Question: How do you follow up with 114,367 open house guests?
Answer: The same way you would with one.
So, where did I come up with 114,367?
According to Inman News, at least 31,078 open houses were scheduled for the Nationwide Open House Weekend April 28-29, 2012. Using my brokerage as a “control group,” we had 17 open houses, which attracted 63 total guests, for an average of 3.7 guests per open house. Multiply 31,078 by 3.7 and we get 114,988.6 total Nationwide Open House guests.
What’s my point?
Statistically, we know that less than 2 percent of all homes sell as a direct result of an open house.
So, what happens to the 114,367 homebuyers who didn’t buy that specific house?
Question: What is Our Follow-Up Plan for the 98 Percent Who Did Not Buy Our Open House?
Let me rephrase that question because if there is one thing that 14 years in real estate has taught me, it would be that the word “plan” is truly a four-letter word to many real estate professionals.
What is the follow-up “system” we have in place to turn these guests into actual homebuyers?
Regardless of all the technology at our fingertips, real estate still requires sales skills and people skills. And skills are the result of repetition and practice.
I still remember Rick DeLuca’s words as if I heard them just yesterday:
“If you are going to do something more than once, have a system for it!”
Just for the record; I personally do not consider a “thank you” phone call and/or email a system; a step in the system, yes, the entire system, no!
With the technology available to real estate professionals today, the only other ingredient required to implement a successful Open House Follow-Up System is “care.” If you really care about the open house guests’ needs, desires and budget, you could implement an effective follow-up system today.
If You Care, the System Will Work!
Before I give you my “Six Days to Six Figures” Open House Follow-Up System, we need to understand sales performance statistics. Despite whatever you may call yourself on your business card, you are a salesperson. Accept and embrace it.
Here are some statistics I harvested years ago from Imagimarketing.com:
- 48 percent of salespeople never follow up with a prospect
- 25 percent of salespeople make only a second contact and then stop
- 12 percent of salespeople make three contacts and stop
- Only 10 percent of salespeople make more than three contacts
As we can see, after the “thank you” phone call and/or email, 73 percent of our industry quits!
Want to get really excited? Check out these stats from the same source:
- 2 percent of sales are made on the first contact
- 3 percent of sales are made on the second contact
- 5 percent of sales are made on the third contact
- 10 percent of sales are made on the fourth contact
- 80 percent of sales are made on the fifth to 12th contact
Are we beginning to see light?
The “Six Days to Six Figures” Open House Follow-Up System:
Why am I giving you my system for FREE? Because you read this entire post!
Day One: Monday or the “day after” the open house
If you were able to get a phone number, call them to thank them for visiting your open house, and ask if they have any questions about that specific home or your local market area in general. If you get their voice mail, leave an “enthusiastic” message and text them with: “Sorry I missed you! I really enjoyed meeting you and look forward to helping you with your home search. I will try you again later.”
If you were able to get their mailing address, send them a hand-written “thank you” card (nuff said)! If all they would give you is their e-mail address, send them a “thank you” e-card; most real estate brands have some sort of flash e-card available, or there is always Jacqueline Lawson.
Google their name, find them on Facebook (message them but don’t friend request them … yet), follow them on Twitter, etc.
Day Two: Tuesday
Send them LISTINGS! Reference the discussion you had with them at the open house in an e-mail and include a link to listings based on that discussion. If you have their phone number, text them an alert notifying them they have listings in their inbox.
Day Three: Wednesday
If you have their phone number, call them and ask if they had the opportunity to view the listings you sent them. If no answer, leave a message and text them the same message!
If all you have is their e-mail address, send them a VIDEO message — an Eyejot or Tokbox of you! In less than 30 seconds, you can get your message across for FREE.
Day Four: Thursday
Send them another e-mail with a link to a VIDEO about something they “care” about: the community they are interested in, first-time homebuyer FAQs, short sales and foreclosures, luxury estates, etc.
Don’t text them anymore if they haven’t called or texted back!
Day Five: Friday
Invite them to another open house you are holding or create your own video open house of one of your own listings or a great listing you think they may love! Kudos to the guys at RETechulous who came up with this idea; check out one I made after watching their video tutorial using Screenr.
Day Six: Saturday
If you haven’t established communication with them by now, send them an email letting them know that you have registered them in your local MLS and they will be receiving periodic listing alerts from you and you hope to see them again.
Please feel free to customize this system as you see fit. Just have an Open House Follow-Up System that shows your guests you care about them.
