How can you learn to identify qualified leads?

As a real estate agent, it’s important to understand that although there is value in every lead, it’s your job to figure out which leads to focus your energy on so that you’re not wasting all your time on leads that don’t convert to sales.

With more resources available, real estate leads generation has become easier, so the real challenge now is finding qualified leads. This ensures that you are spending your time, efficiently, on the right leads.

Wherever your leads come from, learn how to implement key strategies to help you find qualified leads. FSBO leads, signing up to do BPO’s or pitching older expired listings are just a few examples.

Here are some ways to identify qualified leads so that you don’t waste your time on every lead.

The Difference between Qualified and Unqualified Leads

How can you tell the difference between a qualified lead and an unqualified lead?

You schedule calls, send emails, and have meetings only to find out that the prospect isn’t interested. How often has this happened to you? Do you feel like you’re wasting your time?

The answer is yes, you probably are. That’s because you’re chasing unqualified leads.

Some key criteria to identify unqualified leads are:

• Prospect is not looking to buy or sell at the moment
• Prospect cannot afford to buy a home at the moment
• Prospect is not in a position to make a purchase decision

Conversely, a qualified lead, is a prospect who is ready to buy or sell right away and needs your services because they have already started the buying or selling process by:

• Forming a clear understanding of their needs (what they want and why)
• Knowing their exact budget
• Researching potential agencies or agents.

Knowing the difference between these 2 leads means that you can come up with a clear strategy on how to manage your time, effectively, by investing more of it on your qualified leads, and less on unqualified leads.

How Are Some Ways to Qualify a Lead?

Once you know that qualified leads are what you’re after, what are some ways to qualify a lead?

Is there a strategy or system you can put in place?

One way to increase your qualified leads is to understand your audience. If you don’t understand your ideal client, you will waste valuable time chasing unqualified leads. To do this, you can create what is known as buyer personas. These are detailed profiles of your ideal clients. Do your research and make a concise list of details that best describes the type of client you’re looking for. Where do they live? What is their income? What are they looking for in a home?

The more detailed the profile is, the easier it will be to identify qualified prospects best suited to you so you can refer other prospects, that don’t fit your criteria, out to other agents.

Putting a system in place at the beginning, will save you time and energy later by weeding out leads that will potentially cause more problems than they are worth.

Another way to see if a prospect is a good fit is to use the BANT methodology. A process by which you determine if a client is a good fit based on the following four points:

• Budget: Do they have a budget?
• Authority: Do they have decision-making authority?
• Need: Do they have a need for your services?
• Timing: Do they require your services now?

Keep in mind that this method should be viewed as a general guideline and works best if it is not used as a simple checklist, but rather as a way to better understand the prospective client or lead. Ask detailed questions that build up, in a more conversational way, instead of just quizzing the client. A conversational approach helps you dig deep and find out more.

Once you’ve done all this, you can further analyze your data to determine which key factors or pieces of information are most relevant or important to you. Maybe you’d rather have clients that like to work closely with their agent. Or you prefer clients whose budgets are more flexible. Then those would rank higher on your list, followed by the next important factor, and so on.

Whatever strategy you use, remember the most important thing: it’s not about reaching as many prospective leads as possible, it’s about reaching the right ones.

And to do that you need to have a clear idea of who your client is and what they need.

Don’t Ignore Unqualified Leads

Now you have a process to determine if leads are qualified so you can pursue them. Where does that leave the unqualified leads? Should you ignore them altogether?

Absolutely not. The reasons why some leads are unqualified have to do with time. So just because they are not prospects now, does not mean they won’t be in the future. According to the numbers, it takes several points of contact to close a sale, with only 2% closing after the first contact and 80% after the fifth to twelfth contact.

With these numbers, it’s obvious that unqualified leads still need your attention in terms of forming a relationship. Something you can build on so that the prospective lead thinks of you when the time is right.

Keys to Nurturing Your Leads

What are some effective ways to nurture your leads?

Now that you understand the importance of building a relationship with your leads, even if some are future prospects only, learning how to nurture them is key.

There are several ways you can nurture your leads, but the most important point is contact. Whether that is through emails, calls or social media. Every opportunity you get to connect with your clients gives you a chance to build trust by showing them you have the knowledge and expertise to take care of their buying/selling needs.

Whatever method of contact you use, it’s important to be personal in your connections. No one wants to feel like a number on your checklist.

Although it’s important to follow up on a consistent basis, remember that you don’t want to crossover into harassing a client with emails every day! Find a reasonable frequency to contact your leads, depending on their needs, and stick with it.

Powering Up for Success

How do we generate real estate leads for you?

Power Up Leads offers you several options for generating leads and helping you reach your full potential as a real estate agent. With tools like Powerful Landing Pages, and follow-up Email campaigns will be well on your way to creating the network you need for success!

Are you ready to start Powering Up your business? Get started with Power Up Leads today.