Call Notes – What Should You Include

In this video, we’re going to review some effective call notes. So it’s important that every time you speak with a lead, that you are leaving notes for yourself. These notes are only going to assist you with a more effective follow-up. So, when? So when is the primary aspect that you need to obtain from your leads. When does your lead actually plan on actioning their criteria? You’ll most commonly hear me say, anyone can give you criteria, what matters is, when do they plan on actioning that criteria? Once you know when, you’re going to be able to determine the level of followup required for that lead. As somebody that’s planning a move in the next three months versus a lead that’s maybe moving in the next two years, your follow-ups are going to be a lot different.

The why. What is your lead situation? Why are they moving? What has to happen to make it possible? When a lead gives you reasoning and motivation behind their move, this is going to allow you to educate them through the process. So if somebody is moving because they’re relocating or they’re downsizing, or they’re divorcing, sadly enough, this is going to give you a little bit of background information on what you should be offering to this lead to better assist them.

And then finally, the what and the where. What are they looking for and where? This is where you’re going to get to add some value to the lead. So often at the end of a conversation and say, “Hey, before we go, I just want to make sure we’re sending you the listings that best match what you’re looking for. So you don’t have to continue looking all over the place to find it. We’re going to get to exactly those homes right into your inbox.” So this is where, again, you get to add a little bit more value as the benefit of having the conversation with you in the first place.

Now, extras with your caller notes. I always say, pay attention to the conversation, and make notes about the small details such as kids, pets, activities, anything you can think of that you’re hearing or talking about in that conversation. These small details are going to allow you to better connect with your leads, especially in a follow-up call. If you’re able to bring up one of the pets, maybe you hear the pet barking in the background. And so you know the pets name already. The lead itself is going to be impressed that you actually “remembered that information.” But reality is, we’re just leaving notes, so it just makes us sound a little more professional with our follow ups. Again, the more connected we are with our leads, whether it be in the initial conversation or the follow-up, that’s where you’re building your relationship. And that’s where you’re going to start to see the results come to life.

Now, let’s take a look at some call notes. So I’ve pulled up some call notes that are simulated essentially. They are from someone’s system, but we’ve moved them over into our training, the platform, so that we can share with you. So this is a call note where this lead is looking for a possible investment to rent out. There’s no real timeline. This is something that this lead was talking about for years. He’s always been thinking about doing it, he’s never actually pulled through on that. I did in this call is mentioned that Ryan here is the main agent on the account and that he would be the best person to advise on current conditions, rental conditions in the Brantford or in that area or any area.

So educating them who the best person to speak with, with regard to that. She wanted to speak to her husband first, before arranging any kind of sit down to go over and come up with any kind of game plan. But she would be very interested if something between four and 500K that’s typically below market value, that she’d be interested in that. Surprise, surprise, it’s something that a lot of individuals would be interested in. And she was also looking for off-market listings. So, exclusive opportunities, that sort of thing. So that’s one example of a call note.

We then have another example down here, I believe. So this is a call note here where the lead was looking to eventually retire in a specific area. Lot of notes in here about her current situation. So when talking to this person, she wasn’t doing the greatest. So just asking a couple more questions, and this lead revealed that she actually broke her arm on a hike, and so she’s put things on hold, but she’s thinking maybe next spring or even in the winter maybe. There’s a note with regard to two poodles that she has and her son that lives in Toronto. This has nothing really to do with her home search, it’s just a topic for conversation, nonetheless.

She’s been looking at condo listings. Doesn’t think that she’d be happy there. And then of course, tying back into her two dogs, having two large dogs in an apartment probably isn’t the most ideal scenario. She did give me her age. Put that in there. And this one here was a longer conversation. Putting in there. And so kind of letting and putting notes in there for yourself as to the follow-up, as well as the off-market listings on this individual as well.

And then we go into this person here. So this person here is actually buying on behalf of her parents, where her parents are now renting back their home from a developer who purchased it who’s going to be knocking it down. They’ve already been pre-approved. The daughter is just going to simply pull the equity from her home. They’re going to actually have their home fully paid off in October. That’s not going to be an issue. So the house is going to be for parents. The Adelle here is the buyer. And just a couple of notes about the garage shop there and putting another note based on why there is two searches. So if ever the agent is looking in here wondering why there’s two searches that look very similar to each other, that is a note in there just with respect to that.

So those are just a couple of notes for conversations. So, don’t hold back. A lot of us, when we were making call notes, including myself, we tend to think that we’re going to remember a lot of the details, when in fact you are not going to remember all the details. We give our brains way too much credit for what they’re capable of. It is a pain in the butt in the moment, but your future self will thank your current self and you’re going to have better follow-ups and better connections with the leads you’ve connected with.