Every agent I’ve ever trained makes this mistake when they first get started. Heck even I made this mistake for a long time. Longer than I’m willing to admit. What mistake is that? The mistake of getting on a cold-call, spitting out your pitch as quick as possible, and trying to get off the call as soon as possible.
Why do we do that? Because we’re nervous! We feel like we’re bothering people by cold-calling them! I mean it makes sense right? Nobody likes being cold-called. And we are doing exactly that, what nobody likes! We are experts in doing what people hate.
So yeah I get it but I have news for you. Despite the fact that CNN said that cold-callers make the world a worse place, you have to change your mindset around cold calling. The belief that you are bothering people when you call them isn’t true, unless you make it true.
Are you calling with the sole intention to bother people? No right? So there that solves it. Some people will feel bothered no matter what you say! So just because they feel bothered doesn’t mean that’s what you’re doing. If someone feels bothered it usually has more to do with their perception of what is happening than the actual event. What bothers one person might not bother another person.
So how can you know whether you’re bothering someone you ask. I judge it based on my intention. That’s it, nothing more nothing less.
Cold calling became easy for me once I changed my relationship to it.
So now that you’re not trying to get off the phone as quick as possible, you might be asking what to talk about. Here are the three things I aim to do in every phone call to maximize the value of the conversation.
Every quarter I find something that I think would be valuable for property owners to know, and I share it with them. It can be anything, a new service, a certified vendor, a property management tip, market trends, education on a new law going into effect etc.
The great thing is that I don’t even have to go too far to find this information. I usually get this information from talking to property owners. I always like to ask investors what is working for them. And every now and then I will find someone that will rave about a very specific service, hack, or vendor!
Not too long ago I connected with a property owner that could not stop raving about his water sub-meters. So I got on a conference call with the company itself, asked them a couple of questions to verify their offering, and now it’s part of my value proposition. Last year in fact I led most of my calls with asking if they needed help with retrofitting. So there’s definitely a lot out there to talk about.
Even if they have told me 10 times in 4 years that they’re not buying, I ALWAYS PITCH A DEAL. Mainly for two reasons. One is because it gets us talking about the market. Every investor loves talking about the market. They like being in the know. And the easiest way to talk about the market is by pitching a deal and sharing with them what you’re working on.
And two is because you never know if their needs have changed. I can not stress enough how many times I’ve lost a deal because I didn’t think they would be interested or because I thought my listing was too expensive for them. I don’t even want to think about it.
I have a very special section in my Salesforce where I write down a clients goals. I used to write it in the activity section, but after a few years of cold-calling, I noticed that those notes would get lost in the shuffle. Their goals should be top of mind and the first thing I see when I open up their record. Not something I have to look for through dozens of notes.
So there you have it, my secret formula to cold calling. Which isn’t really much of a secret, because it’s what I’ve noticed all the great Real Estate agents do.
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