The Reluctant Prospector

The More People Who Know You, Like You and Trust You, the More Real Estate You Will Sell

Ever heard this sweet little ditty? Sure you have, or some version of it. Perhaps you've heard the version that goes "People buy from those they know, like and trust;" Bob Burg made this statement in Endless Referrals, and my good friend Dennis Giannetti refers to it as the "KLT" Principle.  

Neato Frito. We're probably all in agreement that the KLT Principle is true.

But let's say it again - out loud:

"The more people who know me and like me and trust me, the more real estate I will sell."

Again. "The more people who know me and like me and trust me, the more real estate I will sell."

One more time... "The more people who know me and like me and trust me, the more real estate I will sell."

Okay, let that settle for a minute and I'll get back to it. But allow me to digress first.

The other day I was talking with an agent whose office is going through a corporate-sponsored prospecting boot camp, complete with group cold-calling sessions and referral-begging contests.  She has chosen not to participate because these activities fall way outside her comfort zone; however, she admitted that the agents who are participating are experiencing some success; in fact, much more success than she has experienced in the last few months. Her associates have more listings than she does and appear to be working with more buyers than she is, so, while she's still not willing to participate in all the "fun," she's a little confused and frustrated.

We talked about it for awhile and both of us had the same aha! moment at precisely the same time. The agents who are participating in the boot camp, while using methods neither of us subscribe to, ARE getting their backsides out in the world, talking to people and keeping their activity levels high. Now, whether or not I agree with the tactics they're using (and from what I understand of them, I don't) isn't the point; the point is that her colleagues are DOING something to meet more people, while my agent friend, well, isn't, as she freely admits.

Okay, so back to the KLT Principle.

What are you doing to ensure that "more" people KNOW you? Anything? Or are you (like most of us!) resting on your existing database and quietly wondering why your business seems to stall so often?

Rest assured you DON'T have to do stuff you don't wanna do to meet people; you really don't! People are everywhere, not just sitting on the other end of a phone line waiting for your cold-call or even your warm-call; they aren't just visiting open houses on Sunday or responding to Craigslist ads or signing up for your IDX; they aren't just attending networking events or Chamber of Commerce gatherings. They're everywhere. Even places you'd enjoy being, too.

What can you do, within your comfort zone, to ensure that more of the world's people KNOW you? Without doing things you don't wanna do?

Ideas? Please share!

Next time, we'll chat about how many people LIKE you.

Funny - yesterday I posted a blog about getting contact information from open house visitors that ended with a "stay tuned for the next episode" teaser... and got slammed with "I'm doing an open house this weekend, please tell me what to do" notes.

Okay, okay, okay. I hope I didn't overpromise in the blog - I don't have any secret phrase or magic sign-in sheet that will ensure names, numbers and email addresses* from your visitors, but I'll give it a shot.

The question I left you with was "How can you INSPIRE open house visitors to WANT to give you their contact information?" Not how to manipulate it out of them, but rather get them to offer it to you because they want you to have it?

The answer is awfully simple.

You DO (or should) have something a bona-fide buyer wanna-be wants. Not market reports or newsletters or lovely gift baskets, but KNOWLEDGE.

You know more about the real estate market and the houses in it than they do. You know the current inventory. You know which houses are priced right and which ones, well, aren't. You know that homes built by THIS builder cost more than ones by THAT builder, and why (and whether they're worth the extra). If the neighborhood of your open house is out of the buyer wanna-be's price range, you know of alternative neighborhoods that might work for him. If your open house is On The Lake (and priced accordingly), you know how much of a break a buyer wanna-be can get to be Not On The Lake, But Close. If a buyer wanna-be really wants a big yard, you know where he can find that while staying close enough to town to suit him.

When I say that you know all these things, I don't mean that you have a handy-dandy printout next to your personal brochure and sign-in sheet describing other houses for sale. Nor do I mean that you've memorized your MLS and can spout off DOM's and PSF's and List-to-Sold Ratios with abandon.

