In the previous episode of our new series, “How to Create a Client Acquisition Road Map”, we discussed the crucial steps in building a client acquisition plan that sets you up for success, creating engagement with high-quality leads.

Today, we will dive deeper into one of the most essential elements of any successful client acquisition strategy – follow-up with high-quality leads. We understand how challenging it can be to convert leads into appointments. That’s why in this episode, we will share with you the secrets that are guaranteed to take your follow-up game to the next level and increase your chances of converting leads into profitable clients.

So let’s get started and take your business growth to the next level as we show you how to effectively turn leads into confirmed appointments. Watch/Listen/Read this episode now!

Builder Lead Converter ATTRACTS, CAPTURES & CONVERTS high-quality leads for builders so they can pick & choose their clients & jobs. Find out how at https://www.builderleadconverter.com

 

Transcript: 

Rick: Today in Conversations That Convert, we’re talking or continuing our conversation on how to create a client acquisition roadmap. And this is all about the secrets to creating an effective follow-up plan for high-quality leads. Let’s get started.

Welcome to Conversations That Convert every week, We’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes tackling relevant lead generation marketing and sales topics for remodelers Home improvement companies, and home builders Conversations That Convert is brought to you by Builder Lead Converter, your perfect sales assistant.

Rick: Welcome to Conversations that Converts, everyone. Hello, Daiana.  

Daiana: Hello and welcome, everyone.  

Rick: Lovely to see you again today. So what is our topic?  

Daiana: Today it’s about the follow-up and how to get high-quality leads using the secrets to follow up.

Rick: That’s right. This is our new series called How to Create a Client Acquisition Roadmap and this is part two. This is all based on, of course, the number one marketing challenge for builders today, which according to the Association of Professional Builders State of the Residential Construction Industry survey, high-quality leads and the lack thereof are about 46 percent of builders say this is the number one challenge. 

And when you combine that with a lack of leads, a total of about 6 builders out of 10 builders out there say this is the number one and number two issue. So we understand what the challenge is. Well, now what we need to do is focus on. Okay. When we do build a road map for high-quality leads, the next thing we need to look at is after part one, which was engaging that lead is now following up with them. 

There is a very specific way you want to follow up with the leads. Most builders fall way, way, way short of this.  We’re going to talk about four key components of follow-up. So what do you think, Daiana? Should we jump into it? 

Daiana: Yes, let’s go ahead and get started. And, I remember that the fortune is in the follow-up. So, there should be some, some secret here.

Rick: That’s great. Fortune is in the follow-up, you know, and we talked about that a lot. It’s like, if you’re going to pay money to drive traffic to your website, what is the point if your website does not capture leads? If you’re going to capture leads and don’t do a good job of following up, what is the point of capturing the leads? So leads are expensive. 

And so we want to make sure that they have an Amazon-like experience once they engage your company. And that is really what you’re being compared to. So this follow-up plan is setting the stage for what will happen if they decide to work with you to build or remodel their home. That’s how imperative it is that they get the right type of follow-up, and there are four components here that we’re going to go over. 

So let’s jump into it. Question number one, who will follow up? Now, I see this a lot, especially in companies where a lead comes in and then it’s usually like an owner or sales manager and they look at the lead and they determine, well, you know what, I’m going to give this lead to Daiana as an example. 

And so then they take and they forward an email over to Daiana, but Daiana’s busy that day because she’s out with clients or maybe she’s not feeling well. And so the lead sits in her inbox for maybe a day or two or three and then she’s catching up and she sees it and she gets back to the lead. Okay, so now it’s been 24 to 72 hours. 

The lead hasn’t heard anything and the lead says, you know what, if this is what I can expect from your company, I’m crossing you off the list. So understanding who will follow up is the first question that you have to answer. And if you’re using the system, as I just described. 

I can guarantee you, that you are losing out on high-quality leads because high-quality leads are going to try to eliminate you, not include you. So they’re looking for any reason whatsoever to cross you off the list. What do you think, Daiana, of that?  

