The speed at which you respond to a new lead will dictate your closing rate. If you want more commissions, respond quickly.
For responses made in the first minute, there is a 391% increase in sales eventually closed. (Sopro, citing Harvard Business Review, 2011)
Most likely, you aren’t coming close to a one-minute response time. Only 7% of B2B sales teams are currently achieving an average lead response time of five minutes or less. In fact, the average lead response time is a sloggy 42 hours. Even worse, data suggests that around half of businesses take up to five days to respond (with many leads never directly responded to at all).
If the above describes you, you are burning commission checks.
You are busy, right, and cannot achieve a one-minute response time? Okay. How about responding within 30 minutes? Consider that responding after 30 minutes is 21 times less effective than responding in the first 30 minutes.
Today’s consumers expect quick responses. ServiceBell’s report reveals that 82% of consumers expect responses within 10 minutes. NAR’s annual buyer/seller survey is consistent therewith.
Here is what we see. Real estate agents acknowledge the above, but make the excuse that hitting those fast targets is unrealistic. They are a single person or small team. They have other clients. They have a life!
Unfortunately, the consumer doesn’t care. Meet their expectations or don’t get their business.
The top teams we see meet the expectation by creating a fire station approach. Any one agent might be busy with deals, another client, or a vacation or yoga class, but someone else is then on duty manning the communication center and at the very least putting leads into a holding pattern.
What’s a holding pattern? Example: “Thank you, Jim. Eric is at a listing appointment right now. I will make sure he responds as soon as he’s back. It should be around 4:30pm.”
The gap between consumer expectations and agent response time presents a HUGE opportunity for you. But it’s only huge if you can create your own version of the fire station whereby communications are getting answered quickly, 7 days a week, from 9am to 8pm.
Get it right and your commissions jump. Get it wrong and you burn commission checks. It’s that simple.
The post Why Fast Communication Means Big Commissions (And What You Can Do About It) appeared first on Celebrity Agent.
