When you need to grow a business in real estate, the key question is often simple: how do you get more leverage? After all, real estate can be a very personal business. Tactics like cold calling and outreach require the presence of physical people. Ideas like handling a follow-up over the phone, for example, will interrupt your time. That leaves you back at that fundamental question: how can you leverage your time so you can handle cold calling without chaining yourself to a desk?
The answer is two-fold: using voicemail scripts to leave a "ringless voicemail," you can handle outreach from a preexisting template. Once you have a potential lead's phone number, you can use this script to drop it directly into their voicemail. Dropping into their voicemail doesn't interrupt their day with a call, which gives them time to listen to the message. Let's look at how to do it, as well as a real estate voicemail script you can immediately use in your ringless voicemails.
Let's get right to it. Below, let's imagine that you have the phone number and contact information of a potential customer who has expressed interest in buying a new home. Maybe they signed up via your website and left their phone number. Now all that remains is for you to reach out:
Good [morning/afternoon] [Prospect’s name],
This is [Your Name] at [Your Real Estate Company Name]. I understand you may be in the market for a new home. I've seen a few recent homes on the market that you might be interested in.
Please give me a call back at [Your Phone Number].
Have a great day.
That's it. Your voicemail message doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. And why does this work? Because using ringless voicemail allows you to set a more personal tone with the person you're calling. The text above uses the reason they sent you their phone number—being in the market for a new home—as a reason to reach out. It's not a "cold call." It's a potential warm lead, and the script reflects that.
If you don't want to work from a line-by-line script, you can always create your own. But before you place that first phone call, it will help to know what sorts of elements your salesperson should include in a script:
• A brief greeting. Don't take too long; remember, with voicemail, you're on the clock. Briefly say hello and mention your name and your company.
• The reason you're calling. Don't waste time! Get right to the point and explain why you're calling and what you can do for them if they call back.
• Call back number. This is the point of the voicemail, after all—to give them a phone number where they can reach your salesperson when they call back. Think of this as your "call to action.".
• Wish them a nice day. Remember, you don't want this to sound robotic. Be warm, be pleasant, and wish them a great day in the en
Follow these four basic beats, and you'll handle outreach like a salesperson who's been in the business for years.
Because it can be hard to introduce automation into a real estate company, you sometimes have to do the next best thing: add leverage to how your real estate agents handle the outreach. But why ringless voicemails specifically? Let's address the specific benefits of handling outreach this way:
• High response rates. Dropping directly into a voicemail inbox can be a highly personal way to reach out. Someone gets to hear your voice. And rather than sounding like a sales call, you can leave a message that sounds personal—as they've already agreed to hire you.
• Automation. You don't have to wait to see if a potential customer picks up. You can dial straight to the voicemail, which adds speed and automation to the process.
• A no-hassle approach. Sure, it's possible to use automated methods to reach out to people. But these can sometimes run afoul of telemarketing regulations, and they can turn people away from a realtor. Using a no-hassle approach like the script above in a ringless voicemail is non-intrusive. And customers appreciate it when you respect their time.
• It's repeatable. Let's say you stumble on a good voicemail script like the one you saw above. What can you do to level up your marketing strategy and drive new leads to your realty company? Simple. Repeat it. Marketing in the real estate industry means finding a message and a method that works for you—and then scaling it up so your entire organization or team of sales reps can leverage that strategy.
The beauty of working through voicemail scripts is that you'll have a repeatable process you can use time and again. But what happens if you don't get a high response rate? Simple: you can change things up. Maybe you can introduce separate customer segments in which you address their specific needs—such as filtering phone numbers based on whether someone is buying a home for the first time or looking to sell an existing home.
This level of personalization is difficult to achieve when handling real estate outreach. But when working with ringless voicemail, you're free to customize it to your specific needs. In other words, ringless voicemail is a flexible, powerful way to handle "cold calling" in the real estate industry. But even better, it won't feel cold. You'll drop in a potential customer's inbox with a friendly message. And when the customer is ready, they'll reward you with a callback. They may even compliment you on the way you didn't pressure them into a phone call. And when they're happy with your real estate company, it can be one of the elements that encourage them to recommend you to a friend or family member.