Daiana: Yeah, I think it’s it’s important to act fast and to be there for them immediately. And I can confirm that I gained some clients just by answering fast and they were surprised, Oh, you’re fast. And then they closed the contract. 

Rick: Yeah, and they go and they go for it. And that’s exactly what you’re looking for to set the stage. So, a couple of things on who will follow up. Number one, I think it should always start with the same person. And that person can be an AI assistant. You know, I was telling Daiana before,  this is that I have an AI assistant, her name is Isabella. 

So anytime Somebody books a call with me. The first person they hear from as far as the follow-up goes is Isabella. So that’s fine. You know, we, you know, we and we set up AI systems for our clients all the time because they realize you’re busy, you’re doing things you don’t maybe have somebody in the office all the time that’s right there to handle the follow-up. 

Now, the second thing with who should follow up is after the appointment is booked, the lead can always be reassigned. So if you’re an owner-operator and you’re also selling, You might be the first one to follow, to follow up on. And then you will also be the first one that’s going to take the phone call, which is really, you know after the appointment is booked. 

However, if you have multiple salespeople, you could always start with more of an intake type person or even an AI assistant who can begin that follow-up with the lead. And then they can be transferred over and that could all be done seamlessly and automatically, and the lead feels taken care of, because they know, like, Hey, I’m getting to the right person of who I want to talk to. 

Daiana, any thoughts on that? As far as the turnover and as far as, you know, having one person be that point of contact. 

Daiana: Yeah, that’s interesting how AI can help us and take some, some tasks and ask and respond immediately for us. So, I think the question is, how can we use AI to our benefit?  

Rick: Yeah, right. And you know, here’s a classic example. What if the lead comes in at 11 o’clock at night? 

Daiana: Yeah.

Rick: But you’re not there. Your employees aren’t there. You can’t expect them to be there. You’re not going to hire a 24-hour answering service. And even if you do do that, you have the human element there, which is Who knows what they’re saying or, or not saying. So with an AI assistant, yeah, you can have an after-hours assistant.  

You can name your after-hours assistant differently. You can say, hey, my name is Daiana. I’m the after-hours assistant for ABC Builders. Would you like to book a call with, you know, one of our remodeling advisors or new home advisors to talk more about your project? So then people sort of like, well, this is great. 

You know, these people are Johnny on the spot, even when the lights are off and the doors are locked. All right. The next question is how will they follow up again. Another huge issue with putting together any follow-up plan is not utilizing all the possible channels and different ways to follow up. So what I mean by this is you have to use multiple mediums. 

Historically, when you have, when you don’t have any automation and you have a salesperson following up, they will follow up with the lead the way that they prefer to follow up. Most salespeople will probably use an email. They’ll reply with an email saying, Hey, you know, thanks for your inquiry. You know, here’s the answer to your question, you know, blah, blah, blah. 

And what happens is that email typically may not get delivered or it doesn’t get read. Only about 18 percent of emails actually get opened out there. So, isn’t that crazy to think that if you had 10 leads and you’re only using email to follow up, you are actually only re-engaging about less than two out of 10,  way, way too expensive? So, email, what we have found is the worst way to follow up. 

It has the least amount of engagement and the least amount of conversions using email. Now, after you get into a relationship where there’s a back-and-forth, email is a perfectly fine tool. But at the beginning of the relationship, email we found was the worst tool. Any thoughts on that, Daiana?  

Daiana: That’s interesting. And I’m wondering what’s the best tool if email is the worst tool, tool because it’s true looking back. Yeah, after you have the relationship, then you can send the contract and have some conversation by email. But yeah, I use WhatsApp and my phone. I don’t know. What do you think about those? 

Rick: WhatsApp is popular with younger people too because it’s a free way to send text messages or SMS messages, right? So, the number one conversion medium is text  Yeah. And there’s a simple reason for that is because everyone has one of these and they’re attached at their hip. So, text messaging has, has roughly a 100 percent open rate after about one hour.

There’s really, you know, if you’re not, if you’re dealing with a younger demographic, yeah, WhatsApp or Instagram messaging, obviously Snapchat, that sort of thing. They’re way into that. But most, Home dealers and remodelers are dealing with a little bit older demographic and that professional class, especially they love to use text messaging. So, the text is the best. 

