This is an email from my inbox this morning:

Hi there! I have a lot of dead leads in my database. 

For some people, I have a name and an email address, for others I may have a name and a phone number if I am lucky. Some of these people are in my database because we met at an Open House back in 2019 (pre-Covid) and are still opening "alert" emails that I am sending them as properties come on the market, but I do not have their phone numbers, however I can see they are actively looking for houses. 

What dialogues (emails or phone or text) do you suggest for me to re-engage these folks? 

Your help is appreciated. Thank you!

First, thank you for asking, and especially for saying my help is appreciated. Everyone needs a little appreciation now and then.

Here are a few recommendations, beginning with a vocabulary change from "dead" leads to "acres of diamonds." They are a diamond mine right in your own back yard. Demand is real right now, so those buyers who haven't "given up" and are still actively looking could be worth a fortune.

Just like Floyd used to tell us about floor calls from buyers. When you understand that one in three people who inquire about a property make an offer within 90 days, your attitude toward them shifts from nuisance to opportunity.

Or like Floyd used to tell us about that stack of 3 x 5 cards in the bottom right-hand drawer of the desk, those "old" buyer leads with a thick rubber band around them, and the tighter the rubber band, the more you are psychologically choking them for not buying.

Instead, here's how to turn those dead leads in your database into the foundation of a great 4^th quarter.

If your CRM has an enhance function, or an AI component that scours the internet for contact information, fill in the blanks with complete data. There are also pay services and apps like white pages or spokeo.com. Once you have contact info, put them all into a drip campaign: email, text, vidtext, slydial. Most CRM's will allow you to group text, or group email, so all you have to do is monitor those who opt out.

Floyd suggests you ask two questions of every lead. 1. Have you found a house yet? 2. Are you still looking? And those two questions should start a conversation that leads to a Re-CITO. Or a CITO if you haven't done a CITO in the first place.

Conversations are the key to "re-engaging" with those leads.

Brush up on your Converting Inquiries dialogue: Are you familiar with our Direct Customer Program? It's free, and it will give you access to properties before they even hit the internet. I would be happy to show you how it works. I have an opening later this afternoon, or would tomorrow be better for you?

As a bonus, some of those dead leads have a house to sell before they can buy. And now we're talking about listing leads, right there in your database of dead leads. Acres of Diamonds!

The Floyd Wickman Team blog by Mike Pallin