Every pre-sales manager knows the feeling. The lead list grows faster than the team can call it. Some leads get five calls, some get none, and by the end of the month nobody can say which ones went cold or why.
This is the playbook we’d hand a new pre-sales head: who owns what, what happens in the first hour, how many follow-ups to make and when to stop, and the few numbers worth looking at every week.
In short, pre-sales turns an enquiry into a site visit. It works when every enquiry gets a reply in minutes, every lead gets a set number of follow-ups, and four numbers are reviewed every week: contact rate, qualification rate, visit rate and visit-to-booking rate.
Who does what in real estate pre-sales
| Role | Owns |
|---|---|
| Pre-sales | First reply, qualification, booking the site visit, reminders |
| Sales (site team) | The visit, the cost sheet discussion, negotiation, the booking |
| Channel partners | Their own clients, registered before the visit |
| CRM owner | Lead sources, stages, duplicate checks, the weekly report |
Most of the trouble starts where these overlap. A channel partner’s client who isn’t registered before the visit, or a lead nobody owns, ends up as a dispute later. Write the owners down once and the arguments get shorter.
The first hour after an enquiry
- Reply to every enquiry within minutes, on the channel the buyer used.
- Answer the question they asked before asking yours.
- If you call, call inside the hours the rules allow, and only with a basis to call.
- Log the reply on the lead, with the time.
In India, a written or digital enquiry lets you call for 7 days. See TRAI’s 7-day enquiry window. For where the minutes go before that first reply, see speed to lead.
A follow-up cadence that stops leads going cold
Set a fixed plan and stop when it ends. An open-ended plan sounds kinder, but it means some leads get chased for weeks and others are forgotten. Here is a plan we use as a starting point.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Within minutes | Reply, send what was asked for, ask to visit |
| Same day | One call if there was no reply |
| Day 2 | WhatsApp with a reason to reply, such as visit slots this weekend |
| Day 4 to 6 | A last call and a last message inside the enquiry window |
| After that | Only with consent or a new enquiry |
Stop at once if the buyer asks you to, on any channel.
The weekly pre-sales scorecard
| KPI | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Contact rate | Leads who replied or answered ÷ all new leads |
| Qualification rate | Leads with budget, configuration and timeline known ÷ contacted leads |
| Visit rate | Visits that happened ÷ all new leads |
| Visit to booking | Bookings ÷ visits that happened |
| First reply time | Median minutes from enquiry to first reply |
Count each by the month of the enquiry, so a slow month isn’t hidden by an old lead. For the money side, see cost per site visit.
Where AI fits in pre-sales, and where people stay
| AI agent | Your team |
|---|---|
| First reply, at any hour | The site visit itself |
| Brochures, price sheets, walkthroughs | Negotiation and discounts |
| Qualifying questions | The booking form and payments |
| Booking and reminding visits | Anything the buyer wants a person for |
| Follow-ups to the plan above | Channel partner disputes |
The left column is the part that needs speed and patience at odd hours. The right column is where your people earn the booking.
Your first week with this playbook
Don’t change everything at once. On Monday, write down the owners. By Wednesday, agree the follow-up plan with the team. On Friday, pull the five numbers for the last month, by month of enquiry, and keep that sheet as your starting line.
If you’d like the left column of that table handled for you, that’s how Intend works. See Intend for real estate developers and pricing.