And we were talking about when to send a text and how, how to use it properly. Now, phones are still very, very valuable. And some, there are some types of leads out there that love to talk on the phone. They want to talk on the phone. 

The challenge with a phone is getting somebody to answer the phone and then getting a time where they, you guys can talk on the phone where you don’t have something, you’re not in the middle of something. So, phone tag obviously is still a really big thing. And I call it the chase, you know, chase, you know, you’re it. No, come back to me. No, you’re it. 

And you go back and forth. And it’s very, very inefficient way.  So with the phone, you can do a couple of things. One of the things we use is called call connect, and it’s where automatically you can take that new lead. It can call the salesperson or the person in charge of the follow-up, salesperson answers it and says, Hi, you have a new lead named Daiana and she downloaded this on your website. 

Press one to connect. And then if the salesperson presses one connect, it will automatically try to call that new lead. If that lead answers, you’re connected and now you can go through, hi, my name is, you are on our website. Did you get the information you’re looking for? Did you have any questions about your home building or remodeling project? Voila. 

Now there’s something else you can do call a voicemail drop. So that’s a prerecorded message where you drop it into your lead’s voicemail. And so on their phone, it looks like they missed a call from you. But they have a voicemail and sometimes people will just automatically just hit call and they’ll just call that number back. They don’t even listen to the voicemail. 

So all of a sudden you get somebody calling you one of your leads and it’s like, Hey, we have a chance to connect. However, if they’re listening to the voicemail, they get to hear your voice, and you get to obviously give them a compelling reason to want to take the next step in your sales process. So, your thoughts on that, Daiana, as far as how you should follow up as part of your client acquisition plan?  

Daiana: Yeah, I think that’s, that’s, that’s very powerful to use all the media that you have, not only one, and be aware and create a strategy, a strategy to follow up, not just say, oh, maybe I will try this or that to have a clear strategy about, and what’s the roadmap from when the client is entering into your lead capture until he converts.

Rick: And part of that strategy is using all those mediums and then when you push out that information that follow up, you do it different days of the week and different times of the day. A lot of people don’t realize that they say, Well, I like to follow up at this time of the day. Well, you don’t know if your leads are open to follow-up at that time of day.

So what you have to do is you have to do all sorts of different days of the week, different times of the day, including weekends to try to engage that lead and find them at a time that’s convenient to them. That’s what you’re trying to do you’re trying to just find out which medium you like to use. 

What time of the day do you like to follow up and make it as seamless and simple as them to reengage you? So you can again, move them closer to that phone appointment to talk about their project.  Number three question, when will they follow up? So this is again, creating your client acquisition roadmap and your followup, your follow-up plans. 

We talked about who would follow up, and how will they follow up. Now the question is, when were they followed up I just led into it as far as you have to change all sorts of different times of the day and days of the week when you follow when you follow up. 

So, here’s what I’m suggesting: the follow-up starts before they’ve ever, even in, on your website, you need to have the ability to have, have them ask a question using a live chat and convert that into a text. So that can start the follow-up process. 

Scheduling a call gives you, to put your calendar on your website so somebody can pick a time to schedule a call to talk, to talk to you, you can also do a click-to-call. So you put your phone number on your website, you put a click to call feature on it where if somebody’s on a mobile phone they can just hit that with their finger it opens up their dialer and they hit, you know, call. 

What happens then is the call comes through to your office but you might miss it.  So what do you do at that point?  Missed a call and texted back.  Hi, this is Daiana from ABC Builder. Sorry, we missed your call. How can we help you? Excuse me. And you start that conversation again, taking it from a call to a text. Now, why a text? 

Because text is the number one way when they will engage you. So, I always try to convert as much as I can to text messaging, knowing that if I’m looking at pure data, pure analysis, is that more people prefer to text than anything else.  So that’s usually my go-to when I’m just trying to establish that connection. Any thoughts on that Daiana? 

Daiana: So, text is the number one tool to use when you want to follow up.

