Generating Leads over the Phone

In today’s guest post, Mike and Mary Pallin of The Floyd Wickman Team share their insights on how to master phone prospecting as a way to generate leads and control your income.

If you develop the skill of effectively generating leads via telephone, you can control your income.  If you want to generate more income, you need to have more conversations.  So who do you talk to?  And what should you say?

First and foremost, keep in touch with the people you know. At The Floyd Wickman Team, we call this your “Book of Business.”  These are people who are most likely to refer you to someone they know.  Consider your friends, your family, former co-workers and neighbors.  Make a list of people you’ve done business with and those who know other family members.  Look to add people who know a lot of people.  Stay in touch a few times a year to remind them you can serve them and others they know.  When real estate comes up in conversation, you want them thinking of you and connecting you. Espresso Agent’s real estate lead generation software helps you keep them on speed dial.

You might also consider calling people you don’t know. We believe there are no strangers in real estate, just people you haven’t met yet! So, don’t consider this “cold calling”. Actual cold calling was a lead generating method popular in the previous century, that has largely disappeared along with land lines and reverse street directories.

Instead, call people who are thinking of selling or buying real estate. When you can become competent, confident and natural at talking to people who are thinking of selling or buying real estate, you can generate all the business you need. Technology has made identifying and connecting with these people easier than ever. Here is just a partial list of sources:

• For Sale By Owners
• For Rent By Owners
• Circle prospecting around new listings or sales
• Probate
• Divorce attorneys and marital separation counselors
• Pre-foreclosure bankers
• Distressed properties
• Vacant properties
• Expired listings
• Withdrawn or canceled listings
• Open house visitors
• Homeowners who live where you know a buyer is looking
• Referrals from inactive/retired agents
• Buyer and Seller seminars
• Builders
• Cash For Property leads
• Listing inquiries
• And those internet lead generating services that don’t require an upfront investment.

The real key to approaching any of these sources confidently and naturally is to develop a conversational track to follow one step at a time. Avoid memorizing scripts that someone else wrote. Use your own vocabulary and style. We teach a simple three step process for prospecting these sources that lets you be you, and has worked for hundreds of thousands of our program graduates.

Step 1:  The Approach

Identify the person you are calling.

Introduce yourself.

Ask a question.

Give them a reason why you are asking.

Ask again another way.

The words you use will be determined by the type of prospect you are calling.

EXAMPLE – Expired listing

IDENTIFY:  Hi, is this Mr. Wocjiekowski?

INTRODUCE:  It’s Mike Pallin, with On Track Real Estate.

ASK:  I was just wondering if your house was still for sale?

REASON:  The reason I ask is that I specialize in helping homeowners like yourself get what they need for their house so they can go through with their plans.

ASK AGAIN: If you knew you could get your house sold and walk away with the right amount of money, would you go forward with your move?

Step 2:  Offer A Fair Trade

Offer to give them something, or do something for them, that will cause them to want to get together with you.

EXAMPLE

“Are you familiar with a Marketability Checklist?

It’s a list we have compiled from thousands of sales of the factors that cause a house to either sell or not sell.

It will help you pinpoint the reasons why your home didn’t sell and help you avoid making the same mistake twice.

Would something like that be of interest to you?”

Step 3: Propose A Get-Together

Avoid asking to “schedule an appointment” and keep it low-key and less formal.

EXAMPLE

“Why don’t we find a time when I can stop by and take a look at your house, and while I’m there I would be happy to go over that Marketability Checklist with you, so that whatever you decide at least you’ll know what to avoid. Fair enough? I could see you tonight or would tomorrow be better?”

Work on these three steps until you become confident, competent and natural.  When you sound like “you” and you have enough conversations, you’ll be able to earn what you want in real estate.

Thank you to our friends at Espresso Agent for asking THE FLOYD WICKMAN TEAM to contribute to this month’s blog on the why, the who and the how of prospecting.

Doug Spak

Doug Spak joined Espresso Agent as a Content Marketing Specialist in 2016. Doug brings nearly four decades of experience as a copywriter, blogger, and screenwriter to his role with Espresso. Since joining our team, Doug has actively updated website content, published more than 300 blogs, and created countless social media posts.