Too many real estate agents (sales people) still do not get Lead Generation Follow Up yet so I am going to break it down into simple terms so that everyone can understand:

1) You get a lead;
2) You call (talk) the lead right away or leave a message and email the lead;
3) You discover what bits of information you are missing from the lead and you get the information through various obvious places (Google…duh!!);
4) You place all the leads information into your Contact Management (CRM) [Prospect Maximizer] system for regular and automated follow up;
5) You at no point concern yourself with the Leads time frame for doing business for that will allow you the opportunity to falsely accuse the lead of being invalid and since you are not going to only be in real estate for 6 months you can put a lead in your pipeline that has an 18 month window and know they will eventually be your client….trust your abilities and your follow up system;
6) You follow the contact management structure you have established for the lead which includes calling, visiting, emailing, mailing, etc.;
7) You continue following up with the lead until they become a client at which point you can stop referring to them as a lead;

Any questions?

You are struggling, you are allowing situations to control your paycheck, you are trying to blame others for your troubles and you are considering getting out of sales and getting into something with a steady paycheck but limited income. If no one has “The Balls” to tell you the truth then I will….THE PROBLEM IS YOU! Now you can choose to get all upset which will make your struggles even worse or you can choose to listen and do something about it!! The solution is simple stop being trapped in the box that is handcuffing your success and start being creative with your actions and “Think Outside The Box” for success beyond imagination.

You are in sales and you control your own destiny but you struggle from time to time because you are not thinking past traditional means. Here are just a few creative ways to get your creative juices flowing:

-REFERRAL TREE: Instead of just calling your sphere of influence to touch base call them to give you 2 names of people that you can introduce yourself and proceed to do so. Those become warm calls.
-GIFT CARDS: The gift card is perfect anytime, not only after you complete a sale. Get a bunch of $5 Gift Cards to Starbucks and get them to your most stubborn prospects with a note that says “I want you to be fully awake when we finally get a chance to meet…..Does Wednesday at 4:00 or Thursday at 11:00 work best for you?”
-MAIL THEM A SHOE OR A FOOT: Easy now….do not cut your foot off!! If you can get your hands on some old Manequin feet or better yet just get some slightly used shoes at Goodwill and put one in a box and send it signature required with a note “Now that I have my foot in the door, please let me know when would be a good time for the rest of me to join it?”
-SEND A SINGING TELEGRAM: Send a singing telegram with a song that details exactly what you are selling, why you are great and when you want to meet with them.
-SEND A CARD: Not to the prospect, but to the prospects spouse or significant other asking: “Hello….would you mind having (name) call me when they get home, for some reason (he/she) is not getting my calls at their office and I am trying to schedule a meeting with them in the next week.

I know some of you are saying that wow these things are very Corny and my reputation is more important than doing things like that. I will look you straight in the eyes and tell you that if you are not going to use every creative effort imaginable to make sure that your income is always in excess of $150K++++ every year can you please step aside so that the good sales people can get through and maintain their reputation….THANK YOU.

Part of your job as a real estate professional is to educate your clients and prospects on every aspect of real estate. You have to assume they do not know anything about real estate, because actually most of them know very little. You may actually find yourself repeating the same thing over and over again…but this is how most people learn.

You cannot assume that your contacts are going to understand how a Realtor gets paid and that you do not get paid unless a home sells and that is the reason why you enter into a Buyer Agency contract before showing homes. They need to understand how imperative it is that they have a Mortgage Pre-Approval in place before you go and look at homes because it is not fair (to anyone) to show them homes they cannot afford. They need to be educated that it is not our job to show homes to someone that is not willing to work with us, in fact a Realtors job is to provide the absolute best service possible and it is tough to do that without the client being committed.

You must educate “Potential” clients as well. You must hold “State of the Market” educational seminars where you teach people the facts about the real estate market as it truly is, not what the Media over dramatizes for entertainment purposes. You must teach people how it is a buyers market and how interest rates are still incredible.

The moment you got your real estate license you became an Educator with the sole purpose of teaching (sales) the public all about real estate so that you have more leads than you know what to do with.

I just read “The Dip” from Seth Godin. If you aren’t familiar with Seth’s work, you’ve got to check out some of his books. If you don’t like (or in my case don’t have the time) to read… then go to Audible.com and get the download-able audio book. Throw it in your ipod and listen in the car. Zig Ziglar calls that “automobile university”.

