How Aaron Novello went from $13,000 to over 100 deals a year through role play

Aaron Novello00:00

So this is like the Hunger Games of real estate. And when the tide goes out, you can see who’s wearing pants or not. So for people that aren’t skilled and don’t know how to sell, it’s a rude kind of harsh awakening. But if you wanna ramp up that learning curve, I would propose spending lots of time in role-playing and practicing to learn the actual conversation, so that way you can convert opportunities into contracts being signed.

00:28Also, the riches are in the niches. So picking a niche of some sort that you can learn, and take the time to learn now, that’ll serve you in perpetuity. ‘Cause what I’m aware of is those niches don’t go away when the marketplace gets great.

Loida Velasquez00:55

Everyone, welcome back to a brand new episode of Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors, where we bring you some of the best in the industry that share with you some of the tips and strategies so that you can implement them in your business right now. Now, with that being said, today’s guest is gonna share with you exactly what you need to be doing right now.

01:13As the market is changing, there’s a lot of uncertainties, and perhaps a lot of you are wondering what to even focus on. So with that being said, I wanna welcome Aaron Novello. So welcome, Aaron.

Aaron Novello01:23

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Loida Velasquez01:26

Yeah, so for everyone that’s watching that maybe is not familiar with you, can you share with us a little bit about your background?

Aaron Novello01:31

Yeah, so I’ve been in the real estate industry since 2006. My first calendar year I made 13,000 bucks. Not something people would bring you on the Coaches and Mentors podcast to talk about. And it’s because I had an inaccurate assessment of reality. I had a lot of people that were telling me things like wear my name tag at the grocery store and smile at people, or sit in open houses.

01:55And it wasn’t until I got an accurate assessment of reality and realized what this game actually is, which is a direct hardcore sales business, that it allowed me to focus my energy, once I got that accurate assessment, in places that would actually pay off, like role playing and practicing, like prospecting.

02:13And once I got that accurate assessment, next calendar year I did 17 transactions, then 50, then 79, then 89, then 100. Did over 100 a year for 10 years in a row, did 200 deals a year twice.

Loida Velasquez02:25

That’s awesome. So obviously, a lot of the agents that come to us, that are probably watching this, might be at a place where they are looking to transition from perhaps working with buyers to now they wanna focus on listings, or they want more consistent business pretty much.

02:39So for you, what was a turning point? I know that you went from doing a very small amount in the beginning, and then you were able to figure out what you needed to focus on. So what would be some of the things that you would say to those agents?

Aaron Novello02:53

Yeah, so the first thing is that the money’s not in the service, it’s in the selling of the service.

02:59So in other words, people expect good service. They expect you to understand how to read contracts. They expect you to know how to negotiate. It’s kind of like the way I describe it to people: when you go to Whole Foods, you don’t jump up and down because they have groceries. You expect that, right? But the money’s not there.

03:14The money is learning how to sell the service. So if I’m giving a talk and there’s 500 agents in the room, I say, “Hey, do we all have the same kind of license that allows us to perform the same service?” The answer is yes. The question is, do we all make the same amount of money? The answer is no.

03:28And the question is, why? Some of us know how to sell the service better than others. So if I’m gonna use my time, which we get about 27,550 days on planet Earth, that’s the average. That’s about 75 years in the industrialized world. Women have a tendency to live more than men. I’m 42, so I’ve used over half.

03:47Whatever’s left, I’m gonna sleep through a third of it. So that whole exercise is just to demonstrate there’s not that much time. So if I’m gonna spend some of my time, I wanna make sure that I’m stacking it on top of an activity that compounds and is leveraged, right? And in our game, learning how to sell, learning how to have sales conversations, prospecting, and taking someone that you don’t know and then them deciding that they wanna sit down with you and have a conversation, you pre-qualify that, handle objections, get a contract signed.

04:21That is a skill that is worth stacking your time on top of. So at the beginning of my career, I didn’t know that. Once I got that accurate assessment, though, what I did is I role played twice a day, six days a week for three years in a row, because I recognized that there’s no security in this business.

04:39There’s only opportunities. So if I can get my skillset to such a degree that if there is an opportunity I’ll be able to execute on it, I’ve just created security for myself and my family. So that’s the first thing that I would say, and now what I would propose is, when a marketplace is great, it masks incompetency.

04:58And I mean that lovingly. In a previous market you could be a rumdum, show up in flip-flops and make 100 grand. That is no longer the case. You have to be very skilled. The last time we had four million transactions in the United States, which is what we’re projected to have, from six million, was in 2009, and we only had 990,000 agents.

05:18We have like 1.6 million agents. So this is like the Hunger Games of real estate. And when the tide goes out you can see who’s wearing pants or not. So for people that aren’t skilled and don’t know how to sell, it’s a rude kind of harsh awakening. But if you wanna ramp up that learning curve, I would propose spending lots of time in role playing and practicing to learn the actual conversation, so that way you can convert opportunities into contracts being signed.

