Most real estate professionals don’t have time to chase leads that are going nowhere. But, how can you pre-qualify the lead to know if it’s worth your time? Nearly 70% of sales leads end up being trial balloons and not serious prospects.
That adds up to hours and hours of lost productivity chasing leads that turn into dead ends. You can vet your leads much better through old school lead qualifying tactics that still work in the digital world of today.
Lead Qualifying before the Internet
Before the internet, prospect mining was the top strategy for qualifying leads. You used certain statistics like profit margins and area development metrics to determine where to find quality leads.
But batting 30 out of one hundred was typical before the internet. You couldn’t afford to discard any leads for fear of losing a real prospect. Now however, you have access to much more information that combined with certain old school tactics can make those strategies extremely potent.
Today your lead qualifying tactics can be customized to precisely target your specific demographic. You no longer have to sift through hundreds and hundreds of unserious leads. You can improve productivity and focus your time and energy on the kinds of quality leads that end in a signed contract.
5 Old School Lead Qualifying Tactics that Still Work
One way to make your tactics incredibly effective is to design your online marketing strategy to harness your leads based on these 5 lead qualifying tactics. Construct your website and link your social media platforms in a way that directs your quality leads along a path that ends in a deal.
The “BANT” Strategy
Before the internet, IBM branded a strategy for selecting the best leads out of thousands of queries called the BANT approach that still works in a digital world. Here’s how it applies to your lead qualifying strategy.
#1: Budget – Find out what kind of budget your prospect is working with before you begin pitching your services by creating a short multiple choice questionnaire on your online contact form that asks for a budget range.
#2: Authority – Who is the decision maker? Too much time is wasted working with someone who loves what you’re offering and after you’ve been hammering out details with them for weeks, their boss overrules them.
Find out who the decision maker is to direct your pitch at the right person before you waste your time by asking for position title on your online contact form.
#3: Need – Find out exactly what they want by asking them to select which of your services they are interested in when they fill out your contact form.
#4: Timeline – Many of your clients will want to know your track record for closing deals in an efficient manner. In your online marketing and advertising make sure to promote your timeliness or some other feature that makes you stand out.
Get the Answers First
Our last tip is not part of the BANT method but it is crucial to weeding out the non-productive leads. Get answers before you start pitching your strategy. You can use an e-mail campaign, your social media platforms, or your website blog or contact form to get the answers that you need to laser in on the leads that will turn into profits for you.