KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Mastering the Art of Follow-Up: Nurture Leads Without Being Pushy

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Friday Focus is your weekly mini-series from KGCI Real Estate On Air—a deep dive into one theme, broken into tactical, easy-to-implement episodes. Every Friday and Saturday, we unpack the strategies, scripts, and systems agents use to win more business—without the fluff.Catch every episode in the series to get the full picture, and put these moves into play by Monday.SummaryThis episode is a comprehensive guide to mastering the crucial art of real estate follow-up. It addresses the common fear of being "salesy" and provides a strategic framework for building genuine, long-term relationships that lead to a consistent stream of business. You'll learn how to leverage systems and authentic communication to stay top-of-mind, positioning yourself as a trusted advisor rather than a pushy salesperson.Key TakeawaysThe Follow-Up is Where the Fortune Is: Understand that a majority of leads require multiple interactions before they're ready to transact. The episode emphasizes that an effective follow-up system is the single most important factor for converting leads, even those who initially seem cold or unresponsive.Add Value, Don't Just Ask for the Sale: Discover the power of a "give-first" mentality. Learn to provide valuable, non-salesy content—like local market insights, home maintenance tips, or neighborhood guides—that builds trust and positions you as a knowledgeable resource.Be Personal, Not Pushy: Get tactical advice on how to personalize your communication without being overwhelming. The episode explains how to vary your outreach methods (phone calls, texts, emails) and use details about the lead's specific needs to make every interaction feel authentic and tailored to them.Harness Technology to Be More Human: Learn how to use a CRM and automation to streamline your follow-up, ensuring no lead falls through the cracks. The discussion highlights how these tools can help you track conversations, remember key dates, and maintain consistent contact without a massive time investment.Topics:Real estate follow-upLead nurturingNon-salesy sellingReal estate CRMLead conversionCall-to-ActionListen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and transform your follow-up game! Ready for more? Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air and grab the Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android. Inside, you’ll find our complete archive, 24/7 stream, and every Friday Focus mini-series—ready when you are.

Tactical, focused. Just like a top producer. Here's a sample from this week's Friday focus on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Right, welcome, everybody. It is so nice to have you part of Elite Masterminds, a session where I have guessed that join me in the session, these are high-performing agents that really succeed at the highest level in their business. And we discuss certain elements that actually helps,

well, you and anybody, through their particular job. journey. And I must admit, as a real estate agent, it's always overwhelming when you want to go out and you want to build a business, but you're not too sure how. Well, you could do one or two things. You could either Google it and try and understand how to do it, or you can listen to people that have actually gone through this particular journey. And they've actually uncovered it. Now, today, we're going to talk about something called master. the art of follow-up. And follow-up is absolutely important in anybody's business. So let me just give you a very brief understanding of real estate. So many people look at real estate and they say, oh, it's easy, it's difficult, it's complicated. I'm going to break it down to you in a very simple manner. Real estate, in fact, only has three parts to it. All you've got to do is you've just got to master those three parts. Part number one is you just got to generate leads. It's for any business out there. You need to generate leads coming into your particular business

so that you can start working with clients, whether it's buy a lead, seller leads, etc. So that's the first part is you need to generate leads. But I'm going to jump to part three because part three is the part that most agents love. It's the closing. It's the part where you've got all that excitement, that emotion from your buyers, from your sellers, and you're going through that journey of closing that transaction with them. So whether it's actually closing, it could be a lease agreement, a sale of a property, that's the part that we all enjoy, because now we know we're getting closer to the funds. So the first part is just generate lead so that you can fill your pipeline. And the third part is just closing. But what is the second part? And this is

the part that in fact is the easiest. In fact, you don't need any skills to actually do all of this, but you've got to be consistent and persistent. You might be asking, what is that second part? Well, it's the theme of what we're going to talk about and it's follow up. Follow up, follow up, follow up. If you can master the easiest part of real estate, which is follow up, you're going to actually increase your chances of doing sales. We've actually done a bit of research. and studies have shown that 60% of the agents in the industry do not follow up. And if you actually look at all your business, 80% of your business comes from a follow-up. So if you're part of those agents that's not doing the follow-up, you're actually missing out of the biggest part of your business.

