Why are most scripts written so that it sounds like an assistant is calling? My reason in doing so is that at some point I would like for you to get a part-time helper to find good leads for you.
First, I would like to make this simple statement — no one will be more effective in finding a new buyer or seller, increasing the size of your database, or helping people than you. You have your client’s best interest in mind, and you have the highest motivation for making sure that the buyer or seller is efficiently serviced. The act of you doing it has a simple fact: you may be too busy!
It’s long been known that one of the most important things you can do in real estate is talk to the clients. Ask yourself — what’s more important than picking up the phone and calling a foreign group of people? If you’re very honest, you will say, lunch, 6:00 p.m. quitting time, and the thousands of buyers who have inevitably shown up on the listings you’re handling. Sure, you made lots of promises to yourself, but without a little time-blocking, agents find it difficult to keep up a hectic calling schedule!
Top agents understand they can’t train somebody to do what they haven’t done. As a top real estate agent who picked up for the phone for years, I will give you some indications as to what type of scripts will work, what types of systems will work, and how to hire the people who will help assume some of the duties. They have to see it in your eyes, they have to believe it, and they have to know that you are their “mentor of the phones.”
My recommendation is that you choose scripts for one hot demographic group of people. Work that group for a week so that you can hear and overcome the majority of the objections coming from that group. You will now be able to pass on the finer points of obtaining an appointment.
Brand new agents will also be calling. These are my favorite people! They don’t know that it’s boring being on the phone and they don’t know that there is a lot of rejection. They just do it. Why? Sometimes, they’re hungry. Sometimes, they’re in pursuit of glory and sometimes, they just don’t know any better. These are the people that I say “have the eye of the tiger” – the ones who are going to be the heroes of the future and the ones who, because they’ve done it themselves, are the best able to teach it after they decide to delegate.
The third type is the “I know what to do but can’t get started” agent. You’ve been there, I’ve been there. Everyone at one time or another just finds that the dominoes aren’t falling their way. They have a few fall outs, a few broken promises, and then they really have a small inventory.
Have you ever asked yourself, “What is the fastest way to again get going?” It’s getting on the phone! If you ever have to ask yourself the question, “What am I going to do next month to pay the mortgage payment?” The answer is going to simply be, “Get on the phone for two hours a day!” I promise you by the end of the week that you’ll have more business than you can possibly follow-up on. Your database will grow. You’ll have people to whom you can immediately show properties and make listing presentations. The sellers, if motivated, will price their properties correctly. In a good market, they can sell in just a matter of days.
With a great lender, we can close these things in just a few additional days. Real estate is no longer a six-month waiting game. It’s now talking to the people, giving them the most amazing service with an enthusiastic approach and then you can “cash in your chips.”
The fourth group of agents who actually pick up the phone are the ones who prefer to spend their time and money on the telephone rather than in direct mail/email or any of the other numerous prospecting systems for which I also have systems. They have found the least expensive method of making their business go crazy is by picking up the phone and speaking to somebody who wants to hear what they have to say. It’s a small group of REALTORS® who will supplement their already extensive telemarketing activities into reaching the hot demographic groups and then using the outstanding scripts to close those groups.
Now, let’s be candid. For the rest of you, my suggestion is to learn how to do it then someday when it is massively profitable, delegate it. A top agent of the future has enough time to prospect for new business when they delegate it to someone else. This is the main reason why I spend a fair amount of time in some of my books talking about hiring, training, and implementing for licensed and unlicensed assistants to carry out the day-to-day chores of collecting the leads for the real estate agent to close. I don’t believe that scripts are going to close anyone, and I do not believe that a real estate assistant should close anyone. I do believe that your assistant should make those hundred phone calls to find those few nuggets of gold. Those “nuggets” are then laid on your desk for you to solicit and close.
Instead of the agent talking to literally hundreds of people, you’re talking to five or ten. These five or ten, because of the mining process, are of the highest quality.
A real estate agent can reap one or more listing presentations a day by following these telemarketing scripts to hot demographic leads. The agent may then teach these systems to an assistant.
When you have to make the decision to make the calls yourself or hire someone to call, remember that the only goal is to get the call done. If the only way that we’re going to get the call done is to hire somebody to do it, then that’s your job — find someone to do it! If you’re one of the time-blocked individuals who can mark your calendar to telemarket for an hour a day on the phone — that’s great!
It’s a game of numbers. Remember, you’re only in this business for 10 to 20 years before you may get tired. So, your goal is to gain as much market share, as many closings, and as many happy clients as possible during that time to reap the rewards of referrals and repeat business. Stash 20% of your income away in a bank, and invest the proceeds in well thought out real estate. That’s what excites me, and I hope you never have to worry about making your call quota after a few years in the business.
Walter’s Phone Scripts & Moving Beyond Do Not Call is your go-to resource for scripts, emails, and letters that you or an assistant can easily begin using today. Phone Scripts includes the hiring, and management of telemarketers plus the 60 hottest groups to go after when they have shown interest in your service. This manual even includes what to say when leaving a voice mail. Follow-up emails are included, too. It’s a great manual for an assistant as well with do not call opportunities!
Check out the details: http://www.waltersanford.com/shop/phone-scripts-moving-beyond-do-not-call/. Call 800.792.5837 and ask for the $50 blog special on this system!
