What Can Real Estate Agents Do to Improve Engagement with Leads?

Selling real estate is a constant dance. You've got to find ways to attract leads, then nurture clients and close the sale...all at the same time. If you get the first part right, the rest of the sales process can go more smoothly. Here are a few tips to help you really engage leads to move them into the sales funnel.

1. Become an Indispensable Member of Your Community

Realtors spend thousands on ads to be featured on benches and in publications, but the ones that are community-focused tend to do better at engaging their audience.

Attend business association meetings and actively participate. You could host a mixer or sponsor a table at a community event. You could even run a charity drive or volunteer your time to a good local cause.

Another way to establish your brand in your community? Sponsor a community newspaper. Include mostly community news and highlight neighbors. And certainly, you can include an ad for your business showcasing homes recently sold and the price.

Why this works: Because you're not blatantly advertising to a community but rather working to be a part of it, people will begin to recognize your face and your brand and accept you. When they need a agent, you'll be the first one they think of.

2. Pretend Each Client Is Your Only One

It's a mind shift. If you act from a place of knowing that you have dozens of leads at once and then begin treating each one like your only lead, there's a visible difference in results. Everyone likes to feel like a star, so by treating each one as such, they'll feel like you're completely vested in helping them buy or sell a home.

How do you do that if you have dozens of leads? Keep personal notes about leads within your CRM, and make sure to tag them. That way, you can personalize the communication while sending it out to multiple people at the same time (based on your tagging criteria). Also, don't be afraid to handwrite a follow-up card after meeting a lead. Call them. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to give this personal touch, and it can make a huge difference.

Why this works: Unfortunately, people have become accustomed to feeling like just a number with most sales transactions. But, buying or selling a home is a much bigger deal than buying a shirt, for example. So, by treating it as the major transaction it is, you give people the reassurance they need to move forward with you as their agent.

3. Act Like a Friend

While, yes, closing a sale is motivation for engaging a lead, you should push that idea aside if you actually want to achieve that goal. Instead, just consider how you can provide value. Think of this lead as a friend. What does she want? How can you help? If you're not sure, ask her. She may have come to you about a house she saw in one neighborhood, but once you talk to her in depth, you may realize that another neighborhood is actually a better fit for her needs. That's where the value comes in. Put her at the center of all you do, and she'll come to trust you.

Why this works: Homebuyers and sellers are often leery of sales agents because they don't feel like they have their best interests in mind. By acting genuine and working to solve her problem, you'll show her that you value the relationship more than the bottom line.

At the end of the day, it's not how big your lead list is or how many houses you distributed flyers to. It's how you treated the leads you've attracted and how many become clients.

To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.