I hate cold calling and so do the 98.54% of other agents out there. I know it works and that it’s a numbers game, but the thought of doing it is so depressing. Dealing with rejection after rejection trying to sell something can drive you nuts!
It sucks.
But wait, if I am to convert 1 in 15 cold calls and I got hung up on 5 times already then I am going to get a new listing within my next 10 calls…right? SCREW THAT!
Some agents love cold calling. If that’s you, then God bless you because most of us it hate it! It takes a certain skill and personality type to be able to do this consistently. Keep it up if it’s working for you, but for the rest of us, how do we keep a consistent stream of business coming through?
Good news is you don’t have to cold call.
If you want to avoid cold calling then you need to learn how to attract business, not chase it. Some marketing dudes would call this permission based marketing. Permission based marketing is when you perform some kind of marketing that gets potential clients reach out to you.
We recently repositioned a listing we had and took it off the market for a few days so we can resist it under a new price. Our client received over 30 phone calls of agents using “scripts” on her. She was extremely turned off and annoyed. I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m just saying there is a better way.
How do you feel when you get called by a cable company telemarketer trying to get you to upgrade your package into the “triple mega package”? I thought so.
It’s obvious they are reading from a script and it’s obvious when you are reading from some kind of script when you are cold calling. Let’s look at how to take cold calling out of the equation!
Step 1: Permission Based Marketing
There are two main components to attracting business. First, you need an inquiry either online or by phone. This requires you to do something that triggers a potential client to reach out to you (Notice I didn’t call it a lead. I think people don’t want to be classified as leads either). Most agents have trouble attracting potential clients, but it’s not that hard. It comes down to how much you want to invest per lead. You can invest either with learning how to do this on your own or by paying some kind of online lead service(there is no shortage here). We will discuss these sources in part 2 of this blog series.
Getting leads is not hard, converting them into clients is! Once you start using marketing systems that create new opportunities for you, the days of cold calling will be long gone. You will then focus on “warm calling”.
Step 2: Rapport Building
I know some agents who are absolutely terrible at working Zillow leads. Then I know some 
agents who are killing it with Zillow leads. The only difference between the two is that the agent killing it, has a relationship based approach, while the agent who sucks at it is reading a script. Scripts suck and are cold!
Zillow is a form of permission based marketing because you are receiving potential clients asking you to respond to them.
The second component necessary to attracting business is your ability to create relationships with strangers. You will start seeing results once you focus all of your “scripting” on “relationship building”. Relationship building is how you ultimately attract business in 2016 and beyond.
How Do You Build Relationships?
There are many ways to build relationships through marketing, but I have to get this out of 
the way first. You cannot use the word “scripts” anymore. The very first step to attracting business is to take ALL THE SALESMANSHIP out of the equation. Would you like to be on the receiving end of a “script”? Do you like to be sold on anything?
“Scripting” should instead be replaced by “helping”. When you are scripting something, you are selling something. When you are helping someone you are assisting them. People want to be helped not sold. I want you to think about the last time someone helped you do anything. Were you grateful? Did you appreciate it? Did it make you like them better?
If Realtors focused all of their inquiries in a “how can I help you approach” they would turn more “warm calls” into clients. Your goal of any kind of inquiry should be to WOW the potential client with your knowledge. You should go extremely out of your way to “assist” them in any way possible.
Don’t talk about yourself because nobody cares.
Your only goal should be how you can help someone who asked a question. Customer service is the most important kind of marketing in real estate.
When you are on the receiving end of the communication spectrum, its much easier to build a relationship because you are following up with someone who asked you to contact them. You are not interrupting their dinner with a cold call. Once the focus of any phone call becomes, “to WOW them with your knowledge and help them get the answer they are looking for”, you will see that you will end up setting more face to face appointments.
Marketing is easy. Building relationships is what holds agents back. You are not in sales. You in in the business of helping people achieve the American dream.
Do you cold call?
I want to know about how you attempt to build rapport with complete strangers.
Do you have a system? Did this article help you? I’m teetering the idea of showing people how to do this step by step, would you be interested?
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Creating a better system to service your listings is one of the things you can be doing to improve your level of service.
Would you be interested in learning more about adapting a transactional marketing plan in your business that creates multiple lead sources? Do you want to run a business instead of being run by one?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may want to check this out…
