If You're Losing Leads You're Being Careless With Your Future

Have you ever written a phone number on a scrap of paper and later searched high and low for the missing paper and phone number? Perhaps you have a common friend and can track the missing number down with backtracking emails and calls. After all, a lost lead can cost your thousands of dollars. It also forfeits your opportunity to respond immediately and impress prospective clients with your great customer service. The biggest toll is the loss of time, and time really is money. That's the way business works.

I've learned a few hard lessons over the years about the importance of time management. I once sent a client to a weekend open house to view a new listing in his neighborhood. The listing agent, although I told her I would send them and gave her their name, wrote the offer. Yes, I know, I do not admire the integrity, loyalty or ethics of either party, but if I had managed my time differently by being present at the showing I believe the outcome would not have been the same. Perhaps deals were cut and commissions slashed and I beat myself up with "should haves" until escrow closed. I did have the last laugh. They overpaid.

The moral of this story is take the time to show your client the property because even a long-time client (I sold two of their previous homes) can be swayed by the promise of saving lots of hard earned cash. I imagine he did save on the cost of the sale, but not so on the value of the property. More effective use of my time would have saved my client money and the return on my time investment would have paid off handsomely. Lesson learned.

3 Ways to use a little less time and make a lot more money:

1. Handle it once; not over and over again. File the paper, pay the bill, enter the phone number etc.

2. Take the time to do it now. Procrastination clutters the mind, the desk and depletes the bank account.

3. Back it up. I sync my database and phone so client's numbers are always with me. If I lose my phone or my computer fries my contacts are safe.

Improved time management is a great investment and will pay dividends for years to come.

More Active Rain related blogs from Norma.

Norma Toering & Team RE/MAX Palos Verdes Realty
(310) 493-8333 / Office Phone: (310) 831-0800

South Bay Los Angeles cities I sell real estate, property, houses and homes in: Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Long Beach, Torrance, Lomita, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.

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