What happens in the first 60 seconds after a lead arrives?

The biggest leak in most investors' funnels is speed to lead, where slow response times turn hot prospects into ghosts. Ed Mathews shares the exact blueprint for the AI assistant system his team built to call leads in under 60 seconds, ask the right qualifying questions, and automatically book appointments.

• 392% better chance of setting appointments when reaching leads in under one minute
• Using local phone numbers per campaign dramatically improves answer rates
• AI assistant "Maggie" follows a tight question script covering property basics, condition, motivation, and price
• Automated follow-up system ensures no lead falls through the cracks with voicemails and texts
• Six key metrics to track: contact time, connection rate, appointment set/show rate, offer rate, lead source ROI, and close rate
• Implementation checklist: local phone setup, script creation, follow-up assets, CRM connection, hours/rules definition

Text "speed" to get the complete playbook and call script from today's episode.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Speed to Lead Problem Introduction
• 1:26 AI Assistant Solution Overview
• 3:05 Lead Response Process Breakdown
• 4:30 Call Script Template to Copy
• 6:27 Metrics That Matter
• 6:59 Implementation Checklist and Closing

Transcript

Ed Mathews: 0:00

So you're working hard to create all your marketing campaigns, you're paying for it, your phone finally rings and then ugh voicemail. That delay can take a $30,000 deal and turn it into a ghost. Today I'm giving you a peek at the AI Assistant we're building to solve that problem. Not theory, a practical playbook, feel free to copy. Ever sat in your car scrolling through Zillow and thought, man, if I just knew where to start, I could flip one of these. Feel free to copy. I'll give you real-world flipping strategies that actually work. No fluff, no theories, no gatekeeping, just real how-to information for you to apply today. Welcome to Demo to Dollars. I'm Ed Mathews and this show is your no BS flipping playbook, one tip at a time. Here's some quick context. I'm done losing good deals to slow response. So we've been building an AI assistant inside our own new software company, elevista, to attack the biggest leak in most investors' funnels speed to lead. Now, this isn't a pitch, I'm just giving you the blueprint you can implement whichever tools you like.

Ed Mathews: 1:20

Marketing gets the phone to ring. Conversion still on you. If you don't engage fast, the lead goes ice cold. They'll call a competitor or their motivation just fades. The teams that win have a tight plan for immediate outreach, clear talk tracks and a simple path to booking an appointment. A lead engine is great, but you still need to jump right back into investor mode as soon as a real seller appears. Then you need to build rapport and get the deal under contract. Cold calling and texting still work really well for off-market deals and, when used right, they create real conversations super fast. And when I say real time, I mean we call a lead in less than one minute during business hours with a local caller ID. Here's why that's important. When you reach a new lead in under a minute, you have a 392% better chance of setting that appointment or eventually earning that business. We use local numbers per campaign for better answer rates and clean tracking, and we can route to a voicemail or a human being when needed. Every conversation is transcribed and we can route to voicemail or a human being if needed. Every conversation is transcribed and we can record calls to help with quality control if we choose to.

Ed Mathews: 2:37

Now Maggie that's our AI assistant's name only asks the questions that matter to understand the seller's situation, help us figure out a way to help that person and then set an appointment. So what questions does she ask? Think property basics, condition, occupancy timeline, motivation and ballpark asking price. That information gets pushed into our customer relationship management tool automatically and everyone gets an invitation to the appointment. If one is set, text, follow-ups are automatic, so nothing slips through the cracks. Most SMS tools that push directly into your CRM make this super easy. So here's the exact flow we've built out.

Ed Mathews: 3:16

The trigger sources could be a website form filled out, an SMS reply, a call into our office or a manual ad lead from my team. Before a call is made, maggie checks business hours. If it's inside those hours, the person gets a call. Outside those hours, the person gets a text and a dropped voicemail. When it's appropriate to call, maggie places an outbound call to the seller and uses a tight talk track to qualify the situation. If the person doesn't pick up, maggie leaves a short voicemail and sends a text. If they do pick up, maggie scores every conversation with a lead score. If it turns out they're a fit, maggie offers calendar options and books an on-site meeting during that call. Every call note text and outcome lands in our CRM. That's the only way to manage at scale. If you're not at the CRM stage, that's fine. Just use a Google Sheet. But don't stay there long. Having centralized data protects your follow-ups and lets you coach your team with real data, and there are plenty of low-cost, no-cost CRM solutions out there. Hubspot is excellent and I believe it's still free. You can either add functionality at a cost later on or move on to a different platform when you have a budget.

