Prospecting is the heart of your real estate business. Therefore, you must master every aspect of it. And you must enjoy doing it. The health of your agency/network depends on it!
It is said that a company is elected every day by its customers. For a simple reason: they are the ones who make it live. Prospecting consists in going to find these customers where they are. Your customers. First and foremost, sellers who entrust you with their real estate project so that you can enter mandates and propose properties. In other words: real estate prospecting is essential. This is why we give you the keys to get started!
Table of Contents
- Real estate prospecting is the basis of your business :
- The 3 key concepts of field prospecting :
- Real estate prospecting in the digital age :
Real estate prospecting is the basis of your business :
What is real estate prospecting ? :
In your business, prospecting is the foundation of everything. Here’s an analogy that sums it up very well: a game is played (and won) on the field, not in the locker room. If you stay in the warmth, or sit on the bench, you won’t even have a chance to fight for victory.
Today, sellers have the choice of going through a real estate professional (or not) to market their property. They are quite capable of doing it on their own, without anyone’s help!
If you don’t get the water from the source, the water won’t come to you on its own. It will continue to flow quietly, following its path. It’s the same thing for salespeople: you have to go and show them that you exist. And show them how much you can do for them.
That’s what real estate prospecting is all about: reaching out to prospective sellers; building a portfolio of properties for sale; and then being able to offer those properties to prospective buyers.
Real estate prospecting is the basic tool: the one that allows you to make yourself known at time A (the time of prospecting in the field) in order to be recognized at time B (the time of putting a property on sale).
How does real estate prospecting work ? :
Real estate prospecting can be divided into several methods:
- Physical prospecting: direct marketing, display (advertising and window), door-to-door real estate, meeting with prospects, human contact ;
- Telephone real estate prospecting;
- Prospecting through existing ads (define a real estate prospecting argument that allows you to convince a seller already in action to entrust you with a sales mandate).
Those are the basics.
But here’s the thing: they’re starting to get old. They are still essential, but they need to be extended by new actions.
We must now add a fundamental weapon: digital. You must absolutely optimize your field prospecting thanks to digital tools, and make sure you capitalize on new media to make yourself better known locally.
These new generation real estate prospecting tools include :
- Emailing
- SMS marketing
- Using your website to acquire prospects
- Events: attracting the attention of prospects by creating events and operations, putting Inbound marketing into these events
- Social networks: to increase your notoriety, attract the public to your events, etc.
The 3 key concepts of field prospecting :
Local business, goodwill and chain of custody: these are the three key concepts in field prospecting
You have understood: without daily prospecting, you will not be able to bring a regular flow of mandates to your agency or network. And without a regular flow of mandates, you cannot develop your business. Because it is not a question of making a single sale, even an exceptional one, to guarantee a satisfactory annual turnover: you must make as many as possible!
To fully understand the importance of real estate prospecting, it is necessary to integrate these three crucial notions: the local business, the goodwill and the revenue chain.
1- The concept of local commerce :
Understand well : your real estate activity is similar to a local business.
You are like a baker or a bookseller: your business is based on contact with the customer who lives nearby. The only difference is that you sell real estate.
And as a local merchant, you need one thing: awareness.
Real estate prospecting is essential because it’s what “localizes” your business. It gives you a local base, and therefore a reputation. There are other tools, of course – like local referencing on the Internet.
But real estate prospecting and digital marketing are complementary, and they don’t work without each other: you must start by going out into the field before extending your actions with digital tools.
2- The concept of goodwill :
If your agency is a business, then prospecting is your business: it’s what makes your business valuable.
If you don’t prospect – if you don’t build a base of selling clients, then you have no business! So no intrinsic value.
3- The concept of the “revenue chain :
In real estate, the revenue chain is divided into two stages: prospecting sellers and prospecting buyers.
The first – finding sellers – should take up 70% of your time. The second – finding buyers for your properties in the catalog – only 30%.
Why 70% of the time? Because real estate prospecting requires you to:
- Actively searching for properties that are for sale
- Acquire self-confidence to convince the sales prospect
- Propose a well thought-out and relevant argument
- Knowing how to deal with (and get around) sales objections
- Follow the seller and respect his commitments
Real estate prospecting in the digital age :
gital technology is changing the way real estate prospecting is done, but do you know how much?
Your field prospecting lacks efficiency. Your real estate flyers distribution does not allow you to acquire enough sales prospects? Are exclusive mandates slipping through your fingers?
Review your real estate prospecting plan from top to bottom and optimize your campaigns in the field thanks to digital tools!
Digital media now allow you to rethink your prospecting methods, to relay your event marketing operations by reaching a larger audience, and to better organize your trips! As long as you integrate the right tools into your work environment.
To help you see this more clearly, here are 3 ways digital can impact your real estate prospecting plan.
1- Prospecting as a gateway to digital :
Simple door-to-door can no longer guarantee qualified contact with prospects. In the era of digital transformation – which is hitting the real estate industry hard – the physical medium used in your prospecting plan can no longer be limited to itself. That real estate flyer that you put in the mailboxes, that flyer that you distribute to potential customers in your canvassing area, can no longer be satisfied with being “only” paper supports.
2- A support to relay your Inbound events :
In the same way, when you organize Inbound events – with the aim of attracting prospects to your real estate agency – it is in your best interest to use your digital tools as a support to relay these operations.
This will allow you to reach a much larger audience, the one who consults your website!
At a time when 90% of real estate projects start with a search on the Internet, you really want sellers and buyers to be able to find you through this medium, and to come and take part in your inbound events – open days to visit a property, competitions, quizzes, etc.
3- Manage your field prospection with a dedicated tool :
Digital tools are not only used to acquire direct online traffic: with the right real estate software, you will also be able to better organize your real estate prospecting plan and thus reach more prospects – which will attract more mandates in the end.
In concrete terms, real estate prospecting software allows you to:
- Organize your real estate prospecting plan by segmenting sector by sector (islanding);
- Qualify your contacts’ details to have a clearer vision of your prospecting zone;
- To follow with precision the actions carried out and the data collected on the ground.
With a tool like this, your real estate prospecting plan will be enhanced with powerful features!