The Art of Following Up: How Many Times Should a Realtor Contact a Prospect? - Krista Mashore (2024)

As a real estate agent, you know that one of the most critical aspects of your job is following up with prospective clients.

Your success depends on your ability to keep in touch with prospects and turn them into leads and loyal customers.

And while finding a prospect was a challenge, how do you know how often to contact them before giving up?

The real estate industry is highly competitive, and you must do everything possible to stand out. Knowing how often a realtor should contact a prospect after an introduction is all feel and experience.

And building relationships with your prospects and showing them that you are the best person to help them find their dream home while providing outstanding service will position you to be known as a local expert.

Because you’re trying to build relationships with your prospects, you need to understand it takes time to nurture them to become a lead, so you must be reaching out to them constantly.

While reaching out is simple, on the other hand, you also want to avoid coming off as too pushy or annoying.

And so, the delicate balance of reaching out to prospects for your businesses to flourish without bugging and annoying them can be challenging. To succeed at this balancing act, you must follow up endlessly with your clients but don’t want to push anyone away.

At its heart, prospecting is the practice of targeting potential customers through direct communication and marketing tactics. You can take a lot of different tactics when following up, like geo-farming or cold outreach, like door knocking.

Geo-Farming: Farming is a kind of prospecting that entails an agent focusing on a particular area or population—such as one neighborhood that might have particularly attractive qualities—and working steadily to make connections and build relationships with those within it.

Cold Outreach: This may involve engaging in activities like door-knocking, mailing fliers, hosting open houses, attending local events, and even cold-calling. It’s not the most efficient way to introduce yourself and find new prospects, but it is something that has worked in the past.

By doing this over time, you can establish yourself as a familiar face in areas where people will likely need real estate services.

Another benefit to door knocking is that it’s also possible to pick up buyers who weren’t initially intending to purchase a property yet but could be swayed by the correct set of circ*mstances and information provided by an agent who has taken the time to get to know them and become part of their community.

Here’s the simple truth, following up with a prospective client is an art form.

It's a delicate balance between assertiveness and politeness. So, if you need help to figure out how many times to contact a prospect, you're not alone.

What Are The Benefits Of Following Up?

One of the most time-consuming parts of being in real estate is finding and nurturing relationships with your leads; follow-up is vital to any successful business strategy.

It involves regularly staying in touch with potential clients, customers, or partners to maintain a connection and keep the relationship warm.

• Following up allows you to maintain communication and build stronger relationships.
• If done correctly, it can increase the chances of closing a sale or gaining new business.
• Following up shows you are reliable and professional, which can enhance your reputation and credibility.
• It can help identify and address any issues or concerns that may have arisen.

Additional benefits of following up include strengthening the relationship with your network, creating a sense of trust and loyalty, and securing new business opportunities or partnerships.

Most importantly, following up can help you stay top of mind with your target audience, increasing the likelihood of them thinking of you first when they need your services.

Frequency Of Your Follow-Ups

Following up with clients and potential customers is vital to maintaining relationships and growing your business.

The frequency of follow-ups will depend on your business type, the stage of the sales process, and your client’s needs.

For example, if you are a real estate agent working with a buyer who is actively searching for a home, you may need to follow up several times a week to provide new property listings and schedule viewings.

On the other hand, if you own a retail store, you may only need to follow up with customers occasionally to notify them of sales or special promotions.

The key is to find a balance that keeps your business top of mind without overwhelming your audience with too many messages.

How To Be Effective In Your Follow-Up Strategy

Creating an effective follow-up strategy is crucial for building and maintaining relationships with clients or customers. Therefore, it is essential to have a plan to follow up with potential leads and current customers to ensure their satisfaction and loyalty.

To answer the question how many times should a realtor contact a prospect after an introduction, you should follow up at least once a week with prospects by email, phone calls, or personal visits.

For prospects who show more interest in the property or have made an inquiry, more frequent contact may be necessary.

Realtors should always be polite when contacting prospects and providing additional information about any property or real estate need that the prospect may have.

The first step is to make time.

Making Time

It is easy to get overwhelmed with the various tasks involved in real estate. However, prospecting and follow-up are two essential activities that all real estate agents must do to stay competitive and successful.

To ensure that you get these tasks done, it is essential to practice time management techniques such as the time-blocking method.

I also utilize a productivity hack known as the Pomodoro Method.

The Pomodoro Method is a tool to use, and it works like this:

• Set a timer for 20 minutes and work exclusively on one task
• At the end of the 20 minutes, take a short 5-minute break
• Repeat this process 4-5 times, known as a “Pomodoro.”
• After 4-5, “Pomodoros” take a more extended break or move on to new tasks

This will help you maximize your effectiveness and avoid wasting time on unnecessary activities.

Additionally, you could use the 22-day follow-up schedule as a guideline for when and how often you should reach out to leads.

By structuring your days around this schedule, you can ensure that every lead gets the attention they need while freeing up more time for other activities related to your business.

Next, determine how often and the ways that are the best communication methods, whether through email, phone calls, or in-person visits.

Staying On Top of the Conversation

Once you've made an excellent first impression, the next step is to keep up with your prospects. Again, use calls, texts, email, and other forms of communication to stay in touch.

Keep them informed about new properties, market trends, and changes in the real estate industry that may be relevant to their interests. Make sure you're friendly and professional whenever you reach out.

The key to successful follow-up is to start with an excellent first impression.

