Taking the lead
Leads are the lifeblood of agency, but what happens when leads dry up? Lisa Isaacs talks to the companies who help generate and nurture new business.
This backdrop brings leads into sharp focus. The last two years have seen sales and lettings run on rocket fuel, with movers falling over themselves to secure a property but from now on? More nurturing (it’s a word you’ll hear a lot), cajoling and persuading may be on the cards, and leads could be harder to come by.
Let’s have a chat
Richard Combellack at Yomdel – a live chat operator owned by BriefYourMarket – says lead capture and filtering is of paramount importance, whatever the state of the market. The problem? Richard feels agents have become so focused on progressing existing, easy-win sales and tenancies that they have neglected the art of acquiring new leads, recording them in a CRM and nurturing those that show potential.
The portals consistently tell us that the busiest period on their sites is between 8pm and 9pm, when people have time to browse but agency branches are closed . Richard Combellack CCO, BriefYourMarket.
In terms of where leads are going to come from, Richard draws attention to the ‘sweet spot’ in the day when home movers are active. “The portals consistently tell us that the busiest period on their sites is between 8pm and 9pm, when people have time to browse but agency branches are closed.”
When you combine this with research from J.D. Power that found 42 per cent of people now prefer to use live chat, compared to 23 per cent for email and even less for social media, it’s not hard to see how leads can materialise from online conversations.
There is, however, a little myth busting to be done in relation to live chat. It’s actually more sophisticated and less automated than you probably imagine, especially in terms of lead capture and nurture. For instance, before being let loose on live chat, the Yomdel team works closely with the agent to build a Knowledge Bank – a constantly updated list of pre-emptive questions the client expects Yomdel’s operators to be asked, how they would like those questions to be answered and any questions Yomdel’s agents should ask of the prospect for maximum lead generation and filtering potential.
Once engaged with a lead, the live chat will last about 10 minutes, with Yomdel’s operator ascertaining intent, qualifying the lead through relevant questions and recording all the details the client has pre-required. Only then does Yomdel use its integration powers to add the lead, together with the full chat transcript, to the agent’s CRM system – and even book a valuation appointment, with the date and time appearing in the agent’s diary.
Big data replaces outdated methods
Sam Hunter at Homesearch is also vocal about the art of finding new leads, commenting that agents need to think outside the box. “It’s not about persisting with the same old tried and tested methods, such as relying on emailing a database each month about no-obligation market appraisals, prospecting using portals or spending heavily on Google and Facebook.”
“These are the same tactics deployed by every other agent in their local area. Those that are more savvy will explore the power of big data and how it can be harnessed to quickly transition more leads into revenue,” adds Sam.
It’s not about persisting with the same old methods… those that are more savvy will explore the power of big data and how it can be harnessed to transition more leads into revenue. Sam Hunter COO, Homesearch.
Sam is a fan of adding value and enriching the customer journey as a way of supporting clients, while doing what he calls “pushing them further down the sales funnel”. “Agents need to be proactive in generating opportunities for their clients that they didn’t know existed. Whether it’s finding that buyer a dream home that’s not currently on the market or arming landlords with the intel needed to drive increased rental incomes, agents can do much more to offer support.”
The last two years have seen movers falling over themselves to secure a property – but from now on?
“We’ve invested a large amount of time and money in identifying and building the data on our platform – data we know makes agents standout from their competitors and give them the edge when it comes to finding, nurturing, and converting leads.” And what does Homesearch’s big data actually tell agents? It pinpoints homeowners who are ready to sell, allows agents to target off market homes and serves up timely property insights that will turn potential sellers into instructions.
Bucket list
Thinking outside of the box and thinking ‘buckets’ instead – not the same old ‘tried and tested’ – is how Boomin is helping agents capture leads and to deliver them in a methodically segmented way. Michael Bruce at the portal says the traditional classified listing service model is outdated and is the reason why Boomin has eschewed the traditional generic contact agent email/message function in favour of something highly filtered.
By dividing the user experience into different features, our agents gain a clear and quick understanding of each potential customer… where they are in their property journey. Michael Bruce Founder & CEO, Boomin.
“By dividing the user experience into different features, essentially different intent buckets, our agents gain a clear and quick understanding of each potential customer, what they are looking for and where they are in their property journey. As a result, agents can prioritise leads accordingly,” says Michael. Boomin customers self-qualify through the way they interact with our platform, which allows us to deliver quality leads that drive real commercial opportunities for agents, rather than email volumes.”
This lead capture method is complemented by Boomin’s SmartVal tool, which has been used over 300,000 times since its launch, with 20 per cent of those valuations converting into a listing – a statistic calculated by TwentyCi.
Identifying future sellers
The value of a property is what’s instrumental in delivering leads at Spectre, as Heather Staff explains. “If and when the market starts to contract, it’s even more important to build and nurture relationships with homeowners who may be tentatively thinking about selling but haven’t yet made the decision to go to market.”
Currently delivering results is tempting people with a Street Insights property report on their home, which includes an instant valuation, in exchange for their contact details. Heather says the approach works in two ways: the estimated valuation gets the homeowner thinking about the possibilities, while the data capture elements allows the agent to nurture the prospect even if it’s a cold lead, until they’re ready to put their property on the market.
Testing has already shown a 240 per cent increase in success rates from our AI-powered campaigns, which is only set to increase with machine learning. Heather Staff Co-founder, Street Group.
