This month’s Keeping It Real hosted by Frank Klesitz and Greg Harrelson summed up Brendan Bartic’s “Bulletproof Real Estate Lead Follow Up Plan.” Discussing the value of each lead as a person, and the need to nurture individuals on their home buying journey, Harrelson suggested a standard for agents to aspire to with clients. "If we courted all of our new leads like they were a new relationship,” he said, “it would be amazing!"
Before discussing the details of follow up, Bartic stressed the need for agents to understand that a lead is someone that has interest at some point. "Every single person that comes in has to ‘be processed or nourished 100%’," Bartic said, though he added that all need to be nurtured in different ways.
Bartic uses giveaways, radio ads, workshops and seminars, and traditional signage and advertising, alongside online advertising to attract and capture leads. Retargeting has been particularly successful for his team (who closed 230 transactions in 2020), and Klesitz suggested agents search The Bartic Group use the Facebook Ad Library (linked in the resources section below) to understand effective advertising language and images.
Once a lead comes in, Bartic’s team segments that person into one of two database categories, “met” and “haven’t met”. Describing online leads as “top of funnel,” Klesitz had Bartic and Harrelson share their nurturing processes. Harrelson suggested that understanding a person’s motivation was important. “Do they really want to buy a property?” Harrelson asked. “Yes. Then they’re a good lead… Let the timeframe dictate what you’re going to do to incubate that opportunity so you’re still at the top of the mind whenever that time frame comes.”
Bartic further explained that as every lead represents a person with family and friends who could later be referred, his team responds as such. “We are looking at just trying to get into relationships and look at not every single person, not just as a turn and burn ‘Hey, I got this lead. They need to buy in the next 30 days. If not, I’m on to the next’.” Instead, Bartic evaluates whether the person’s needs can be “met” now and needs immediate engagement or if the person is considered an “unmet lead” and needs to be nurtured through automation.
Harrelson and Bartic agreed that the relationship is very similar to courtship and, in most cases, requires time investment and multiple, consistent touches. "If we courted all of our new leads like they were a new relationship,” Harrelson explained, “it would be amazing!" Bartic agreed. “We have to court them over a period of time for that relationship to occur,” Bartic said.
Klesitz delved into the financial aspect of lead generation, asking Bartic for real advertising spend numbers in Bartic’s Denver area. Stating that his team spends $5-8 per general Facebook lead and that specific ads such as making an offer on a home, are about $15. Google adword PPC leads are closer to $40 per registration form completed. Bartic’s cost per lead numbers are determined by how much is spent on advertising, divided by how many people opted in.
Bartic shared his process for training his sales teams on follow up by referencing his flowcharts (linked below). “We’re going to call them [leads] immediately… right out of the gate,” Bartic said. “If they answer, then there’s a path that we’re going to take that allows us to move forward with them. If they don’t answer, we hang up immediately, and then we call back a second time. In the industry we call this a “double tap.” The key to that call is that it is ‘unbranded,’ with no company or call details being shared in the voicemail as that often causes people to call back.
Bartic went on to describe his F6 lead follow up plan where the agents put in 6 days of consistent effort with daily calls for 6 days. If there is no response then the lead is placed on a weekly automated contact list using a Mojo dialer. Typically Bartic said they see interest from a lead on the 5th or 6th call attempt where guilt is often used to get leads to respond and engage by asking the lead to call and let the hard working agent who wants to help know if there is no interest. Often, his team finds they’ll get a response.
Bartic describes another technique called the ‘nudge text’ saying, “People respond to it like butter.” The nudge text results after no response is given to a voicemail. The voicemail is followed up with one text. When that text doesn’t produce a response, a second “Did you get my last text” message is sent 6 minutes later. Bartic explained that the nudge text is phenomenal at producing a response from a lead.
Once a lead is engaged, other tools are used such as customized market reports and hand written notes (addresses are looked up through a service). Bartic explained that it’s important to use the lead’s name in all contact, from the personal note to the custom home search alerts. "We know that the personal touch part is critical," Bartic said. Using these techniques, lead response grows and percentages change. He shared that if only 1 call is made the response rate is 1-3%, but after implementing F6, that rate changes to 73%. "We have to go deeper, not wider,” Bartic reminded.
Bartic feels that, "People jump off the phone way too early,” rather than recognizing every call as an opportunity to build a relationship. He said that he’s had people who've never bought or sold a home with him refer ten people to him.
Overall, Bartic wants agents to know not to give up too early. "It takes time to convert internet leads," he said. To Bartic the lead always has potential, even when wrong information is given. "That's not a dead lead to me,” he said, “it's an 'I gotta do more work'." Harrelson and Klesitz agreed that gaining details about each lead and creating that relationship, is most important and helps agents stand out. "We've got to bring some of that personal connection back into our lives," said Harrelson.