It's a familiar refrain in our business, and if you've been around for any time at all, you've either heard it or recited it yourself – perhaps more than once.

It goes like this: "I don't have time to prospect or generate leads for future business. I'm way too busy working with people who are ready, willing and able to buy and sell today."

In our extremely competitive and fast-paced business, that sentiment is certainly understandable. Yet the critical importance of wisely and efficiently managing time, generating new leads and then following up is never far from agents' minds.

In fact, recent research conducted by HouseValues, via focus groups with agents throughout the country, found that their three most pressing concerns are:

• Time management

• Lead generation

• Prospect follow-up

It isn't too surprising to find these three concerns lumped together, since they all flow from to another. What is somewhat surprising, however, is the fact that many agents still haven't realized that the real estate game has changed significantly -- or if they have realized it, they still haven't done a whole lot about it.

They haven't learned how to take advantage of the sophisticated and powerful technology tools that are readily available, tools that were created to help them develop relationships and build a huge, reliable (and from a business standpoint, comforting) database of prospects which can provide a steady income stream. We like to call it "the pipeline."

For the most part it can be assumed that agents don't like to prospect and don't find it very fun, and so they convince themselves they shouldn't focus much energy on it. The problem with this short-term thinking is that it inevitably leads to peaks and valleys in income.

Since more prospects than ever use the Internet to search for home information and new listings, that is where agents should prospect. Consider that according to the National Association of Realtors:

• 87 percent of consumers expect their agent to be skilled with technology, and 100 percent of consumers expect responsiveness

• 74 percent search online for their next home

According to Borrell Associates, real estate professionals spend more than 60 percent of their advertising dollars on print media, and only 11 percent online. According to the NAR, less than 50 percent of agents have a personal website, and those that do, average only 13 customer inquiries per year through their sites.

As technology-savvy agents know, offering consumers valuable home-buying and selling information online helps agents capture, cultivate and convert more prospects. What constitutes "valuable" information to consumers? Among the items many top agents provide are:

• Market updates

• Neighborhood news

• E- newsletters

• Listing information -- with multiple photos and/or virtual tours

• Details on how to properly prepare a home for sale

• Buyers' Guides

• Sellers' Guides

If you are investing the time, energy and financial resources to establish and maintain an online presence, by all means make sure you're capturing vital data in the process. Be sure to require prospects to provide you with names and e-mail addresses in order to receive information from your website, so that you in turn can contact each and every one of them quickly and easily.

Also, be sure to advertise your site's web address on ALL of your marketing pieces. This is a painless -- and highly effective -- way to handle lead generation. The more valuable information you have on your website, the more effective your lead generation efforts will be.

You also can use the Internet as a valuable tool for consistent follow-up with your prospects.

The most efficient way to follow up consistently is to systematize your e-mail communication with your prospects, past clients, sphere of influence, etc. Developing a system that automatically sends out e-mail communications will save you precious time while enabling you to consistently stay in touch with prospects and generate referrals from past clients, friends and family.

Every day growing numbers of consumers start their home-buying and selling searches online. Smart, tech-savvy real estate pros are there, too, ready to offer potential customers the tools, services and advice they need to make informed decisions -- including which agent to choose to help them.

And instead of that sorrowful refrain I mentioned at the beginning of this column, these real estate pros are singing a much happier tune … all the way to the bank.

Claudia Wicks is Director of Real Estate Training and Content for HouseValues, Inc. Claudia is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Washington, where she has worked for the last 27 years as an agent, broker/manager and Director of Training for Coldwell Banker and John L. Scott. Learn more about HouseValues at www.agentsuccessnetwork.com or call toll-free 866-952-5042.

Published: June 24, 2005

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Claudia Wicks is Director of Real Estate Training and Content for HouseValues Inc. Her blog, AgentCEO.com, offers agents and brokers tips gleaned from her decades of real estate industry experience. Claudia is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Washington, where she has worked for the last 28 years as an agent, broker/manager and Director of Training for Coldwell Banker and John L. Scott. Learn more about HouseValues at AgentSuccessNetwork.com or call toll-free 866-952-5042.