leads

NHSPro_verticalYou asked and we listened! We recently made improvements to the HTML style lead emails you receive from New Home Source Professional in an effort to help you quickly and easily identify the leads you receive from agents versus consumers.

Key updates to the lead email include:

  • The New Home Source Professional logo is clearly displayed at the top of the email
  • A source identifier near the top indicates the lead is coming from a real estate agent rather than a consumer
  • The lead source is specified as New Home Source Professional
  • Name of the brokerage, agent head shot and company logo is included when available
  • One more reminder in the comments field that this lead is coming from an agent!

NHS Pro Lead Form

Real estate agent leads can be some of the most qualified and motivated, so following up is the key to closing more deals. This means that you should review your responses to these leads to help maintain productive, long-term relationships with agents in your markets. As you know, the message you send to a real estate agent is going to be vastly different than a consumer. Make sure you have a successful strategy for agents using the following tips:

  1. Be sure to include agent-specific messaging in your communications. Avoid putting agents into a consumer email marketing campaign – this only serves to alienate agents (and their buyers) in your markets.
  2. If possible, reach out with a personal email or call, as opposed to an automated email campaign.
  3. If you use an automated email campaign, limit the number of emails and include an unsubscribe link. Providing them with meaningful content and inventory updates should keep them engaged to actively read your emails when they come through.

We hope that these improvements and tips will help you to properly nurture agent leads and foster strong working relationships that yield sales for years to come. For questions about New Home Source Professional or lead follow-up strategies, contact us at info@theBDX.com!

leadsYou’ve made an investment to drive leads to your business, but do not stop there! Implementing a strong lead follow-up process is critical to getting a strong return on your investment. This is especially important since the home buying cycle has gotten longer and many shoppers will take 9-12 months before making a purchase decision. Continually nurturing leads throughout the sales cycle is critically important. Read on for helpful tips to connect with buyers from click to close.

Did you know that 48% of sales agents never follow up on a lead that comes in? This is a huge missed opportunity for your sales pipeline! Can you afford to not engage with these potential buyers? 25% of sales agents will only make 2 contacts with the home shopper. If a buyer is not planning to make a purchase decision until 9 months down the road, 2 contacts is simply not going to cut it! 80% of sales are made between the 5th and 12th contact. Call and email multiple times – you will thank us later!

Tracking Leads
How are you keeping track of your leads? If you sell more than 50 homes a year, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a must. There are many cost effective CRM solutions available today such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Sales Simplicity, Sales 1440 and Builder Trend. These systems allow you to track and nurture leads in an efficient and organized manner.

Following Up
Time is money and the quicker you follow up the better first impression the buyer will have of your company. When you respond to leads within 15 minutes of submission, you are 4 times more likely to contact and qualify the lead. Having an internet sales counselor or someone that is dedicated to monitoring the online leads is a great way to make contact in a timely manner.

In your first initial contact make sure you use a catchy subject line, personalize the email by using the customer’s name, include links to interactive media, have a strong call to action (i.e. come to an open house or make an appointment) and include all contact information so the customer can choose any which way they would like to connect with you. Above all else – keep it professional!

Nurturing Leads
As we mentioned previously, since the buying cycle is longer, you will need to nurture the leads that come in for a much longer period of time. BDX has great content and messaging for builder clients to use from the Start Fresh. Buy New. initiative that shows why buying a new home is better than resale. It is important to highlight the benefits that a new construction home provides: the low cost of ownership, quality construction, energy efficiency and better floor plans. Remember, your competition isn’t the builder down the street, it is resale homes.

Interactive content keeps prospects engaged and builds trust in your brand. To accomplish this, use videos to tour the community, highlight company history or showcase green features. Videos don’t have to be of high production quality and can even be done from your phone.

