How Sue Wahl and Sue Miller make 30 contacts a day each in Cincinnati

Ren Jones00:05

It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap, how to Take three Listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we interview a great agent who’s consistently taking several listings each month, and we have two exciting guests today. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everyone that we are also simulcasting the show on the private lead gen group on Facebook. They have 52,000 members, so we have a large audience there today as well. And we’ll pause for a commercial message during the show. As I thank you to the folks at Lead Gen on Facebook. Let’s welcome our guests today, we have Sue Wahl and Sue Miller, better known as the two Sues right here in Cincinnati, Ohio. Welcome back. Welcome to the show.

Sue Wahl00:58

Thank you, Ren.

Ren Jones00:59

Glad you can be here.

Sue Miller00:59

Thank you.

Ren Jones01:00

And looking forward to hearing some great ideas. There are people watching out here. You guys take every week, you take a few listings, and there are people out here that sometimes they take a listing in that month or sometimes they take none. Sometimes they take two. How do they get to that next level? What can they do if you guys can share some ideas and talk to those people that want to get to where they can take 8, 10, 12 listings a month and really have some fun. What’s the goal for this year?

Sue Wahl01:27

140 transactions.

Ren Jones01:29

140. Okay. That’s a great number.

Sue Wahl01:31

Yeah.

Ren Jones01:33

And are you tracking close?

Sue Wahl01:36

We’re a little behind, but we’re going to catch up.

Sue Miller01:38

And we will make our goal.

Ren Jones01:40

Good. As you almost always do.

Sue Miller01:42

Yes, yep.

Sue Wahl01:42

We will make it.

Ren Jones01:43

Good. Perfect, perfect, perfect. So one of the things I have such a respect for, because you’ve been, how long have you been doing this?

Sue Miller01:55

26 years.

Sue Wahl01:56

In June.

Ren Jones01:58

26 years.

Sue Miller01:59

In June.

Ren Jones01:59

That’s great.

Sue Miller01:59

Yes.

Ren Jones02:01

And you have a big database because you’ve been doing it that long. How big is your database?

Sue Wahl02:05

It’s about 2,500 people.

Ren Jones02:07

2,500 people, which is great. And unlike a lot of people, one of the reasons it’s so big is you call the people you don’t know every day, inspired for sale by owners, call round a listing or a sale, other activity and then you call the people you know your database.

Sue Miller02:23

Yes, we do. 30 people a day. We talk.

Ren Jones02:26

There’s so many people out there neglecting one of the one or the other categories, but you got to figure it out. I always neglected my database. I called expireds and FSBOs. And you guys have done both.

Sue Wahl02:39

We do both.

Ren Jones02:40

You just shift through all the gears.

Sue Miller02:42

Mm-hmm. We do.

Ren Jones02:43

Good, good, good. What’s a morning for you guys typically?

Sue Wahl02:47

Well, lately it’s been a lot of Zoom meetings but in the morning after we have these little meetings on Zoom, we get on the phones and start calling our database or expireds and take a little break for lunch.

Ren Jones03:10

Yeah.

Sue Miller03:11

Yes.

Ren Jones03:12

Good, good, good. And Cincinnati’s got… Greater Cincinnati’s got two million people but you generally, you guys cluster to one part of town, which is very efficient although you’ll see a listing way up here and one over here and one over here, I guess because of all your big database now.

Sue Miller03:32

We have no boundaries. We’ll cross over 75 and take a listing.

Ren Jones03:37

And there’s an area of town where if you don’t see a twosue sign, it’s kind of unusual.

Sue Miller03:46

Yes.

Sue Wahl03:46

Yeah, you-

Ren Jones03:46

So there’s some efficiency there isn’t there?

Sue Wahl03:48

Great to have listings close to home, but we’ve found through the years that having listings really helped us grow.

Ren Jones03:58

Yeah.

Sue Wahl03:58

To learn different parts of the city.

Ren Jones04:00

Okay.

Sue Wahl04:00

And it’s been great.

Ren Jones04:03

Well, let’s talk about that because people are, generally speaking, people are afraid of an area of town they don’t know, but it’s carpet and paint and three bedrooms, two baths and yard. It’s not much different.

Sue Wahl04:17

No.

Sue Miller04:17

It’s sticks and bricks.

