For real estate agents, no form of prospecting is as likely to lead to conversions than following up with nurtures. But for many, it’s hard to balance time they spend in front of clients, on the one hand, with leaving enough time to place the calls to nurtures, on the other. Not adequately following up with nurtures is a problem that costs agents numerous conversions, that is, lots of money each year. In this article, we look at some of the difficulties behind the problem and offer new perspectives on calling.
There are generally two broad reasons why agents don’t follow up with nurtures: sales call reluctance and time management. Now, these are actually broad terms for complex problems. Let’s look at the first, before moving to the second. There are usually two reasons for the problem of sales call reluctance: 1) not having an adequate documented process/check-list for following up, and 2) deeper psychological blocks that prevent certain people from confidently calling. Consider the difficulty Luke W.* experienced with following up. Luke found himself around the 45-day mark, needing to make calls, but procrastinating or postponing. He knew the most optimal times to call. But he usually arrived in his office feeling energized after what he had been doing earlier, especially after very successful meetings with clients. Being able to assume the best “presence” on the phone was difficult. On top of that, Luke was never quite sure of what to say to reach the greatest success. He noticed he would let any distraction get in the way of following up. “Even if I remembered to check the mail, that would be a good enough reason to postpone,” he remembers. “I had to orient myself to the situation of each potential home seller, and I had to work at that. But the thing was, I had already taken the time to send e-mails, magnetic business cards, etc. After all that effort, why not make the call?” Luke finally came to the conclusion that calling was the bridge he had to cross to get him face-to-face with future clients, where he was most comfortable. Eventually, he received a checklist from his success coach, and it helped him move past sales call reluctance. In the year after he became serious about calling, he closed 16 more transactions than the year before. “When it comes to nurtures, it’s follow-up or nothing,” he said. “You wouldn’t miss a listing appointment. But if you are willing to call your nurtures, you know some are going to convert. But if you don’t call, you won’t get anything. It’s follow-up or nothing.”
Time management is another problem, and one Diane L.* experienced as she began RAMP. After years in her community, she developed a reputation for being the kind of caring real estate agent who was there for her clients at all points of a transaction, from beginning to end. She genuinely cared, and she took pride in that being a point where she could distinguish herself from her competition. But her way of doing things meant that she spent lots of time with each client, even doing small tasks for them herself rather than hiring part-time help and delegating. As a result, she often neglected to call nurtures. When she entered RAMP and adopted Expert Advisor’s proven and repeatable system, she had a more informed way of differentiating herself. She still cared about her clients, but focused on being able to help more clients and learned to “take a step back” and be less involved in the less crucial aspects of transactions, so that she could devote her time and energy to following up with nurtures. “The way I did things before was comfortable for me. I’m not a natural on the phone; but I think people could tell that I wanted to help them,” she told us. Not all became clients, but the year she joined NAEA, twelve did. And then they began to refer friends and family to her. She went from 27 transactions one year to 40 the next. “After that, I worried less about how I was going to pay for my daughter’s college,” she says, smiling.
* Names have been changed.
If you need additional help overcoming sales call reluctance, we recommend the book The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance.
