3 reasons a referral partner delivers stronger leads
Zoe Pointon is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of OpenAgent. Over the years, she's had the privilege of collaborating with some of the brightest minds in real estate, amassing over a decade of invaluable experience and a treasure trove of insights around the property buying and selling process.
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The Inman Connect Conference heard that a typical conversion rate on leads in real estate are between one to three percent in the US.
With such a low success rate, the emphasis becomes about getting volume and enough leads into your pipeline that you can run your business, and this has snuck into our thinking in Australia.
The trouble with this approach is that it requires an extraordinary amount of effort and time - to the detriment of other activities that can also be supportive to building life-long relationships, which is where the real value is created.
But it doesn't have to be this way. It pays to question the premise that more volume is the only way to improve lead conversion. Improving the quality of leads is the most viable way to grow your listings.
At OpenAgent, we’re proud of the fact that 56% of our referrals in FY 2018 ended up becoming a listing within 12 months. This demonstrates that having a quality lead referral partner can achieve two key objectives for your business.
"At OpenAgent, we're proud of the fact that 56% of our referrals in FY 2018 ended up becoming a listing within 12 months."
Firstly, by having someone whose job it is to solely work on delivering leads, you have the security of knowing this important work is being done for your business even if your staff take their eyes off the ball for any reason.
And secondly, a referral partner has the skills, tools and expertise to find better quality leads more quickly than the typical ways used by agents. These include:
1. Capturing intent through website leads
Many consumers feel more comfortable exploring information about buying and selling real estate through a neutral third party site, and will often engage for longer without the fear of being "sold" to by an agent.
Referral partners have extensive analytical insights into this behaviour which helps them identify not just the likelihood of listing, but also timeframes and motivation.
2. Big data analytics and tools to enhance behavioural understanding
The referrer's website is just the beginning. Good referral partners will also have excellent capability around data analytics and will be able to overlay additional data sets over their list of potential leads. This can both enrich insights about who those people are and what motivates them, while also identifying new ways to reach out to them and the channels they are active in.
This can be extremely helpful in understanding how to approach these leads, improving your engagement and setting you up for life-long relationships.
3. Qualifying behaviour with a phone call
Algorithms, no matter how clever they are at initial discovery, nothing can replace the value of a good old fashioned phone call. A good referral partner will qualify the majority of leads before sending them to your business.
"A good referral partner will qualify the majority of leads before sending them to your business"
This is a huge step that really confirms that the final leads being sent to you are genuine and have a high possibility of listing. When done well, it will also deliver a much higher conversion rate for your team than the typical one to three percent.
Think of it like a personal introduction from a friend which is always likely to get you a warmer reception than going in cold.
