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How To Respond To Online Listing Inquiries
by Allen F. Hainge

Your Web site exists to get you leads, among other purposes. Many agents who get Web site inquires, however, mishandle the inquiry. They forget their basic sales techniques, and they lose business. By taking a look at the right way to handle an inquiry on a listing, for example, you can sharpen your touch....and make more money from your site. Here's what I'd recommend.

Step One: Get back to the prospect right away

Glen Gill of Landmark Properties, Sugarland/Houston, TX uses the phrase The Golden Hour to emphasize the fact that you have to respond to the inquiry quickly.

Whether it's within one hour, as Glen tries to do, or a little longer time frame, his point is well taken. You need to have a system for getting back to site leads within several hours: auto responders, someone who monitors your email during the day. Whatever you do, the phrase "time is of the essence" is never more true than it is with Web site leads.

Step Two: Use your reply to qualify the prospect

See the inquiry for what it is - the start of the qualifying process. Many agents go wrong here, as they see the initial inquiry only as a request for information. It is that, but it is also the start of the qualifying process, and focusing on basic sales techniques is important here.

Instead of just answering the prospect's questions, ask some of your own, such as:

• Have you been looking for property in our area for long?
• Do you have any special requests regarding your purchase?
• Are you familiar with our area?
• Are you planning a visit to our area in the near future?
• Is there any other information I can send you?

Step Three: Put contacts on a follow-up system

The answers to your questions (or the fact that the prospect doesn't reply) determine what type of prospect you have: a "Full Boil" or a "Slow Cooker." Each type of prospect has its own type of follow-up system, and the basis for each is your real estate database.

Create a system of contacts for each type of prospect using the "Action Plan" feature of your database. Such a system lets you put in different type of contacts (phone, e-mail, letter, postcard) at different intervals. When you attach it to a prospect, the events go into your calendar and you are automatically reminded of them.

The "Full Boil," obviously, has a large number of frequent contacts at frequent intervals and is designed to work the prospect in a timely manner since he or she is ready to buy soon. The "Slow Cooker," on the other hand, isn't in a hurry to buy today, so you have fewer contacts spaced over a longer period of time. In either case, putting a prospect on a particular contact plan, one where you're reminded of various tasks, is the secret to getting an eventual meeting with the prospect.

The other contact system is your e-mail newsletter. Whatever the type of prospect, he or she should hear from you via your newsletter on a monthly basis for the rest of your career unless they request to be taken off the list. Such a contact system costs you next to nothing and can be a tremendously effective method for building your business!

Does such a system work? You can determine if an Internet lead is "real" or not by asking a simple follow-up question.

Linda Norton of Coldwell Banker Residential Group, Ft. Collins, CO says, "I got an e-mail inquiry regarding one of my listings last week from a young couple headed here in August, and I replied right away and asked them if they were going to be making a buying trip before then. They said yes, came up this past weekend and put a condo under contract. It closes in less than two weeks."

"By the way, they mentioned to me that the other agents they contacted didn't even get back to them, and the one other that finally did just gave them the information, didn't ask them anything and didn't seem as 'friendly' because they didn't!"

Allen F. Hainge is the founder of the Allen F. Hainge CyberStars®, a group of market leading agents nationwide who use today's technology to the fullest. He conducts technology seminars nationwide.

Link Popularity Update

The RealEstateRing is a popular Web Ring for Real Estate agents, linking various commercial and personal pages. This ring will allow potential clients to browse properties available from a number of agents, located over a wide geographical area.

This is FREE to sign up for and will generate a lot of reciprocal traffic on your website. 

Here's how to get started: 

Visit the link below:
x.webring.com/hub?ring=reesring

On the top right side there is a button that says 'Join this Ring'.  You will need to create a login and password if you do not already have one. 

Once you have joined, you will need to send us the unique HTML code to add to your website. 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact your Account Executive.

"Dear Vanessa, 

I would like to thank you sincerely for all your help and for keeping me informed while Advanced Access created my website. You have been very helpful and thorough in your work. You were right there for me when changes had to be made without any hesitation. Thanks!  

Please give special thanks to the crew at Advanced Access who helped put together this fantastic website I now have. You folks are the best and I highly recommend you to anyone interested in a website of their own. I am very proud of my website!  

Thanks again!

Dan Bennett

"Angie:

Hi! I got my first foreign customer referral from a German Realtor in Las Vegas. I do speak German but do have some difficulty writing it . There is a fantastic language translator I would like to link to my website www.freetranslation.com which would allow any one from around the world looking at my site to understand what each page says in their own language. 

PS The referral was due to my website!"

Ingrid Moussalli

"Dear Chris, 

You are so with it and so kind. I am in workshops, chasing clients, doing all the things I love and just a little to many clients to serve without getting home before 10 pm. The email has been plaguing me and I have spent so many unnecessary hours getting it in order and shoooosh! You have it handled in one moment, unasked and on your own initiative. Now Chris....I do things like that all the time and never think a thing about it. I can't thank you enough for intervening on my behalf. I have had my original email address and have had to drag it around like a 50 lb sack so that my clients would not be put off or inconvenienced. 

Thanks to you for your continuing thoughtfulness...and your continuing expression of excellence in helping your clients get straight on things they have no acumen in."  

Christa K. Govan

"Hi Jennifer, 

You save my bacon today. I was putting on that demonstration to get that GMAC relo. account that I told you about. I needed my website to make a big impression in the right way.  One of the important things to them is that their clients could search the MLS; so Thank You.   

All in all they were very impressed with the site you have designed for me and I was given a $700,000.00 client due to your help in making be appear top notch and professional. Thanks again I couldn't do it without you." 

Alexia (Lex) Williams