AGENTS: WHY ARE YOU LETTING LEADS SLIP AWAY?

A new study, conducted by our team in partnership with WAV Group, reveals that many brokers are still struggling with lead management, and losing far too many prospects in the process.

Posing as consumers, researchers inquired about listings on broker websites, Zillow.com, Realtor.com, and Trulia.com. Reaching out to 384 brokers in 11 states, we found:

-48% of inquiries went unanswered
-Average response time was 15 hours
-Call-back attempts averaged 1.5
-Email contacts averaged 2.07

The Burden of DIY Lead Gen
In speaking to countless independent brokers, common themes run through their lead generation experiences: It's expensive, hit or miss, extremely time consuming, and often confusing thanks to a digital landscape that never stops shifting.

"The survey may sound surprising, but I can relate," says David Vane of Weichert, REALTORS -- New Colony. "As an independent, you're overseeing multiple websites, worrying about rankings, and collaborating with SEO experts, and clients can fall through the cracks."

"Staying in contact is important, but having a polished e-mail campaign full of information, tips, and tools that buyers and sellers can really use adds value that makes a difference," says Michael McKenna of Weichert, REALTORS-- New Colony.

Investing in Leads
The Weichert Lead Network was launched more than a decade ago to streamline the lead generation process for our franchisees by quickly qualifying prospects and providing a "warm hand-off" to their agents in the field.

Our state-of-the-art call center is staffed seven days a week with experienced associates who can engage with a customer immediately.

"In less than three minutes, inquiries in our region are put through to one of my agents," says Clem Fucci of Weichert, REALTORS Orange Connecticut. "This allows them to focus on the client instead of struggling with technology, which is a win-win."

Equally important to lead generation is driving traffic to Weichert.com through SEO and pay-per-click investments. Our goal is to be seen by every consumer on the Internet who is interested in buying or selling a home.

This multimillion-dollar annual investment has made Weichert.com one of the most highly visited real estate websites in the nation. Thanks to custom-built tracking, we can also follow investments to the marketing source and learn from our successes, while paid search allows us to buy hundreds of thousands of monthly clicks for a very low cost.

"We're routinely in the top 25 out of a billion real-estate websites," says Brandon Long of Weichert, Realtors of Bentonville Arkansas. "The sheer number of visitors means many more buyers and sellers, without having to work so hard at making those connections."
Finding and nurturing leads will always be essential to building great relationships with clients. Now, more than ever, technology can target the search and deliver top prospects right to our door - if we let it.