Are leads pouring into your website?  Hopefully so!  However, how many are you converting to closed business?  I know, I’m sorry to bring that up, but it deserves an answer.  Do you even know what your conversion rates are?  Out of every 10 leads that you get, how many are actually turning into paid business?

It seems that everyone has the wrong focus: lead generation.   Every conference you go to, every tech guru that you hear is espousing the secrets of lead generation through a myriad of online vehicles.  Social media, social networking, Adwords, fan pages, targeted traffic, new P.R., and host of others.  

Here’s a couple of rules that apply to this industry problem:

1.  Before you embark on a SEO or website traffic strategy — get your content in order.  Content is king and if you don’t have great content — why waste the money on a marketing strategy!

2.  Even more important:  why buy more leads with a marketing strategy?   Why don’t you wait until you’ve mastered the lead conversion process.  If you master this process, you don’t need as many leads.

So how many leads are actually good leads?   If you listen to your agents, they will tell you that all the leads you give them are crap!  Rightly so since the overwhelming majority of agents do not know how to interact with an online lead.  We’ve never taught them the difference between an offline lead and an online lead — and why they need to be treated entirely different.   So no wonder they throw the leads back at you and complain.  After all they called the lead and asked them when they wanted to look at real estate — to which the lead replied – ”I’m just looking!  Leave me alone!”    Have you ever considered requiring training and certification for your agents BEFORE they can receive their first lead?

If you want to take you lead management strategy to the next level, don’t even distribute raw internet leads to your associates.  Savvy firms have realized that this is the equivilent to flushing $100 bills down the toilet.    Out of 100 raw internet leads, most companies are lucky to convert one or two leads to paid business.   Sadly, the odds are stacked against the company since only 50 of the 100 leads are even responded to by their agents.   Right off the top, 50% of the leads that you’ve paid dearly for with marketing dollars and expertise is wasted!   Most companies are only working with 10% of the entire lead pool.  Why?  Because most agents abandon 80% of the remaining 50 percent they responded to.  

The firms that experience the highest conversion rates scrub and incubate leads prior to distributing to their associates.  Then after distributing the leads, hold the associate to a high standard of accountability.   Perhaps it is time to re-think your lead distribution and management strategy? 

At a recent conference hosted by Century 21 Real Estate, LLC., I had the pleasure of presenting many of these facts to their top leadership from across North America.   I’ve included the slides from my presentation for your review below.   After viewing the slides, let me know how your company is winning the lead conversion battle.

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