Prospecting – The Best Buyers Come from Listings 

    Every business has been inundated by tech companies advertising promises of great success and exponential growth from an investment in Internet advertising and web optimization. The same tech companies caution you will become obsolete, or a dinosaur if you fail to invest in the next best marketing approach.
The truth may not lie in the sales pitches we are constantly being bombarded with by these companies, that have unlimited funds to space-repetition us into submission.  In fact, the conversion rate for leads derived from the Internet through web optimization is less than 2%. That’s like spending time with 100 prospects and only 2 of them to buy. Also, the income earned by buyer’s agents is usually much lower than income earned by agents that focus on listings. Worse yet, there’s an extremely high attrition rate for agents that focus heavily on Internet leads because of burn-out.

It’s true that internet leads and web optimization have become an integral part of business, but it’s also true that most sales that come from the Internet are a direct result of buyers responding to a listing an agent has. Additionally, the conversion rate of listings that sell has the potential to be near 100%. An agent may have to work with 20 buyers to get the same results.
Human behavior dictates that people will do business with someone they like and trust, and that confidence comes from relationship management. The numbers prove building relationships with homeowners will not only lead to the most productive business you generate from listings, those same listings will also generate the best buyer leads.

If you’re going to embrace the Internet and web optimization, it’s advisable to master the art of relationship management first. Remember, if you own the listings, you own the market!