In my last post I discussed the difference between yesterday’s pull marketing and today’s push marketing. I explained how pull marketing is reactive — “If you build it they will come.” Push marketing, on the other hand, is pro-active — “If you build it they won’t come so you have to go get them.” (Click to view previous blog post.) Many agents today have experienced that very phenomenon: doing lots of advertising and getting little if no results. Today’s successful agents are going upstream and capturing the lead early — generally during Phase One of the buying cycle.

Let’s face it, NAR tells us that 74% of all sellers and 76% of all buyers work with the first REALTOR® they talk to. So the key to success is simply being first and not chasing the customer away by using the wrong approach. Just be early and do it right and you’ll do business with them three-fourths of the time! But being early — getting there first — brings a unique set of challenges. First, there is understanding the nature of Phase One business, second is being able to create plenty of low-cost leads, and third, is managing all those leads for the time required to actually complete transactions with a large number of them.

Let’s start with the nature of Phase One leads. Traditional marketing attracts customers during Phase Two of the buying cycle. (For more, read this blog post.) Magazine and newspaper ads, yard signs, duty desk calls, open houses, referrals, and other traditional lead sources typically brought us a customer that was 2-3 weeks out from writing a contract. That customer had already moved into Phase Two of the buying cycle and was willing to talk to an agent. Most Phase One leads, however, come to us through the Internet. And because they are still in Phase One, they tend to be 6-8 weeks earlier in the process. In Phase One, they are still building their dream and gathering information, and they don’t want one of us pushing them. They simply want information where Phase Two leads are ready to search for a house. So the challenge becomes learning how to work this new style lead by providing customer service and not pushing or selling. Those agents who fail to learn how to do this are destined to fail working Internet customers. And that’s why many of our new agents do so much better than seasoned agents who have worked only Phase Two customers.

Let me share a simple yet powerful illustration that will change the way you look at Internet leads. I want you to think back to the last time you shopped in your favorite department store. Now, if you’re like me, you don’t have a lot of time to waste; when you go shopping, you go because you want to buy something. But remember how, as you walked into the clothing department, a sharp sales clerk came up to you and said, “Can I help you?” Now, I want you to be completely honest. What was your answer? You know what it was; it was the same as mine: “No, thanks. I’m just looking.” And I’m willing to bet that, within five minutes, you were looking around and finding that same clerk to help you locate something in your size.

Did you really mean that you weren’t interested, or were you implying that you wanted to gather information for a few minutes (Phase One) and that, later on, when you were ready to search (Phase Two), you might actually need his assistance? The procedure is no different for a real estate customer except that the buying cycle is much longer, given the price point of the purchase. The Internet customer is still gathering information when most agents call to say, “Can I help you?”

So there are generally only two reasons that an agent will fail in working Internet leads: 1) either he’ll take the “No, thanks. I’m just looking” literally, as though the customer wants nothing to do with him, or more often 2) he won’t take the hint and instead will insist on trying to set up an appointment to start showing houses immediately! This overbearing, hard-sell approach simply alienates the agent from the potential customer and removes any chance of his gaining the business. But make no mistake — that customer will go on to buy or sell, but with another agent! What a tragedy.

Okay, in the next installment I’ll discuss how to generate tons of Internet business using your website. I know what you’re thinking… but you really can generate more business than you can possibly handle using your existing website with a few simple tricks. There is plenty of business out there and getting your share is not that difficult. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is, just wait and see…