Click Power: Building Block #3 – Online Lead Follow-Up

We’re back this week to discuss Building Block #3 in The Click Power System™ – Online Lead Follow-Up. Building Block #1 is your website and Building Block #2 is driving traffic to your website.

Now that you have a WOW website and a diverse marketing mix driving traffic, how do you plan to manage and convert your visitors into sales? The Click Power Strategy means nothing if you don’t generate new sales from your efforts. Once you implement the first two building blocks in the strategy, the number of online leads you receive will increase. You need a process to turn these leads into sales. Winging it just won’t work.

Many business owners have no idea what happens to the online leads that come from their website. Following up on online requests will give you a competitive advantage. Most home builders do not have a follow-up plan for this type of lead. But as a home builder, you have to deal with digital communication and how as a company you’re going to handle it. You can’t afford to be unresponsive, especially in the age of Twitter where it is too easy to tweet customer service frustrations. If you are still unsure if a dedicated online salesperson is right for your company, consider the following:

• With the right person and processes in place, centralized online sales programs work BIG TIME. I have monitored dozens of these sales programs and they consistently contribute 30+ percent of total sales (some contribute more than 40 percent).
• It is possible to quantify and benchmark the results of your online sales program.
• Appointments drive sales. If you want to convert online leads to sales, set more appointments. Appointments are the number one determinant of your online sales program’s success.
• Email marketing follow-up works best when it’s personalized and highly targeted. Consumers are tired of the “blast and bury” email marketing approach. Get personal to get their attention.
• Relying on New Home Consultants (onsite agents) to follow-up with online leads doesn’t work. Onsite agents don’t have the time or tools to follow-up properly.

Since you can’t react too quickly when following up with your prospects and you need repeated, personalized messages to reach your customers, your best option is to dedicate a staff member to manage your web leads. For the purposes of this book, I refer to this position as an Online Sales Counselor (OSC).

Depending on the size of your company, you may not need a full-time person to field your web leads. You may want to give this responsibility to someone on your team who is tech-savvy, friendly, knowledgeable about your products, and likes to talk to people. This is by no means the ideal situation, but it can work. Ideally, hire someone full-time to respond and follow up.
How do you know what approach is right for you? The volume of online requests will answer that question. If you only receive a couple of requests per week from your website, then the builder or sales manager can personally manage the follow-up effectively. Once you reach more than fifteen to twenty-five requests per week, hire someone to manage the requests for you in a timely manner.

View the OSC role as a salesperson in disguise as a customer service representative. On the surface, the OSC is helpful, friendly, and non-threatening, but is actually working with each lead building a relationship that will eventually result in an offline visit and sale.

Today’s post contains information found in Click Power, Meredith’s book written specifically for the new home building and residential real estate industry. It’s a comprehensive, digital marketing how-to guide for home builders. Meredith steps you through the sometimes overwhelming maze of web marketing and shows you how to optimize your potential online. Order it online at Amazon.com.

Categorised in: Home Builder Marketing & Sales, Marketing Mondays