How to Turn Your Lead Generation into Listings

Do you put all your effort into prospecting new leads?

It’s a common mistake. You throw some money toward Facebook ads, you get new prospects, and you feel accomplished.

However, there’s already a big pot of potential listings that you’re ignoring-your database.

By learning how to work the contacts and connections you already have, you can save five times the marketing dollars and have a 60% better chance of getting new business.

On top of that, a mere 5% increase in customer retention can increase profitability by 75%.

Top agents generate a lot of their business from repeats and referrals, and you can too by following these four tips.

Is your database a little…messy?

The first step to maximizing your database is making sure it’s organized. If your CRM consists of a bunch of names and random, unhelpful quotes, it’s time to clean it up.

Although it might be a total pain at first, this is an important step in making sure you’re communicating to the right people in the right way. For example, you wouldn’t talk to a lifelong friend the same way you would, say, your dentist.

When it comes to your database, you can never have too many categories. Create a system that works for you and stick with it.

For example, here’s an example of a way to organize by relationship:

• Closest: immediate family, great friends
• Close: extended family, good friends
• Clients: past, present
• Professional: acquaintances, lawyer, doctor, dentist, teacher, etc.
• Community: neighbors, tennis partners, PTA members, business owners
• Open House attendees
• Leads: search, social media, ads, referrals

Once you have this foundation built, you can elaborate from there. Pro tip: details are important but don’t overcomplicate your process. Clean and simple is always the best rule of thumb.

Once you have your database organized, it should stay that way.

Try and spend at least 10 minutes each day cleaning, organizing and combing your leads.

This will save you a lot of headaches in the long term, and also allow you to build out an effective contact system. Emphasis on effective.

Many real estate agents aren’t good at working their database, and a lot of that is because it’s not organized right. By spending time in it each day, you’ll skip the “spring cleaning” and be able to jump right into building out a winning gameplan for lead nurture.

A CRM, or Customer Relationship Manager, can be an indispensable tool for capitalizing on your database. All that manual work you do to keep things organized is virtually done for you, saving significant time (and probably a couple headaches).

By simplifying the process, a good CRM can help you manage almost all aspects of your business-from tracking and managing leads to sending drip campaigns, booking appointments and more.

It’s an easy way to increase productivity by setting your lead nurture on autopilot, and in turn, creating a higher rate of conversion. That way you’re working smarter, not harder.

Once you get your CRM, you can start building out your drip campaigns. These emails are customizable and follow-up with your leads during different parts of the customer journey.

Plus, you can make them as simple or as complicated as you’d like. Starting off with a welcome email, you can build out your campaigns from there.

The key to a good engagement strategy is offering value and keeping your leads, well, engaged. Make your voice personable, your emails simple, and your contact information visible. And just make sure you don’t make these seven email mistakes that could cost you clients.

Most of all, provide them with insight and prove that you have their best interest in mind.

Check out how we did this with email template examples that tackle some common buyer and seller questions.