How long should you follow up with a lead?
I found that question written in Journal #6 from 1997.
My answer was basically:
Never.
At the time, I was guessing.
Now I have the evidence.
One of my favorite examples comes from a Getting Listings program case study.
We picked a neighborhood and started mailing postcards.
People would raise their hands, become visible prospects, and then we’d stay in touch with them.
Month after month.
Year after year.
Over ten years, that one neighborhood generated more than $4.5 million in commissions.
But here’s my favorite part.
In the tenth year, someone listed and sold their house who had originally responded to…
the very first postcard we mailed ten years earlier.
Think about that.
They raised their hand.
And then didn’t buy for ten years.
Was that a bad lead?
Of course not.
They simply weren’t ready yet.
Most businesses would have declared that lead “dead” somewhere along the way.
But that’s because they’re measuring the value of a lead by what the person does today.
I’ve come to think about leads very differently.
A lead is an asset capable of yielding revenue over time.
Someone has voluntarily raised their hand and said, in some way:
I’m interested in this.
If they’re still opening your emails…
clicking your links…
reading your newsletters…
watching your videos…
they’re still showing signs of life.
Why would you stop communicating with them?
People do things on their own timelines.
Our job isn’t to force the timeline.
Our job is to remain useful while the clock is ticking.
Because you never know when someone who raised their hand today…
will be ready.
It might be tomorrow.
It might be next year.
Or it might be ten years from now.
The mistake isn’t that some leads take ten years to convert.
The mistake is giving up on them in year nine. :)
Dean