Ren Jones04:18

Is it just all in our head?

Sue Miller04:20

Mm-hmm.

Sue Wahl04:21

I think so.

Sue Miller04:23

It’s all mindset.

Ren Jones04:24

It’s all mindset. You know, can look in there and it’s a neighborhood. The neighborhood has a name and the houses have yards and dogs and cats.

Sue Miller04:30

Right.

Ren Jones04:30

So it’s really up here, isn’t it?

Sue Wahl04:31

Yeah and the clients have all the same agenda.

Ren Jones04:35

Okay.

Sue Wahl04:35

They have to sell their homes.

Sue Miller04:37

And we have access to all the data.

Sue Wahl04:39

Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones04:40

Okay. So it’s just a confidence issue.

Sue Miller04:42

It is.

Sue Wahl04:43

I think so.

Ren Jones04:43

And this does the trick. Good. Fantastic. So what do you say to your past clients when you call them? Because how often do you call, I mean, 2,500. You probably have them grouped or you call them all equally.

Sue Wahl05:00

We have them grouped.

Sue Miller05:01

Yes, we do.

Ren Jones05:01

Like ABC, like how our proven people to give you referrals.

Sue Wahl05:05

Right.

Sue Miller05:06

We have a top 10%.

Ren Jones05:08

Gotcha.

Sue Miller05:08

That we touch a little more often.

Sue Wahl05:10

Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones05:10

Good. And they get a little more attention and stuff. What do you say to that group when you’re reaching out? What’s a typical thing? I mean, you just go, “Hi, who do you know?” Or do you have something? How do you that? Because there are people out here that are like, well, I hate to call and beg but I don’t want to look like I’m begging for a business. I don’t know what that hangup is but what do you say to a past client when you call them? So they’re glad you called and you’re glad you called them?

Sue Miller05:45

Well, we try to stick to a script and we do ask questions about them, especially in this kind of unusual time. And then we get on to the business at hand and let everyone know about the real estate market. We give them stats in their area.

Ren Jones06:01

Okay, so you’re coming in, bringing information to them?

Sue Miller06:05

Yes. Okay. We do.

Ren Jones06:06

All right. So you’re giving them an update on what’s going on in their neck of the woods.

Sue Miller06:10

Right, absolutely.

Ren Jones06:10

Okay.

Sue Miller06:12

Yeah, everybody always wants to know that.

Ren Jones06:14

Right. Okay. So that makes, that really solves it. So you’re providing a service here when you call your coming in, some sort of contribution, and I want to update you on what’s going on kind of a thing.

Sue Miller06:24

Right.

Ren Jones06:25

Is that what that looks like?

Sue Miller06:25

Yes.

Ren Jones06:26

So that makes it a pretty fun call.

Sue Wahl06:28

It does and I always start the call with, “Hi, this is Sue Wahl, your favorite realtor.” And they like that. People like that.

Ren Jones06:38

And I bought a couple investment houses from, she does that to me too. In fact, you’ve sold some of our family, haven’t you?

Sue Wahl06:45

I have.

Ren Jones06:46

My niece.

Sue Wahl06:47

Yes, I have.

Ren Jones06:48

Yes. So.

Sue Wahl06:49

I have.

Ren Jones06:51

They sell… Be careful they will sell a house for you. They’re good.

Sue Miller06:56

We’ll try.

Ren Jones06:57

They’re good. They’re good. They’re good.

Sue Wahl06:59

My goal is to be your favorite realtor.

Ren Jones07:01

Good. And that is a good opener. Good. Because people will be like, I’m your realtor for life. That sounds like a prison sentence or something. Yours is a lot more pleasant. So good. What else should people be thinking about? We’re well into spring. It’s an odd spring. I think our spring market’s going to go on through the summer when people normally take a little vacation. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.

Sue Miller07:30

Yes.

Sue Wahl07:31

Yes.

Ren Jones07:32

They’ll just drive. They’ll go drive Route 66 or something.

Sue Wahl07:35

Well, don’t you think that there are going to be a lot of families that are going to call and say, “Hey Sue, we don’t want an open floor plan anymore. Can you…?

Ren Jones07:46

And bigger, maybe they want a larger…

Sue Miller07:47

Absolutely. They’ve run out of space. They realize.

