Q and A - Lead Communication

Do you think picking up the phone is really necessary?  Especially when it comes to younger demos. 

1000000%  yes.  I will tell you why…all delivery mediums make sense for specific prospects.  Especially picking up the phone. 
1.  People value good customer service.  If you call them on the phone, especially quickly – they remember this.  Even if they don’t pick up on that first call.  Younger demos especially value a personal touch.   
2. Right now, people are at home – they are more available to talk. We have had great success getting people on the phone over the last 60 days.
3. It is so much easier to qualify a lead and present over the phone vs email.  You can gather information much more quickly- then waiting for a response. 

Do you text or chat with leads?

NO! Communication is done only via phone, email (also via our proposal system), and in person.   Texting sets an expectation that you are at their beck and call.  You do not want to be your opportunities BITCH. We work leads during business hours and we conduct tours on specific Saturdays.  Setting boundaries during the sales process is important. You are a business/professional, and you should be treated as such.  They don’t text with their lawyer or therapists – they shouldn’t do it to you. You text with them now – they will text you at 10 pm at night for the next year before their wedding.  There is a huge difference between good customer service and being a pushover.  Make sure you are not confusing the two. 

Do I need a CRM? Customer Relationship Management

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just in case this is the definition of a CRM
Customer relationship management is an approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and potential customers. It uses data analysis about customers’ history with a company to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth.

We use our CRM to log all activities with leads and booked clients.  We can reference where they are in the process, track issues, and most importantly analyze data to make improvements and adjustments.   We use a system called QuickBase. I am not a fan of Honeybook, but I know many vendors love it, which is great. I believe it does fill this role if you set it up correctly.  If you are looking for a suggestion, that is fairly cost-friendly.  I suggest you check out PipeDrive. We used this system years ago as our first CRM, I could easily see where my leads were in my process and how much $ I had in my pipeline.  Worked well.