800 Vs Local Number - Response Rate?

Comments(6)

• 
  active_re_investor12th September, 2004

  Mandi,
  
  Tracking things is am important skill when marketing.
  
  At 30 a month you only need one good deal very year or two to more then cover all the costs. Hence it might not be so critical to worry about this from a cost point of view. More important would be to understand if you get more calls when they think they are calling someone local vs if they are calling a toll free number.
  
  John
  [addsig]

• 
  InActive_Account12th September, 2004

  Thanks for the response, but I'm not sure I made my point clearly. It wasn't the money that I was worried about, I just wanted to find out whether anyone had some stats on the response rate for either method. I don't want to waste printing signs with a local number if an 800 will do better, and vice versa (although, if I plan on working out-of-area, economies of scale for the 800 number apply)!
  
  Sheesh - if I can't do $30/month, how can I make payments on a HML?

• 
  scott_mn20th September, 2004

  You were very clear.
  
  Here is what we have found.
  
  On Bandit signs we only use toll free numbers, two reasons, we have a professional voice on there and city ordinances.
  
  3 months ago we made a change to all other forms of advertising (ie classifieds, mailings) we put both the toll free with extension and our local direct line.
  
  Our call volume has gone up 45% for motivated sellers, even if we take into fact our slow market in my region. I find that some people still call our toll free but alot of people would like to try to connect directly.
  
  We actually use two toll free numbers, one for just signs. We learned that the hard way.

• 
  rajwarrior20th September, 2004

  Now Scott, let me tell you why your response rate went up 45%.
  
  The answer is really simple, in most cases, people want to talk to a real live person. Voice mail scripts are great for the tirekickers and curious-minded. With a script, they can hear your spill without having to tell you that they weren't really interested anyway. Someone that is wanting to sell their house quickly (ie a motivated seller) will not usually leave info on a recorder. They want someone to stop their pain now, and if they get an answering machine, they're going to hangup and call the next "we buy houses" ad. The only way you are going to hear from these sellers again is if the other investor blows them off. If it is a real deal (most likely) and the other investor isn't a rank newbie, then you just lost out.
  
  
  Mandi,
  
  If you have the option to go local or 800, I'd go local everytime, IF you are planning on buying and selling local. At $30/month, it shouldn't cost much different to get a local line.
  
  As far as the scripted vs. live, I'd vote for live every time. My "office" number is my cell, so I answer almost every call "live." Keep this in mind, if a seller takes the time to dial a number of a "we buy houses" type ad, they are motivated to sell. The real question is not whether they are motivated or not, but rather if their property meets your criteria for buying. And as I said above, the real deals, the one where the seller is willing to let it go for $0.50 on the dollar, won't wait around to leave a message for you to call them back. They will hangup and try the next investor.
  
  Roger

• 
  InActive_Account21st September, 2004

  Roger, that was awesome. Excellent post!

• 
  LindaTx1st October, 2004

  Yep it is worth it!
  When I know my ads are going to hit I answer live as much as I can, they do not expect to hear a live voice, so it puts you out in front. I do use a script, or guestionaire, to go buy. I am asking questions and listening to answer's and writing taking notes. I want to know what they do not want as well as what their real needs are. Sometimes I am not ready to talk so I ask to call them back in 5 min. then I am in charge of the call not them, I put myself into a listening mode.
  
  This has done so much for my business, takes more time up front but less time later, knowing what their real needs are. Sometimes we have to use voice mail, keep it simple, short, and be sure to ask for area codes too? So many times I can not call people back because of no area code and, when you leave a message list the phone number 2 times, most people never get it all on first try.
  Linda Tx
  
  
  Quote:
  On 2004-09-20 23:00, rajwarrior wrote:
  Now Scott, let me tell you why your response rate went up 45%.
  
  The answer is really simple, in most cases, people want to talk to a real live person. Voice mail scripts are great for the tirekickers and curious-minded. With a script, they can hear your spill without having to tell you that they weren't really interested anyway. Someone that is wanting to sell their house quickly (ie a motivated seller) will not usually leave info on a recorder. They want someone to stop their pain now, and if they get an answering machine, they're going to hangup and call the next "we buy houses" ad. The only way you are going to hear from these sellers again is if the other investor blows them off. If it is a real deal (most likely) and the other investor isn't a rank newbie, then you just lost out.
  
  
  Mandi,
  
  If you have the option to go local or 800, I'd go local everytime, IF you are planning on buying and selling local. At $30/month, it shouldn't cost much different to get a local line.
  
  As far as the scripted vs. live, I'd vote for live every time. My "office" number is my cell, so I answer almost every call "live." Keep this in mind, if a seller takes the time to dial a number of a "we buy houses" type ad, they are motivated to sell. The real question is not whether they are motivated or not, but rather if their property meets your criteria for buying. And as I said above, the real deals, the one where the seller is willing to let it go for $0.50 on the dollar, won't wait around to leave a message for you to call them back. They will hangup and try the next investor.
  
  Roger
  8-) 8-)
  [addsig]