Ren Jones07:50

You’re hearing that now that they’re ready for something.

Sue Miller07:52

Yes. Or they’re ready to downsize. It’s like, hmm, we realize now this is just too much for us to take care of.

Ren Jones08:00

I would think they would go upsize because you get tired-

Sue Miller08:02

Well we-.

Ren Jones08:02

… of vacationing in the dining room every.

Sue Miller08:02

Right.

Sue Wahl08:07

Or working from home.

Sue Miller08:08

Yes, they need more offices.

Sue Wahl08:09

If you’ve got two people working from home and kids with schoolwork, seriously, an open floor plan probably is not good. You don’t have any defensive space to do your work or for your kids to do their work for schoolwork.

Ren Jones08:24

Wow. So the need for offices at home may be permanently changed?

Sue Wahl08:29

I think so.

Sue Miller08:29

I think so.

Ren Jones08:31

Work from home. Do you think that, I mean, are you getting a sense this is a new norm? What are…

Sue Wahl08:35

I think so.

Ren Jones08:37

Are you doing any virtual appointments?

Sue Wahl08:40

We’ve done a couple.

Ren Jones08:40

Okay.

Sue Wahl08:42

But because we’re in Ohio, we’re so lucky.

Ren Jones08:44

Yeah.

Sue Wahl08:44

We’re essential.

Ren Jones08:47

Mm-hmm.

Sue Wahl08:47

So we only go after we’ve pre-qualified, pre-qualified, pre-qualified. We make sure that they’re ready to list and then we go, we’ll go.

Ren Jones08:57

What’s your batting average? You go on 10. How many do you take?

Sue Wahl09:02

Eight and a half.

Ren Jones09:02

Eight and a half. 85%.

Sue Wahl09:04

Eight and a half. Yeah.

Ren Jones09:05

So seven or 8% of the time they don’t want you and seven or 8% of the time you don’t want them.

Sue Wahl09:10

Yeah.

Ren Jones09:11

Is that what it is?

Sue Wahl09:12

Yeah. Or they’re going to wait.

Ren Jones09:13

Okay.

Sue Wahl09:15

They’re going to wait.

Ren Jones09:17

Okay.

Sue Wahl09:17

We’ll get them later.

Ren Jones09:18

Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, that’s 85%. That’s pretty good. So what’s a typical month? How many do you take?

Sue Wahl09:26

Well, I think January we took 12, but we’ve been taking five, six the last couple months.

Ren Jones09:35

Okay. So it’s a little lower right now.

Sue Wahl09:37

But the inventory in Cincinnati is really low.

Ren Jones09:41

So you don’t keep them long.

Sue Miller09:42

No.

Sue Wahl09:44

No. That’s the problem. They’re gone. You don’t-

Ren Jones09:46

Okay.

Sue Wahl09:48

Yeah. They’re gone. Oh, it’s not problem. It’s good. It’s a good problem but-

Ren Jones09:51

The service-

Sue Wahl09:52

… they’re gone.

Ren Jones09:53

… the servicing time is not a, yeah.

Sue Wahl09:55

No.

Ren Jones09:55

It’s not an issue. So anything else you think we’re going to keep as far as the changes, as far as the patterns of things going on? As far technology or do you think more real estate agent. Are you guys working from home right now?

Sue Miller10:11

We are for the most part.

Ren Jones10:12

For the most part.

Sue Miller10:13

We’re still able to go out.

Ren Jones10:14

Do you think you’ll continue some of that, or will you just go back to what you were doing?

Sue Miller10:19

I think we’ll go back to our office. We like having our assistants right there.

Ren Jones10:23

Gotcha.

Sue Miller10:24

We found that it’s not quite as efficient maybe with everybody being not in a central location.

Ren Jones10:30

Okay.

Sue Miller10:30

So we’d like that a lot.

Ren Jones10:34

Okay, good. Gotcha. Okay. So it’s a fabulous life if you have… So, every day since you started, you call, you prospect.

Sue Miller10:44

Mm-hmm.

Sue Wahl10:44

Mm-hmm.

Sue Miller10:44

You call people-

10:45You sure do.

Ren Jones10:46

You call people you don’t know, and every once in a while they bark at you and you’re like, don’t think twice.

