Buying internet leads doesn’t work for most agents. And it’s not that internet leads are bad, it’s just that targeted marketing on them isn’t very good. Someone filling out a form online saying they’re interested in buying or selling a home… Well, it’s simply not a good indicator of if they actually will. Leads don’t work if the lead you’re getting isn’t serious. Your sales tactics can only go so far in the housing market. If a person isn’t serious about buying or selling a home, you likely won’t sell them on doing so. And trying to sell a bunch of people that aren’t serious anyway is a lot of work. Buying leads for a couple grand over a few months and not getting any new clients is… Well, worthless.

Why it Doesn’t Work

So, why does buying internet leads not work? You’re not really buying leads at all. What you’re buying is unfiltered prospects. It’s everyday people that found themselves on a real estate website and input their information for some reason. And here’s the important thing to note… You don’t know why they input their information. It could have been because they are looking to buy or sell a home someday. Or maybe they wanted to know information about homes in their area. It could have even been to get passed a website wall so they could continue browsing. And those are the “high quality leads” that services tend to offer. That’s not including more random, “We data-mined some random person’s info – want to try and sell them a house?” Either way, the percentage of actually making a deal on leads like that is very low.

If the leads are more serious, you don’t know how soon they’re going to buy or sell a home. And the average incubation period for most internet generation leads is 12 to 24 months. Most agents simply don’t have the budget to wait that long for a client to make a real move. Buyer prospects (also known as buyer leads) are fairly easy for lead services to get. Homes are fun to look at and dream about. People that have zero intention of buying a home will subscribe to a real estate site or app. So they sign up for a newsletter or area updates or even to view the ‘home of the day.’ And then a lead service sells you their information so you can try to sell them a house. That’s why it’s not really a lead in the first place, you see.

The Good News

Now the good news is that you can choose a different type of marketing to get clients. Of course I recommend basically never going with an online lead service. There’s a lot of different types of marketing you can do and, honestly, cold calling leads is the worst type. And I mean leads that are sold in big blocks as discussed before. If you have a real lead, go for it! For instance, someone says, “My friend wants to maybe sell her house. Can I give you her number?” Obviously yes! Marketing wise, though… Use targeted marketing to bring in clients.

If you don’t know what to do with a lead they’re still worth nothing. If you’re scared to call and scared to sell you’re probably not going to make any sales. In that case, real estate is not for you. But I’m not looking to discourage you. I actually want to encourage you to go for it! You don’t need to be a natural born salesperson to do this. Like most people, you simply need to learn. Buying internet leads doesn’t work even if you’re the best salesperson. Leads don’t work if you’re not targeting the right ones. If you’re learning, you don’t want to get overwhelmed with low quality leads. Being told no on 100 leads that were going to say no anyway isn’t going to teach you much. But if you’re trying to sell 100 people that are maybes, you’re going to learn a lot along the way.

Let’s talk about Sales

Like I said, the best sales person isn’t going to sell someone on a product they have zero interest in. But if you have a bunch of targeted maybes, even the worst salesperson has a chance.

First off, you need a system. When you have a clear, systematized process of what to do you are more likely to succeed. Here’s the system I’ve found success in:

Categorize: Are they a buyer or a seller? Sellers are better because they naturally bring buyers to you but, either one works. Just put them in a category.

Prioritize: And that simply means I want to focus on quality, not quantity. You certainly don’t want to treat anyone like they aren’t important. But some people should have priority over others.

Reach out: Contact those that you want to work with and start creating relationships.

Creating a system to keep up with your prospects is really important to your success. You will wear all sorts of hats as a real estate agent but your most important roles will be reaching out. That’s when you get to connect and help people. Don’t think of it as being a salesperson, though. It’s much more about the relationship, patience, understanding, and ability to assist. Ultimately it will lead to the results that you want. The more people you talk to, the more credibility you’ll earn. Learning how to talk to potential clients is so important! We start off wanting to use sales lingo but I guarantee you’ll end up just t-a-l-k-i-n-g like a normal person.

The bottom line is that selling is a process. Not wasting your time one random lead generation is something you’ll have to decide on for yourself. While it sounds tempting to get a list 500 or 1000 people. Thinking that at least 1 will want to buy or sell a home… Well, the math doesn’t add up if quality is low. Seriously, a lot of Realtors try it once and never again so why not avoid it in the first place?

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