Loida Velasquez05:46

Absolutely, and I feel that that is something that agents should be doing whether it’s now or two, five years ago. But for you specifically, what are you teaching your agents now that you weren’t maybe covering so much two years ago?

Aaron Novello05:58

Yeah, so it’s dealing with a shortage of inventory, because the truth is, 90%, hear me, 90% of everybody who owns a home right now and has a mortgage has a mortgage that’s less than 6%.

06:0960% have mortgages less than 4%. So I’m aware, people listening to this will shop on Amazon for three hours to save 20 bucks, and you get all mad because somebody doesn’t wanna sell their home and trade a 4% rate for an 8% rate. It’s like, of course they don’t wanna do that. So the only people that are gonna actually do something right now are people that have to.

06:32So those would be life events like death, divorce, job relocation, moving to assisted living facilities, things of that nature. So what I’m laying out is a comprehensive, intentional plan to actually deal with a shortage of inventory. You need to give me tactical information that I can use to actually deal with the marketplace, right?

06:51Because our ability to deal with reality is directly correlated with getting what we want, period. So here’s how we’re sharing with them to deal with reality. The first is having a niche of some sort, because the riches are in the niches. So for me, in Florida, we have the largest elderly population in the country.

07:1150% of our business was probate and estates. It’s market resistant. 65% of those homes are free and clear, and if they do wanna sell, very highly motivated. Now, across the country, that is still the case. It may not be in as high numbers as it is in Florida, because we have a super large elderly population, but it is a wonderful source.

07:31Also divorce, right? Happens 50-something percent of the time, and often there’s a home that needs to be sold. So picking a niche of some sort that you can learn, and take the time to learn now, that’ll serve you in perpetuity. ‘Cause what I’m aware of is those niches don’t go away when the marketplace gets great.

07:48I mean, they’re still there. We’re suggesting volume, because what we do does not change. How much of it we do and how we do it is what changes based on market dynamics. So in 2020, 2021, whatever, you could make seven contacts a day and make 100 grand. Now it probably needs to be three times that amount.

08:08So personally as an agent, I would propose 20 to 30 per day, five to six days a week. That sixth day, Saturdays, I did that religiously for my career. You add an extra 40-something days of prospecting, 50 days of prospecting, which is a whole month, right? And if you have a great appointment, you can go on it.

08:27If not, you just call it a day and do whatever you want. But doing that six days a week, and then if you wanted to really ramp up volume, having people make calls on your behalf, whether those be VAs or telemarketers, so now you’re making 100 contacts a day. So if you implement these things, you have a niche that you can go directly to that is a life event, right?

08:49You are getting people to raise their hand. You’re making 20, 30 contacts a day, plus you got people calling. You are directly dealing with the shortage of inventory, and you’ll still be able to get your unfair share in this environment.

Loida Velasquez09:00

Awesome. Now, is there a brutally honest piece of advice that you would give perhaps newer agents, or just agents, regarding prospecting now?

Aaron Novello09:09

Yeah, I mean, it’s just that, look, there’s a reason that 80%… There’s an 80% attrition rate. In the first year of getting a license, 80% of the people who get a license are doing something else within a year, and there’s a reason. Because they don’t understand what they’re getting into, which is a direct hardcore sales business that requires you to prospect.

09:30And the thing that I want everybody to really recognize is your job as a salesperson is to be in the presence of prospects, period. It is not to do paperwork. It is not to answer calls. It’s to be in the presence of prospects. And truthfully, I don’t care how you’re in the presence of prospects, as long as you’re doing it, right?

09:51So if for you prospecting is pumping out loads of content so you can be in front of people all the time, great. If it’s banging on the phone and prospecting six days a week and making 20, 30 contacts a day, great. My suggestion, do both. So that way you’re increasing the probability that you’re gonna be in the presence of prospects long enough.

10:11The other thing I would say is that anybody can do this job like a day a week. Some people can do it two days a week. There is very few people that can do it five to six days a week. If you can, and you can turn yourself into the type of person that can do that, if you know how to sell, you will be disproportionately rewarded for your efforts.

10:28You can literally make millions of dollars a year selling real estate. You could sell as much as you want. So what I would suggest is that, you might be saying to yourself, “Hey, why me? Why is this happening right now?” Here’s a really good question. Instead of it happening to you, why is it happening for you?

10:44So you wanna be a rockstar salesperson? Great, I’m gonna give you a tough environment, and it’ll force you to get faster, quicker, stronger. Because what I didn’t mention in that intro is in 2007 my mom had a brain bleed, and I shut down my business and moved marketplaces and started over from scratch, and then 2008 happened, which was an absolute collapse.