To ensure the very best return on investment, Spectre harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) when it comes to property selection, enabling agents to target only the homeowners that are deemed most likely to sell and therefore result in an instruction. “Testing has already shown a 240 per cent increase in success rates from our AI-powered campaigns, which is only set to increase with machine learning,” says Heather.
Increased lead opportunities are also driven by automated letters that are sent to properties that have withdrawn from the market without selling, with Spectre cross-checking against the Land Registry to ensure any properties haven’t been sold privately in the meantime.
Timing, as well as data, is the driving force behind Acaboom’s service, which is designed to turn valuation appointments into instructions via a slicker approach to communication, presentation and property information. It strives to deliver leads by using its app to pinpoint the moment when the agent’s digital proposal is being viewed by the potential seller and when a client wants to instruct – striking while the iron is hot, if you like. “Timing is the secret of the universe,” says Acaboom’s Suzanna Mavity. “Agents using Acaboom receive an email notification each time a client views a proposal. This not only allows agents to follow-up at the best moment but it also means less time is spent with unsuccessful follow-up attempts.”
Sending regular market update reports is about capturing someone’s attention and staying in touch … 32 per cent of clients take longer than a month to instruct an agent. Suzanna Mavity Sales Director, Acaboom.
These real-time notifications are part of Acaboom’s lead journey, which also includes market update reports and a centralised dashboard where all leads are displayed. “Sending regular market update reports is about capturing someone’s attention and staying in touch with prospects for the future. This is especially important, as 32 per cent of clients take longer than a month to instruct an agent,” adds Suzanna.
Opt out of inbox chaos
No matter how many new and more modern methods of lead generation there are, agents will still receive enquiry emails generated by the portals and their own website. How they are dealt with can be the difference between a positive pipeline and a negative review.
Bob Scarff at Callwell highlights how the most common explanation as to why agents don’t respond to every email – and potentially miss a lead – is that they get overlooked in the standard inbox. It’s a situation that’s not good for business or for brand reputation.
To stop any lead slipping through the net, Callwell routes emails from all portals and the agent’s own website and presents them in one enquiry screen. This feature alone makes it less likely that a lead will get overlooked, with the agent choosing how to respond to enquiries. If the agent has opted for automatic phone calls, the agent instantly receives a call during working hours, telling them the source of the lead, the type of lead and the name of the consumer.
Different types of enquiry can be quickly filtered and dealt with by email or text message instead, leaving the agents free to speak with those that they choose to. Bob Scarff Managing Director, Callwell.
If the agent presses ‘1’ on their keypad, they instantly call the person who made the enquiry. If they can’t or don’t want to call them immediately, they simply replace the handset and the customer knows no different. The agent can then go back later to make the call at their convenience, as the lead will be in their inbox. “Callwell also offers the option to tailor the response method,” adds Bob. “Different types of enquiry can be quickly filtered and dealt with by email or text message instead, leaving the agents free to speak with those that they choose to.”
Callwell’s Leadcheck back office system lets agents know precisely the end results of each enquiry – not just the volume, type and source of leads received but precisely how many became listings, sales, lets and mortgage appointments. In addition, Leadcheck shows the response status of agents, revealing which employees are pulling their weight.
Squeezing data from every email For Mike Nettleton, the chairman of estate agent Nock Deighton, incoming emails were of such importance that he designed his own app to ensure the leads were nurtured from the moment they dropped in his inbox. Agent Response was born – an automated email response system that sits neatly between the portals and an agent’s CRM system. The service feeds into Suzanna’s ‘timing is the secret of the universe’ mantra, with a bespoke, white-labelled reply being sent automatically to every inbound email – whether the message is sent at 9pm or 3am.
There’s no such thing as a bad or weak lead. If we ask better questions, we get better answers, and we can better allocate our team resources to help more people. Mike Nettleton Agent Response.
Mike believes there is no such thing as a bad or weak lead but acknowledges that an agent’s time is a finite resource. Therefore, all Agent Response’s automated email replies have a Smart Form attached, carefully crafted to ask ‘the right questions at the right time’.
This data capture exercise takes the legwork out of pre-qualifying applicants and identifies the leads that are more valuable than others. “If we ask better questions, we get better answers, and we can better allocate our team resources to help more people,” says Mike. Currently all the emails that Agent Response answers out of office hours appear in an agent’s inbox, but a centralised lead dashboard is being developed.
Self-service pre-qualification
Stella Nicol at Street.co.uk agrees with Mike’s sentiment that agents can be short on time, and filtering the leads that do come in makes the best business sense. “With so many tasks to complete in a day, estate and letting agents are significantly constrained by time. It’s critical that precious hours aren’t wasted calling, chasing and following up poor leads.”
Stella says the best technology automates the time-consuming admin jobs, allowing agents to focus on ‘dollar productive’ tasks, such as nurturing high-quality leads. Like Agent Response, Street.co.uk’s auto-responder and applicant self-qualification system gathers information on a person’s position. “After automatically pre-qualifying each applicant’s financial and buying circumstances, portal enquiries are instantly pulled through into one location, called the Enquiry Centre. This allows agents to view key applicant details at a glance and create a priority call list,” says Stella.
After automatically prequalifying each applicant’s financial and buying circumstances, portal enquiries are instantly pulled through into one location. Stella Nicol Head of Client Onboarding, Street.
In a tight market like we are currently in, quality, filtered leads are critical – you can’t afford to miss the one that will bring the instruction, so hopefully, with the good advice of these suppliers, you can take your sales process to another level of efficiency.