If you can master the art of follow-up, you're going to find that your business is actually going to start becoming easier and easier. And I use that word loosely because there is obviously systems and tools. So joining me today as an agent who is a master. I'm going to say she is a master at doing her follow-up. She's done this throughout her career. And joining me today again is Colette. Colette, how are you doing today? We're excited.

We've got a few months of the late. a year left. I can't believe how much time has passed. So it's like ramp it up because there's, God, time's flying. Absolutely. Halfway through the second quarter of the year and we're actually going to be nailing this out there. So, Colette, let's just jump into it. Follow up for you. Give us a bit of a history because you as an entrepreneur, you're a lady who's run your own business for many, many years and your business didn't just work by itself. You had to do work. But I want you to look at that follow-up category. Talk to us over the last 18 years.

What has been one of your keys or tricks that you've used to maintain relationships with those particular clients? Yeah, Stuart, I think it is very important because, you know, you have to service the leads that come your way in business. Whether it is just somebody reaching out for information, not necessarily they're ready to do the sale or list their property, they may just be looking at the market or, you know, circumstances, and I've seen this in my personal life and I've seen this in business over the last few years in my life, how circumstances can change in a heartbeat for people. but if you're not there and if you're not going to be having building that relationship continuously whether it's a new relationship or just cultivating an existing relationship with a client you've got to be there and you've got to be in the no so i'm i'm i'm quite a so i have for instance two facebook pages i've got a personal one and i have got a business one because there are

certain things you know i'm a bit of a bit of a bit of a free free spirit and a wild child i ride my back and I do fun stuff on weekends and I don't necessarily want my clients to always also see that side of me because for me that's that's a bit of me so but in saying that I have got you know you you keep in touch with people because you can also see those relations we can see oh wow something happened in their life their child got married um there was a death in the family there was some something that had happened so that that little personal touch and that little that little thing that you need to you you need to connect emotionally with your clients and with people and that for me has been quite quite a nice thing and and and i've been using a lot of that to keep those relationships and keep that

communication channel open with my clients just by by being in touch staying in touch with them and and yeah building those relationships and so that oh by the way my situation has changed and you know what i'm getting a divorce i need to sell my house you know can you help me um something my my mother-in-law's just passed on or whatever the situation is in life changes or financial situations come up come up. So I think that's the, to just stay on top of it in cultivating those relationships is really important. Absolutely.

And we're in the in the business of building relationships. Now, a question that's come through from so many agents that I've been coaching, Stuart, am I not encroaching on somebody when I follow up? So we know that there's this balance between. kind of staying top of mind and kind of overwhelming them, you know, that every 10 minutes, hey, you didn't respond to me type of thing. What do you do to make sure that you can maintain that balance to remain top of mind, but also not overwhelm them? How do you keep that balance? So, you know, I'm still quite an old school person and I think when I entered this business

as well I started and oh gosh I hate spreadsheets I'm like cool this is not my thing but I have started you know by initially when I just started I mean I do cold calling still and I do it complex so I would have my list of my complex people and I would then make notes and I would make a note and I would color code them so I would make important like hot leads a red color and I would make colors and I would have comments and things like that so Then I would communicate with those people, like, I would know, okay, this guy sounds a bit irritable. You know, he's like, you are not. So my approach to them, that person would be different.

So instead of, you know, maybe another phone call or somebody who was quite chatty, I would be like, hey, we spoke this and this time. And I was just going to wonder at the time this was happening. So I think it depends on the initial conversation that you have with that person. And it's about the questions you ask, the information that you gather, and then jot those down, make notes for yourself. And then, you know, then you plan your communication or you'll follow up with those people in that manner because you would know. And also it comes down to the reading people's personality types because some people are the spreadsheet people. They want the facts. Yes, send me a property. Send me a evaluation with the numbers. I want to see the numbers.