Anyway… back to “The Dip”. Did you ever read something and you already knew what it stated… but you needed a slap in the face as a reminder? That’s precisely what happened to me.

A few months ago, we realized that our customer support at GetMyHomesValue.com was losing it’s “luster”. We started to wonder what was going wrong. After finishing Seth’s book , I was clearly able to identify this as GetMyHomesValue.com’s first “Dip”.

So, what did we do about it? We started planning. Rory, Steve and I put together an in depth action plan to re-configure, re-energize, and re-vitalize the department and in turn the experience that our clients have with us.

Now, once again, we’re getting incredible raves from our customers regarding our customer success team.

Agent note: With the market being different than it has been the past few years, I want to encourage real estate agents to acknowledge “The Dip”. If you have passion for the real estate business, and it fits your life style… BEAT THE DIP! I understand that while you’re “in” the dip it’s hard to see what it looks like on the other side of the hill. I also understand that climbing is hard work… but remember… there’s no elevator to success… you have to take the stairs. Don’t know how to beat your dip? That’s why we’re here. Give us a call and we’ll help you out.

If you’re a current customer of ours who had a negative experience in the past, I want to invite you to give us a call at 866-360-3440. If you ask us to, we’ll even sing for you. We don’t promise we’ll be good… but we try really hard.

I will be detailing some of the new things that have been going on over the next few days. So stay tuned!

Isn’t It Great To Finally Be back to a normal real estate market where listings are on the market for 30 - 180 days before going UA. Incredible market where you have to actually work the leads you received by placing them in an incredible follow up system because those leads are money. What a lucrative market where you do not have to discount your commission to compete with discount brokers because those discount brokers cannot survive in this market anymore. A fun market educating potential buyers on how easy it is to buy now instead of renting. An easy market where FSBOs are begging you to come list their home. And the best part is the elimination of Bottom Feeder Real Estate Agents who are getting out of the business because back somewhere in the last 1 - 5 years when they got licensed and received their “Silver Spoon” they never anticipated having to work for their paycheck….well now they do and they are GONE!!

Yes let all of us incredible, aggressive and smart working real estate agents say Goodbye to the 25-30% of agents getting out of the business because they cannot handle the skills necessary to be a successful real estate agent in all market conditions. We also want to say thank you for stepping aside and admitting your inability or unwillingness to learn and/or to be coached on being as successful as us.

Keep something in mind, if you want to learn and improve your skills we welcome the competition. We are simply tired of the whining and complaining of how hard you feel it is to be successful in todays market. So, best of luck working for someone else.

You must work every single lead that you receive from every lead generation source until they buy or die…PERIOD!! If you can adopt this concept into your everyday way of life you will be successful in every type of market conditions. I have had leads that I have contacted 1 time and had the appointment and I have had leads that I have contacted 20 times before I got the appointment…either way I got the appointment. What I mean by die….If they literally die (which has happened to me) or they have become contractually obligated to another real estate agent, they may as well be dead, because they are dead to me.

Lets look at Online Lead Generation which is an incredible way to get leads early before they have been tainted by another Realtor, Loan Officer or other influences. Because of this early stage you have an incredible opportunity to be the only one to build the relationship with that lead, you can control whether that lead looks for help from others or just you. I remember an online lead I received one time that he put his name in as Matt with no last name and a wrong phone number but the correct address. So I used the www.whitepages.com to check for the phone number and it appeared the name Matt was correct but the phone number was not listed. So I ventured to the home knocked on the door and nobody was home so I left my business card and a note card with some type of message telling them to call me. They did not return my call…so I continued visiting daily for about a week and a half (leaving something different each time) until one night I found Matt working in his garage, so I went up and introduced myself to him. He informed me that they were just looking to refinance. I said that is great, my Loan Officer Steve and I can help you with that would you like to get together here tomorrow at 4:00 or Thursday at 7:00?? He told me that they met with their bank earlier that day and were proceeding with them and were not really interested. I spoke up and said do you not feel you deserve to at least get a second opinion before you commit to your bank, after all I am pretty sure Steve and I can get you a better rate. So after some convincing and picking their brains a little more about their needs, I was able to schedule a meeting with them.

