Let’s Get Down to the Nitty-Gritty of Prospecting
What is prospecting?
Next to closing a sale, prospecting is a crucial aspect of every real estate transaction. Often, lead generation and prospecting are considered the same. Although the two may be interchangeable, industry experts say that there is a thin line between the two.
To understand this further, let us try to understand the stages of a real estate transaction.
- Demand Generation
- Lead Generation
- Sales Prospecting
- Closing
Demand generation is the process of getting prospects interested in the product or service you are selling – Landerapp.com, Mar 2018. In other words, this is the marketing phase. To date, marketing strategies have become immensely creative as competition has become more stringent. Several platforms are now available on top of the traditional rolling out flyers and newspaper adverts.
On the other hand, lead generation is the process of converting that interest into actual names and contact details that your sales team or even you can follow up on. – Landerapp.com, March 2018. The demand generation content must be highly enticing and convincingly effective that a prospect may justify his or her decision to share his or her contact information with you.
Sales prospecting is managed by the sales team and is the part of the process that comes after lead generation and before a pitch. – Blog by Mark Davis, December 2017. During this stage, after weeding out the hottest leads, the real estate agent then performs a combination of emails, phone calls, and social selling.
The main difference between lead generation and sales prospecting is that in the latter there is an actual engagement. There is a two-way communication between the prospect and the sales agent. They are talking! And these talks could lead to closing the deal.
You might be thinking, “so what are the effective sales prospecting techniques?”. Thank you for that wonderful question. We are going there next.
Below are some of the methods and/or skills that you may include in your arsenal of sales prospecting hacks.
- Personal positioning – (impressive business acumen, public speaking engagements)
- Referral – (happy customers are the best source of leads)
- Social Media – (blogs, webinars, join social platforms)
- Partnering – (ally with businesses from other industries)
Depending on who you are talking to the answer to this question may vary. In reality, there is no cookie-cutter approach. You have to develop a technique that will work for you.
If you know of an effective prospecting approach share with us your thoughts.
Contributor: Maria Antonio
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