Converting Property Leads Into Buyers

March 15, 2020

So, you’ve got too many leads to count? It’s a good problem to have!

While having too many property leads is one that might be unique to the property market in Sydney and Melbourne at the moment, it can be solved by utilising your sales time more effectively. Having filters and barriers to identify the key prospects is key to saving time while ensuring you’re not clogging up your sales system by talking to absolutely everyone.

Here, our General Manager Nik Sproal chats to Jake Taylor, resident property wiz, about converting a volume of property leads into actual buyers.

Use your resources more effectively

By implementing filters and barriers, you can ensure your sales team is using their valuable time to maximise conversion, rather than searching through a large volume of prospects at once.
Nik: When you talk about filters and barriers, it might sound like a negative thing to some people. Can you explain it in more detail?
Jake: Sure. Normally, looking at qualifying factors or filters means having shorter forms, so you can get that enquiry and start to drip them information via nurture processes. When demand is really high, we can actually have longer forms and start asking more information of prospects in the earlier stages. So we’re still asking them for information in multiple steps, but we’re asking them about their financial status, what size lots they’re looking for, if they’ve spoken to builders… all of those qualifying questions that help you identify which prospects are market-ready and which ones still need time to buy.

Intent-based sales processes

When you create a lead-generation form which gathers accurate and useful information, you set yourself up for a sales process that’s seamless for both your company and the customer.
Nik: So basically, what we’re looking for when we implement qualifying factors is intent?
Jake: Yes, definitely. It’s about gauging the level of intent of each lead, and looking at how we can serve the right information to the right people at the right time. If the prospects are at that pointy end of the sales funnel, then it makes sense to talk to them about staged releases and qualifying them for the right lot sizes, for instance. Whereas when you’ve got people with extra time under their belts before they’re ready to purchase, you’ll want to talk to them about the wider community and benefits while getting them ready for the construction stages to come.
Nik: So that means that you’re serving awareness-based content for marketing-qualified leads, and more nitty-gritty, specific content for the savvy people who have done their research and are ready to buy.

Managing demand without rejection

It can be tricky to find a balance between maintaining demand and hype for a campaign while ensuring there’s no sense of rejection for leads who mightn’t be qualified for sale just yet.
Jake: The next evolution in the conversion process is moving away from that old-fashioned camp-out style of creating hype. Today, we love that level of demand but without the negative friction of competition. So it makes sense for us to be moving toward a more customer-friendly journey that removes that element of rejection or missing out, and keeps the entire process online. So with online booking forms, think about how we buy concert tickets online now to avoid people actually camping out; we can apply that exact same concept to our dealings in the property industry.
Nik: Intuitively, you might think about this process and decide that you don’t want to be blocking anyone from coming through the sales funnel. But we’re still seeing buyers responding to well with a higher barrier to entry and progressing through the sales process.
Jake: Definitely. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution that will apply to every market and every offering, but where it is so hot in certain areas it’s about utilising the sales team’s time to talk to the right people at the right time, having those appointments booked online in a clean process through the email communications and handover, and following this with qualifying calls and appointments after that to make sure they’re definitely the right prospects. It just helps funnel them down in that early stage so you can use your time more efficiently and effectively across the board.

Property lead conversion in practice

At Social Garden, we’re experts in converting high-quality leads in the property space. It’s important to optimise your sales processes for maximum efficiency, filter prospects for intent, and effectively manage demand to acknowledge customers at different stages of the sales journey.

We undertook a successful multi-channel lead generation campaign for Metro Homes SA which incorporated SMS verification, warm transfers, and live chat management. This resulted in nearly 900 leads being profiled — read more about it here.

Need a hand?

Here at Social Garden, you’re in safe hands in a tough market. Get in touch by filling out the form below — let’s chat about what we can achieve with your property leads.