From Dave Huffy...

I wanted to re-post this comment from Dave Huffy from December of last year as I think it speaks volumes about just how important staying connected to your customers really is...



Dave Huffy said...
As we continue to stress the concept of incubating our customers in the 210 Days model and prepare them for their life choice of purchasing a home, we are reminded by success as our evidence of the working 210 Days model.Recently, three of our Lending Tree customers turned from incubating leads to pending deals and if it were not for continuous follow up on the agent’s part and their urgency in keeping the prospect alive, and without their diligent efforts, these customers very well might have slipped through the cracks.All three customers will be enjoying their new homes by the end of the year. These customers were incubated from as long ago as last June (2006) and more recently from this January. Remarkable is that each customer at any given point in time, either was not able to purchase a home due to financial reasons, or had not been actively looking for months at a time. The drive that the agents had for their customers to purchase their homes became an exciting positive experience that was shared by both the buyer and agent. This constant persistence was recognized by the customer and influenced their motivation which made them believed that they could and will buy a home. With this enthusiasm shown by both parties, these customers felt that they could rely on the agent to help them during both the good times and bad times that may and can occur during the home purchasing process.

December 13, 2007 11:41 AM

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Leads...Like shopping for fruit?

I think not.

We are constantly hearing from folks about the need for "fresh" leads. Things like "These leads are dead" or "These leads are old" or "These leads are stale by the time we get them" are frequent overtures to many in the lead generation business.

First things first. Leads are "PEOPLE" they don't go bad(I hear ya, arguable) they simply come without a flag indicating ready for consumption now.

Whenever we buy something, food in particular, and don't like the way it tastes, we have a tendency to assume it might have gone bad and we look for a more fresh specimen. We always assume fresh is best. If this has been around awhile and I'm not sure about it's freshness, just give me a fresh one...to be safe.

Now wait a minute. I remember one time when my mom handed me a banana and said "Here, this is gonna be great!" and I looked at that banana and saw some brown spots beginning to form on it. I took the banana and carried it around for a day, wondering if it was going to be OK. Eventually I took the banana back to my mom and said. "This one looks bad. I think it's old. Give me a fresh one." So she did. She gave me the freshest banana she had. Green, no, emerald or perhaps leprechaun was the color. I was delighted. I tried to peel it and finally succeeded with great effort. I took a bite of that fresh banana and WOW. That was the most bitter thing I had ever tasted! It tasted like someone had sucked all the saliva right out of my mouth and replaced it with bitter cotton.

I really didn't appreciate why this didn't work in my favor but mom explained with one simple comment. "Oh, didn't you like that? I guess it wasn't ripe yet. Did you want a ripe one? Because I thought you said fresh."

You see where I am going with this. Fresh is great. Fresh is to be commended. But fresh isn't always what we need.

Leads(people) generated on the Internet from virtually any source are fresh indeed. Sometimes they are even picked before they should have been. Our research has confirmed that these fresh leads take an average of 210 days to ripen.

When you are in a situation where you haven't got enough business for your needs in the here and now, rather than asking someone for a "fresh banana", look over on that shelf where you put the other "bananas" and find one that has ripened.

You will probably have to pick each one up and turn it over and look at it closely and ask it all the right questions, but if you do, you surely will find a ripe one.

Look back at your leads you've received over the past 210 days and check them out, call them, ask them questions and you'll probably find a few that have ripened.

Indeed, leads are not like shopping for fruit where you look for the freshest. Rather they are like enjoying the fruit you have already bought when it's perfectly ready.

You've already put in the time and effort, get our there and enjoy the fruits!

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