Turning leads into closed sales

WASHINGTON – July 6, 2007 – It’s not as difficult to get leads these days. The many lead generation services available to real estate agents and brokers have solved that issue, but now force licensees to shift their focus to turn leads into closed transactions.

How to turn a lead into a client? Research underscores the importance of a quick response time, with a recent poll by the California Association of Realtors indicating that 86 percent of buyers who search for homes online consider response time “extremely important” or “very important.” Instant response times were expected by 16 percent of the Generation Xers polled, while 33 percent said one hour was enough time for associates to respond.

A 2005 study by the National Association of Realtors® and Worldwide ERC reveals that close to a third of the realty firms polled use lead generation companies; and Clareity Consulting President and CEO Gregg Larson believes real estate companies would be wise to work with agent service centers to qualify, incubate and forward these leads as well as those pulled from their own Web sites. Larson also asserts that local or regional online portals, such as Realtor association Web sites, provide a means for agents to boost lead quality and lower costs.

“Consumers love not having advertising thrown in their faces and being forced to register for more information; and it reflects well on Realtors,” says Larson. “The leads would come in free to Realtors, but it would be up to brokers how they would go about incubating them.”

Source: RisMedia.com (07/05/07) French, Desiree

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