Right now there are many experts in the industry teaching agents how to capture leads and fill their prospect pipeline on demand. There are a lot of ways to go about this. Forcing registration on your website is one way to pump up the volume. “Buying leads” online is another. The basic premise is to purchase a lot of low-trust leads and put them through a systematic conversion process. The conversion process often involves placing many phone calls, emails and text messages to each lead over a period of time - until eventually a very small percentage of the leads are converted into clients. In other words, pour each prospect into a SPAM funnel until only the best ones come out.
10 Days of Pain
As an example, there is one lead conversion plan in our industry known as the "10 Days of Pain". Being on the receiving end of this conversion plan is a pain for the consumer. It’s also a pain for the agent - who is taught to email, call, text, and direct message a lead over a 10 day period. There are some agents in the field who spend a few hours each day putting prospects through this process. With jobs like this, it’s no wonder 80% of all agents are out of the field in 5 years. Real estate agents are burning out on SPAM, and consumers are getting burned by it.
Building a Business Through Trust, Not Leads
When we choose to purchase online prospects and then spam them into clients we assume the life blood of our business is “leads”. Buy them from any number of online sources. Then pour them all into a lead conversion funnel until only the best ones come out.
However, a look at the top performers in our industry shows a much different approach. Many of the most successful agents in our field have built the foundations of their business on trust. They’ve learned how to attract and grow their client base over the long term without relying on “buy and convert”.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with paying for online exposure. It’s a legitimate form of marketing and a reality of doing business in the digital age. What I am saying is there are a lot of businesses making a lot of money off real estate agents as we allow ourselves to be sold on the get rich quick mindset. In the process we’re being asked to view our future clients as commodities, not people - and we’re buying in.
Imagine if the words “leads” and “prospects” were eliminated from the vocabulary of our industry. What if they were replaced by the words “future clients” and “relationships”? There would probably be fewer people entering the field with a get rich quick mentality. The agent drop-out rate would be lower. And our industry as a whole would enjoy a better reputation.
This article is published courtesy of: Dan Miller, REALTOR Mad City Dream Homes & RE/MAX Preferred
