The Lead Roller Coaster

Have you ever sat at the front of a roller coaster? The exhilaration as you start down that first big hill, the twists and turns and stomach dropping ups and downs. While riding a roller coaster at an amusement park is fun, getting on a lead roller coaster can leave you frustrated and banging your head against the wall. Sometimes, it can even force you to want to give up. So how do you get off the Roller coaster?

First, you need a consistent marketing plan. If you start marketing and then get overwhelmed when all the leads come in, it can be tempting to put your marketing on hold, just until you get this batch of leads sorted out. The problem with stopping is you lose all your momentum and now you have to start over at the bottom of that big hill again. Don’t get caught on a constant up, down, stop, start cycle. You want something that will continue to flow. Your marketing is the fuel of your business. You can’t keep running out of gas and expect your business to keep moving forward.

If you have too many leads, fantastic, that means your marketing is working. Don't stop now, you just got to that critical moment on the Roller coaster, you hit the high point before the real action begins. Keep marketing. You might need to scale back slightly to keep up initially. Instead of sending out 100 mailers a day, drop it to 50 mailers.

Another option is to cut the non-critical items from your schedule. It's hard to give up unwind time, but you might have to for a short period of time, knowing it will be worth it. You may not be able to watch TV or scroll mindlessly on the internet or you might need a virtual assistant. The important thing is to not lose your momentum now that you have the marketing engine moving.

A virtual assistant can help by taking on some of the research for you so that you are just evaluating the data. This will reduce the amount of time that you are spending determining if you want to move forward on each property. Your time is best spent networking and building relationships. You may not be interested in that property today, but they may just be testing the waters. If you create a relationship, when they are serious about selling, they will come back to you.

As you start to get to know your area better, you will be able to identify properties that you want to move forward on more quickly. You will be able to tell which properties are overpriced without spending very much time on them. Initially, as you are learning about your area, you may find that it takes longer to evaluate a property. You will get faster.

The most important thing to remember is that being overwhelmed with leads is a great thing. This is the ultimate goal. Don’t miss out on opportunities because you decided to pause your lead generating. Don’t get stuck on the up and down of a roller coaster. Don’t stop and start, instead, find ways to adjust the flow to something that is more manageable in the long term. As always, happy investing.