14 Reasons Why Your Leads & Contacts Ignore You

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

• substantially increase the number of leads or contacts you have in your database (“Play the numbers game”);
• pay a lot more money for leads from additional sources (“The endless money pit”);
• increase your conversion rates by avoiding these pitfalls and rising above the average (“Do it the right way”). 

Of the three, the most effective in the long run is the last option, unless you have an endless supply of cash and time. Each of the suggestions below can be remedied fairly quickly and, although it may take a bit longer to see the results with some of your contacts, they will likely be lifelong sources of recurring revenue. See how many you can identify (and correct) today!

1. YOU’RE TOO SLOW
These days it is imperative that you respond as quickly as possible to inquiries or leads. The Harvard Business Review states in their article “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads” the following:

“Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.”

2. YOU ARE TARGETING THE WRONG AUDIENCE
Or, perhaps you are targeting the right audience, but you have the wrong message. If your target market is in luxury homes, you probably shouldn’t be sending flyers to neighborhoods with homes in the lower 25% value of your market area. Likewise, sending out a mass mailer of fridge magnets to the most expensive addresses in town will yield very little results.

Each marketing initiative needs to speak to that specific group of people, in a specific time period, with carefully crafted messaging that appeals to them. This cannot be stressed enough. EACH. MARKETING. INITIATIVE. NEEDS. TO. SPEAK. TO. THAT. SPECIFIC. GROUP. OF PEOPLE.

There is no “one size fits all” approach, and the more you try to save yourself time by having one generic message, the less responses (and business) you will receive.

3. YOUR LEAD FUNNEL IS TOO BROAD
As noted above, if you are trying to reach too many people with the same message, your conversion rates will suffer. The reason why is simple – you can’t be everything to everybody or else you will get nothing from nobody. When it comes to marketing and campaigns, it is far better to narrow in on the niches rather than cast a large net and hope for a good catch. Otherwise you run the very real risk of losing more than you gain and irritating some people in the process.

As an example, a landing page providing a list of the best restaurants in the area may be useful, and you may even collect a large number of email addresses in the process, but it’s not going to get you the best leads for those who are thinking of buying or selling property. It will get you a list of people who want to know where the best restaurants in the area are and as soon as they receive that information, they opt out then dismiss you as the real estate professional for that area.

4. YOUR LEADS AREN’T CATEGORIZED
You should thoroughly and periodically review each contact you have to make sure that the status in their profile is reflective of reality. If you still have a buyer listed in your database as an “Active Lead” when the closing was, in fact, 2 months ago, you are probably sending the wrong message in your campaigns and definitely sending the wrong message to valuable clients! 

5. YOU’RE GIVING TOO MUCH INFORMATION!
Information overload is a real thing. Don’t make your reader sift through mounds of unnecessary information – they have enough to do and think about. Keep it short and sweet

6. YOU DON’T GIVE ENOUGH INFORMATION
On the flip side, if you don’t provide enough information, your leads will be left with too many questions and won’t know what service or value you provide or what to do when they’re ready to do it! Make sure your message is succinct but conveys enough information that the reader can easily understand what you are offering, how it will help them, and a clear “Call-to-Action” that tells them what the next step should be.

7. YOU’RE BEING SELF-CENTERED
Is your message focused on you, your achievements, your skills, or your knowledge? If so, you’re missing the boat. While customers do care that you are qualified, they don’t care about your success. They care about solving their problem, and they are trying to assess if you are the person that will solve it for them. This concept also applies if you think of customers or leads in terms of transactions or closed “deals” instead of relationships and referrals down the road.

8. YOU’RE A DOWNER
Nobody likes to be around a whiner, complainer, or somebody who brings them down. Nobody. We’re not saying you should blow smoke when the truth is called for, but there’s a lot to be said for positive tact in your communications. No matter what the situation, your customers expect you to help them through it with a smile.

9. YOU DON’T ASK
Have you come right out and asked a lead what they want? Have you asked them about their timing, any constraining factors, any concerns they have about meeting that timeline? If you don’t ask, you won’t get an answer and that often leads to assumptions about where they are in the process.

10. YOU TRY TOO HARD
Trying to make forced connections by cheesy sales tactics is off-putting at best. Don’t try so hard to relate to everything a potential customer has to say. Be authentic. Ask about their needs, concerns and desires then let the relationship form naturally.

11. YOU FAIL TO SHOW VALUE
Have you made a clear case for why somebody should use you for their real estate needs? We’re not talking about spouting all your certifications, experience, how many sales you’ve made, or who you know. None of that will help them with what they want. Potential buyers and sellers need expertise and experience, but what they want is somebody to help them navigate through it all. They are looking for that expert guide, like a Sherpa for Mt. Everest, to make sure they get to their destination. When you properly show your value, people intuitively understand that you are that expert guide.

12. YOU’RE TRYING TO BE THE HERO IN THEIR STORY
Are you trying to be the hero? If so, you may be alienating customers. It’s their story and their home. They want to be the hero in their own story but all too often, real estate agents (and other salespeople) try to be the one to save the day, and that’s a big mistake. The customer doesn’t want to compete with another hero. What they want is a trustworthy guide that will help them become the hero they need to be in their real estate journey.

All of the reasons listed above, and perhaps a few others, may be a bit daunting to tackle, but you don’t have to take it all on at once. It will take some time to change habits and actions. As a result, these issues will resolve, sales will increase, and solid relationships will convert.

If you would rather jump the line and propel yourself forward with campaigns and communications that avoid all these problems and showcase you as the expert guide that your customers and leads will want to call, topCOREagent.com can show you the way. And you don’t even have watch videos, read tutorials, or program anything into your CRM system. topCOREagent.com takes care of all that for you!

topCOREagent.com has developed hundreds of professionally written text and email communications for buyers and sellers and packaged them into many campaigns. Each campaign provides custom communications for buyers and sellers that:

• provide immediate and well-timed responses;
• are relevant and useful for each lead type and stage;
• span all stages of their real estate journey, from sphere to closings and beyond;
• automatically convert to the next stage after the campaign has run its course;
• encourages the lead to reach out to you for more information;
• doesn’t push too hard for a sale or a listing but leads them there;
• gives you a branded website to share hundreds of real estate and home related articles across social media and other digital platforms.

Best of all, topCOREagent.com can implement them into your kvCORE® account usually within a day!