June 2000 Published by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
June 2000 Published by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
| Topic: | |
| Title: | Online Exclusives - June 2000 |
| Headline: | Distance Makes Virtual Prospects' Trust Grow Stronger |
| Language: | English |
| Writer: | Michael J. Russer |
| Editor: | Christina Hoffmann Spira |
| Article Page #: | |
| Copyright: | Copyright ©2000. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® |
| Internet-empowered consumers Distance Makes Virtual Prospects' Trust Grow Stronger Winning online consumers’ business flips the marketing principles you were taught on their ear. Now, you wait for them to contact you. | ||
| DEAR MR. INTERNET I have no difficulty attracting visitors to my Web site. However, I rarely see any business from them even though they send me tons of e-mail. How can I convert these virtual prospects into real customers? Dale Erwin RE/MAX All Stars Fort Worth, Texas DEAR DALE: A lot of salespeople would love to be in your position. In our zeal to get prospects to our site, we often give little attention to how to transform them into customers once they arrive. Remember, we're dealing with the Internet Empowered Consumer. They're smart, informed, anonymous, and, most importantly, in control of the inquiry process. This makes them different from the traditional real estate consumer. My January 2000 column, "21st-century Practitioners Learn to Give up Control to Consumers," outlined the principles of working with the IEC. Rules Of engagement Rule 1: Don't push IECs to move faster or reveal themselves sooner than they're ready. Otherwise you’re likely never to hear from them again Rule 2: Build trust by explicitly reassuring IECs that you'll respect their privacy. Rule 3: Be flexible and ready to tailor your services and fees to meet IECs’ needs rather than force them into a one-model-fits-all situation Rule 4: Build relationships by giving IECs what they want--information, advice--without requiring them to reveal themselves, and in a way that let's them know you’re the expert Now, let's see how to put these rules into practical use to boost your online conversion rate. A powerful first-response e-mail Suppose an IEC named Jane e-mails you with a request for more information about a particular property and neighborhood she found at your Web site. What would your response be? Perhaps you'd thank her for her inquiry, give her the information she requested and then, if you’re like most salespeople, you'd ask some probing questions, such as What's your price range? When do you plan to move? How large is your family? and so on. After all, isn't this the way many of us were taught to interact with prospects? Unfortunately, what works well with traditional consumers can literally drive IECs away. There's a different, yet powerful way to respond, keeping in mind the rules of engagement:
Notice how this reply uses rules 1,2, and 4. Now, imagine you were Jane. How would you feel if you received this as a first response from a real estate salesperson? Ironically, you'd probably feel a little more trusting and more willing to open up than if you were asked qualifying questions before you were ready. The beauty of this response is that it weeds out the looky lous, who'd never bother contacting you again anyway. Yet it lets real prospects know that you’re serious and cognizant of their need to control the process.
This approach allows a relationship to blossom and flower into real business. From this point on, the appropriate protocol is to wait for a response from the prospects. Let them continue leading the process until it becomes clear that trust is no longer an issue. There's a big payoff in changing your approach to IECs. In addition to converting more visitors to customers, you can expect to cut the average time to transaction (once you actually meet the prospect) in half. That’s because in the milieu of trust, IECs are open to your advice. You can guide them through the process without significant back-and-forth debate. Also, IECs save you time because they've probably already started and narrowed their property search online. Play by these rules and you’ll convert site visitors into customers and customers into friends. |