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Dear Friend,

This week we’re going to talk about 5 smart things you can do right now to turn more of your leads into cash. A lot of times when we start talking about lead generation, it’s very easy to start generating a lot of leads because it’s a very scientific process. Most of the time there’s no human interaction from you in generating the leads.

We say run this ad or use this type of website or make this type of offer and you’ll get people who will respond to those and the leads will show up in your inbox as email leads, if they’re coming from your website, or they’ll show up on your voicemail, if you’re using an automated prospecting system, if you’re using a telephone voicemail system.

And nothing that you’ve done has made them come there, it’s all been very scientific, you’ve run a very specific direct response ad with an offer or you’ve sent out some postcards people are calling to respond for an offer that you’ve made or they are going to a website to respond to an offer that you’ve made and when they show up in your inbox, that is where the lead conversion process starts, because now you have to do something, you have to get involved in this. So part of your mindset is really going to make a big difference here and I’m going to talk today about 5 smart things you can do right now to turn more of your leads into cash.

Idea #1: start thinking of your leads in bundles of 100 and put a monetary value on that value.

So here’s what that means, you instead of thinking about your leads individually right now, I want you to start and get a little bit of altitude, get a little bit of perspective on what you’ve done here and start looking at your leads in bundles.

So let’s say we’re going to look at it as 100 leads, that means we’ve got 100 people who have come through a process where they’ve listened to a recorded message and they liked what they heard so they’ve asked for something or they’ve gone to your website and they’ve liked an offer that you’ve made and they’ve asked for something on your website.

So out of those 100 people, we may have spent $1,000 or we may have spent $2,000 or $3,000 on that bundle of 100 leads, depending on how much we’ve spent for each of those leads. If we’re spending between $10 and $30 for a lead, which is probably right in the range of what you’re probably spending if you’re using a good direct response model, you’ve got $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 invested in that bundle, but what I want you to do is think about what is the monetary value at maturity of those 100 leads.

Not just what you spent to get them, because you spent the money to get them and you’ve got them now, where you’re going to make all your money is in converting those leads. You don’t make any money generating leads, you spend money generating leads and you make money converting leads. So let’s just look at what this bundle of 100 leads might be worth.

So we know that half of the people that enquire about something will buy in the next 12-18 months. We know that’s true because it’s been studied again and again and again and let’s look at that and say what would that be worth if half of the people in fact are going to buy in the next 12 months.

That would mean that 50 out of those 100 people are going to buy a home, they’re going to buy a home through somebody, it might as well be you right, but those 50 people if you have an average commission value or an average fee from a transaction of $5,000 that means that that bundle of 100 leads is going to be worth $250,000 in commissions. That’s how much is going to be paid when half of the people that are going to buy, do buy.

So that just helps you get a perspective here of what we’re doing. If that number is exciting for you, that’s great, but how many of those are you actually going to help? Because that is what we’re talking about here, that’s what we’re really going to focus on, how many of these 100 are you going to help? Let’s say that you’re able to help 1 in 10, what if you could help 10 of those people? That bundle of 100 is going to be worth $25,000 or $50,000 to you, it’s going to be worth $50,000 if you’re only able to help 5 out of 100 or 1 out of 20, which would be a bare minimum of what I would expect that you would be able to do, is that you’re going to generate $25,000, 5 out of 100 would be $25,000.

So you’ve spent $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 for a bundle of 100 leads that is going to be worth at maturity $250,000 which you’re trying to see how much of that are you going to get? Are you going to get $25,000, are you going to get $50,000 or are you going to get $150,000? Because the way that you approach this process is going to determine how many of those are actually going to work with you and in turn how much money you’re actually going to make from those leads. So the big mindset shift is that you don’t make any money generating leads, you make your money converting leads.

