and breaking that mould can be very difficult.
And separating out the simple, time consuming tasks that your team struggle to get through, and delegating them to a skilled, but more cost-effective external resource, is something that many agents simply don’t or won’t consider.
Because on the surface that appears to be a pure increase in the cost of lead handling, but set within the whole process where cost and return at every stage are isolated, it is revealed to be an investment that almost immediately pays for itself.
If you are able to increase your net qualified lead volume, because you evaluate all leads at a lower cost, even if you only convert at the same level as before, you’ll create a net increase in revenue and profit that more than covers the investment.
In reality you’ll convert better than before due to a more focused approach, but more on that next time.
Thanks for watching.
Just schedule a quick chat here, if you'd like to discuss your lead handling challenges.