Sue Miller10:51

Right.

Ren Jones10:51

But you’ve built up such a fabulous business.

Sue Wahl10:53

We’ve got a lot of great clients. We’ve been-

Ren Jones10:57

And you make it look like so much fun.

Sue Wahl10:59

It is fun. It’s a lot of fun.

Sue Miller11:02

Yeah.

Ren Jones11:02

What else can you take that person that only wants to, that maybe they’re concerned about rejection or calling strangers or calling around a listing or a sale that would rather just go on social media only and market themselves. Which, nothing wrong with throwing a little bit of that out there, but the core of your business is not where, that’s not where the core your business comes from, is it?

Sue Wahl11:27

No.

Ren Jones11:27

It’s moving your lips, right?

Sue Wahl11:29

Yeah. It’s moving our lips.

Sue Miller11:30

Talking to people.

Ren Jones11:32

How many conversations do you have every day?

Sue Wahl11:35

Well, our goal is 30 contacts per day but then we’ve got all the agents that we talk to and all the…

Ren Jones11:44

Okay. Does that make stuff happen? Yeah.

Sue Wahl11:45

Oh yeah.

Ren Jones11:46

So is-

Sue Wahl11:46

A lot of network.

Ren Jones11:47

… so 30 conversations a day is the goal?

Sue Wahl11:50

Mm-hmm.

Sue Miller11:50

Yes. Each of us.

Ren Jones11:51

Each of you, so that’s 60 conversations.

Sue Miller11:54

Mm-hmm.

Sue Wahl11:54

Mm-hmm.

Sue Miller11:54

And for a lot of people on here, they’re lucky to do that in a week.

Sue Wahl11:59

Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones11:59

So did you have to build up to that at the gym? You start out with the five pound weights and you go to the 10s, you go to the 15? Or did you just both start to talk to 30 people a day?

Sue Miller12:08

Well, we break it down in our, we have an analyzer that we work with.

Ren Jones12:13

So you track your numbers?

Sue Miller12:15

Oh, yes. So we know what our goals are, how many calls it’s going to take us to achieve those goals.

Ren Jones12:21

Okay. Yeah, because you seem like you know your numbers really well.

Sue Miller12:24

Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones12:24

And there are a lot of people that don’t. They don’t track it. They don’t know where the business comes from. So you could even, do you track where your business is coming from?

Sue Miller12:32

Oh yes.

Sue Wahl12:33

Oh, absolutely.

Ren Jones12:34

So you know where it’s coming from so you know where to put percentage of your efforts.

Sue Wahl12:39

Right. And then when we get referrals, we call and thank the person who gave us the referral and that leads to more and more business because they feel so good that they were able to help.

Sue Miller12:50

Right.

Ren Jones12:51

And I got to test the quality of the customer service as one of their customers. Having been a customer a couple times. It’s really good.

Sue Wahl12:59

We’ve got great assistants.

Sue Miller13:01

And we have great systems that-

Sue Wahl13:03

Yeah.

Sue Miller13:03

… it all gets put in a-

Ren Jones13:05

See a good structure.

Sue Miller13:06

Yes.

Ren Jones13:06

And you delegate well. You hire well.

Sue Miller13:08

We have two wonderful assistants. Yes.

Sue Wahl13:10

Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones13:11

Perfect. Perfect. What else should we be telling them? What else do they need to know?

Sue Miller13:16

Well, it’s good to have a database system. We use Top Producer.

Ren Jones13:21

Okay.

Sue Miller13:21

And we can type in notes and even put in a calendar like when our next call should be to that client. So-

Ren Jones13:30

Okay.

Sue Miller13:31

… it’s all mapped out for us.

Ren Jones13:33

Perfect. All right. So very systematic, very structured business, very predictable, duplicatable income every year.

Sue Miller13:39

Right.

Ren Jones13:40

And the core is, even though you do some social media and everything like everybody else does, and puts a word out, that’s sort of just gravy. It’s those 30 conversations a day.

Sue Miller13:52

Right?

Ren Jones13:52

30, 30, 30.

Sue Miller13:52

Right.

Ren Jones13:53

That’s making this happen. If you stopped, if you went down to five a day and five a day, how many would you sell in a year? Because they’re people making five contacts a day.

