One of the biggest complaints that sales professionals have about online leads is that you practically have to live in front of the computer to respond in time. While it is true that today's Internet Empowered Consumers (IECs) expect almost instant response, it doesn't mean you have to be glued to a monitor all day. In fact, there is now a way you can respond to online inquiries by phone from anywhere, almost before the IEC's hands leave the keyboard.

Thanks to a very clever and affordable Web-based service called LeadPhone, you can listen to and respond by phone to those online inquiries that want to talk with you now. Here is how it works...

Filtering For Gold

Your online inquiries can come from many different sources including newspaper ads, forms on your Website, REALTOR.com®, searches from your MLS etc. LeadPhone really doesn't care where they come from because once you register for the service you are given a special LeadPhone e-mail address to which all your leads are forwarded. This gives LeadPhone the ability to analyze every one of your online inquiries and then immediately act on it based upon certain rules you can set up. For example:

• Web Form Inquiries - if an online inquiry comes in via a Web form (whether or not from your site, it doesn't matter) and the person completing the form includes their phone number, you can have LeadPhone automatically call you on whatever number you choose and "read" the e-mail to you using "text to voice" technology (CLICK HERE to hear a sample). This will allow you to understand the inquiry's questions and then immediately call them back. This process can take less than 2 minutes depending upon the length of the message that was originally sent. Clearly you do not want every e-mail inquiry read to you over the phone, so you can set up your LeadPhone rules so that it only does so if certain conditions are met, like the Web form response contains a phone number. (NOTE: I would recommend that you have it call you only if your Web forms do not require putting in a phone number. If the IEC voluntarily puts it in, your chances of getting a valid number and someone really interested in hearing from you go way up).

• Keyword Triggers - for online inquiries that don't have structured content like that coming from a Web form you can have LeadPhone scan for certain keywords (i.e. MLS #'s, names, addresses, etc.). If a message comes in containing one of your keyword triggers, then it will instantly call or page you. (NOTE: paging is only available if you have an e-mail based paging service).

Also, if you use Top Producer 7i, LeadPhone will automatically populate your contact database with each new inquiry --a very useful and timesaving feature.

LeadPhone's unique ability of allowing you to associate business rules that dictate your response for each of your online inquiries is significant. That is because it allows you to go about your business without being joined at the hip to your computer yet respond nearly instantly to those online inquiries that are likely to turn into leads. In this way it acts like an online inquiry "filter" that helps you find those inquiries that are likely to turn into gold. And, no matter what rules you set, you will still always see all your e-mail inquiries, whether LeadPhone calls you or not.

Chad Doyle of Strano GMAC in Swansea, IL is a very happy LeadPhone user. He recently indicated that he is now able to convert three times the number of good leads to new business because of the near instant phone response to inquiries verses responding just through e-mail. This is not surprising when you realize that LeadPhone allows sales professionals to apply their phone skills in a very timely manner. Unless you are just terrible on the phone, your conversion rate will always be higher on the phone than with just e-mail, as long as the inquiry invited you to call.

To register just go to LeadPhone and follow the simple five-step process. After that you will be sent e-mail instructions on how to set up the response rules for your inquiries. Currently this service costs only US$15.00/month no matter how many leads it processes. Obviously at that price just one new transaction as a result of your quick response will pay for this service for many years to come.

It should be mentioned that NAR's Center for REALTOR® Technology (CRT) also just recently announced their Messenger product that has some, but by no means all the features of LeadPhone. Currently the Houston Association of REALTORS® is offering it to the members but it only works on inquiries that come from searches on the Houston MLS instead of any online source, and it does not have the same business rule flexibility that allows you to indicate how LeadPhone is to act upon each inquiry. If anything, this demonstrates NAR's awareness of the importance of online lead management.

Does LeadPhone solve the entire problem of online lead management? No, but it does let you catch and respond to those inquiries that are serious and want to be contacted now. And until LeadPhone came along, that meant spending way too much of your valuable face time in front of a computer screen. Finally, there is an online lead management tool that breaks those digital chains and lets you do what you do best!

Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He's dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. You'll see his column on REALTOR® Magazine Online every month and in the magazine quarterly. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Web site at http://www.russer.com

This article is reprinted in its entirety from the October 2005 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark and Ask Mr. Internet!™ is a trademark of RUSSER Communications.