Real Estate Marketing: Dealing With Angry Calls

What should real estate investors do when they start getting angry calls from prospects they marketed to?

This is actually a very common scenario when initiating a marketing campaign for a real estate business, and when switching into new marketing mediums. More often than not, it catches new real estate investors and even real estate agents by complete surprise and has them panicking. So what’s the source of the angry calls, what ticks people off so bad? How should these replies be handled and what’s the good news when this happens?

The Issue:

Whether engaging in real estate marketing via direct mail or any other medium, some of the first responses can be notoriously negative. This is frequently in the form of prospects and recipients calling to complain with disparaging and abusive messages. In some instances, they will even make threatening accusations. The first thing to remember here is that this is mostly just hot air and will pass quickly.

Why so Angry?

For many real estate investors and agents, this response is very puzzling. They had good intentions, thought that they were offering a value and needed service and were 110% on the right side of the law. If not anticipated, these responses can really throw newbies off. Fortunately, provided they have been following a good real estate education program and system, they are on the right track and should have little to worry about.

There are 3 common core reasons for these displeased responses:

1. They want to know where you got their information from and are upset you know it
2. They are offended that someone may know that they need help
3. They are scared. They may be scared someone else like friends and family will find out that they are struggling financially, that you are a scam artist or just a lack of privacy.

Most homeowners are totally unaware that so much of their information is publicly available or that credit reporting bureaus and other institutions sell so much of their information. So what do you do?

Handling these Calls

9 tips for effectively dealing with angry calls from a marketing perspective:

1. Expect them. Anticipate it and be prepared
2. Be thankful and bolstered by the fact your real estate marketing messages are heard
3. Be glad that each one is bringing you closer to those precious and profitable Yeses
4. Reassure callers that you aren’t up to no good
5. Apologize for offending them, even if you weren’t in the wrong (preserve your brand)
6. Always be professional, no matter what is said to you and how
7. Treat them gracefully, and provide them a graceful exit from the conversation
8. Get off the line swiftly (over explaining or trying to sell them will make it worse)
9. Remove them from your lists and red flag their info to scrub against future lists you obtain as not to infuriate them further

There can actually be potential for turning some of these calls around into deals, though often the caller will be so embarrassed of going off the deep end they will retreat. Just leave the invitation open to help them in the future if they want it.