Additional ways to nurture leads throughout the sales cycle include:

  • Adding the prospect to your community e-newsletter
  • Create social media campaigns targeted to home buyers to get them to engage with your brand
  • Invite prospects to open houses/community events

Implementing some of these simple tips will keep your homes and brand at the top of your buyer’s mind when they are ready to purchase. Be sure to check out our recent webinar for more best practices and strategies for following up.  Also, see this article from online marketing expert, Mike Lyon, about how to turn online leads into buyers.

Unsure if your lead follow-up strategy is making the mark? Contact BDX at Info@theBDX.com today for an assessment.

 

When you list your homes with BDX, you can rest assured knowing that your communities are going to be showcased on over 300 real estate websites with one simple marketing decision. We deliver results – in the form of over 80,000 leads per month to our builders. And the home buyer connections don’t stop there – we also deliver website click-thrus, walk-in traffic, social shares, phone calls and more. Our average builder sees a 3X return on their BDX investment just through these trackable actions alone!

Our flagship new home websites, NewHomeSource.com and MoveNewHomes.com, are also attracting more attention than ever. These sites are receiving over 1.4 million visits a month and home buyer leads from the sites have grown over 32% year over year.  Potential home buyers who fill out lead forms on these sites are also highly qualified – 1 out of 3 will buy a home within a year and 1 in 4 will visit a new home community within a week.

Some of this success can be attributed to BHI’s recent “Start Fresh. Buy New.” marketing initiative. This campaign, centered around the website, www.StartFreshBuyNew.com, helps educate buyers about the benefits of buying a new home and then directs them to our sites to begin their search for their dream home. (Click here for more information on the campaign’s recent success)

Are you missing out on leads and home buyer interest? Do you want to find out how to list your homes with BDX? Contact us at info@thebdx.com to get started today.

Check back next week for another update on “What’s New At BDX”.

 

Mike-Blake-Internet-LeadsFrom Mike Blake, The Mike Blake Group

We know that nearly every home buyer is using the Internet in their buying process and in 2013, “best in class” builder organizations will attribute 25-30% of their net sales to direct Internet leads.

Best-in class performers realize that to be successful requires a paradigm shift.  Previously, the purpose of building organization marketing departments was to drive leads to model sales centers.

This made sense because builders controlled the information prospects needed to buy a home, which also allowed salespeople to maintain control of the sales process.  The basic paradigm was “I’ll give you the home information you need in exchange for your buying criteria”.

Today’s best-in class builders realize that they no longer have exclusive control of the information.  In fact, almost all information like, community, school, tax, planning and zoning, home design, home features, etc. is now easily accessible on the Internet.

This shift in information control gives prospects greater control of the sales process.  Potential homebuyers are exercising that control by moving further down the buying cycle before ever reaching out and contacting an onsite salesperson.  As a consequence, salespeople are left in the dark many times up until the point the prospect is ready to purchase.  The end result is on-site salespeople have less leverage to obtain the buying criteria and are in a weakened position to negotiate a purchase.

Best-in class builders now realize that in order to regain influence they need to reach prospective customers earlier in the buying process, while they are still in the “research” phase of the buying cycle.

They are quickly learning that to be successful requires becoming as “prospect focused” as they are “customer focused”. Best-in class builders understand that Internet leads regardless of the source are the lifeblood of the company.

These builders soon recognize that onsite salespeople are not the best suited to manage Internet leads.  They rightly have come to the conclusion that the face-to-face selling process is significantly different from the process required to convert Internet leads.  In essence, it is a difference in mentality.  On-site sales people are “hunters” versus online sales people are “farmers”.

In conclusion, to be one of the best at converting Internet leads, become hyper prospect focused and hire dedicated and highly trained Internet sales staff.  Lastly, develop efficient processes to effectively perform these four basic functions; lead generation, lead capture, lead dialogue and lead management.

To hear more from Mike about managing Internet leads, join him for a webinar on March 28th. Click here to register.

 

Mike Blake

The Mike Blake Group

www.mikeblakegroup.com

“Inspiring Top Performers”

mikeblake@ultimatesalesdriver.com