Over the last 7 years I have worked with real estate agents and lenders on either generating their own leads or purchasing leads as a means to be successful.  The one thing that constantly resonates is the frustration the lender or realtor feels if that lead is not ready to make a move instantly.  The question that begs to be asked is if a lead is not put into a home or loan immediately is it a bad lead?
From my perspective, after working with hundreds of lenders and realtors the answer is 100% “no.”  To dig deeper we need to realize that people become a lead for a plethora of reasons and we need to recognize that with the Internet and media their reason could be swayed in an instant.  Just imagine, you are inquiring about refinancing and just as you hit submit, a news flash on Yahoo says the fed talks about cutting rates.  In that instant, you are thinking about waiting.  Now, this may seem like a long shot but think about how many articles, blogs, reports and stories have been published via Internet, radio, tv and newspaper that could change ones perspective very quickly.  In order to really work leads in today’s market you have to have a paradigm shift from idle lists of people you call and try and close immediately.  You have to look at them as an investment and have persistence.
There are many ways to do this and here I will outline what I find to be the most effective.  First, once you receive the lead, you must call it immediately and send an email immediately.  Now, I recognize life and business happens but if you are going to buy or generate real time leads, you have to call them as soon as you get them.  This hopefully will have you getting people on the phones that are excited and still interested.  The longer you wait to call them the higher the chance they are working with other people and/or they no longer care.   The best thing you can do is have your leads routed to your cell phone or set times everyday to check you site or lead management system and make the calls you need to.
The next key piece is follow up.  Most lenders make a couple of calls and send an email or two and move on.  This is an inefficient use of leads and money perhaps spent to get them.  You need to call them of course and send an email but this needs to be on a regular basis.  Now, there is a fine line here but putting them into a drip system is an efficient use of time and money.  There are many types of systems for all types of budgets but what you want is something that is customizable and stays in touch with the lead for no less than 12 months.  Every email that is in your drip system needs to be customized by you to be more than just the stock filler that the average drip comes with.   This customized content should reflect the market, your business, testimonials and should always have a call to action preferably to your website. The repetition of the drip will help you to stay in touch with little effort and will help the potential client get comfortable with. Over time by doing these two things you will see leads come to fruition.  I often liken leads to seeds because many times it does take along time before you see the fruit of your labor.
So back to the main question instant gratification or investment, if you look at it for instant gratification you are wasting your time and money.  If you look at it as an investment you will see more success and will be building your business for the long run.  No leads should ever be wasted and in today’s market.  There is no reason not to make the most of what you are buying or perhaps what you already have.