20% of your clients are the key to success
20% of your clients produce 80% of your revenue. But how do you know who’s in the 20%?
The secret is lead scoring and grading.
Remember, real estate is a numbers game. Through lead scoring and grading, you can understand which clients are the ones who will lead to more revenue and the ones to let go.
What’s lead scoring?
Lead scoring attributes a number to your leads to measure their interest and/or fit with your business.
Building a lead scoring and grading system go hand in hand. You can use this simple tier:
Hot Leads
A good fit and interested enough to buy.
Warm Leads
Show some interest, but need more time and nurturing before they’re ready to buy.
Cold Leads
Show no interest and may not be a good fit.
This 3-tier setup ties into your lead scoring system, which is usually based on a 100-point scale. So if your lead has a score of 80, they could be a hot lead for you.
Set Up Your Lead Scoring System
You can score your leads using a plethora of different criteria. The more data points you have about both your business and your client, the better the scoring system you’ll create.
Here’s how to set up your lead scoring:
STEP 1: Determine what makes a “hot” lead
STEP 2: Create a scoring system for your leads
STEP 1: DETERMINE YOUR “HOT” LEADS
You need to define Hot Lead. Start by looking at your ideal customer profile. Building out the hot lead category is based on that profile. Here are some questions to ask about what makes a “hot” lead:
- Good Fit
- How old are they?
- How big is their household?
- What’s their income?
- What neighborhoods are they looking in?
2. Interest
- How many emails do they open?
- How often do they visit your website?
- Do they answer your calls?
- Which resources have you sent people in the past that helped them convert?
If you don’t have an ideal customer profile, here’s a resource from Hubspot [https://www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona] that will guide you through the process of creating one.
STEP 2: CREATE A SCORING SYSTEM FOR YOUR LEADS
Designing your point system helps your customer relationships manager (CRM) understand what makes a hot, cold, and warm lead. Leads can gain a total of 100 points — or even have negative points. For example, if you have a lead you’re really unsure about, start them out in the negative. If they work their way up, see if they’re a good fit for the amount of interest they have shown you.
Put your points on a sliding scale like a school grade.
For Hot leads: score a scale between 80 and 100.
For warm leads: score a scale between 50 and 80.
For cold leads: it’s anything under Less than 50.
Spend some time testing and evaluating which categories are weighted right or need to be adjusted. Testing helps you build a more comprehensive “hot” lead. That detailed “hot” lead gets you closer to working with your ideal clients.
Check your CRM for AI lead scoring. Some CRMs come with AI that can help you score your leads without having to spend hours manually calculating the scores of your prospects.
A Simple Scoring System for You to Implement Today!
Target Client: New home-buyers in [Location] who have a 20% down payment
What is a hot lead?
- The person has opened all of your emails for the past 3 months
- You call and they answer
- They have a 20% down payment
What is a warm lead?
- Someone that opens 50% of your emails
- You call and they may answer
- Unknown down payment
What is a cold lead?
- Someone you’ve never met
- Unknown down payment
- They have never received an email from you or communicated with you
You may need to weaken your scale to get it just right for your business, but it’s a start that will help you determine who to call so you can save more time.
