A great analogy for thinking about real estate follow-ups is to equate it to a football game. There are certain plays that you use at certain positions on the field, just like there are certain follow-ups that we're going to use for certain leads, depending on where they are in our stage of engagement, as you have your early downplays or what we call first tens. These are going to provide immediate value, establish rapport right out of the gate, and give us a foothold.

The second is our midfield play. We're not looking for an end-zone strike here. We just need to get into field goal range and keep chewing up yardage. Finally, we have our red zone, or goal line, stack. These are going to be direct, to the point, and designed to convert.

What we're looking to do in the midfield plays is continue building on the rapport we established on day one, when we first sat down and spoke or answered a phone call. The second goal will be to continue our value-add strategies by providing context, and then, finally, our goal-line push.

This is when we've built enough rapport that it's okay to check in on the timeline. We're going to do it in a way that shifts the conversation from a salesy, breathless approach to something a little more engaging, such as, "Hey, I know a while back you were looking to make a move in the area." We've kept in touch. I just wanted to make sure that I'm not dropping the ball if that's something that's still on your radar at this time.

So there you have it. We have several ways to make our follow-ups more engaging and special than a simple "Hey, checking in to see if you're ready to buy."