I mean that you have a conversational familiarity with your local real estate market. And you're more than willing to share your knowledge and expertise with anyone who is interested.

Which leads me to the next point. Not everyone who comes to an open house is a good prospect for you. In fact, most probably aren't, for reasons you're already aware of. Just let ‘em go. Don't be rude, of course, but don't fret about getting their digits or demonstrating your expertise to them. Just let them wander thru, politely and pleasantly answer their questions, and relax. You may leave your open house with only one or two folks to follow-up with and that's okay. It's perfectly fine to cherry-pick your future clients, selecting only those with whom you have a natural rapport, who seem to be open to hearing from you again.

Here's the thing. For me (and many of y'all), trying to create rapport with every warm body who walks in the door is exhausting. And discouraging. I'm just not all that charming, and frankly, not everyone wants to be chatted with even if I were. In fact, most probably don't. By the end of the open house, if I've tried to build rapport with everyone who came in, I'm an emotional mess, especially since many of them have probably rejected my advances (I don't handle rejection well). But if I save my emotional energy for those with whom I "click," I CAN be awfully darn charming!

So, what's the punch line?

1.       Be conversationally familiar with the neighborhood, amenities and alternatives to the neighborhood of the house you're holding open and be willing to freely share your knowledge with visitors, and

2.       Save your emotional energy for the visitors with whom you feel a natural rapport. Be pleasant and polite to everyone else, but don't stress yourself out trying to get contact information from them.

If you've done a good job preparing for your open house and you choose your targets wisely, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that many visitors will initiate further contact with you. Either they'll offer up their contact information voluntarily or they'll ask for yours.

If this isn't happening, it's not because you aren't aggressive enough, clever enough or sly enough to coerce those names and numbers from your visitors. So if you want to beat yourself up over the "effectiveness" of your open houses, don't go there. Focus instead on how you can better demonstrate to your visitors that you are the guy or gal they're looking for.

*None of this should be construed to contradict my opinion that open houses are held primarily for the SELLER's benefit, not the agent's. The owner of the home you're holding open expects you to be first and foremost trying to sell his home, not hungrily prospecting for leads for yourself. To read a practical implication of this philosophy, refer to Susan Haughton's comment on the previous blog

A few months ago, I had a conversation with a newer agent about maximizing the effectiveness of her open houses. By "effectiveness," of course, she meant gathering as many names, numbers and email addresses as she could during her three-hour stints on Sunday afternoons.

She was frustrated (mostly with herself) at her inability to smoothly gather those names, numbers and email addresses from her visitors. Either they seemed hesitant to provide them OR she just wasn't comfortable asking, and usually came away from her open houses empty-handed.

"Jennifer - do you have any suggestions for me?"

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. 

But first, let's have a paradigm shift, shall we? Too often, we real estate agents focus on what WE need and want, and hope to persuade our audience to play along. For example, WE want that name, number and email address so WE can send a nice little thank-you-for-visiting note and add a warm body to our mailing list, right?  

So we come up with all sorts of sly strategies to get that contact information - such as - "the seller asks that guests sign in for security purposes," or "if you register, you'll be entered to win a lovely gift basket," or simply "please sign my register so I can show the seller how many visitors we had."

Nothing really wrong with these approaches except that there's nothing in it for the visitor. At least, nothing worth relinquishing their private contact information to a hungry Realtor, suspecting they'll be hounded after the fact whether they want to be or not.

So, what could you do instead - here's the kicker - to INSPIRE the visitor to want you to have his or her contact information? Not what you can do to TRICK it out of him, but to actually inspire him to want to give it to you?

And no, the answer isn't to bribe him with free reports, contests, drawings or newsletters...

Any ideas? I'll share mine tomorrow...

Had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine the other day. I was telling him about my recent Go-Giver Chronicles and interactions with Bob Burg (co-author of The Go-Giver). My friend mentioned that his first real estate agent helped him find a rental house when he moved to the area, free of charge. Just helped him. No compensation, no contracts, no obligation. Just helpful help.

