Coming off the seat as an Online Sales Specialist just a year ago- I can remember getting my monthly reminder that it was time for the dreaded prospecting. Yep, I said it! This is the dirty work that we must do to maintain an updated CRM system. Not only that, but it is our duty to generate interest with any and all leads in the system, not just new leads. So, what is prospecting? In the world of online sales, it is reaching out to aged leads in our database.

The Online Sales Benchmarks for Q3 were recently released, and Mike Lyon pointed out that “buyer urgency is waning in the 3rd quarter, requiring builders to shift back to the foundational lead nurturing process.” That process he’s referring to is… prospecting!  

So, how do we do it? First, you can make the biggest impact by sending out a targeted and personalized message to the database in mass. For this to work, it needs to be the right audience- there's nothing like inquiring about a community or product and getting emails about something that does not and would not ever work for you. Keeping your leads rating accurate helps to ensure that your target audience is receiving relevant and timely information. The whole goal is to provide value to their home search. It also has to be consistent, once per month to your aged non-responsive leads, responded nurture leads, realtors, VIP/New Phase lists, etc. Lastly, you have to set expectations with your customers throughout their buying journey so that they know the next steps for them when they do decide it is the right time to buy. 

Prospecting doesn’t stop there - once you’ve sent your mass email out, you should double back and hit the phones. 

This leads me to the real question. Do prospecting calls really pay the bills? Let's map it out. 

About 10-15% of your appointments should come from aged leads in your database. The conversion rate is about a quarter of what you can expect compared to new leads. However, for every 20 prospecting calls you make, you should average one scheduled appointment. 

As an example, let’s say you make $50 per appointment and $150 per sale.

It typically takes about an hour per day to get through 20 calls. Some days no one will answer and other days most will answer (this is what we want!)  

1 hour = 20 calls = 1 appointment per day. 1 appointment = $50 

5 prospecting work days per week = 5 hours = 100 calls = 5 appointment 

5 appointments X 52 weeks = 260 appointments per year

5 appointment x $50 = $250 / week 

52 weeks X $250 = 13,000 

20% of those appointments will likely write a contract. So 20% of 260 appointments is 52 sales.

52 sales X $150 =$7,800

$13,000 + $7,800 = $20,800 ADDITIONAL dollars per year for prospecting alone! 

If you find yourself grasping for more appointments in the future, get back to the foundational pieces of being a top-performing online sales specialist and get to the “dirty work”- it makes a world of difference for you, your company and the potential buyers.