Real Estate Live Transfers Vs. Appointments

Live transfers or setting appointments? Which conversion route is the better way to go in order to make more sales? Appointments allow you to have a set time to talk with the potential client over the phone or meet with them face to face. Live transfers, on the other hand, let you strike while the iron is hot and speak with leads when they are already on the phone, in the real estate mindset, and directly engaged with an inside sales agent (ISA).

At PowerISA, we’ve handled real estate live transfers since our company began. However, we and our clients have experienced such consistent success with setting appointments, that live transfers weren’t really a priority for us. They only made up about 10% of our total conversions, and less than 1% of the leads we generated were converted to live transfers. In other words, we weren’t really in the game yet.

With that said, over the past 30 days or so we have shifted our priorities and placed a greater emphasis on converting real estate leads to live transfers for our clients.

Here’s What We Cover in this Article:

• What live transfers are
• Why PowerISA made the shift towards live transfer conversions
• The advantages of live transfers over set appointments
  • Don’t have to worry about no shows
  • Immediately speak with the lead
  • Give the lead instant gratification
• The future of live transfers at our company and in the industry

What Are Live Transfer Leads?

Before we go any further, it’ll probably be a good idea to say what we mean by live transfers in the first place. For those who are unfamiliar with them, live transfer in real estate refers to the practice of an ISA or team of ISAs speaking with and qualifying a lead, but instead of setting an appointment for the agent to meet with them, they transfer the call directly to them while the lead is still on the line.

In terms of PowerISA, that means we do the leg work of qualifying the lead and ensuring they are serious about working with a real estate agent. We then pass the call off to one of your agents while the lead is still “hot” and primed to discuss solving the problem they need to solve. The speed with which you can speak to a lead is where the real value of live transfers comes into play.

Why Did We Make the Switch, You May Ask?

At PowerISA, we understand that real estate is an extremely dynamic industry. The way we stay competitive and help our clients stay competitive is by constantly adapting and improving when new developments, techniques, or strategies present themselves. When it comes to real estate live transfers specifically, we had several clients tell us that they actually preferred receiving leads in this manner, rather than scheduled appointments.

I’ll admit, we were at a bit of a loss. We’re a numbers-driven operation through and through. We had tried live transfers before many times and, at least the way we saw it, you could only convert about half the number of leads that we could set appointments for. In other words, if we had 100 leads and were able to set 20 appointments for our clients, we maybe could convert 10 or fewer to live transfers.

We didn’t think that was a great value proposition for our clients and so tended to emphasize set appointments instead. However, it turned out that, although our numbers were correct, we underestimated the value that live transfers brought to our clients.

Speaking with them, they overturned this limiting belief we held. They told us that even though we would send fewer live transfers than set appointments, they preferred the former because they got to speak with the lead right away. That’s an immediate client and an immediate win for them.

There are several problems with set appointments:

• A good number of leads won’t show
• They may talk to someone else in the meantime
• By the time you meet, they might simply be less motivated to work with you for whatever reason

Armed with this new information, we adapted our business.

Real Estate Live Transfers vs. Set Appointments

Live transfers have several key advantages over set appointments. The biggest of which, as we already mentioned, is that there are many leads who may not show up to an appointment with an agent once they’ve set it. I know I know, it’s rude and it’s a travesty. But no shows are simply a fact of life for real estate appointments.

Who knows? They could have just set the appointment because they thought it was the fastest way to get off the phone. Maybe they forgot to put it in their calendar. It could be that something came up with one of their kids. The possible reasons why they may not have shown are endless, however, the punchline is this: the more time you let pass between initially speaking with and qualifying a lead and actually turning them into a client, the greater opportunity there is for something to go wrong.

Real estate live transfers, on the other hand, let you speak with the lead immediately after they are qualified by one of our highly experienced ISAs. They establish that the person on the phone is “warm” and interested enough to be worth one of your agent’s time. This process allows your team and your operation to be far more efficient and not waste resources on appointments that the lead may not show up to.

Live Transfers Are Better for Clients, Too

For better or for worse, nearly everyone in our society today has become highly accustomed to, and expecting of, immediate gratification.

• Of course, real estate leads want to speak with an agent right away
• Of course, they want their question answered right now
• Of course, they would rather have their need met immediately

Waiting for an actual phone or in person appointment to move to the next step in the process or solve your problem? That’s something people did 10, 15, 20 years ago. Not today. If the lead has a question or need for an agent or lender, then the best option for them is a live transfer.

Real Estate Live Transfers Are the Way Forward

As I already mentioned, PowerISA is a highly adaptive organization because, in the real estate industry, things move very quickly. We are also a learning organization. These two attributes have allowed us to increase our live transfers by 500% in only a month. When we first shifted towards this new approach, less than 10% of our total converted leads were live transfers. Now, 40% of our converted leads are live transfers.

And we’re just getting started. We increased those numbers greatly in only 30 days, and in another 30 days, we’re going to bring them even higher. We are only getting better at live transfers and using them to create more and more value for our clients. We’ve created metrics for it, trained our team, and now our ISAs are producing them at a faster and faster rate. It’s our priority now.

If you’re willing to adapt as a company, then what you focus on expands. That’s what we’re doing with live transfers. The feedback has been amazing, clients are loving this new approach, and they are using it to gain even more success.

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