How to Get Prospects to Tell You They’re Interested In Buying or Selling

In previous articles, I’ve discussed your prospect’s buying process. In this article, I want to discuss how your marketing strategy must match how your prospect buys. This is where most real estate agents get it wrong. They advertise, mail postcards, or put up websites hoping that someone will take notice and call them for business.

Ask For The Next Step - But Don’t Make It Too Big
During the first two stages of the buying process (awareness and information gathering), your prospects are slowly becoming aware that they may want to buy or sell a home and start the information gathering process. During this time, you should be actively prospecting to them.

What is prospecting? It’s everything you do search for potential clients and get them to take notice. That means sending mail, cold calling, door knocking, email, offering free guides, holding seminars, distributing flyers and so on.

I’ve previously discussed how to identify your ideal clients. During the prospecting process, you should focus on marketing to your ideal clients by educating them about your services so they think of you first when they’re reading to choose a real estate agent.

If, however, they aren’t at that stage of their buying process, asking them to call you might be too bold of an action. They might not yet be ready to call. Or they might fear that your “free, no obligations consultations” is really a high pressure sales close - and believe me, no one wants to listen to a high pressure sales pitch. In fact, most people avoid it like the plague, if they can help it. So, what you need to do is build rapport through a variety of communications and demonstrate to them that you don’t work in that way.

At this stage, what might prospects be willing to do?

• they might visit your website
• they might request a free guide
• they might join your email list
• they might request a free home valuation
• they might search the MLS listings on your site
• they might read an article you wrote
• they might attend a seminar you are holding

Each of these steps is less risky than calling you and allows prospects to learn a bit more about who you are, what you’ve done, and how you can help them.