So, my friend continued, when it came time for him to purchase a home in the area, he called up the agent and hired him to be his buyer agent. His point was that because the agent cheerfully gave of his time in the beginning, he ended up with my friend's business when he had business to give.

I was curious who the agent was; if I knew him or had heard of him, so I asked for the guy's name.

My friend pondered the question. Couldn't come up with a name. John, maybe? He said he'd recognize it if he saw it or heard it, but, darnit, just couldn't remember it right now.

<wheels spin in JA's head>

Obviously, my friend hadn't heard from that agent lately. I asked if he'd ever heard from the agent after the sale and he didn't think he had. That's not surprising... "they" say that the vast majority of agents do a lousy job of staying in touch after a closing and I'm certain that's true.

So, I continued questioning interrogating my friend. I asked if he had heard from the agent, say, two or three times a year for the last five years, would he have been able to recall his name?

He pondered again and said, yes, he would be able to recall the agent's name if he'd heard from him two or three times a year since the sale. But, he said: "Even once a year would have done it." 

So, I asked "What if he'd been in touch every month?" My friend groaned... "That would have annoyed me to the point of not wanting to remember him!"

We moved onto a different real estate-related topic that you'll see rambled about here in a few days, but this conversation validated one of my long-held suspicions about our industry... or rather... one of the industries who SELLS to our industry.

I'll continue this soon... but any thoughts on where I'm going with this?

If you hang out here much, you know how I feel about the traditional numbers game of prospecting, specifically cold-calling.

Blech.

A business model based on being rejected far more often than you're welcomed and calling it a game?

Blech.

I don't think anyone who cold-calls imagines that his or her calls are welcomed by the majority of the voices on the other end of those telephone lines. When you commit to a cold-calling business-building strategy, you have to acknowledge that you will annoy a lot of people. But that's okay, they say, because the end justifies the means. It's okay to annoy a lot of people as long as you end up with a little business for yourself when the day is done.

So, I'm thinking.

What if, instead of striving to annoy cold-call 100 people a day, you strive to impress one person a day?

At the end of the year, the cold-caller will have annoyed more than 30,000 people... but you will have impressed more than 300.

Who do you think is a better source of future business for you? Thousands of annoyed people? Or hundreds of impressed people?

RELATED BLOGS
Does the End Justify the Means?
Impressing versus Touching
Real Estate is Not a Numbers Game

Yesterday I promised to follow up on my blog "You Gotta Ask for What You Want, Right? Eh, not always."

I ended the blog with the assignment to read thru some of the more popular Referral-Begging scripts, and then say them out loud. To refresh your memory, here they are:

• "Do you know anyone who needs to buy or sell real estate?"
• "Do you know anyone moving to my area who could use my services?"
• "I build my business by referral; will you please keep me in mind if you hear of anyone buying or selling?"
• "I'm never too busy for your referrals."
• "I'm always looking for referrals, so would you mind taking a few of my business cards?"

When you say these words out loud, what message are you sending to your audience?

Several commenters nailed it. When you beg for business you sound desperate, hungry and unsuccessful. Definitely not emotions you want to inspire in your audience. People don't hire and refer out of pity; they hire and refer out of respect.

But it goes deeper than that.

Did you notice how all these scripts are all about YOU (as in, the person saying the scripts)? All about what YOU need and want?

There's nothing in these scripts that leads your audience to believe you have anything of value for them; you aren't assuring them of your competence, of your expertise, of your work ethic. You aren't telling them with your words or tone or even your body language that you are capable of Taking Great Care of Them and Their Referrals. No, you're simply telling them with your words, your tone and your body language that you Need Their Business and Referrals.

So, how could you let the people you know and the people you meet know that you'll "take great care of their business" as opposed to you just "need their business?"

And, no, the answer probably isn't telling them "I'll take great care of your business, I promise!"

