Why brokers lose leads, and what actually fixes it
The three points where property enquiries go cold in a small brokerage, and what to change first.
5 min read
It is almost never the number of leads
A broker who is losing deals usually concludes they need more enquiries, and spends more on portals. Occasionally that is right. More often the enquiries they already paid for went cold in one of three specific places.
One: nobody rang back fast enough
A portal enquiry goes to several brokers at once. The buyer speaks to whoever calls first and stops answering the rest. An hour is usually too late; a day is certainly too late.
The fix is not effort, it is knowing. If the list of enquiries does not put the un-called ones at the top, they sink, and nobody notices until the buyer has bought something else.
Two: the second call never happened
Most deals need several conversations. The first is easy because the enquiry just arrived. The fourth is where it falls apart - not through neglect, but because nothing was written down about when to call again, and a week passed.
Every lead should have a next step with a date on it. A lead with no next step is a lead that has quietly stopped.
The one number worth watching
How many of your open leads have no next date. In most brokerages that number is startling the first time somebody looks at it.
Three: it was in somebody else’s head
An agent leaves, or is on holiday, or was standing in a flat when the call came. Whatever they knew about that buyer went with them - the budget, the two localities they had ruled out, the reason they did not like the second flat.
This is the quiet one, because nothing looks wrong until you need the information and it is not there.
What to change first
Response time. It is the cheapest to fix, it is measurable this week, and it improves the return on every rupee already spent on portals.
Everything else - matching, inventory, reporting - matters more later and less now.