Conversion Best Practices From Top Agents

As anyone who works in real estate knows, an agent fills many roles. They are neighborhood experts, trusted resources, advocates — and the top performers know how to put these skills to work for their clients in pursuit of the right home.

We conducted in-depth interviews with more than 50 elite real estate businesses across the country — meeting their teams, diving deep into their sales process, listening to their interactions with clients — to discover their best practices for converting clients, starting with the very first call. 

We’ve distilled our findings into the Zillow Premier Agent Conversion Playbook. It starts with four core principles:

• Customer first: Putting the customer’s experience first is integral to success.
• Reach for the sky: Articulate your dreams as goals, then develop a plan of action to achieve them.
• Turn on the lights: Use robust reporting to evaluate performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Specialize to strengths: Home buying is complicated — get the right people in the right roles on your team.  

These principles are rooted in what we and top industry professionals have observed over years in the business of real estate. They’re core to Zillow Group and should be a central part of how you structure your day-to-day operations as well.

Managing active customers

When speaking to a prospective client for the first time, your primary objective is to get face-to-face with the person on the other end of the phone. 

The ALM framework makes it simple to structure your first call around this objective. 

A: Appointment

Ask the most important question as soon as possible: “When do you want to see the home?” If it’s unavailable, ask when they would like to see other similar homes.

L: Location

As soon as you set an appointment time, ask what other homes the customer is interested in seeing. Always try to show them more than one property per appointment. If they haven’t identified any others, ask if you can take the liberty of adding similar homes to the itinerary.

M: Motivation

Understanding what motivates the customer helps you serve them better and build rapport. We recommend asking the following questions about the person and their search to help you identify other homes to tour on the same trip:

• What interests you about this property?
• How long have you been looking?
• Have you seen any other properties?

Throughout the call, keep your focus on the person, not the property, so you can start to understand what they really need in a home.

Topics to avoid on the first call

There are a few subjects best saved for later. They include: 

• Whether the customer is working with an agent
• Financing questions such as mortgage pre-approval
• How buyer agency works
• Setting up a buyer consultation prior to seeing the property
• Other detailed questions the customer has about the property

Following up with clients

You’re far more likely to have a successful showing appointment when you follow up after the call. This practice communicates your organization and eagerness to work together — qualities that customers value. We recommend following up:

• Within two business hours by text and email confirming the time and date of the showing. Provide a list of properties to be shown if applicable. 
• Again by text a few hours before the appointment, if the showing is scheduled for a time more than 24 hours after the initial follow-up. 

A tip for teams: After the showing, it’s helpful to have an inside sales agent (ISA) place a courtesy call to the customer to confirm that the showing took place and to gauge the customer’s satisfaction with the agent. 

Staying connected with My Agent

With Zillow Premier Agent, once you’ve successfully completed a connection call, a My Agent relationship is created between you and the customer. This feature keeps you top of mind while the customer looks at properties on Zillow and includes your contact information on saved search emails, allowing them to easily contact you about a home they’re interested in seeing. Become a Zillow Premier Agent to get access to My Agent and more essential features to help you convert.

The Zillow Premier Agent Conversion Playbook was written to help Zillow Premier Agents convert their phone, text and tour connections, as well as their nurture leads, but the principles and guidelines hold true for anyone in the real estate business.