I observe this every day here at Realvolve.
One of our salespeople will call a prospect at the scheduled time of their meeting and the line rings and rings and rings. No answer. They send a short follow-up email to set up another call. Still nothing. Crickets…
They’ve made good on a promise to connect with the prospect, but they’re being met with radio silence. Can you relate? It’s a pain, isn’t it?
So, as a real estate agent, what should you do when the listing or transaction rests on the prospect’s responsiveness?
Should you panic? Should you give up? No way!
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how we effectively nudge our no-show prospects/clients—without feeling like our entire sales & marketing team is shouting into a black hole.
5 Things To Do When Your Prospect Doesn’t Show Up
1) Don’t make assumptions
You should always default to the idea that there are many reasons why a prospect might have missed a meeting. It’s easy to assume that a no-show prospect is flaky or ultra-busy, and then let that belief determine the rest of your interactions with them. But the only assumption you can confidently make is that you can’t be 100% sure about what happened.
Recognize that you simply can’t know everything about your prospect’s schedule. This mindset will help you avoid making inaccurate assumptions or jumping to conclusions.
2) Avoid guilt trips
Earlier in my career, long before I joined Realvolve, I was given the bad advice that guilt tripping could be an effective way to get someone on the phone or in the conference room.
Don’t do this!
Guilt tripping makes people feel terrible, pushes them to do something they might not want to do, and doesn’t reflect well on you. Your prospects won’t like it…and bad feedback travels quickly.
Friendly nudges are fine. Emotional sob stories meant to guilt a prospect are not.
3) Don’t harass your prospect
This seems like an incredibly obvious point to make, but you’d be surprised at the lengths some real estate agents will go to get hold of a prospect or potential client. I’ve heard of agents calling alternative numbers found on LinkedIn profiles, sending Facebook messages, and even emailing a prospect’s spouse.
From the agent’s perspective, those tactics might feel resourceful. But from the prospect’s perspective, it feels like harassment. Consider how you feel when a mobile phone sales rep takes an alternative route to reach you; you probably question why they would do such a thing.
Don’t harass your next referral! Creative forms of being persistent are cool every once in a while, but these tactics can quickly become frustrating for prospects.
4) Find a way to provide the information they missed
Even when a prospect doesn’t show up for your appointment, take a minute to think about the “what if they did?” What information about the listings would you have covered? What types of materials or resources would have been helpful for them if they were moving to the area, or if they had questions about schools or current property values?
Find another way to share it! Send an email, or even a text. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to demonstrate your value and serve as their trusted adviser.
Free Download: Email Marketing Planning Template
5) Propose to reschedule your call or meeting
Unless they tell you otherwise, it’s likely they intended to meet with you but couldn’t because something came up. (See point #1 above). Propose rescheduling the meeting or call so you can preserve the momentum of your previous touchpoints.
What does your No-Show Email look like?
Most sales reps I have worked with (and most real estate agents, for that matter) don’t really have time to craft an awesome “No-Show Email.” Or most of them have a basic follow-up email template to send from their CRM or marketing automation platform that’s something along the lines of, “We missed each other! Just following up to reschedule.” While it’s not a bad thing to have, I wouldn’t rely on one short email. Plus, templated, generic emails are really easy to spot.
The marketing team at Realvolve has developed some really effective no-show emails, and I’d like to share one with you.
This is an email template you can use as a stepping stone or set up in your real estate CRM. I highly suggest customizing it to make it your own and adapting it to work for different scenarios.
In the above email, you’ve effectively:
- Stated the facts from your side
- Added value by providing insights
- Offered an opportunity to reschedule the meeting or call
Here’s another script you can send before making a call. It takes preventative measures against no-shows:
Sending a friendly reminder an hour or so before a call prepares your prospect or potential client and sets expectations. That can often help prevent no-shows from happening in the first place.
And a final note…
Never stop thinking critically about how your process or your workflows could be improved.
It’s 100% worth it to analyze why a prospect may not have shown up for your meeting or call.
For example, did they know the date and time, but not have an easy way to add the meeting invitation to their calendar? Were they not the “right prospect,” or were they too early in their buying journey to begin with?
These are things that will help prepare you for the next time and the time after that.
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