Thoughts?

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Following up on yesterday's blog about making sure your prospecting goals are compatible with your business model (in a nut, don't set goals that will force you to sacrifice your quality of service, if providing quality service is important to you)...

The agent who inspired yesterday's blog is following a popular prospecting program that's making the rounds these days. It encourages agents to spend so many hours every day doing X (basically, some form of cold or warm prospecting), with the goal of reaching Y number of prospects every day, with the ultimate goal of securing as many new clients as possible by the end of the program.

Y'know, your basic Numbers Game strategy. Fair enough.

He's all ramped up about it because he says that another agent who is participating in the program got 41 new listings in 30 days. My agent friend is very impressed.

Initially, so was I. But then my cynical side kicked in and I said "hmmmmmmm."

Let's do some math.

41 new listings in 30 days. Assuming these aren't batch listings (10 building lots from a developer; 15 spec homes from a builder, etc.), I'm wondering how this is possible. Not saying that the agent in question isn't capable of securing 41 listings with her Super Sales Pitch, but in a month?

That means that she did at least 41 listing presentations (probably more as it's unlikely she has a 100% success rate, but let's be generous and say she does). That's 41 CMA's, 41 sets of contracts and disclosures, 41 copies to seller and broker, 41 keys-in-the-lockbox, 41 MLS entries, 41 signs-in-the-yards, 41 whatever-she-does-to-market-her-listings, etc. etc. etc. And none of this includes explaining the process of being on the market to those 41 new sellers, answering the inevitable questions that arise as showings for 41 sellers begin (or don't begin as the case may be), keeping up on the market in all 41 seller's neighborhoods, pursuing and delivering feedback, and managing offers that come in.

Have we mentioned the time that this agent was dedicating to her daily prospecting for these 41 listings, or the time she was devoting to her existing clients or to her family? And let's not forget eating and sleeping. All the while, preparing for, going on and processing these 41+ listing appointments.

I call BS. I don't think it's logistically possible to get 41 new, individual listings in 30 days. Could you list a developer, builder or bank and find yourself with 41 listings? Sure. But 41 individual sellers? I don't buy it.

What's my point? I dunno. Maybe just to demonstrate how smart I think I am to see through the nonsense and call it what it is. Or maybe I just want to assure agents that this sort of production isn't realistic and not be discouraged if they don't experience it themselves.

Probably a little of both.

I'm doing a little one-on-one consulting with a relatively new agent (who's gonna ROCK!) in Denver. We have similar personalities when it comes to our feelings about prospecting and business-building, so our conversations about prospecting always lead to some interesting A-HA moments for both of us.

Anyway, yesterday, my agent friend told me about a conversation he had with a like-minded career coach - one who specializes in matching personality types with business-building strategies. According to this coach (and my friend's score on the MBTI), my friend is capable of cold-calling and door-knocking for business, and he might even be rather good at it, as long as he feels he has something of value to offer.

HOWEVER, the coach cautioned him that even though he might be moderately successful in his cold-prospecting efforts, his personality type is simply not one that tolerates rejection well over the long term. That if he spends too much of his time and energy on prospecting activities that involve a steady dose of rejection, he'll eventually become depressed and discouraged. And probably won't realize why he's so lethargic and unenthusiastic about his career... and his life.

That makes perfect sense to me! I've been preaching for a long time now that there's no reason to spend your days doing something that you aren't comfortable with when there are perfectly acceptable alternatives. And if there AREN'T perfectly acceptable alternatives, maybe you're in the wrong business!

The good news is, of course, there are plenty of real estate prospecting techniques that don't involve much rejection. Oh, sure, rejection is a part of life, but that doesn't mean you have to put yourself in positions of pursuing it in the name of generating business if you don't want to. There's no need to "suck it up" or "just do it" if the sucking-up or just-doing makes you miserable.

Life's way too short for that. Figure out what you enjoy doing that brings in business. Do that. It really is that simple.

