STOP! Before you go any further!

DOWNLOAD OUR 14 DAY LEAD FOLLOW UP SYSTEM PDF!

Then, go watch the real estate lead followup video from co-founders Dave Conklin, Rory Wilfong and Steve Young.

Having some sort of follow up system is IMPERATIVE to your success as a real estate agent. You’ve got hundreds of leads in your pipeline that you must consistently and persistently follow up with in order to become familiar to them and eventually convert them to clients. With that many prospects, it’s important to keep them organized, so that you can access their information easily enough and always know what point of follow up you’re at with a specific lead.

You should have almost a procedural outline to follow as you follow up with every lead (they can differ somewhat, since the type of follow up you do with seller leads may differ from buyers or leads with an unknown real estate need. This is where having a follow up system comes in.

A follow up system is simply a procedure or process you go through and the methods you use to follow up with all your leads. It can be something simple and totally unrelated to technology, or it can be a complex contacts management software package. The important thing is finding the system of follow-up that works best with you and one that you’ll rigidly stick by.

The Index Card System

Co-founder Rory Wilfong was not the most technologically savvy real estate agent in the biz (and still isn’t) so he often used the “index card” system of follow up for his leads. To set this “database” of leads up, he’d have a couple packs of index cards, a pen and two plastic containers for that would fit the cards (like recipe boxes). He would then sit and write the name and contact information of every single lead on the index cards – one lead per card. Then he’d label one box the “Contacted” box, and open the “Not Contacted” box.

And just like that, he’d use the cards to call his leads once a month. Every lead started out in the “Not Contacted” box. Each time he called a lead, their card went into the “Contacted” box. His goal was to contact every lead once a month. Once all the lead cards were in the “Contacted” box, he’d start all over again for the following month.

It was a simple and effective way to lay out all his leads, their contact information and keep track of whether he had contacted them for that month or not. The best thing about the index cards is that they’re easy to carry with you. You can always grab a stack before you leave home, or the office, so you can contact them in your spare time – while you’re on the road, at a slow open house, while you’re at phone duty, etc.

If Rory got swamped, he’d have his assistant make some calls for him. Or he would set aside weekend hours to get threw a large batch of leads. It didn’t matter how he did it, the important thing was the index cards kept him organized and he made sure he got his contacts done.

Tech-Savvy Systems

If you’re more tech-savvy and would rather have all your information at your fingertips with the click of a mouse, then you may want to look into client contact/management software for your computer. There are several great products out there for agents, include ACT! and Top Producer.

ACT! and similar programs allow you to organize, store and instantly access contact and customer information, manage and prioritize tasks and track all contact made with customers. ACT! Has even released a program specifically for real estate professionals that includes more real-estate related tools.

Client management programs are GREAT follow up systems because they allow for easier organization of your leads and detailed tracking of contact. As with any system, there are some disadvantages of course: it costs money to purchase the program (usually at least a couple hundred) and it can take a while to really learn the software and become comfortable with it. Even for a very tech-savvy individual, learning a contacts management program and take up a lot of time and energy. In the long run however, the multitude of tasks and tracking you can achieve with such a program is definitely worth it.

Whether you choose to go with the “index card” approach to contact management or a software package doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that once you find yourself a follow up system that works, STICK WITH IT! Commit to following the set guidelines of contact you made and follow through with every single lead. The program you use doesn’t really matter, it’s how you use it that does.