With all of our marketing efforts, whether signs, ads in the newspaper or flyers, we have all the calls go to a special toll free number which goes to an answering service. In my Ultimate Buying & Selling Machine Course, I’ve included an answering service script for you to give your answering service. There’s no way I could create a machine to handle all of these calls that come in. I created the script for you to give to your answering service so they can ask several key questions and that way you’ll know the answers ahead of time and the answering service will e-mail every lead to you that called in with the answers to those key questions. Remember, some people may not answer all the questions; and that goes to show that it is very important not to ask too many questions and get too personal on the first call. But by asking a few key questions, you’ll know whether you need to return the phone call.
To save lots of time and effort, I’d suggest using either an answering service or a call capture service to handle the leads that come in, especially if you still have a full or part time job. The biggest difference in the two is that with the answering service, the caller will always speak to a live person instead of a voice mail. With call capture, the caller’s phone number is always captured whether they leave a message or not. With call capture, you can set up multiple mailboxes and give the caller options when they call. This is great if you are buying, selling and renting houses.
By using my scripts that have been proven over time, you’ll be able to spend your time on the leads that are truly prospects and not suspects. For example, you get a call from a seller that has a $100k house, they owe $95k, they’re current on payments and there’s no circumstances that force them to move very soon. This call can simply be deleted from your email inbox and you never have to spend any time on it. WOW! What a time saver.
Say this same person calls your ad but instead of the call going to an answering service or call capture number with a detailed script, they call your cell phone and leave a message. Then you have to spend time returning the call, building rapport, getting them to like and trust you and then you find out that you can’t buy their house. What a waste of time and effort. Now multiply this times ten to twenty calls a week.
Let’s break down the benefits of each method.
Answering Service: The main benefit is that the caller gets to talk to a live person. You get less hang ups with this method. If you are buying, selling and renting then you can give the answering service multiple scripts for each type of call. You need to have the service email the calls to you as they come in. This is very important. Remember that, until they get you on the phone, they will continue looking for someone to help them.
Call Capture: Call capture is basically a very sophisticated voice mail system that captures the caller’s phone number when they call. It works even for non-published and caller ID blocked numbers. Is this great or what? The other great thing is that you can set up multiple mailboxes and give callers options based off of their particular situation.