RELATED BLOGS: 
Be Yourself... Have More Fun... Sell More Real Estate! 
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The other day, a nice man from REALTOR Magazine called me up to chat about the Do Not Call list - specifically, what recommendations I, Jennifer Allan, queen of cold-calling (*snort*) might have for agents stymied in their prospecting efforts by that pesky DNC.

We had a great conversation, although it remains to be seen if any of my brilliance will make it into the final article since I really have no experience with the DNC except for being first in line to sign up.

But one of the last questions he asked made me think... and I came up with an answer off the cuff that I'm rather proud of. Thought I'd share it with you.

Question: "Jennifer, I understand that you never cold-called, but I'm sure that someone in your RE/MAX office did. If that agent were to ask you for advice on what to do instead, what would you have advised him?"

JA's Off-the-Cuff Answer: "Hmmmmmm."

No, seriously, I did come up with something...

"What I would probably tell him would be to get out from behind the desk and the telephone and take his naturally charming self out there into the world and make contacts face to face. No, not by knocking on doors or attending power networking events, but rather by striving to make a positive impression on as many people as possible as he goes about his day. By implementing a Quality over Quantity approach to attracting business. Instead of trying to make contact with 100 people a day, who will almost certainly promptly forget about him, try to really connect with two or three, who will be much more likely to remember him tomorrow... and six months from now."

I'm guessing that someone who has experienced success in cold calling has an appealing personality and a confident aura of success, which would be very attractive out in the real world, too! And, frankly, being out in the real world making real friends and real connections sounds a whole lot more fun and rewarding than dialing for dollars three hours a day!

I must confess that while I think my advice is brilliant, I've never been approached by a master cold-caller for my opinion and I don't expect to be in the near future. There are many paths to success and we're all better suited to one path or another.

So, while I don't expect the cold-calling world to suddenly shift their tactics to the JA-Way, I do hope I can inspire those who'd rather not cold-call to try the JA-Way and see if they like it!

Oh, and watch for your April edition of REALTOR Magazine to see if any of this made it in...

Most prospecting training is focused on... FOCUSING. Laser-focused prospecting. Doing "it" for three hours a day, whatever "it" is, no interruptions, no excuses. Do "it" until you reach your goal of so many contacts, so many appointments, whatever. Lather, rinse, repeat. Every day.

And eventually, you might even enjoy "it." You might start to see relationships between how much of "it" you do and how many houses you sell. The more of "it," the more of the other.

Whatever your "it" of choice is - FSBO's, expireds, cold-calling, door-knocking, farming, blogging, advertising, SOI'ing, open-housing, lunch-dating - just remember the Good Old Numbers Game and do "it" more.

Fair enough.

But it occurs to me that my business never worked that way. I, frankly, didn't have any sort of formal system for prospecting and my business came from dozens of different sources.

I got business from my best friends, my good friends, and my acquaintances. I got business from open houses, sign calls and floor time. I got business from my lawn guy, my graphics gal and my insurance agent. I got business from my broker, other agents and lenders. I got business from street fairs, coffee shops and happy hours. I got business from current clients, current prospects and past clients. I got business from my website, from blogging and even one House Values lead.

See where I'm going with this?

Just because you met your last client at the coffee shop - does that mean you should only prospect at the coffee shop from now on? Or just because you listed a FSBO last week, does that mean you should only seek out FSBO's? Of course not - I hope that's obvious.

Real estate business is everywhere; it's all around us. Good prospects cross our paths every day, from a wide variety of sources.  Sometimes they cross our paths in the course of doing business, like when we hit it off with an open house visitor or have a great conversation with a walk-in. Other times, it seems much more serendipitous, like when we meet a new-home builder at a friend's wedding or share an elevator with a man who was just transferred. And even if these particular encounters don't result in immediate business, you never know who THEY know who might need someone just like you.

Keeping your antenna up and a smile on your face as you go about your day really IS a tremendous prospecting strategy!

Happy New Year - Love y'all!

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