Ed Mathews: 4:27

Okay, so here's the first minute of a typical call with Maggie. Feel free to steal this. So, maggie, hi, is this? Joe Smith? I'm calling about 123 Main Street. I'm following up on the form you just submitted on our website. We buy houses in your area and understand you might be open to selling. Do you have a couple of minutes? If no, maggie asks to set up a phone meeting for that day or as soon as convenient for the property owner. If yes, here are the questions she asks. Can you tell me a little bit about the property? Is the property vacant or occupied? How many beds and baths? Any big repairs you're aware of, like a roof, windows, foundation? When was the last time the kitchen or bathrooms were remodeled? Out of curiosity, what got you thinking about selling and how soon would you feel comfortable moving forward if the numbers made sense? Do you have a price in mind if we could make an all-cash offer and close quickly Once that conversation wraps up.

Ed Mathews: 5:17

We score every lead using our proprietary AI-driven lead scoring system. If they're a fit, maggie says great, let's set up a quick 15-minute in-person appointment. Is tomorrow at 3 or Thursday at 10 better. This is based on my real-time schedule availability and it also mirrors what a strong acquisitions rep already does, just without the gaps in response time. And yes, maggie will log everything and send a summary to our CRM.

Ed Mathews: 5:41

Missed calls still get a follow-up. Maggie drops a short voicemail. Hey, it's Maggie with Clark Street Homes, just following up on the form you filled out on our website a few minutes ago. We're buying houses in your area and if selling's on your mind, call me back at this number With voicemails. You want to keep it simple and then try again three minutes later. It's amazing how many times people pick up on that second call. You can also run ringless voicemail touch points for first-time contacts, second touches and warming up older leads.

Ed Mathews: 6:07

Personally, I like sly broadcast. Be sure to use short, direct scripts and, as far as follow-ups go, if Maggie's able to set an appointment that leads into one kind of nurture campaign, if she isn't able to connect. That leads into a different nurture campaign. And remember, track your metrics. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. Here's what we track. First, contact during calling hours under one minute. Connection rate by marketing channel and lead type. So, like inbound calls, outbound cold calls, form whatever Appointment, set rate and show rate. Show rate is when the homeowner is home waiting for us when we arrive for our appointment. Offer rate and contract rate for qualified calls. Lead source, roi, so you keep funding what works and you stop doing what doesn't. And then finally, close rate by lead source.

Ed Mathews: 6:57

Here's a quick plan to copy this week. First, get your number Set up, a local phone number with clean routing and recording for Q&A. You can also use your cell with clean routing and recording for Q&A. You can also use your cell. Write your script, load a tight question tree that covers property basics, condition, motivation, timing and price. Third, create your follow-up assets Short voicemail scripts and SMS replies ready to go.

Ed Mathews: 7:20

Next, set up your CRM. Connect your phone and texting to your CRM so every touch is logged, tagged CRM. Connect your phone and texting to your CRM so every touch is logged, tagged and assigned. Next, define your hours and rules. Define calling hours and escalation rules so the system knows when to call text or book appointments and then create your scoreboard. Put those six metrics on a whiteboard or a dashboard and review them weekly. So that's the speed to lead playbook we've created with Elevista, connect and Clark Street Homes. You can stand a lot of this up with the tools you already use, primarily your cell phone. You can also hire a virtual assistant to do these follow-ups and cold calling. Lastly, there are a lot of services out there that will provide you with this technical capability, including Elevista.

Ed Mathews: 8:01

Keep it simple the job is to talk to motivated sellers, ask the right questions and book an appointment. The job is to talk to motivated sellers, ask the right questions and book an appointment. If you want my checklist and the call script from today, shoot me a text with the word speed and I'll send you this playbook. Link is in the show notes. Thanks again for listening and making us a part of your day. See you next time on Demo to Dollars. Thanks for listening to Demo to Dollars. If today's episode helped you move one step closer to your first or next deal, do me a favor follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss a show. I'm grateful to be part of your journey. Now get out there and get cracking Bye for now.