Idea #2: Treat them all like 5 star prospects until they prove they aren’t. You know a lot of times we go into this and people have a mindset of treating prospects like they’re not 5 star prospects until they prove that they are. Well the most profitable mindset you can have is to treat them like they are 5 star prospects until they prove that they aren’t. I’ll give you an example. I got some running shoes last Spring, and I went into this store in Georgetown, and there were a few people in there ahead of me, and the gentleman who was in the store that afternoon, I think he was the owner of the store, he’s in there asking people “can I help you”? And some of them are saying “no thanks, I’m just looking” or somebody might ask a question, but nobody was really in the market to buy shoes that day, they were just kind of looking around. He came to me, I was in the market for buying shoes, and he asked me “can I help you”? And I told him exactly what I was looking for and I’ll tell you, this guy was the most helpful person in a retail environment that I’ve ever had an experience with.

You know he asked me what I was going to be using the shoes for, I told him I was going to be using them for walking and he had me take off my shoes and walk to the door and back 2 or 3 times, he looked and observed how my feet pronate or supinate or whatever your feet do, and he came back and said “ok I’m going to go get some options for you” and he came back and I sat down on one of those, you know in the shoe store there, he sat down on one of those shoe store stools where you put your foot up there, he put on each pair of those shoes, tied them up for me and it’s very luxurious to have somebody tie up your shoes for you, but he sat there, he tied up all the shoes, I’d walk back and forward to the door and he’d ask me how they felt and I would pick one as a winner and then we’d compare it to the next pair that I tried on, and it would be like a little tournament and at the end we had a clear winner. I put those on, tried them again, and I ended up buying those shoes and they are the most comfortable shoes that I’ve had on my feet. And it’s because this guy knew a lot about shoes, he treated me like I was a 5 star prospect and as a 5 star prospect I really appreciated it.

So when you start thinking about this, what can you do to treat your prospects like they are 5 star prospects? You know it’s very interesting when people are doing or finding buyers programs or getting listings programs that they’re generating leads but they’re making their mind up ahead of time a lot of times, that people are tyre kickers or that they’re not really serious.

But if you go into it with a mindset that they’re all 5 star prospects until they prove that they aren’t, you’re going to have a much more pleasant experience with all of these people. You know it’s very interesting, it gets back to attitude and attraction and the way that you think about things.

 I think I’ve told you a few months ago about a book that I read called “The Luck Factor” where they basically did a scientific study on luck and found that people who considered themselves lucky in fact are more lucky than people who consider themselves unlucky. And the core reason is that the people who consider themselves lucky, put themselves in situations where luck would pay off.

And you know it’s interesting but if you take this mindset here that you’re good at lead conversion and that you treat people like they are 5 star prospects, you’re going to find that more people will be attracted to you, that more people will actually want to work with you because you’ve treated them like they are and they’re returning that intention. It’s very interesting, but just look at yourself and the way that you think about leads and the way that you look at them. Are you looking to find out or treat them like they are 5 star prospects? That’s the real question that you want to have. You want to kind of just get that in your mind and hopefully having that monetary value on that big bundle of 100 leads is going to make a difference in the way that you approach each of the individual leads, because now you look at it as part of a bigger picture.

Idea #3: connect as quickly as you can and find out if they really are 5 star prospects.

So it maybe sounds a little bit counter intuitive, at first we’re going to treat them like they are 5 star prospects, we’re going to go all out, we’re going to send them a great initial package or we’re going to send them whatever it is we promised them when they responded on our website or responded on our APS. And what we’re going to do now in step 3 is connect with them as quickly as we can and find out if they really are 5 star prospects. And just to review what we’re looking for, remember as 5 star prospects we’re looking for people who are willing to engage in a dialogue, who are friendly and co-operative when you talk with them, who know what they want, who are moving in the next 6-12 months and who would like us to help them.

Now you want to pay special attention to #5 because that is where it all happens. #5 is that they would like us to help them and there’s a difference between “like” and “let”. If somebody’s willing to “let” you help them, that’s different than if they would “like” you to help them. If you say to somebody “would you like me to send this, this, this, this or send you updates every two weeks or send you updates every month?” sometimes people will say “oh yeah that’s ok” because they don’t want to not say yes.

