Leads are often reluctant to respond to follow-up because they’re afraid of being sold. While you should always try to have a call-to-action in your messaging, a generic “call me if you have any questions” conveys a selling message and is not very effective except for highly motivated leads.
One way to encourage more replies is for YOU to ask questions. For example, if someone has requested information, you can ask if what they received fits their needs. But try to ask open-ended questions they can’t simply answer yes or no. So, if they requested a hotlist of pool homes, you could ask what size pool they’d prefer. For luxury homes, you could ask if they have a minimum number of beds/baths.
Craig Proctor’s Universal Follow-up Script is very useful here. It asks specific open-ended questions about the lead’s motivation and timing for a move. However, you may want to be more conversational at first, asking about family needs, local amenities, or necessary buying/selling criteria.
The idea with questions is to get people to volunteer information to pre-qualify themselves. Based on their answers, you can prioritize high-quality leads and make your follow-up even more efficient.
If you have no response from a lead after many attempts, you can try a simple yes or no question to make it easier for them. Here’s an interesting tip: experiment with questions where your preferred answer is “no” — such as “Have you lost interest in looking for a home?” Traditional sales training tells us to get a prospect to say yes to something small and then chain further yes responses together. But this can create sales pressure that causes them to resist. Giving the prospect an opportunity to say no may help them feel safe enough to enter a conversation.
If you want to explore the best approach for your lead generation, let’s chat. Our team of digital marketing experts has 23+ years of experience in online advertising for real estate. To learn more, click the green button below to get started with a free marketing assessment.
