Dear Mr. Internet: I have no difficulty attracting many visitors to my Web site, however I rarely see any business from them even though I do receive tons of e-mail. How can I convert more of these virtual prospects into real customers? Dale Erwin RE/MAX All Stars Fort Worth, Tx

Dear Dale:

There are a lot of agents who would love to have your problem –a lot of site visitors, that is! However, in our focus on getting prospects to our site, often little attention is given to how to engage them once they arrive. Your low conversion rate could stem from a number of reasons.

One possibility is that your site content may not be highly “targeted”. That is, visitors may not feel there is a lot of valuable content for them to inquire further. While this could be another whole topic of discussion, let’s assume that is not your situation since you are receiving a significant number of e-mail inquiries. The other possibility is something far more fundamental –the very “way” you interact with them online...

Rules Of Engagement

Let’s remember who we are dealing with here –the Internet Empowered Consumer (IEC). They are smarter, better informed, can maintain anonymity, and most importantly are in control of the inquiry process. This makes them quite different from the traditional real estate consumer. My January, 2000 article outlined the Principles Of Working With The IEC, which suggested certain Rules Of Engagement™ when interacting with them.

Rule #1 Don't "push" the IEC to move faster or reveal themselves sooner than they are ready, otherwise you are likely never to hear from them again

Rule #2 You build trust by explicitly reassuring the IEC that you will respect their privacy

Rule #3 Be flexible and ready to tailor your services and fees to meet the needs of the IEC rather than force them into a "one model fits all" situation

Rule #4 You build relationship by giving the IEC what they want (i.e. information, advice, etc.), without requiring them to reveal themselves and in a way that let's them know you are the expert

Let’s take a look at how we can put these rules to practical use to boost your online conversion rate.

A Powerful “First Response” E-mail

Suppose an IEC named “Jane” e-mails you with a request for more information about a particular property and neighborhood she found on your Web site. Now, what would your response be? Perhaps you would thank her for her inquiry, give her the information she requested and then, if you are like most agents, you probably would ask some probing questions like “What’s your price range?”; “When do you plan on moving?”; “How large is your family?”, and so on. After all, isn’t this how many of us were taught to interact with prospects? Unfortunately, what works so well with traditional consumers can literally drive the IEC away!

Keeping in mind the Rules Of Engagement above, there is a very different yet powerful way to respond:

(NOTE:highlight for emphasis only)

Notice how this reply utilizes Rules 1,2, & 4 above. Now imagine you were “Jane” –how would you feel if you received this as a first response from a REALTOR®? Ironically, perhaps a little more trusting, more willing to “open up” than if you were asked qualifying questions before you were ready. The beauty of this response is that it will weed out the “lookie-loos” (who would never bother subsequently responding) yet lets a real prospect know that you are serious and cognizant of their need to control the process.

POWER TIP - create a “First Response” e-mail signature that has most of the text that you would use (adapted from the above in your own language) –that way you can respond quickly and consistently with only a click of the mouse!

This approach opens a space for “relationship” to blossom that has a good chance to flower into real business. From this point on, an appropriate protocol would be to wait for a response from the prospect –then let them continue “leading” the process until it becomes clear that trust is no longer an issue. At that point, the course leading to transaction is very straightforward.

There is a big payoff in shifting the way you interact with the IEC. In addition to converting more visitors to customers, you can expect the average time to transaction to be about half of what it typically takes (once they actually meet their online client --as reported by REALTORS who have experienced this process).

Consistent success online is all about knowing the “Rules”. Play by these rules and you will see your site visitors converting to customers and your customers becoming friends!

Let the domain name "Price Wars" begin! With the wholesale price of domain names currently at $6/year and nearly 100 registrars, prices were bound to come down --and boy did they ever! Check out 000Domains.com. This registrar seems to have set a new low for pricing at $13.50/yr ($27/ 2years)! It's a snap to register a domain name with them, and they are fast --typically 24 hours. In fact, I've personally already registered 2 domain names, and it was effortless. They will "park" your new domain name for free until you are ready to move it to your favorite ISP. Also, once you register at least one domain name, you can manage all of your domain names (registered through them) from a Web "control panel" where you can change the contact information of record and the Primary / Secondary domain name servers. The changes appear to be instantly recorded in the main Network Solutions database. Expect this trend of decreasing domain name costs to only continue --isn't competition great?! (special thanks to Rob Levy http://www.roblevy.com for this month's "Tip O' The Month"!)

Published: May 30, 2000

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