I want to know what my property's value is. Then I'll make a decision. Other people want to know all the fluff and the pretty things that goes with it. So I think for me, it depends on the initial conversation that you have with that person is how you're going to to approach your communication with that person, whether it then becomes a just rather a WhatsApp, a quick WhatsApp with, hey, you asked me to check in with you, I'm just reaching out or whatever the situation is. But I think for me that it's about that initial conversation you have and how you're going to then approach that follow up. And that's perfect because what you're actually telling us is setting an expectation on that first call and actually understanding how do they want you to

communicate with them and how often you want to actually communicate with them i also like to reflect back when you mention that you've got your two pages you've got a personal facebook page or profile and then a business facebook page and your your personal page is is all about your authentic self now i remember and this was reflecting back i did the exact same thing i kept my personal on one side, but in fact, I made sure that my personal, everybody knew about me on the personal. I wanted my authentic self to go out. But one key area that I used to do is I always used to wish people happy birthday. And on Facebook, it gives you that great thing. You go up in the morning on the top right here and corner of your screen, you can actually see, hey, you've got

12 people, 13 people that actually have got birthdays. And because I'd hit the max, I had literally between 12, 15, almost every single day. Some days a bit quieter. And I used to wish people happy birthday. And I remember, this must have been back in about 2019. I actually went through the whole year of wishing happy birthday. And I actually had somebody come back to me and say, hey, Stuart, you know what? Thank you so much. And oh, by the way, could you assist us in selling our home. And I saw that as a very soft method of actually follow up going through that journey. Now, Colette, I know that you've got maybe a story or two where you've done follow-ups with clients, whatever, whatever medium it may have been. Have you got one that's top of mind

that you could share with us where you went through it in just a normal fashion that's not complicated, but it actually led to you getting a listing or a sale? Yes, I have a recent one, actually was specifically I targeted a complex when when I was still in in Johannesburg and it was lonial it was it's so many agents work there and I just did my thing I just did call calling into this complex and I reached out to people and um whoever didn't answer I then follow up normally and I've got a little WhatsApp script and I sent a WhatsApp to everybody and this one lady replied back and she said to me hey thanks for the message but um we we may look at selling in maybe another month for two months time. So I was like, okay, yay. And I made a note. I made a note in my diary. And then I followed

that up in about a week or whatever the period was. I followed it up with another message. And I said, hey, you said that you were going to consider selling. I'm just checking in to see whether you're ready or not. And then she was ready. She called. She phoned me. She said, we're ready. Please come see me. And she also, she decided that there was another agent, which was part of a team, quite top agent at the time I was still quite new at it so she was interviewing she decided she was going to interview five companies to do the listing and I was already thinking oh here we go and I was going for that sole mandate and I walked in there and I was doing my thing and I was confident and I said and she eventually gave me the sole mandate and I sold the property within 21 days so she was

extremely impressed and she just said to me one of the one of the beautiful things in her testimonial to me was that she appreciated the follow-up because she said just like me, a lot of agents would phone and then she would give from them once and then she wouldn't hear from them. And some of them that have reached out, she also sent the same message to say, hey, I'm now in the market. And I think it was myself and then this other guy, I think there was three people that actually came back to her. And if I didn't do that follow-up, I wouldn't have had that soul man and I wouldn't have had that sale. And it was a quick sell. It was a cash deal. It was 21 days on the market and it was done. So that was one of my really nice success

stories of, you know what? It works. Absolutely. And you know, when you're actually going through all of that, I actually didn't feel like that was difficult. I mean, sending a message and actually being respectful. If someone says, hey, how are you doing? Do you just sit back and you're being quiet? Or you actually go back to say, hey, I'm doing actually quite well. And how are you? You see, follow-up is about continuing a conversation. And that's what the key is. It's about staying top of mind and continuing that particular conversation. But a lot of agents and entrepreneurs like to keep this in their minds. They think that they've got the strongest tool in the world, which is memory. And we all know that as time progresses, memory is kind of slipped. There's lots of things that

