As far as I know, I was the second person to ever teach the use of call capture systems or hotlines in the real estate and mortgage industry.  I have been using a call capture system in my personal real estate business since about 1994 and have done extensive testing on what works and what doesn’t work and have developed a very long list of best practices when it comes to using a call capture system in marketing your real estate business.

One question that I get asked all of the time is whether or not you should call prospects back if they call your system and do not leave a message or request that you call them back?

This is a question that has been highly debated, even among my personal real estate coaching clients.

My answer follows……………………

A lot of real estate agents that use call capture technology in their business and a lot of real estate trainers that teach it, promote calling prospects that do not leave messages back, I DO NOT. I believe in creating a compelling enough offer and script that will get prospects to leave you a message and actually WANT you to call them back or send them requested information.

My philosophy is to only call those back that leave messages and I have lived by that philosophy for over 10 years now utilizing a call capture system.

I do, however, have clients and know agents that are successful calling everyone back, but I do not do that or teach that, it’s just not my style.

With that said, I have absolutely no problem with agents that choose to do this and I have undeniable data that shows it does work from clients and others I know that do this. I just don’t do it or recommend my clients do it.

When I tell my clients my philosophy on this I get many different responses such as, “if I don’t call everyone back, I will be losing leads” or “won’t I upset the people I am calling back”  and many others.

To me it’s really not about upsetting anyone, it’s about generating the highest quality of leads and positioning myself as the expert from the beginning.

I don’t like making these “just above cold” calls, I want prospects to either contact me or at the very least ask me to contact them as it positions me as the expert and I am just returning the call they asked me to return.

As earlier, it does work to call these prospects back,I have many people that follow my systems do just that, but I don’t do it. I always encourage all of my clients to be constantly working on their offers and scripts to get the highest percentage of prospects leaving messages. I have found that time spent vs. the prospects (that don’t leave messages) that actually close does not fit my business model.

The percentage of prospects that leave a message and actually close is over 5000% higher than those that do not leave messages. So, about 50 to 1. This is based on literally hundreds of thousands of calls into the system over at least 10 years and well over 500 transactions closed as a direct result of leads coming through a call capture system.

Again, it does work to call these people back, no question. I have absolutely no argument whatsoever that it works, I have seen it work, I have proof from many of my own clients that it works, I know it works.

However, I would submit that your goal when using a call capture system should not be just to get calls, that is the easy part. It has to be to get the highest percentage of prospects as possible to leave you a message or request information as these are going to close at a much higher percentage almost always without exception.