In 2008, as an upstate New York real estate agent working to build a serious internet presence for my business, I remember my number one goal: generate as many leads as possible with my website.

The flaw in my strategy was putting too much emphasis on the number of leads coming from my website and not putting enough focus on how to qualify the leads I already had.

I recently came across a 2009 study conducted by InsideSales.com and Professor Oldryod of MIT on lead follow up and three results stood out most:

Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to contact a lead

Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to make contact with a lead. This isn’t too surprising since many homebuyers are planning their weekend by mid-week. Of the two days, Thursday is the best day to call a lead and qualify them. But it’s not just day of the week that matters… What time you call also has a major impact:

8:00 – 9:00 am and 4:00 – 5:00 pm are the best times to call to qualify a lead

According to the study, you have a 109{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} better chance of qualifying a new lead between 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm than you do between 11:00 am – 12:00 pm. This is useful knowledge for planning out your day of appointments and following up with prospects.

Beyond just calling on the right day and at the right time, what affects your chance of qualifying a lead more than anything else is how quickly you follow up with them after they inquire on your website.

Leads called 5 minutes after inquiring are 21x more likely to be qualified than a lead you call in 30 minutes

This is huge! It’s not always possible, as an agent in the field, to follow up with someone five minutes after they inquire but following up within 5-10 minutes should be your goal.

As the 2011 real estate season kicks into gear, keep the above numbers in mind when you’re checking your monthly results against your goals. The difference between another average year and top producer status could be five minutes.