Need help keeping track of leads, answering phones, etc

Bird Dogs, Wholesaling
1

This probably belongs in a different area of the site, but I want to regulars to see it so I’m posting here. I’m doing enough marketing now that I’m getting a ton of leads. I’m also missing a lot of calls since I still have a day job, most of the people don’t leave a message.

First, does anybody have a VM script they use to encourage more people to leave a message? Tonight I’m going to have my wife leave the VM, I’ve heard female voices get more people to leave messages.

Also, how in the hell do you guys keep track of all your leads? I try keeping them on a yellow legal pad but it quickly becomes a disorganized mess. I’d like to create a system of keeping track of this stuff so I’m not constantly reviewing my leads to see who I’ve talked to, what houses I need to look at, etc. I need a single place I can quickly look each day that tells me: “Call Timmy, you have an appointment tomorrow with Suzy, you are waiting on a counter offer from Johnny” etc.

This is more of a business/organization question but I’m having trouble with it.

2

Luke, ive struggled with that problem since the beginning. I made up some seller questionairs, 1 property per sheet, then I run off 20 copies at a time. Asking all the important questions plus areas for notes, you gotta write down everything.
That was messy though, trying to find a property sheet buried under 80 sheets when the seller is on the line.
Now I take each sheet after filling it out and scan it to a folder on my desktop PC, called seller questionairs.
I label each one with the address first, and the PC automatically files them low to high, for instance if the address is 101 main st, it will be filed first and 307 Dalton Ave will be down the list but very easy and fast to find.
Now when I got a customer on the line I can look it up in 20 seconds.
I also used MS Word to made a fillable file sheet, so I can add and subtract info to my sheets, It took me some hours to set up but now life is so much easier. I’m not big enuf to pay hundreds of buks a month for the software.
As for the phone, get ur wife or ur Mom or sister or grandma to answer it if you cant, your losing money when they hang up cuz they immediately call someone else. I use google voice that rings my home phone and my cell phone so I always try to answer my phone, except when I’m taking a nap tired from all the seller questionairs I filled out.

3

I have used a blotter/desk calendar with big squares for the days and used it as a daily/weekly/monthly organizer.

It’s extremely efficient and doesn’t disappear or get lost. You can record things in future months simply by lifting the pages to the appropriate month.

Otherwise, I carry a notebook/pad with me all the times, and I transfer some of my notes to the calendar, such as phone numbers, addresses, etc. .

I’m really a low-budget operator when it comes to ‘time-saving’ devices. I’ve never had any device that saved me time, or grief.

It’s useful for me to create a physical file folder for every deal I’m working on, and keep them handy in a file organizer. I print hard copies of everything and store them in the appropriate folder so nothing gets lost.

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Incoming calls from sellers MUST be captured live. Like Rando said they’ll call someone else, and you’ll lose the deal.

It truly amazes me how few investors understand the importance of answering their phone live from sellers. It doesn’t make much difference what number you publish when marketing for sellers, as long as someone is available to capture the call in person and knows the questions to ask.

Taking calls from unqualified buyers is a whole different approach. I put unqualified buyers to an outgoing message line, because it saves time repeating a description of the house to the curious, unserious, looky lous and fellow investors that are just time wasters, etc.

The buyers that hear the asking price, the address, the financing terms, and actually drive to see the house, become qualified buyers. They are given the opportunity to call my live number (listed at the house). That’s the one I answer.

Of course, some just drive by the house first, and see my number without hearing the qualifying description, so before they can actually speak to me, they must still listen to my entire message describing the house, and then they get instructions on how to reach me personally.

Any buyer who actually gets through to me, I know has seen the house already. That saves SO much phone time.

FWIW