Once you have generated a lead, the game has really only just begun. Until your in-house staff or your agent makes a personal connection with the lead, it represents only potential. Converting potential into dollars is where lead management and best practices come into play.

Below are four actions that will dramatically improve your lead conversion performance and profitability. In this discussion, I am talking about contactable leads. This is someone who has expressed an interest in being contacted in order to receive more information on a listing, to schedule a showing, or receive a CMA. This is in contrast to IDX site registrations (either voluntary or forced) and other website forms that do not convey a true or actionable interest.

Make Contact in Less Than 30 Minutes

You are probably sick and tired of hearing those of us in the lead management business screaming that you need to make contact in minutes, not hours, and certainly not in days. We do this for one simple reason: it works. There is no one action you can do that will convert leads into prospects better than making contact FAST. Period.

You've heard about the MIT study that shows that the chances of making contact are tens of times better the sooner you call. LeadQual's research showed that of the leads that convert, 65% do so on the first call attempt. Then there is the research from NAR which shows that 75% of serious leads will work with the first agent to make contact. Do you know that over 50% of leads are never contacted and 75% of those that are contacted are contacted after more than a day? This leaves the court wide open for your agents to be the first to call.

If your associates do not make contact with a lead, the chances of them becoming a client are zilch. This is no time to be relying on email auto-responders and drip campaigns. You can be certain that the leading brokers and teams in the industry have a strict process that ensures that they attempt to quickly make contact. With the large investment made to generate leads, I am constantly amazed at how many companies overlook this very simple act to increase their ROI.

How long do your leads languish in your lead inbox before they are discovered and acted upon? Do you have a process to ensure that your sales team is the first to call? This is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit! Rule one, two and three to increase lead conversion is to call quickly. Automated lead management programs will instantly distribute leads to managers or agents so that they can be acted upon almost instantly and will alert managers when they are not.

Call at least 6 times before giving up

Would you be shocked if I told you that most agents give up calling leads far too soon? Yes, really--they do.

Lead abandonment is a very costly problem for companies which invest in lead generation. Matthew Ferrara's research shows that 75% of leads are abandoned in three days and 85% after 30 days, mainly because the lead never called them back after the agent left a voicemail. Leads360 discovered that 50% of leads do not receive a second call attempt. It is pretty dismal. However, dismal performance by your competition means that there is an opportunity for you to capture more leads.

The same research has some bright spots. Those leads called twice are successfully contacted 87% more often than those called only once. And when you make at least 6 attempts there is a 93% chance of getting through. After 6 failed attempts there is little benefit in making more calls.

Persistence pays off but making repeated attempts requires discipline and time management not found in most sales associates. A lead management program that automatically schedules follow up calls and sends agents reminders to make contact will quickly pay for itself.

When is the best time to call?

Answer: Immediately.

However, even a quick call is not guaranteed to always make contact, so here is the best strategy for when to make those six follow up calls recommended in a study of the Leads360 database.

The best time for the first call is as soon as possible, within 5 to 10 minutes after the lead was submitted to your company. Hence, this call must be made by your in-house staff, an outside service, or you must have an automatic lead management system to instantly send leads to your agents and quickly rotate them if not promptly accepted.

If unsuccessful, then the second call should be made 30 minutes to 2 hours after the lead was received. Calling within this window has a 92% better chance of converting the lead into a prospect than if the second call were made at any other time. Similarly, making the third call within a 2 to 4 hour window after receipt is 279% better than at any other time.

Making the 4th call attempt anytime on the 3rd day has a 140% advantage over other time frames, including calling on the second day. Try again anytime on day 4 for the 5th attempt.

Here is maybe the most surprising revelation. Do not make the 6th attempt until the 11th or 12th day. This 48 hour window is actually 500% better than calling again either sooner or later.

Remember that making at least six calls gives you a 93% chance of finally making contact. Given that most agents never respond to leads, this still gives you a good chance of winning the customer. After the sixth attempt, your chance of making contact improves little.

Call leads that arrive in the evening on the same night

Rule #1 is to respond immediately – yes, I've said it yet again. But some agents believe that a lead received after business hours should be set aside until the next day. Again, Leads360 research surprises us with data that says for a lead received in the evening, the best time to respond is right away. In fact, leads received between 7 PM and 11 PM have a remarkably better chance of converting into leads when called back immediately than do leads received during regular business hours--by as much as 25% to 95%. And leads received on the weekends convert into prospects 11% more than those on weekdays. These prospects are using these quiet times to seriously look for a home, so if you call back they are all ears – and all yours.

Therefore, it is extremely advantageous to be able to automatically distribute leads to your sales staff even after everyone has left the office. ProspectConverter includes "after-hours" settings which allows you to use a different lead distribution process and a different list of agents to whom these leads are automatically sent.

Lead generation is critically important to your business and you invest dearly to get these leads. So after putting so much money on the table, you want to be sure that when leads arrive they receive the attention needed to be converted into prospects and closings. Following the steps above can increase your conversion rates from the 2% to 4% industry average to 15% to 20%. You don't need to spend more to generate more leads; you need to convert more of the leads you already receive.

Those are results that make a real difference in a slow market – or even a fast one.