Sue Wahl14:06

Wow.

Ren Jones14:06

What would your number drop down to?

Sue Wahl14:10

We’d probably would be really hungry, I guess. I don’t know.

Sue Miller14:16

Yeah. It would be a fraction.

Sue Wahl14:17

Oh, I, yeah-

Sue Miller14:17

A fraction.

Sue Wahl14:18

… I can’t imagine.

Sue Miller14:19

Yeah.

Sue Wahl14:19

I can’t imagine. Although I have to say, being in the business, the more people you call and then magically somebody calls you.

Ren Jones14:30

Does it feel like work?

Sue Wahl14:32

No.

Sue Miller14:32

No.

Sue Wahl14:32

No.

Sue Miller14:33

No.

Ren Jones14:33

So this is really just kind of fun. You get to talk to people all day.

Sue Wahl14:35

Yeah.

Sue Miller14:36

Right.

Sue Wahl14:36

And like I say, the more people you call and maybe you don’t get an appointment.

Ren Jones14:41

So you don’t have to work a day in your life.

Sue Wahl14:44

No. And then somebody calls you, it’s karma. They call you.

Ren Jones14:48

That is how that works, isn’t it?

Sue Wahl14:49

It is. I mean, it’s like…

Ren Jones14:49

‘Cause you’re putting it out there.

Sue Wahl14:50

You are. Yeah.

Ren Jones14:50

You are. You are.

Sue Wahl14:53

And we really care about our clients. We really do. When something’s going on in their lives, we try to connect with them a little more often and that kind of thing.

Ren Jones15:03

Good.

Sue Wahl15:04

And I think people really appreciate that and then they want to have their friends have the same experience.

Ren Jones15:12

So it’s a great contribution. This level of service has been consistent over the years. I can attest to that.

Sue Wahl15:17

And we’ve done a lot of generational things. I mean-

Sue Miller15:20

Right. And a lot of people call us for resources.

Sue Wahl15:25

Oh.

Sue Miller15:25

We do videos-

15:26Yes.

Ren Jones15:26

Okay.

Sue Miller15:26

Yes. We send out videos to our clients and then the next thing we know, somebody’s calling us and wanting a plumber for something or a-

Ren Jones15:35

Perfect.

Sue Miller15:35

… landscaper.

Ren Jones15:36

Perfect, perfect, perfect. And you wouldn’t have had good names.

Sue Wahl15:39

And then, yeah, when we have those good names, I mean, that’s another point of contact. When you talked to that electrician that did work for you that you referred, who do you know Mr. Electrician? That’s getting ready to move.

Ren Jones15:54

So there’s vendors sending you out business.

Sue Wahl15:56

Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Ren Jones15:58

So that’s a good handoff.

Sue Miller16:00

Yes.

Sue Wahl16:02

It is. Yes. You have to remember to ask them though.

Ren Jones16:05

Yes.

Sue Miller16:05

Yeah.

Sue Wahl16:06

They’re just writing the invoice.

Ren Jones16:08

Yeah, they forget. Yeah. So you have to remind them who do you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sue Wahl16:12

Right. And put them on your database and call them.

Ren Jones16:17

Invite them to Ducati’s.

Sue Wahl16:18

Yeah. Invite them to your husband’s band whenever that can be again. Who knows?

Ren Jones16:24

Yeah. There you go. Well, good. This is always a real treat to have the two Sues. If you’re moving to Greater Cincinnati, you do Northern Kentucky?

Sue Wahl16:34

We have connections in Northern Kentucky.

Ren Jones16:36

If you’re moving to the Greater Cincinnati-

16:38… Northern Kentucky area and you’re looking for a great agent, or maybe you live here, maybe you just need to move here. It’s a happy place. What’s the best number? What’s the best way to…

Sue Wahl16:53

We’re two Sues. T-W-O-S-U-E-S. Twosues@comey. C-O-M-E-Y.com.

Ren Jones17:02

Perfect. Good deal. Reach out to them and they’ll fix you right up. Appreciate you being here.

Sue Miller17:08

Thank you, Ren.

Sue Wahl17:10

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Ren Jones17:11

We’ll see everybody next week when we have another exciting guest. Thanks everybody. See you next week.

Sue Wahl17:18

Thank you, Ren.

17:18