A 24/7 prospecting attitude
will increase a salesperson's current income by 200%
Your daily actions must be based upon acquiring contacts who will convert to clients. You then service your clients and cultivate your relationship with them. They will learn to trust you, and begin to promote your services, becoming one of your Centers of Influence.
Note the word “trust” above. Understand that psychologists tell us it takes six months to two years for a person to trust you. It is not something that happens automatically. They may have bought a property from you, but this doesn't mean they trust you. We do business with people all the time we don't trust! Building the bond of trust takes time.
You build trust:
- With a “be of service” attitude and long-term interest in building relationships
- Through various communications to emphasis who you are, what you do better than anybody else in the same business, and how to contact you easily and quickly
- By keeping your commitments
Top producers are master prospectors who know the value of nurturing relationships and building their brand.
No matter how you make contact, be prepared to deliver what is called an elevator pitch, which has to be delivered in less than one minute.
A suggested elevator or introduction script follows:
Hi my name is [name], and I'm a prominent real estate agent here in [your market]. I specialize in helping people find the right home for their family at the best price.
My team and I are thorough and strategic about making recommendations to our clients. We realize buying real estate is one of the largest investments most people ever make.
I'd be pleased if you would take my card and reference it the next time you find yourself considering a move. I'd love to help you at that time.
If you have a friend or relative who is thinking about or looking for a new home, I'd greatly appreciate it if you would pass my information to them.
My team and I put out a quarterly newsletter about real estate happenings and other important community events. Lots of our readers consider our newsletter invaluable because it also includes cost-saving tips and local information you might want to be informed about.
If you subscribe to my newsletter, I promise you will not be bothered by phone calls from me or my team. We appreciate your need for confidentiality and never share our contact lists with anyone.
If you feel comfortable being on our quarterly newsletter list, I'd be glad to take your contact information now, or you can forward it to us at the address on my card. Which would be easiest for you?
Nice to meet you, and I look forward to being of service to you or one of your friends in the future.
The rewards for a master prospector are immense and the Prospecting Pillar is by far the most important of the Pillars of Persuasion.
Realizing everyone may not be qualified for your investment of time, you must qualify the people you meet appropriately or you will spin your wheels talking to everyone with the same intensity. You will waste your time, burn yourself out, and will soon be out of business. So categorize the people you meet according to the following:
- POTENTIAL LEADS - This is every person you meet or surface as the result of some form of marketing. We’re not talking about leads from lists you buy, but individuals who directly respond to your marketing effort. Everyone can become a client or lead you to a client. You should quickly qualify everyone you know to ascertain their level of interest in real estate. Sooner or later, just about everyone needs a real estate agent.
- LEAD - Someone who has reached out to you or your company for some information about real estate.
- PROSPECT - A lead who answers all the questions on the HPA’s Let's Get Acquainted form, and based on their answers, may be pursued as a “low-hanging fruit” prospective buyer.
- SUSPECT - They may qualify to be a prospect in every way except timing. If they are not ready to buy within 180 days, they are placed in the CRM to be “dripped on” electronically as well as periodically by the salesperson until they’re ready to take action. Then and only then do they become a PROSPECT.
- BUYER / CLIENT - They mean the same, and they prefer to be viewed as clients or friends.
- CENTER of INFLUENCE - These are clients you have nurtured who have developed trust in you and consider you as their “go to real estate professional," and they will begin referring you as well.
Top salespeople see every lead as a potential buyer until they are qualified. Marginal sales people prejudge most of their leads as not qualified, and burn leads because of their negative attitude. The phenomenon for prejudging leads is real and very costly to the company providing the leads. Knowing how to qualify leads quickly helps a salesperson identify the easy sales, and keeps their enthusiasm high. ENTHUSIASM SELLS!
Top producers learn to become great listeners, and decide quickly if they should spend more time with a particular lead. They listen with an open mind to discover if this person may be a “low-hanging fruit buyer.” They protect their time and use the 180-day marker to separate their “prospects” from “suspects.” Accordingly, they only work with people who are going to buy in the next six months. They discipline themselves to make that critical choice “after” they have asked all the questions on the HPA Let’s Get Acquainted form.
A Suspect may not be ready now, but in a year from now, they may be a viable prospect. Your CRM is one of the most valuable tools to have in order to build your book of business.
Set a goal to create 5 Centers of Influence per year. Over the next five to ten years, this practice will make you rich. One or two referrals a year from clients and Centers of Influence will fill your pipeline and assure you an annual six or seven figure income.
Building Relationships is the Key - Do the Math:
- 25 Centers of Influence results in two sales each a year = 50 sales per year.
- Assume a $400,000 average sales price = $20 million in sales
- Based on a 3% commission = $600,000 annual company income
- If 1% of the sale is your commission = $200,000 annual income
This is how you build a business: One Center of Influence at a time who is loyal to your brand. The rewards are huge for agents with a long term vision, positive attitude, and a hunger to be as financially free.
- If you had unfettered access to an active gold mine for 8 hours a day, would you go into that mine with a pick and a wheel barrel? Would you take a lunch break? Or any kind of break?
The 12 Pillars of Persuasion
Are you ready to get paid more by simply doing the things you are now doing “slightly better”? You say, “Yes,” but you've said yes before! You said you were going to do something new after reading a motivational book. After you watched that great video or attended an inspirational lecture, you made a commitment, but you didn’t stick with it. What went wrong? You didn't fail!
In fact, it is almost impossible to stick with an idea when you only hear it a few times. Studies show that 62% of the acceptance of a new idea occurs after the sixth exposure. What you needed was a system for creating the change you wanted. You needed a system that was strategically designed with “spaced repetition” to get the intended results. You needed a system that was tested and re-tested to remove the things that don't work, one that allowed you to focus on the things that work.
Over the last 43 years, we've created such a sales system called the Pillars of Persuasion. It provides the support that sustains you beyond your initial excitement.
When following the Pillars of Persuasion, you’ll experience how a few quick fixes result in faster sales, bigger commissions, and more referrals.
The Pillars of Persuasion program builds upon the concept of creating long-term relationships. Your goal should be to build a viable business that can be sustained. Any way you slice it, when the real estate profession is done right, the income can be SUBSTANTIAL, and after five years, you will have a business that will support your dreams.
