I know many real estate agents all over the country use Gmail for their primary email service, but most do not fully take advantage of all of its offerings and plug-ins that make this such a wonderful tool. Enter Rapportive…

When I discovered this plug-in I was giddy with excitement on the many uses and features it utilizes. From Rapportive: “Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox. Get to know your contacts, grow your network, and establish rapport…”. Whenever you open an email from a lead, client, or associate, Rapportive opens up a box as a sidebar showing you everything to be found socially associated with that email address, in place of the Gmail ads! Can you see how powerful this is yet?

Using The Tool For Lead Follow-Up – Typically when a lead registers on an agent’s website, the owner is notified via email with the contact information that was provided by the user. In the past, you would have to blindly email the lead not knowing anything about them! Now, you can get crucial information regarding who they are, where they live, and who they work for. This will only work for email addresses that have social accounts tied to them remember.

So, say John Abrams signs up on your website and you are notified. Upon opening the email, and assuming he has many social accounts, you can see where he lives, which company he works for based off of his LinkedIn profile, as well as any other sites he is signed up for. You can now personalize your correspondence with John to cater to his personality or his interests. Make sense?

This can also be used to qualify leads in certain instances to find out if they are the “real deal” or not. Have a lead who was looking at multi-million dollar properties and works at the sporting goods store down the street? Now you will know not to spend time trying to qualify the unqualified leads and work on activities that really matter.

Any thoughts or experiences from those that have used Rapportive? Share them in the comments below.

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This post will be short and sweet. The Lead Conversion Engine™ is ready to go!

Learn how you can convert more leads!

After a recent post about asking for the sale, I got to thinking about closing sales.  It is important to ask for a real estate sale, or you could end up in a situation  where a sale is lost because no one can make a decision.

But, it’s also true that closing too soon can make you look pushy.  Heaven forbid!!

If you’re not familiar with the concept of a “trial close”, it’s a tool for your toolkit that will help you serve your clients better and help you pinpoint the best time to close.

The Trial Close

The purpose of a trial close is to get your client to make decisions on the little things before they are faced with making the big decision.  Used well, it isn’t a trick.  Whether your clients are buying or selling, they are deciding to commit to one of the biggest financial decisions they’ll ever make.  It’s not like buying a pair of socks or a used car.

There are lots of issues floating around in their heads, and it’s often an emotionally draining experience.  But, you don’t want them to miss something great because of indecision.

Start with A Clear Definition of Requirements

If you want to help your clients make the best decisions, you need a very clearly stated list of requirements to start with.  If you always start with that list, great.  If you don’t, one of two things will happen.  Either you will just not be as helpful as you could be, or you will achieve a good outcome, but it will be a very difficult process.

Think of your last 3 clients and name the requirements that were on their lists.  If you can’t do that easily, you need to spend more time getting those requirements clarified with new clients.  You might want to create a written list and review them with the client.  This will make sure you’re both very clear on what is going to make them happy – and ready to make a decision.

Trial Close Examples for Real Estate Marketing

Let’s take a very simple situation as an example.  Say you’re working with a buyer, and together you have identified this simplified list of requirements:

• Three bedrooms
• 2.5 baths
• Open plan
• In the ABC school district
• Nice backyard for the kids and pets
• Price Range:  $300-350,000

You’ve got 3 homes to show them, and you think the third one is going to best meet their needs, but you want them to see what is available.

After seeing the first home, you might ask questions like: “Do you feel like we’re on the right track with this house?”  That type of a question could be answered with a yes or no.  Either way, you could follow up with a question like: “How far away are we from your perfect home?”

In discussing that question, you should get feedback like “I thought the backyard was too small for our family”, for example. At that point, both you and the buyer have narrowed down their definition of a “nice backyard”.

You then go to see the second home.  You’ll do the same sort of thing after viewing that home.  And, then you go to see the third home.  If you’ve been getting feedback that tells you the third house should be just perfect, you’re ready for another trial close.

After viewing that home, usually one of two things will happen.  Your clients might recognize that the 3rd home is just what they need and close for you with something like: “This is it!  Let’s write an offer!!”  Ah, that they were all like that.

Or, they might be contemplative.  So, you can say something like: “Let’s see… this home has the 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths you were looking for.  I know you loved how you can watch the kids from the kitchen.  It’s in the right school district, and you said that the backyard would be what you need for the kids and your dog.  And, the price is within the range we’re targeting.  Can you see yourselves living here?”

If the buyer says no, you have a great opportunity to further refine their requirements.  Let’s say that the master bath only had one sink and they just couldn’t see themselves sharing it.  So, you don’t go for the close and look for a house with 2 sinks in the master bath.

If the buyer says yes, then, you close with something soft like “Is it time to make an offer?”  If they say yes, you’re off and running.  But, what if they say no?

Now you know you’re faced with some indecision.  They’ve agreed that the home meets all their requirements, but they still aren’t sure they should buy it?  You could ask “What is holding you back?”  They may come up with another objection that you can deal with.  But, they may say the dreaded “We just want to think about it.”

Actually, thinking about it is perfectly valid.  It’s a big decision.  You could say “That’s fine.  I don’t want you to make a commitment until you’re really sure.  Think it over and I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

The next day, if they are ready to make an offer, you’re done.  If they say no, as their advisor, you need to make sure that it’s a valid objection, not just cold feet.  You could say “OK, here’s what we need to think about at this point.  This house meets your wish list, and you can see yourselves living there.  The house is in a prime location and houses in that neighborhood have only been on the market for an average of 3 weeks before going under contract.  If we delay, you could lose the opportunity to purchase it.  How would you feel if someone else bought the house before you make a decision?”

And, you see where I’m going with this.  The only logical conclusion is that they either buy this house while they can, or you should get their agreement to pass on it and start looking for other homes.  If they don’t want to do that, then they really do want to buy the house, they just can’t make a decision.  Or, they’re just playing with you.

So, you might end that conversation with: “If it’s really not the home for you, let’s agree to just pass on it and continue looking.”  If they decide they don’t want to do that and put an offer in on the house, fine.  If they decide to keep looking, you’ve got another chance to make a sale and make them happy.

You just don’t want them to stay in limbo.  They won’t thank you for it.

What’s the secret to lead conversion for a real estate professional?  Actually, there really aren’t any secrets.  All you need to do is look around the Internet.

All the real estate coaches stress lead conversion.  Tom Ferry tells you:  “All the money is in lead conversion”.  Mike Ferry, Craig Proctor, and I’m sure the list goes on, all tell you that you have to focus on lead conversion.

We all know that you have to follow up fast, and you have to be responsive and you can’t drop the ball, and so forth.  It really strikes me, though, that I don’t see much talk about how to do all of that.  They say you should take advantage of technology, and some mention is made of the most visible tools like Top Producer.

The reality is that the technology is there, but it’s splintered.  Different companies do a bang up job of one thing or another.  The trick to implementing a plan for converting clients, however, is to have a fast, easy, cost effective way (one that you will actually use) to bring together different types of technologies into a system that results in lead conversion.

And, if you’ve been in the industry for any length of time, you know that ain’t easy.  But, it’s coming.