happen around us that can just almost distract us as we're going forward. So I want to talk about tools that can actually help you with follow-up. Do you use any specific tools or systems or have any particular habit that you follow that assist you in this particular journey of doing follow-ups? Yeah, so there are some marketing plans that are available on our EXP, REP system. So there's actually quite, there's a few different ones that you can look at. There's the, I think it's staying on top of mind, which is, so it gives you and you can also create your own. So I've used this in the past quite a lot where as, you know, you make a phone call to the client and especially when I target a new complex. So I use that we, you make the

phone call and then there's an automated email that gets sent. So you add an as I'm phoning through this complex, I add those contacts into that marketing plan and that campaign because like you say we do get busy and you forget. So it's easy to use those automated marketing plans that just it sends the email automatically you and then you can but you can create your own and I think the important thing is also something I heard recently when you're doing all of these things. Don't let it seem like an advert. Be authentic. Make it different. Make it something that somebody's going to read you know it's going to grab their attention. So there's so many articles, for instance, that you can get off. Property 24 has some really great articles that they

create, which is based on local content and what happens. I mean, for instance, in our area we work, the garden route has been well renowned now for one of the top destinations for European buyers. So those, that kind of information is great for me to add onto the buyers that come in, the buyers, the inquiries that are coming through, that database that I'm creating, those kind of articles are great for me to then add to that plan and get sent to them as an interesting article. So it keeps them also, hey, I want to do with this agent because she's informative, she's sharing information with me. So I think if you look at those marketing plans on our EXP site, you can create your own. There's differences. It can either be you send an, you know, you send emails

automatically or then it will remind you, okay, we'll send a WhatsApp. I'm also. also busy looking at the moment into PropCon. PropCon has apparently also got quite a nice system where you can do a lot of follow-up and it reminds you to do things. I actually took some of Ada's advice on that. So I'm busy looking into that a little bit into more details. I'm not 100% burst on that one. But that's definitely something as well that everybody can look into because I think they offer also quite a lot of very useful tips. But I think the most important thing is just to be systematic about it. You have to have. to create a system because you're going to forget and you know you you do get busy and then before you know it you see a listing go up and you're like oh i spoke to that client you know why wasn't that there and then you disappoint it so you you have to unfortunately when you get busy you're going to have to rely on some systems to help you absolutely i actually love that because instead of remaining top of mind you're actually remaining at the bottom of the mind and i know we've all experience that we have those conversations and they typically happen when you bump into somebody in

by accident and they go oh we've just sold our property and you're going i i've just missed out on a huge amount of potential commission now you also jumped into something which is so important which is it's actually a mistake that so many people that i've seen in coaching that actually make when they're doing follow-ups. And you actually raised a very, very valid point, which is not make the follow-ups seem like an advert. Don't make it so generic that it seems like a cut and paste. Make sure that it becomes personalized because that personalized approach is what people will continue the conversation with. So it's very important as you're having your communications. Follow-up is simple, but it's not just cut and paste. Make sure that you're continuing.

continuing that particular conversation as you're going through. Using tools and notes to actually remember, hey, this is the conversation I had with them. Making detailed notes. Doing a follow up a week later and saying, hey, by the way, I spoke to you a week ago. Just want to see how you're doing. I know that you sprained your ankle. Is it feeling better? That's staying top of mind, having that personal connection.

Being authentic as you're going through. Not just a cut and paste of, hey, I know you want to sell. Are you ready? that's like kind of straight into your face. Now, Colette, I know that we've all had this whereby somebody sends you a lead, whether it's an inquiry that comes to a digital platform or someone has actually kind of sent you a message and you take the time to make contact with them and you build that relationship with them. But then you go and send a message and they don't come back to you.