In addition, building rapport and establishing trust early in the relationship is essential.

This way, you'll have a much higher chance of getting a positive response when you do a follow-up. Ensure you're engaging with your prospects in a way that resonates with their needs and preferences.

Personalizing the follow-up messages and providing valuable content or offers to the clients is also crucial.

One tactic I like is to create video texts and send them to 10 different people in my sphere daily. These videos are personal and not business related, and my strategy is to build on my relationships with people and not be pushy with my real estate.

By consistently following up with customers, you increase the chances of building trust and establishing a long-term relationship, leading to repeat business and referrals.

Set Expectations Upfront

When you meet with a prospect, make sure to set expectations upfront regarding follow-up.

For example, ask what their preferred method of communication is and when they'd like to hear back from you.

This will help you know how to proceed in the days and weeks following your initial meeting.

Meet Them On Their Own Turf

Getting in touch with your leads can be exciting, mainly due to the wide array of devices, platforms, and communication styles available today.

Meeting them on their turf is a modern way of interacting that could really make a positive difference in your outreach efforts.

Reach out in the best way for you and that your prospects may be the most receiving, such as:

• Phone calls
• Emails
• Golden Letters And Mailers
• Social Media
• Videos

The first step is to try calling them.

If they don’t respond to calls, then send them emails.

To get even more creative, look up their social media profiles and try connecting with them there if they are active users.

Different methods for engaging potential leads on each platform include linking to blog articles or simply saying hello.

You could also join conversations they may be having or post content that interests them.

Creativity and thinking outside the box are essential to staying top of mind among prospects. Mixing up different contact methods allows you to reach out in unique ways and set yourself apart from competitors.

Consider what kind of communication works best for each lead type, then customize an approach to increase response rates and create customer connections.

Showing you’re willing to meet prospects on their terms creates a better impression and shows that you take special care when it comes to lead generation and customer engagement.

Using A CRM For Real Estate Follow Ups

When considering how many times should a realtor contact a prospect after an introduction could end up burying you in tasks. So, you’ll also want to explore tools that can help automate your prospecting.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is becoming an essential tool for real estate professionals to handle follow-ups.

Since follow-ups are crucial for you as a real estate agent to cement relationships with your clients and prospects, a CRM will help you nurture them and also to convert prospects into clients.

The way CRMs work is that they store client data and interaction history, making it easy to stay on top of follow-up tasks and stay organized.

With features like automated emails, lead tracking, and deal management, real estate agents can manage all their follow-up tasks and develop stronger relationships with clients and prospects.

Provide Value In Every Contact

The most important thing you can do for your prospects is to showcase your expertise and provide value every time you connect with them.

Providing value is essential when it comes to successfully marketing products and services.

For example, providing potential clients with valuable information in real estate can help build trust and demonstrate your services.

After the initial follow-up for a listing, sending a recap email that contains something valuable, such as a piece of content highlighting your service, can help remind potential clients of what you are offering and how it could benefit them.

I use this strategy very effectively, which I call the “win the listing before you arrive” technique.

Here’s what I do; I think about all the challenges and problems my prospects may be thinking about, and I address these in videos I record that provide real solutions to these problems. This technique has worked time and again for me.

If video isn’t your thing, you can still find ways to provide value in every touch point you have with your prospects.

Consider including relevant articles within postscripts as another great way to add value in the early stages of back-and-forth communication between parties.

These articles should be related to topics discussed in previous conversations, whether about housing markets, music, or sports.

Sparing potential clients from having to search for answers or solutions by making this research available early on will demonstrate a genuine interest in gaining their business and strengthen the relationship.

Be Persistent but Not Annoying

Persistence is essential, but you want to avoid becoming a nuisance. If you've reached out multiple times without hearing back, it's perfectly acceptable to take a break for a bit and try again later.

You don't want to burn bridges or make someone feel uncomfortable by coming off as too aggressive.

When to Stop Following Up

The truth is that sometimes you need to know when to say when and cut off your follow-up strategy. Only some people you come into contact with will be in need of your services or even want to use them when it comes time for them to find a real estate professional.

Even though following up is essential to any business or personal communication, there is a fine line between following up and being a nuisance.

Determining when to stop following up can be difficult, but some general guidelines can help.

If the recipient has not responded after a few attempts, it may be time to move on.

Additionally, if the recipient has communicated that they are not interested or unable to respond, it's best to respect their wishes and move on to other opportunities.

Overall, it's vital to approach following up with professionalism and courtesy while also recognizing the importance of respecting others' time and boundaries.

The truth is that following up and knowing when to quit is a fine art and not a science. There’s no hard truth about when to stop. It’s more a feeling you get from interactions with prospects and your experience.

Being able to keep a conversation going and provide prompt responses shows that you are organized, knowledgeable, and able to meet the needs of potential clients. It also shows that the prospect is receptive to you and your messaging.

How often a realtor should contact a prospect depends on the person and their situation.

In general, knowing how many times should a realtor contact a prospect after an introduction and when to stop is crucial not to turn away any prospects.

You should reach out every once a week to start, then every 2-3 weeks afterward. Be careful and know your state regulations, but in general, give them the option of opting out of further follow-ups if they choose.

The key to following up is being persistent, but so is understanding when to back off.

Since real estate is all about relationships, building trust and being respectful are necessary traits to remember. In addition, it's essential to be mindful of how much contact potential clients are comfortable with and give them space if needed.

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