To make a long story short Steve and I went into the meeting and found out that there were a lot of things they did not like about their existing home and we showed them how they could sell and buy and get what they wanted. By the next day I had their home listed, they were under Buyer Agency with me and Steve had begun their Pre-Approval. Remember, this was a lead that the only thing accurate was the first name and the street address and many of you real estate agents call this a BOGUS lead….please send me all of your BOGUS leads.

Another example comes to mind from an online lead that she put her name as Queen Latifah but the phone number and address were correct. When I called I found out that the Queen was a King and there actually was no Queen. He began to explain that he did not put his name down so he would not be harassed by Realtors. I began to explain that he needs a Realtor in order to get the most money for his home in the shortest period of time. He hung up on me….so I did the most logical thing and called back of which I got the answering machine and I left a very detailed message. Over the course of the next month I called and visited the King at least 20 times and on that final time he asked why are you so persistent when I do nothing but blow you off, because it is my job to prove to you how aggressive I am going to be in my efforts to sell your home for the most money possible. The next day I had the listing which went UA in 45 days and he was moving to Florida so I received 25% for referring him to an agent in Florida. Again, many of you would view this lead as BOGUS. Adopt the Buy or Die attitude with every single lead in your Pipeline and even though some will Die most of them will Buy.

-Best of Success

I have this picture in my office hanging on my coark board for years of a Frog attempting to be swallowed by a Bird and as the Frog is half way in the Birds mouth the Frog has his hands wrapped tightly around the Birds neck not allowing the Bird to eat and/or swallow him. And at the top it states, Don’t Ever Give Up!

The point is obvious, it does not matter what situation you are facing or what obstacles you have to overcome…DO NOT EVER GIVE UP!! Once you adopt this mindset into your everyday life and career, no matter what happens you are a winner. For example….I was golfing yesterday and had one of those holes where I shanked my drive into trees and had to play my provisional ball which I sliced into a pond and dropped hitting my 6th shot from 127 yards and holed it out for a Bogey…the best Bogey I ever had. I could have easily given up after I knocked it in the water.

It is very easy to give up…however, success will not find those that give up.

True prospecting is probably the oldest form of Lead Generation for any type of sales position. Read the rest of this entry »

The answer is most definitely…YES! If Tiger Woods the most famous sports figure in History and Wealthiest by far has several coaches for various aspects and areas of his game and career when in fact he could probably go coachless and still be in the top 25 and make a boat load of “Coin” then who are you to think that you do not need a Coach? Who are you to think that your skill levels are beyond the need of a Coach? Tiger Woods has Coaches because he wants to be number 1 forever…not just for the next month.

If you are going to be in Real Estate, Sales or some other form of Self Employment for a long, long time you need to invest time and money into a Coach, Accountability Partner, Person To Kick You In The Ass or whatever you want to call that person. This person is intended to keep you on track and help make you more successful. The problem is that you have to do what the Coach tells you…without fail. 

SET YOUR GOALS WITH YOUR COACH: Tigers goal is simple, he wants to be number 1…always! If Tiger is told to hit a 1,000 golf balls every day with each one of his irons because it will produce these results to get him to be number 1 always and he agrees to doing it but only hits 500 golf balls a day he reduces his ability to be number one.

If you establish a goal with your Coach to make $250,000.00 this year in Gross Commissions and you and your Coach agree to a business plan to make this happen that includes so much marketing/advertising, so much prospecting with a solid follow up system and you waiver from that you reduce your ability to meet and exceed your goals.

You establish your goals a Coach helps you achieve them with greater ease and success. It is like working out or losing weight, if you had a personal trainer that you met with daily you would get the results much easier and quicker as long as you did everything you were told and agreed upon.

Having a Coach does not make you less of a person…it will make you a better person!!

I often say to people…”Check Your Ego At The Door”, meaning know how to control your Ego and when to turn your Ego on and off. If you overwhelm people with your Ego, you may not be given a chance to build a relationship with you. You must be confident, you must be thick skinned, you must assume the sale, you must be arrogant in how you build yourself up every morning and throughout ever day in order to achieve the amount of success that is acceptable to you. You must allow negativity to bounce off of you like bullets off of Superman’s chest! You must be able to instill confidence in others around you. You must allow your failures to pave your way for success. You have to not care what others think about what you are doing as long as you believe 100% in what you are doing.

Now you take this incredible Ego that you have built up and “Check it at the Door” before you go into any situation so that you exude the right amount of confidence and immortality to win the game you are playing without offending any of the players.