A real estate sales funnel is a process that helps real estate salespeople convert leads into clients. The goal of a funnel is to move leads through the various stages of the buying process, from initial contact to a completed real estate transaction.
Please note that a real estate sales funnel can also evaluate the process of clients purchasing a property. As a real estate agent, you must understand both types of sales funnels. However, this article will focus on finding real estate clients.
Let’s look at the different stages of a sales funnel – and actions you can complete daily to increase your revenue.
Stages of a Real Estate Sales Funnel
You may be able to identify hundreds or thousands of people. However, you probably only have a handful of close friends. This is one way to view a sales funnel. People who know you are a real estate agent are at the widest end of the funnel. But your actual clients are on the narrowest end of the funnel.
Here’s how to get leads into your funnel and then how to convert those leads into clients.
Generating leads
We know it seems obvious, but you can only attract clients if people know you are a real estate agent.
The first part of the real estate sales funnel involves generating leads – or letting people know that you are open for business.
Most people start generating leads by contacting people on their contact lists. For some people – this is enough to develop a healthy funnel. But for most real estate agents working in a competitive market, you will need to do more to attract potential customers, including online marketing, networking, and asking for referrals.
Online Marketing
Make your presence known online by learning about online marketing. Different strategies exist for having your website at the top of a search engine results page.
These include pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, and content marketing with blogs and social media posts. Creating a solid online presence will make your business easier to find online and create a fuller professional presence.
Networking
Build relationships with others in the community (and industry professionals) to generate leads. Join civic organizations, attend city council meetings, meet local business owners, and attend industry events. The more you get out in the community, the more people will enter your funnel.
Referrals
Ask satisfied clients to refer friends and family. Give them incentives for referrals, such as a gift card. Ask happy clients to write online reviews.
Nurturing leads
The second stage of the real estate sales funnel involves building relationships with leads. But the basic idea of nurturing leads is finding ways to stay in the minds of potential clients.
There are many ways to nurture the leads in your sales funnel. Some use drip marketing campaigns, which use “drips,” or pre-written messages to customers or prospects that are sent over time. Others use more personalized communication methods.
You can also nurture leads by providing them with valuable information and resources about real estate buying and selling that will make your contacts interested in working with you as a real estate agent.
Qualifying leads
Some people in your funnel have no intention of making a real estate purchase or sale in the near future. While it’s still helpful to maintain contact with these individuals, you may not put much effort into specifically pursuing them as clients.
However, qualified leads may be close to ready to make a move. Many real estate agents will focus their time and efforts on these types of people in order to win their business in the near future.
Some real estate agents will ask potential clients to complete a form to assess their readiness to buy or sell a property. Others will make discovery calls with potential clients to ask questions about their situation, needs, and goals.
If these leads turn out to be a good fit for your services (i.e., they are buying or selling property in your area or are buying or selling a property within your niche or area of expertise), prioritize your time and effort into converting them into clients.
Converting leads into clients
The goal of the real estate sales funnel is to make a client out of a contact. To convert leads into clients, present a compelling offer that addresses the potential client’s needs and goals.
For example, if your potential client is in the market for a property, a few well-delivered questions would enable you to create a customized property search. Ask your contact if they would like to see any of the properties on your list – and you may get yourself a client.
Those selling may be interested in seeing a detailed market analysis or a personalized selling plan.
Of course, converting leads into clients will take time, and you must learn how to handle rejection when clients decide to use someone else.
Your Next Steps
Please understand that this was just an overview of a real estate sales funnel. Here are some action items to complete if you are a new real estate agent.
- Set aside a specific number of hours each week to generate, nurture, and qualify leads. Successful real estate agents make this a priority – even during times when they have plenty of work.
- Keep track of where your leads come from to know which strategies were most successful in your community. This will help guide you on how to spend your marketing budget.
- Keep learning about real estate marketing strategies by taking continuing education courses from Colibri Real Estate. Check out our Career Hub for additional insights on growing your career.
You’ll learn the latest marketing strategies from Colibri Real Estate. We’ve got your back so that you can spend more time on your real estate sales funnel.
