Phone System for Leads

[Joe Pitrolo]

I currently have several trailers for lease purchase and an apartment for rent. I run adds on Craigslist and weekly trader.
The volume of calls is wearing me out, especially weeding through ridiculous prospects.
I am to the point where I can normally tell after a few minutes whether or not I want to deal with someone (i.e. polite, practical, reasonable) One pet peeve is so many people will say, "I'm calling about your place for rent or sale, (Yes), Is it still available? (No, I just want to chat with you!!!) Drives me crazy.
I realize, being several hours away and directing serious callers to meet with my maintenance guy, I need a more polished system. I probably am passing over some prospects because I am not real enthusiastic on the phone. I could hire someone to show the properties, field calls, etc. , but it is hard to find someone who knows all the steps to selling or renting.
Just checking to see if anyone else gets frustrated with this process and has better solutions.
Another problem is that with so many calls, I rarely call people back or take good notes about who the good prospects might have been.

[Seth Williams]

I understand where you're coming from Joe P. I had this exact same problem with my process until I made a few changes a couple of years ago.

In your situation, I think you could do a couple of things:

1. You could hire a property management company and just outsource ALL of the work to them (showings, screenings, phone calls, evictions, maintenance, etc...). At 10% of your revenue, it's honestly not a bad deal.

2. You could start getting a lot more direct with people on the phone. I started doing this by saying things like this:

"Tell me Prospect, if I come down to show you this property and it meets all of your general criteria, are you prepared to sign a contract, put down a deposit and make your first month's payment TODAY?"

In your situation, I would be sure to get the vital information to do your background/credit checks during (or directly after) this phone call, so you can follow up on this after you hang up.

Get some kind of verbal commitment from them early in the process - and if they aren't willing to commit on SOME level, then why should you commit to them by driving out to the property?

I found that it's really important to use each phone call as an opportunity to screen the heck out of your caller. If they aren't going to cut it - get off the phone asap.

On average, I spend a maximum of 5 minutes on the phone with each prospect who calls me. It's not a time to chit chat, it's a time do get business done. It's a matter of controlling the conversation and getting the vital information before you invest any more of your time with them.