Working leads is the primary source of revenue not only for apartment locators but also the apartment locating company. If you could find a way to work more leads in the same or less time then the result would be increased revenue. A word of caution though. It is vital that you continue to offer the same level of service to all of your clients. If by working more leads your quality of service drops off then your closing percentage will fall and then more leads will result in the same number of closed deals. So, take these tips and apply them where necessary but be aware that working more leads while it can be more lucrative, if you allow yourself to cut corners then you will lose some deals along the way.
Current Lead Volume + Quality Service = Average Income
Higher Lead Volume + Subpar Service = Average Income
Higher Lead Volume + Quality Service = Increased Income
First tip is to have a quality CRM. I have spoken about a CRM in prior articles so I will not go into great detail. The CRM allows you to manage your clients from your computer and with this tool you can follow up and keep track of all of the clients and where they are at in the sales process. The remaining efficiency tips in this article are built on the understanding that you are working with a CRM or primarily working your clients through a computer..
Tip 2 is to become familiar with your computer and the hot keys that make your moving from one screen to the other faster. There are two things that slow you down the most while you are working on a computer: clicking to get somewhere, and loading time. If you are able to reduce and/or eliminate these two actions then you are saving a large amount of time. When you are working your client files, do not waste your time going back to the main dashboard to open the next client file after finishing the last. Instead, make sure you are opening at least 10 at a time in separate tabs in the browser. If you right click on the file and select “open in new tab”, then you can open several at a time. Once you finish working that client file just close the window and then then next is already loaded. Hot keys are equally as important. Control+Shift+t is when you have closed a window and need to bring it back, very handy! Explore hotkeys for your computer and see if there are some for the tasks you are doing repeatedly.
Tip 3 is to get software and applications that are going to make your life easier and faster. Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are considerably faster than Internet Explorer or Edge. Not to mention Internet Explorer is the most widely spammed browser on the internet which slows you down. Adobe PDF Viewer, will allow you to download and fill out PDF files which will save you time from having to print, fill, and then scan a document. Another useful app is Google Voice, and it not only has the capability to give you a layer of protection from unwanted callers, but it also has a texting function which allows you to text clients directly from your computer. These are just a few examples of how software can save you time and allows you to be more efficient.
Tip 4 is an added capability of your internet browser. Even if you do not change to Firefox or Google Chrome then your browser should have a bookmark toolbar. You know which pages you use the most; CRM dashboard, Google Voice, Email, etc. It saves considerable time having these pages saved in your bookmark toolbar of your browser. So when you need to pull up a page you are just one click away. With that being said, you should also make sure you are opening the different pages in other tabs. It doesn’t do much good if you are only using one tab to navigate to all of these pages.
Tip 5 is all about pre-forming emails and text messages. You should not have totype out every text message and email you ever send. Some of you may already have pre-formed emails but it is important to understand that it can be used for text messages as well, especially if you are using Google Voice. A word of caution though, people can generally recognize canned messages so there is a downside to this tip. Canned messages do have a lower open rate and therefore a lower conversion. When possible you should slightly modify each of these message to help them stand out from the rest. Have a basic pre-formed email already drawn up and it will still save you considerable time.
Tip 6 is knowing when to cut bait, and this is a double edged sword. Your biggest time waster is going to be the clients you are working. You need to consider every conversation, email, text message, and point of communication as a time of reevaluation. There are some people out there that are not intending on moving anytime soon, or are not planning on using you regardless of what you do. But, on the flip-side of that are the clients that are good people and genuinely interested in using your service. Can you differentiate between them? It takes time but knowing when to cut bait and move on is going to be the difference in being overwhelmed by having too many clients to work and working the right amount of clients. You just need to know that the clients you are cutting are not the clients that are going to close. After doing this for over 10 years I can tell you I still do this from time to time. Sometimes you just never know, and sometimes it is blatantly obvious, but it is still imperative to make sure that the people that are just wasting your time are not being contacted anymore.
All of these tips can improve your efficiency by a considerable amount. Think of your time as a commodity, and youare only willing to give your job so much of it in a given week. With that in mind, you time is divided up into your clients(primary objective), secondary objectives, and downtime. These tips are designed to reduce your downtime, and allocate more time for the clients that are actually going to be a customer. If you really must have a metric then I would say to those of you who are working full-time just online leads, then you can work up to 200 leads per month and maintain your existing client-base. Remember, it will do you no good if you work 200 leads a month and you are not providing top notch service along with it. If there are some tips that I may have missed please comment below and let everyone know some of the great ideas you have.
