Your phone vibrates while you are preparing dinner with your family. You glance at the screen, and it is a real estate lead! You contemplate preparing lobster tonight instead, because you can start eating like royalty once you close this deal! You call them immediately, but they don't answer. You are rerouted to their voicemail...what do you do?
Don't sweat it! You should remember that most phone calls will go straight to voicemail, even if it is from somebody they know. 80% of all phone calls go to voicemail. 90% of first-time voicemails are never returned. Most people this potential home buyer or seller does not pick up calls from phone numbers they don't recognize. This should not worry you at all, because you have already read our guide on getting real estate leads to answer the phone for unknown callers.
Part of our recommended calling strategy will involve your leads not answering your calls, and you leaving voicemails. In this article, we will deconstruct an effective voicemail, so you can create one that will give you a higher likelihood of the lead using you as their agent.
Before you even get on the phone, you should listen to what all the sales gurus tell you(link) about physicality, because it really does matter. If you are fortunate enough to be able to stand on two feet...Stand up! Your confident posture will be apparent in your voice. Also applicable is smiling while you are talking. Linguistically, when you smile your mouth corners sharpen and create a subtle change in your speech that can be picked up by the other person on the phone. Sound like somebody that leads will want to talk to.
Tell your lead who you are. Remind them of the website they signed up on.
Always study the information your lead gave you before contacting them. Send them listings based on their home search criteria they might like.
If they were vague in what they wanted, send them listings your normally sell. It is okay to point out that their search criteria may be too broad, follow that up by asking if the listings you sent them were what they were looking for or if they were looking for something else. As a salesperson, you know it makes life easier giving your prospects close-ended questions.
If they do not return your voicemail, they might not be ready to talk. That is okay, they are still researching. Follow up with an email or message on social media. Send them back to your website or your social media profiles to ensure the lead will keep you in mind when they are ready to talk. Use a "Call to Action" paired with a reason to take action. Why should they click on that button? What is in it for them?
Example:
Use the polygon maps on my website to have a more specific search.
Follow me on Facebook to stay up to date with local real estate news.
Subscribe to my newsletter for a chance to win baseball tickets.
If we put the above 4 items together, we can fashion this script:
Hi {LEAD NAME}. This is {YOUR NAME}. You signed up on my website at www.examplesite.com. I see you are looking for homes in {CITY NAME}. I just emailed you some resources/listings/suggestions to help with your search. If you have any questions please feel free to use the community reports search on my website to better understand the area/Like my Facebook page for the latest real estate and community news in the area/Read my blog for home buying and selling tips. Hope to hear from you soon. You can reach me by email, phone, or my website at www.examplesite.com. Talk to you soon!
Don’t have time for nurturing leads? Zurple can follow up with leads for you. Zurple’s Conversations™ software sends buyer and seller leads intelligent, personalized email and text messages. Best of all Zurple lets you (the agent) know when a lead is hot or when it’s time to give a lead a phone call.
To see Zurple in action, request a demo in the link below.