Few people like cold calling. The negative sentiment often applies to sales professionals just as much as it applies to people receiving unwanted phone calls. Warm calling offers a more pleasant alternative that can lead to more conversions and better branding. If you want to turn cold calling into warm calling, start with these straightforward tips.
1. Remind People They Have Shown Interest in Your Services
With warm calling, you contact people who have shown an interest in your real estate services. They may have expressed interest by:
- Following you on social media.
- Signing up for your newsletter.
- Filling out a form on your website.
Don’t expect everyone to remember recent interactions. Set a positive tone by reminding them when you introduce yourself. For example, you might begin a conversation with, “Hello, Ms. Holland. This is Jules Vern from Best Buys Real Estate. You signed up for our newsletter this morning.”
Suddenly, you don’t seem like a stranger interrupting a person’s day. You become a helpful professional following up with someone who initiated contact with your real estate agency.
2. Write a Script That Includes Room for Improvising
Eventually, you may become good enough at warm calling that you can hold conversations without relying on a script. When you start, though, you should have a written script that helps you focus on the points you want to make during the call.
Sticking to a script 100% of the time can make you sound robotic, so include room for improvising. Ideally, you want to have an informative — yet laid back — conversation with your leads. For example, if someone mentions that they just finished watching the local football team’s game, you can show interest by saying something like, “I wish I could have watched it! No spoilers, but how did it go?”
Remember that this is warm calling, so do your best to come across as a warm person who wants to build a relationship. Forget everything you think you know about high-pressure sales scripts.
3. Ask Questions to Determine How You Can Convert Someone Into a Client
People might interact with your real estate business for a number of reasons. Maybe they followed your Facebook account because they enjoy seeing pictures of homes in their area. Perhaps they know they want to move a year from now, so they figured they would sign up for your newsletter while they were thinking about it.
Asking the right questions will help you determine ways that you can convert someone into a client. For example, you might say, “I see you mentioned an interest in residential real estate. Are you looking to move soon?” If the person says they’re thinking about it, you might ask what price range they’re interested in so you can send them some listings that fall within their budget.
Of course, some people will say that they aren’t interested in buying or selling real estate right now. In that case, you can ask permission to call them back in a few months to see how their plans have changed.
Notice that these questions turn you into someone offering to help. You don’t want them to commit to anything. You just want them to know that you’re happy to offer your services when they’re ready. In the future, your leads will remember that you talked to them like fellow human beings instead of clients that might lead to a payday.
4. Listen Closely for Pain Points
During the back and forth that takes place during your conversation, you should listen closely for pain points that might prevent leads from becoming clients. Your ears should prick up when you hear people say things like:
- “I was thinking about moving to a different neighborhood, but…”
- “My kid just graduated from college and I’m trying to convince her to move back to town.”
- “Buying a vacation home by the lake sounds terrific, but the idea of dealing with a bank makes me feel exhausted.”
These people have pain points you can potentially solve for them. Offer to make selling or buying real estate less burdensome by sending them information about:
- Neighborhoods that might interest them.
- Area homes that a recent college graduate can afford.
- Private brokers help borrowers qualify for low-interest mortgages.
Anything you can do to help will add to the conversation’s “warmth.”
5. Keep the Call Short and Sweet
Warm calling can lead to plenty of enjoyable conversations. You can wear out your welcome quickly, though. Try to keep your calls under five minutes. It only takes a few seconds for your helpfulness to start sounding pushy and intrusive.
You also need to keep your goals in mind as you go through your lead sheet. Most of the people who ask about your agency probably don’t want to buy or sell right now. Note their reason in your CRM and schedule a time to contact them later.
You don’t want to minimize the time you spend talking to leads who won’t convert. The next person on your list might feel ready to put a home on the market and buy a new property as soon as possible. Wasting time could prevent you from reaching that eager lead.
6. Use ProspectNow to Improve Your Warm Calling Strategy
The more you know about your leads and available properties, the easier it becomes to improve your warm calling strategy. ProspectNow has an extensive database that lets you keep up with changes in local real estate.
The residential database gives you:
- Property owner contact information.
- Smart search filtering so you can find properties that will interest leads.
- Predictive analytics that shows you which properties will probably go on the market soon.
If you want to use warm calling to attract more commercial buyers and sellers, you can use ProspectNow’s commercial database to access:
- Characteristics of over 40 million apartment and commercial properties.
- Contact information for property and business owners.
- SIC codes for properties.
- Predictive analytics to find likely sellers.
Get started with ProspectNow’s free trial. Once you see the benefits of ProspectNow, you will see how it can play a critical role in your warm calling techniques.