Sep 25, 2020 by - Wesley Rocha - LinkU CEO

Is the Cool-Off Factor Killing Your Sales? Here’s How to Fix It …

If you’ve been in the real estate business for any length of time, you can probably relate to this story … 

You had an amazing listing meeting—maybe in person, maybe over the phone or by Zoom. Your prospects are excited. They see the value, they like you, their buying temperature is high, they’re ready to sign the listing agreement. You leave the meeting thinking the deal is in the bag.

You call to follow up the next day and … crickets. The prospects don’t answer. Or they answer tepidly. You may hear through the grapevine that they ended up listing with one of your competitors.

Maddening, right?

The “Cool-Off Factor”

We call this the “cool-off factor.” Prospects are excited and ready to sign when you’re up in their face. A day later, an hour later, they start to lose interest. And they lose it fast. By the third day, they can’t even remember your name. Out of sight, out of mind.

This happens online, too. 96% of website visitors will take any action. They’re “just looking.” All the time and money you spent driving that traffic, optimizing the site to convert … poof, gone. 

They might not have been ready to reach out yet … or they just got distracted. By what? It doesn’t matter. The phone rang, an Amazon delivery arrived, a mosquito landed on their arm … they stopped paying attention to your website, and the cool-off factor did its thing. 

They will probably never come back, especially if they found you from a paid ad. The next time they search, Google will probably give them some other agent’s ad.

The cool-off factor applies to leads as well. Perhaps 70-80% of all leads are lost due to the cool-of factor.

When Customers Start to Cool Off

The truth is, you never have a client in the bag. The cool-off factor can strike at any point in the customer’s journey, including:

  • Brand Discovery
  • Information Search
  • Evaluation Of Alternatives
  • Purchase Decision
  • Post-purchase Behavior

Yes, the cool-off factor can strike after they purchase! How many times have you heard about a previous client drifting away and deciding to list with a different agent for their next sale? Did you do a bad job for them in the listing? Or did you just fail to stay “top-of-mind?”

Nurturing customers is a constant war with the cool-off factor. Whatever stage the client is in, you need to keep spiking their buying temperature, moving them back into the hot zone, never letting them cool off enough to drift away or get poached by a competitor.

How to Fight the Cool-Off Factor

So how do you stay “top-of-mind” and fight the cool-off factor for your prospects, without coming across like a stalker?

By having excellent follow-up. Not just any follow-up, but excellent follow-up.

Believe it or not, most real estate agents are terrible at follow-up, both before and after the sale.

This is great news. It means that with a system of excellent follow-up, you can run circles around the competition.  

With a system of excellent follow-up, you can:

  • Stay “top-of-mind” with your leads and warm market.
  • Raise the buying temperature of warm leads when they start to cool off.
  • Recapture lost web traffic, maximizing your budget for paid traffic.
  • Win repeat business from your past clients.

Every real estate agent battles the cool-off factor. Excellent follow-up is the way to win that battle.

LinkU is offering a FREE online training session to teach simple, yet advanced follow up techniques you can use to get more transactions from your existing database, such as old leads, past clients, SOI and more! The concepts you’ll learn can completely change the way you look at your business, and is the cheapest and most affordable way to potentially double your transactions over the next 12-months.
Click here to sign up: https://LinkU.ws/followuptraining

THE LCA BLOG

Weekly articles that cover every aspect of the real estate industry, growing your business, personal development & so much more.

Discover more stories