Rick: Just to get someone to engage. I’m just trying to get a response out of them and engage again. If I’m using a text message, the goal is to get them on a phone call. If I’m using an email, the goal is to use that medium to get them on a phone call. A voicemail drop. 

Get them on a phone call and a call connect, you know, even if they don’t have a whole lot of time to talk if they answer the phone, I can at least send a schedule a time for me to call back when they have 15, 20 minutes in front of them to talk more about their project. So it’s all about getting them to that magical phone call. I can finish my qualification process. 

So, we talked about the website. After, if they don’t call you, they go on your website and say they opt-in. Once they opt in you want to immediately send them an email, immediately send them an email. So again, are they going to reply to that email? No, but it will acknowledge that you received their inquiry.

So, that’s really, really important that they feel acknowledged. What I do at that point is I’m going to wait one to three minutes and then I will send them a text. Okay.  Now, we talked about this strategy, but why would you wait, and Daiana, do you remember this? Why do you wait about one to three minutes before you text them? 

Daiana: Yeah, so, so you make it real for them. So, it’s like a real person who waits one minute and then sends it. So, you’re not desperate. 

Rick: Yep. Exactly. Yeah. So, it becomes, it becomes real because it looks organic. 

Daiana: Yeah. 

Rick: You can have it right away. It looks like, wow, you guys are Johnny on the spot. It was two or three minutes. I just. Hit like submit and all of a sudden, two minutes later, one minute later. I got an organic message back, back from you. And now all I’m doing is simply acknowledging that I heard from them. 

Normally what I want to do as part of that text message is I want to be able to acknowledge, that’m going to give them something because they just opted in. And we call that permission-based opt-in relationship where they feel like they’re going to receive more than they give. So, they’ve given me permission to follow up with them. 

I’ve now gone back and I’ve delivered to them something that’s of high value and they’re very happy because they got what they were, were looking for. Now over the next two weeks, I will continue to call and text. And do voicemail drops. And I might use messaging from Instagram or Google, my business, or Facebook as well to re-engage them. 

It all depends on what is important to them. In the last part of this part of your plan, I guess the question is what is automated versus manual? The cool thing about this is, is that everything that I have talked to, that I, in this particular episode, except a live phone call can be automated. And as we were talking right before this,  AI is now moving into live voice calls. 

So there is technology out there right now that will take and it will manipulate your voice and call somebody or talk to them. You know, using your voice. I do not recommend this. We don’t have any clients that are using this, but you should know it’s out there. So, literally everything, including a live phone call, can go to AI. However, why? There’s no, there’s no reason for it. 

You should be having that conversation with your lead, especially for the high-end price points that remodelers achieve. If it’s something that’s a very simple sale and it can be a, you know, a very much a generic sort of vanilla type phone call. 

Yeah, maybe you could use AI for something like that, but not for something design-builder as complex as building a home. So Daiana, any final thoughts from you? 

Daiana: Yeah, it’s interesting how AI will capture and gain more, more, let’s say, more, more things in, you know.

Rick: Right, one of the things that we’re doing right now is looking at using AI while a lead is on somebody’s website of one of our clients’ websites that have not opted in yet. And so we can get into some conversations with them using AI based on their behavior. 

And the other part is after they’ve opted in and I can go as part of this follow-up plan, I can incorporate AI into that using specifically SMS or text or text messaging and be more conversational, be able to answer more frequently asked questions, et cetera, et cetera, using AI. So do that to increase my conversions after I’ve captured that lead. 

So, that’s what really, that, and that’s right now, that’s, that’s happening as, as we speak. There are some very, very cool things that you know, we’ll be rolling out here in 2024. So, if you would like to schedule a strategy call today and find out how we can help you attract, capture, and convert high-quality leads so you too can pick and choose your clients and jobs, go ahead and click that link right below here. 

We’d be happy to take a look at your business, listen to your goals for the future, look at your website, and provide you with some feedback on that. And, that will end up for today for conversations that convert. So for my brothers and sisters in Christ.  

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all always. We’ll see you next time on Conversations That Convert. Bye bye.