They ghost you. They just kind of say, and they disappear. And I'll know we've all had this experience in the past. How do you typically handle when people ghost you? What do you typically do? How do you follow up with a ghost? Look, I think it's a decision that you have to make, whether it's worth that chasing that ghost

or whether you just agree to walk away and leave it alone. sometimes people do get busy we get that people do get busy I would then you know if somebody doesn't take my call I would follow it up maybe with a WhatsApp message or an email but if they don't come back you know what I think and I there's this different opinions based on this I initially when I started in this industry I used to chase off the buyers and I used to try and help them because I'm going to save your life because you want to find you or do your dream home. But I also have found that you do waste a lot of time on those people. And yes, they also, those were the ones that ghosted me a lot more. So it's a decision that

you have to make and decide whether it's worth your while or not. Sellers, on the other hand, that's where your money lies because you're going to have your mandate. But that can also happen. So I think for me, it's just, you know what, reaching out maybe three, four times. And if you didn't just see look there's absolutely no way i'm i've actually got an example now with the client that we were dealing with now and he wants to sell the property then he wants to put her on the market i'd skittled the photographer it was backwards forwards eventually i was like you know what i sent him a message i said hey you know you really seem like a very busy person and i'm not going to to irritate you or you know get in your space so you let me know when you're ready so you know

Sometimes you just got to go, okay, let me take the seat back. And he knows I'm here. He's going to try to do it on his own or whatever it is that his situation is at the moment. When he needs me, he knows I'm here. Absolutely. And you know, one thing that I found is, you know, people do. You actually called it correctly. People have a life.

They're not dedicated and focused on you as the agent. They have a life. They get busy. Suddenly things change in their business, their personal life. things go forward. I remember reflecting on a client. I followed up with them for 18 months. And people said to me, Stuart, that is absolutely madness. But I followed up with this couple for 18 months. And it was 18 months later that they actually bought a property from me. And right in the beginning, when we had started in this particular journey, they were very interested, seeing properties,

going through pre-qualifiers. But then they ghosted me. And ultimately, the reason why they ghosted me was they'd actually just had a baby. So they were actually, their whole life changed. They wanted to just wait for that to actually settle down. And then they started that process. They wanted to get everything in place. But throughout that journey, I did not know that they'd had the baby. I knew that she was pregnant.

I'd sent messages, but I didn't get any responses. But I kept on those communications for 18 months until they finally came to me and said, Stuart, now we're ready. And the great thing with it is when I showed them, and I only showed them one property, because I had built up a relationship with them, it was one property that I showed them, one viewing, and I took the offer straight away. And that's the journey that you can go with on actual follow-ups with your particular clients. Now, Gillette, throughout your journey, you've had clients come through to you. And that's come from a lead. That lead has been a lead that has been really strong.

And you've actually seen that you need to follow up and it goes through to a particular sale. But sometimes leads that come in are just generic questions, generic inquiries. How do you decipher the difference between a hot lead that you should follow up with and a lead that's not actually a lead? that's just somebody that was giving an inquiry on behalf of somebody else that can be pushed to one side so that you can be more focused on your business. How do you define the difference between a hot lead and an ice cold lead?

For me, you know, it really is about asking the correct questions. I am quite specific with, because, you know, in with us, I'm wanting to sound arrogant or straightforward, but I tell times up and you know what, I need to ask all these questions because I need to know best how to help you. So it's not just also whether it is a buyer to qualify them, whether the affordability is there. You can sense the urgency, all of those things. So for me, the questioning part of the conversation is very important because then you can build your relationship if your client because you know also exactly, you know, by asking the questions, okay, is this property you inquired about actually the right property for you. it's actually not. So what is it that you're looking for? So for me, when I get a lead or, you know,

I treat them all as important. Straight away, I'm very much, I need to get on it now. I need to phone them now. I need to talk to them now. So I'm, and I've had quite a few clients say, oh, wow, you actually answered the phone call or you're actually coming back to me. Thank you. And I'm like, wow, do other agents not do that? So that is important. But I think for me, it is just, you know, the questions that you ask, thereby you can qualify them. Okay, so they're in the market, they're sussing out, they, whether they want to buy, um, if it's a seller lead that somebody would pass, you know, I've also had those where a friend would know, say, oh no, my friend is going to sell a property and then you're finding like, I'm not quite ready or this or that,

but then you start building that relation, but it's the questions that you ask. You have to find the motivated, you have to ask the correct questions, and whether it's to qualify them for affordability for the property or the urgency and whether the property is the right one for them because i mean we had a lady the other day she inquired it was the seven million rent listing she went and discussed if her no i want to spend four million i was like that's not going to work but you have to ask the questions and by doing that and then now she's here now she is a lead she needs to find a property and i'm working with it you find her the right property but it's all about the questions That's how you qualify your leads.

