Texting your friends and family a lot these days? Guess what? You can text your real estate leads too. Here's how to do it so it leads to listings!
Are you having a hard time getting ahold of prospects or clients? Many agents share this frustration and tell me no one's picking up their phone. But one thing I would like to bring to your attention is that this is the age of smartphones! And text messaging real estate leads is a great way to communicate.
I want to share with you 6 ways that you can use real estate text messaging and bring it all the way to a listing.
#1 Start a conversation.
Texting is great for starting conversations in your real estate business just like it is anywhere else. Many agents tell me, Joe, I don't want to text. I don't text myself. But listen up - it's really about how your prospects and clients prefer to communicate. That's where we're going to have the best results. A lot of times, texting is where they like to start the conversation. Maybe it's because they feel like they're going to experience high pressure on the telephone, and texting lightens that pressure. It's just a great way to start the conversation.
#2 Let them reply at THEIR convenience.
That brings me to my second point, which I am going to let our Smart Agents member Jeremy Tyler share. He's an agent in York, Pennsylvania, and this is what he had to say:
“That's the preferred method of communication. You know - it's communication at their convenience. You send them a text message, and they'll respond whenever they're ready, you know? I've gotten a much, much higher response rate with that.”
Jeremy shares a valid point. Text messaging gives the prospect time to answer on their own terms, at their own convenience, however they want to. It makes them feel empowered. Plus, it gives the real estate agent the ability to think about what to say to coax the conversation closer to a listing.
#3 Make sure to ask short questions at first.
Text messaging is best for asking short questions -- preferably a yes or no question. The point is to just start the conversation so you can continue it. Once they start that conversation with you, they will feel obligated to continue it. Start with a short question, and then evolve from there.
#4 Transition to a phone call.
Here’s Jeremy’s advice:
“Send them a text along the lines of, ‘Hey, it's Jeremy Tyler reaching out. Just wanted to confirm that you received the book I sent you.’ Then, a couple of days later, I'll reach back out to them via text and say, ‘Hey, just reaching out. Would like to see if you had any questions. When would be a good time that we'd be able to connect over the phone?’ Using text messaging is a great way to try to get to a phone call. I mean, you can send emails all day long, but email open rates are so low. With text messaging, they're going to see it.”
Just like Jeremy's saying, texting makes a great transition to a phone call. Many phones are going unanswered. But you can start with a text, get to a phone call, evolve the conversation from there and evolve the relationship.
#5 Transition to an email with more information
Texting to emailing is another way that you can evolve the conversation. Many times you can say, ‘Hey, I have this information.’ Maybe it's a home value. Maybe it's a marketing analysis. Whatever it is, you can say, ‘I would like to send this to you, and I think it'll help you out for X, Y, Z reason.’ They'll usually say, sure, send it over. Then, you have a good email for them and another way to contact them. You can also track that email. See when they open it, then follow up and ask, did you have a minute to look at what I sent you? They'll start a conversation about it, or they may say, ‘no, I just opened it really quick. I haven't had time.’ That's when you can say, ‘Hey, when you're done looking at it, feel free to call me, or can I follow up with you when you have time to go over it.’ This is another way to take a text conversation and continue building the relationship.
#6 Transition to a face-to-face meeting.
Eventually, you want to get face to face. We don't win listings by texts. We don't win listings on the computer. We don't win listings on the phone. Those are just avenues to get us face to face, so you always want to keep in mind that you want to get face to face with the seller. When you're finally in person, you have a history of credibility, trust, and rapport, because you evolved the conversation, versus the agent who just calls up with a high pressure pitch resulting in sellers who have their guards up more. So, by evolving the conversation and the relationship, this can set you up for an easier listing with no resistance.
Texting methods
Now, there's many platforms you can use to send real estate texts. Check out simpletexting.com or slicktext.com - these are platforms where you can send a text and track it. Once you see what works for you, I would encourage you to connect your CRM, or whatever you're using - see what platform integrates with your CRM. That way, you can have the results of your emails, phone calls, and texts all in one snapshot, and you can see how they're evolving into listings, and you can improve your process, because it's so much better to have it all focused in one area.
I hope this helps you go out, get more listings, and start those conversations. If you like what you've heard here, don't forget to like and share this video.