But the way that you have to do this is look through this, look through your mindset, look through the way that you’re approaching your conversations with prospects and really examine and ask yourself “are these people, would they really like me to help, do they understand where this is going, do they understand that I’m going to do this and that I’m hoping that we’re going to be able to work together to help them find a house”? So it’s very important that you know that people really are 5 star prospects and once you discover a 5 star prospect, and remember you can only discover 5 star prospects, you can’t create them, you can’t turn somebody from a 3 star into a 5 star. They either are or they aren’t and you’re just uncovering them.

Idea #4: make a 12 month commitment to bond with your 5 star prospects until they’re ready. You know people are going to do something on their time frame, they’re not going to do anything on your time frame. You can’t make them do anything. You can’t make them move faster than they want to move.

You can’t make them want to buy a house that they don’t want to buy in an area they don’t want to live in. You can’t make somebody sell their house faster than they want to, but what you can do is you can provide them whatever it is they need at that moment. You can provide them the information they’re looking for, and that’s why every program that we do, and we’re talking about in getting listings we’ve got a complete 12 month follow up program for people because we know that they value of these leads, the value of the big bundle, is in being able to bond with them through the entire process of the time that it takes for them that they’re going to move.

 So if you’re ready and willing and able to follow up with someone for 12 months, versus following up with them for 12 days, which is what most people do, most realtors only have the ability to work with somebody who’s ready to buy a house in the next 12 days, and if they’re not they say that those are bad leads. But the reality is, if you can stretch that out to 12 months, you’re going to be much further ahead than your competitors because your going to be the one who’s actually been demonstrating that your there to serve them and that you’ve been giving them valuable information over that time. Now you remember, you’ve spent $1,000 – $3,000 to get those 100 leads.

Now do you think it might be worth it for you to spend another $1,000 or another $1,200 or $2,000 to follow up and bond with those people over that 12 months? Especially when we’re looking at it that at a minimum if you do 5 out of those 100, that you’re looking at $25,000 or if you do 10 then it’s $50,000, I guarantee you the difference between doing 5 and doing 10 is in how you approach this 12 month follow up process, as a minimum 12 months.

Idea #5: make it easy, easy, easy to start the process.

You know when we’re starting this process of looking for a home, it’s very easy for people to take advantage of a special offer that you’re having, that they can ease into the process. That’s why I’m such a big fan of home buyer workshops. If you’re doing a homebuyer workshop, that’s a great first step for somebody to take from somebody who’s just getting your newsletter or somebody who is just getting your updates or somebody that you’re communicating with by email. It’s a great way for them to take the next step and move one step towards you and they get to meet you and they get to see you in a different environment.

I’m a big fan of using a Saturday tour of homes or a Sunday tour of homes where people can come and they can meet with you but they feel like this is something that’s already happening. The easier you can make it for people to start the process or take the next step or move one more step towards you, the more people will take advantage of it. Don’t ever just expect that people are going to call you when they’re ready or you can just say “hey if you’ve got any questions, give me a call”, remember it goes back to you’ve got to bleed, you’ve got to lead people to the next step. So when you make offers that are very specific, that are exactly what they’re looking for, that are easy for them to take advantage of, more people will do it.

So hopefully those 5 things, they’re smart ideas that you can start using right away. That mindset is really going to make a difference in your lead conversion. And lead conversion, it’s such a powerful, such an important thing that we’re going to continue to talk about lead conversion because the lead generation part is relatively easy, it’s something that we can do once you get it set up, you can do it and generate as many leads as you can possibly imagine. But the lead conversion really requires a bit of skill, it requires a bit of commitment but we can always provide the tools to make it easier for you to do it.

So I hope that helps. It’s going to be a great mindset shift for you in your lead conversion. Tune in next time and we will talk about even more ways to find buyers, get listings and convert leads.

Have a great week and we’ll talk to you next time.