That Nasty Eleven-letter Word

Most of the time, we hate to say it aloud, especially in mixed company. It’s a word that can strike fear into the heart of agents with huge SOI’s, or weaken the knees of agents with years of repeat clients and consistent referrals. Shhhhhh!

But if we want to optimize our business and not miss opportunities, maybe it’s time we spoke the profane aloud:

PROSPECTING

There, I said it. Hopefully, the kids aren’t reading this!

Yes, basic prospecting, that element of Real Estate 101 we tend to put on the back burner—or totally forget—when the market is strong and we are getting a decent flow of referrals and repeat business. But we all know that generating leads is what makes our business grow, and our marketing program is only part of the formula. While most of us now have our own websites and a program of email drip campaigns and direct mail, those marketing tools can’t take the place of a proactive prospecting plan and working that plan consistently. Remember, Big Rocks First!

Of course, a major goal of our prospecting plan is to contact those targeted folks we don’t know yet, and to convert them to clients and members of our sphere so they can help us generate more leads and more clients and more referrals. Yes, we’re prospecting when we hold an open house or contact those members of our Sphere and remind them how much we value their referrals, but one of the most lucrative targets for prospecting is also one of the toughest, and one we often tend to avoid! FSBO’s and Expired’s, remember, are folks who already WANT to sell their house, so potentially a fairly quick trip to the closing table IF we can develop a successful plan for converting these prospects into clients.

While the Peak Producers approach focuses more on long term relationship building in order to optimize our stream of repeat business and referrals, we want to make sure our coaching and training programs also cover the more basic—and for many, more difficult—cold calling techniques and prospecting tools that can help you generate more business.

So, we invited Lisa Treadwell, who joined our Indy Metro office this year, to share with us some of the old fashioned prospecting tips and techniques she has successfully used in converting those FSBO’s and Expired’s to closings. Lisa initially built her business with a great system of techniques, systems, and scripts that has led to a successful ten-year career. Lisa presented her class on “Winning with Expired Listings” at this week’s Wednesday Wake Up training session and everyone took away some great tips and enthusiasm to give it a try.

If you missed the class, remember you can still watch the video at our BHHS Indiana YouTube channel—along with all our other recorded training sessions. The link to our YouTube channel is at the BHHS Lead REsource Dashboard under the “Quick Links” section.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get some great insights into one of our business’s more challenging—yet potentially highly rewarding—strategies and get ready to turn up your business!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development