Over the years I’ve approached hundreds of agents, lenders, title companies, etc as a resource for leads and as a resource to close more deals in general. I’ve found that it’s easier to obtain real estate leads than it is to convert them into clients. I’ve also learned it's easier to convert a lead into a client than it is to close the deal with a client.
I can recall when I first got started in the business, there was a “We Buy Houses” sign on just about every telephone pole, and the classified sections would be filled with similar ads.
I would call these ads with my script: “I saw your ad. I see that you buy houses…. I sell houses. What kind of houses are you looking to purchase?” This worked about 5% of the time. At that time 5% was good (not great) because the people that were posting the ads were investors that were looking to purchase multiple homes.
The question is: Why couldn’t I do business with the other 95%? The best answer that I can give was that there was a disconnect. I would say that there was 20% who wouldn’t do business with me because they didn’t like my opening pitch or my delivery simply wasn’t good enough. Basically I didn’t connect with them, or they simply weren’t interested in what I was offering.
I feel that the rest simply didn’t invest the time to connect with me. Several of them didn’t ask the right questions; they assumed this or that. Keep in mind, this was during the “Carlton Sheets” era when people would go out and buy a $50-$100 book or program and then go out and hit the streets after skimming through a few pages.
I started looking at how much time I was spending on the phone and knew that I had to make some changes. It’s not that different today, it’s just that instead of real estate professionals going out and buying books on real estate, they’ll go onto a few websites and think that they have it all figured out after 15-30 minutes. There’s more to getting the deal than just knowing how to write a listing or a purchase agreement.
Buying and selling real estate is mainly about connecting with people. People don’t have to like you and you don’t have to like them. What’s needed is for the lead or client to feel like you understand their needs. You don’t even have to be good at writing a contract to connect with people. Most agents and investors will lose the deal simply because they failed to ask the right questions. They’re too busy talking instead of listening.
If you want to connect with more of your leads then you have to learn what questions to ask, when to ask them, and even what tone to use when asking the questions. You can do this by learning to become a better listener. There are many people that will simply wait for the other person to stop talking so that they can jump in. Remember: People tend to know when you’re not listening to them.
I think John Maxwell said it best: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. If you value your leads, you’ll research and study ways to connect with them. Here’s a jumpstart for you (below), I pulled up some Mike Ferry tips and scripts for working with leads that you should find very helpful...
Review the information more than once and then practice it daily; they say that it takes 21-66 days of doing something consecutively before becomes a habit. We’re always interested in discussing any of the topics that we post, so let us know if you’d like to discuss. And as always, MAKE it a great day!!
~Matthew