Positive Ways to Adjust Your Mindset, Call List, Environment and More

To be a powerhouse prospector, you must first answer this question: Why? Why do I want to do this? What is the outcome I am looking for?  My reason for doing this is ________________! If you don’t have an underlying strong desire or passion for getting on the phone each day, you either won’t do it or you won’t do it with resolve and get results. Once you determine that you really want this and are willing to do what it takes to make this work, you must address the following five things:

1. Mindset

What type of mindset do you have? What is your opinion of calling for business? Whatever it is, this determines your success more than any other tip I can give you. The right attitude when dialing is critical. Do you believe that the prospect will be rude or that maybe you are interrupting them? If you tell yourself that story, that is the result you will get. Are you completely unattached to the outcome each time you don’t set an appointment or the prospect hangs up on you? Remember, if you are making it about you, then you are bringing way too much ego to the call. It is always about the client or customer – the more you make it about them, the more you win. Consider that dialing that phone is an opportunity to help someone realize their dream of selling or buying. Your job is to consult with them, to provide them good, solid, honest advice and to ask questions that can help lead them to their desired outcome.

2. Who Ya Gonna Call?

Do you get to the office each day and ask yourself that question? If you do, you are already behind the powerhouse agents who already know who they are calling each day. They leave a list of past clients and centers of influence on their desk before they leave the office the day before so that they have a group of calls to make as soon as they get there. They then pull up the new expireds from the day before and any for sale by owners (FSBOs) they have. Once they complete those calls, they can move to just listed just solds or calling businesses and talking real estate. Start with people you know–friends and family, past clients and centers of influence. Those calls are easier to make and will build your confidence for the more difficult calls. Once you have called four or five friends and family, move to calling expireds, FSBOs and recent listings and sales. (For help in getting these names and numbers, check out www.redx.com.) A great rule of thumb for calling past clients and centers of influence is to take your total database and divide it by 60. (That’s the number of work days in a quarter.) Our goal is to contact this group of people once a quarter.  I have found that if you do this, 10% of them will do business with you or refer someone to you every year. If you really want to kick up your return on the time you spend dialing the phone, check out www.mojosells.com.  This is a great service that dials your prospects’ numbers for you at lightning speed, three numbers at a time, and connects you with the first person who answers. Awesome!

3. Whatcha Gonna Say?

Do you have a script you can use? You will need one for each category of calls you make. Go to www.yourcoach.com and check out some of the great free scripts we have. Here is the process for handling questions and objections: 1.  Repeat their answer. 2.  Acknowledge them – Great! Interesting! Wonderful!

• Our job is not to tell them they are right when they may not be.
• Our job is to not make them wrong.

3.  Ask them another question. Prospects have objections, and they have conditions. Do you know the difference? Objection – A complaint, contradiction, counter argument or challenge.  An objection is something you can respond to and possibly change the outcome. Condition – A situation, circumstance or state of affairs that we cannot change or counter. What are some conditions?

• My husband’s transfer did not go through.
• I lost my job.
• I cannot move until my kids get out of school.

How do we handle these? If it is a condition we cannot do anything about it.  We cannot take a non-motivated seller and make them motivated. Objections on the other hand can be dealt with if we have the proper scripts and dialogues.

Environment

What does your environment look like? Are you making your calls from your kitchen table? Or when you walk into your office do you find your mind immediately going to everything else but making your calls? They’re called distractions, and we must eliminate all distractions if we want our prospecting to be profitable. Go to a quiet place where you don’t have anything on the wall but the scripts you are using and a mirror. The mirror helps remind you to smile while speaking. Create the workspace so that you can stand up while making your calls. If you stand up, your energy is stronger, and that energy comes through the phone. Let’s face it: the prospect doesn’t want to hear a slug on the other end of the phone. They want to hear someone who is passionate about what they are doing. Okay, your environment is perfect, and you are standing up looking at those scripts you want to use. Then you realize that you can read those scripts but have no idea how to really make them work while on that phone. Are you accepting a no when a yes may still be available? If you are, stop asking yes-and-no questions. That’s where the scripts will help you get a yes.  If you spend time practicing what you are going to say, you will feel more confident and comfortable using the scripts. Get a different practice partner for each day of the week you plan to prospect. To get a yes more often, consider how you sound when you are speaking.  Are you high pitched and shaky when you speak or do you go down at the end of your sentences? When you drop your voice down at the end of each sentence, it makes you sound more confident. Repeat the answer you get so the prospect knows you heard them and then affirm their answer. By affirming them, you are not saying they are right; you are simply giving them the right to have an opinion. Some words that affirm the prospect’s response are: Great! Wonderful! Interesting! Terrific! Ouch! Good for you!

Putting It All Together

Here are a few miscellaneous thoughts to help you with prospecting:

• Never, never argue with them. It puts them on the defensive.
• When should you call prospects? Three times a day:
  • First thing in the morning
  • During lunch
  • Between 4:30pm and 6:30pm
• If you don’t reach them during the week, set aside one hour on Saturday to try again. If you cannot reach them, drop by their house.
• How many times should you let the phone ring? Never let it ring more than three times. If it takes longer than that for the prospect to answer, they will probably be irritated.
• How long should you hang on to the expireds if you haven’t reached them? If you have tried to reach them in the morning, the evening and on Saturday with no luck, and have dropped by, then move on to the next one.
• Follow a posted daily schedule – from the time you reach the office until noon each day should only be for practicing your scripts, making your calls and doing hot lead follow up.
• Before you leave the office, clear your desk and lay out the list of people you will be calling tomorrow. Remember, you have never seen them before and, unless you set an appointment, will never see them again, so don’t take it personally. They don’t.
• Don’t get too involved in their objections. Acknowledge them and tell them you will cover that at the appointment.

Remember, there are two groups of people out there: those you know and those you don’t.  Which group is bigger?  Right, those you don’t know. In order to build a successful real estate practice, you need to regularly call those you know and daily call some that you don’t know. Strategy matters and passion rules!