Information contained in the prospect list needs to be constantly updated and expanded because people move jobs, companies go out of business, show disinterest or disrespect, habitually fail to return phone calls or emails, retire, change names, change email addresses, change business locations, etc. The“ active” prospects in your network are the only ones that you may reliably count in determining the size of your network or lead base. Also, even with a sizeable“ active” lead base, you may lose 20 % to 30 % of them per year for all the reasons stated.“ Warm” leads should be perused to become“ active.”
After a reasonable time, such as 24 months of consistent followup and without response or success, you may elect to drop the prospect from your“ active” list and discontinue active followup. Dropped leads should be replaced with“ warm” leads that become“ active.” The other option is to email them occasionally with your standard email blast.
The quality of a prospect list can disintegrate overnight. In 2006, my company was primarily using direct mail. We mailed about 1,000,000 letterform solicitations each month. Then, by September 2007, the market crashed, and the leadbase list quality crashed with it.
Hundreds of thousands of real estate agents, loan agents, investors, and builders / developers left the industry. My lead list immediately went up in smoke.
It was necessary to reconstruct a new list and start all over from day one. Prepare for this event! If a crash in the quality of your leadbase occurs, consolidate the list down to your“ actives.” Email or call to verify that they are still there.
A poor strategy is to follow up the same prospects over and over, even when they display nonresponsiveness or disinterest. Lists are fluid and are constantly changing to be effective.
Image from Canva Pro
Image from Canva Pro
As the process becomes well lubricated through practice and experience, you can expect increasing momentum in business until you have so much business that you are forced to slow personal contacts and marketing. Assimilate the new incoming business, then get back on track.
Action Habits:
Remember the funny phrase;“ Size Matters.” What size is your“ universe of active possibilities?” Are there 10s, 100s, or 1,000s, of prospects that you may be able to directly or indirectly follow up or market? You have a current network size of“ cold,”“ warm,” or“ hot or active” leads. Each person that you have in your market system has a separate group of clients / prospects of their own. If you add the size of your network to the size of all the networks of each party that you market, you can establish a total or“ universe of contacts.”
The question becomes, do you and each person that you follow up have a large enough network and a consistent daily action habit to develop a sustainable and financially successful career?
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