You have to ask the right questions. Absolutely. And I absolutely love that. Asking the right questions. Because by asking those questions, you are getting to set that expectation. And just like Colette's experienced, asking the right question, she could have taken somebody through to a 7 million-round listing. They would have loved the property. Their heart probably would be really bouncing out of their chest until you give them the price.

and then that heart turns into a heart attack because they can't afford it. And that really crushes a person. So asking those questions is extremely, extremely important. So as we've discussed today, you know, there's only three things that you really need to do in real estate. Generate leads, follow up, and then just close them. It's as simple as that. But the area that everybody seems to just almost disregard is that little section in the middle, which is the follow-up.

Colette, I want to thank you so much for coming on to this particular session. Any final thought or comments from yourself? I just wrote on something here that I thought that I would just share with everybody. You know, the consistency of your actions directly correlates with the consistency of your income. So if you're going to be consistent in every single point, in every single aspect, it's that doing the listing or getting the listing, then the leads is where, because if that lead comes in, and you're not going to service that lead,

you're not going to follow up on that lead, that lead may not buy the property that they inquired about or they're not ready to sell now, but you've got to look after that relationship and you've got to find your way of communicating with that person. And ultimately, like Stuart says, I mean, it could take 18 months. You can take, but it is,

staying in touch and whether it is quarterly for me it's also there's certain people that I now know you know they wanted I'll check to them on a quarterly basis oh and this was a point I want to actually wrote down to say um you can also do a database cleaner um I've got I mean in my phone because of my previous business as well I've got probably 4,000 telephone numbers in my phone now that is a database of note but some of those people I've just got them listed as Johnny plumber. I don't know where's Johnny a plumber. It's also an idea to follow up with those people in your database. Clean it up. Send a message. Greater WhatsApp and divide your your context from, you know, into maybe alphabetical and break it up. This month you do this, this lot of people and send a little

WhatsApp. Hey, I'm in real estate now and, you know, just reaching out. Is this still your correct number? sending your email address, I'd love to stay in touch. By doing that, you could also get new leads from doing that. So do your database cleanup, and that's also, you know, creating more leads for yourself. So I think from my side, it's just really, I think for me, the biggest thing is those leads in the middle before you get to the closing of the deal is very important. Because out of that, you can get potential business because that shows your level of service as well. and what people can expect from you because somebody by phoning you

to inquire about one of your listings, they may have a property that they still need to sell and the agent they're working with is not doing what they need to do. So you can also jump in there and you can also get that listing. So it's about how you treat those people and how you can add value and show your value proposition to those people. So I think, yeah, that's pretty much for me.

Fantastic. It's always a pleasure having you on these particular sessions. A lot of insightful information that you actually share with us, you know, remaining authentic and also making sure that you follow up. It is so, so important for each and every one of you to do that. As the statistics has shown, 60% of the agents do not follow up. And they're losing, well, potentially 80% of your revenue is going to come from leads that you actually follow up. with. So if you're not following up, if you're one of those agents, you're going to fall into that category to find this industry extremely difficult because ultimately what you're trying to do is almost the impossible. You're trying to go from a lead to a close without following

up. Just add that little section in the beginning. If you've never done it before, it's the easiest part. It's just continuing a conversation with that particular lead until they become a client. And that's all this journey is all about. Building Relating, relationships, follow up, follow up, follow up. So for you to master the actual follow up process, well, it's actually very straightforward and simple. So this is a session, elite masterminds, where I bring on high performing agents that are really at the top end of their game. They understand the intrinsic requirements to go through this particular journey as a real estate agents. So again, Collette, thank you so much for coming on to this particular session. And I look

forward to seeing all of you in our future elite masterminds sessions.