11:03Not what we’re experiencing now. This is like a little blip. That was financial institutions going out of business. That was 40% of everything on the market was foreclosures, and prices were going down 30% a year, right? So what I’m aware of is I would prefer that not have happened to my mom. At the same time, you know what that forced me to be?

11:21Faster, quicker, stronger. Stronger from a mental perspective. Better at prospecting, because I got thrown into an environment where everybody was running for the hills and telling me, “Hey, this is the worst time to be selling real estate,” when in fact I grew my business by 25% year over year, and it laid the foundation for doing thousands of transactions moving forward.

Loida Velasquez11:44

So for agents that are maybe looking to transition from being buyer’s agents to now solely focus on listings, what would be some of the first steps for them to start to take?

Aaron Novello11:54

Yeah, so one is they have to really make a decision. So it means to kill off any other option, right? So they have to decide, “This is what I’m gonna do.”

12:03So to give an example, once I made that decision, I didn’t even own an e-key for like 14 years. I couldn’t even show a property even if I wanted to. It wasn’t even an option. I didn’t even think about it as a way of making money. The only thing I focused on was prospect, lead follow-up, go on appointments, negotiate deals.

12:16The only way I personally earned income was through listing property and selling. So you have to make a decision. Not like, “Oh, I’m gonna dabble with it because I kind of have to right now.” It’s like, no, no. Because it’s gonna require a lot. When you think about it, I mean, there’s 20,000 agents in the multiple listing service, and in my multiple listing service there’s only 100 that do over 20 million in volume.

12:43That’s it. So you have like 20,000 people competing for 100 jobs. So if that’s what’s true, it’s like, okay, what would your schedule look like? Would you be a listing agent or work with buyers? What would your regimen be with how you take care of your body, and what would your regimen be with what you’re reading and how many books you’re reading?

13:06If I was to look at your library, would I say, “Hey, you’re a serious student of sales”? Or would I be like, “Hey, you’re a serious student of the Kardashians”? What are you focusing your time and energy on? So the first one is make a decision. The second is you have to ramp up the learning curve, because the challenge is that with working with buyers, there’s very little rejection.

13:27And if you’re gonna work with sellers, you’re gonna need to get a PhD in rejection. You’re gonna get rejected. I remember standing in front of a room of people. I was giving a talk. I’m like, “Yeah, I talked to 7,000 people this year. I got 142 to say yes.” And everybody looked at me like, “Oh my God.”

13:43I’m like, “Yeah, you’re just not willing to hear no that many times.” So you have to recognize that that’s what’s true, but you also have to ramp up the skill, because at first you’re gonna have to make like… At first I had to make like 200 contacts to set one appointment. Where now I could be on the phone and make 12 contacts and set two appointments.

14:00So you have to ramp up the skill set, really practice. I would get into a role play group. We have one. I know other people have one, but I would get proximity to somebody who can get you connected, get you the scripts. And then you gotta be in the presence of prospects, however that is, whether that’s knocking on doors, calling people.

14:18Start making those contacts. I would record what you sound like and send it to somebody, like a mentor or teacher or somebody who can give you some feedback as far as what’s going on and how you can improve. And then, if you sincerely do that and you’re making between 20, 30 contacts a day, you’re gonna set an…

14:37You don’t have to be good, you just have to be there. You’re gonna set an appointment. Every squirrel gets a nut. You’re gonna bump into somebody and then you’ll be off to the races.

Loida Velasquez14:45

And something that you mentioned a few minutes ago was you have role play, and also the proximity to someone that has already done it or is doing it at a high level.

14:53So go ahead and tell us about your coaching or programs that you have to help agents, in case anyone that’s listening is interested in joining them.

Aaron Novello15:01

Yeah. So a couple things. We have classes that are online in 23 countries in eight languages that teach people what to say and how to say it. So I recognized a lot of people would wanna role play with me, and I would say, “Well, I’m only one person, so how could I actually make myself available to more people?”

15:17And that’s where those courses came from. So whether it’s for sale by owners, expires… I did 100 deals, 75 were expireds one year. Pre-qual, the actual listing presentation, handling objections, presenting offers, you get all seven of those in a bundle. That’s a course online that you can watch whenever you want, as frequently as you want.

15:33There’s no limitations. We also have a role play group that guarantees a role play partner five days a week. All they have to do is just show up. We handle all the scheduling for them. If they don’t show up and they don’t give us 24-hour notice three times, we kick them out. And if they pay us and they don’t show up and give us 24-hour notice, we still kick them out.

15:51We don’t give them their money back, because the strength of the group is based on the consistency of its members. And what I’ve done is I’ve recreated the same environment for myself, which is where I role play twice a day, six days a week. So we have one in the morning at 7:30, which is for setting appointments, and we have one in the afternoon at 11:30 just for the listing presentation.

16:09‘Cause you can’t get good at something you don’t do all the time. You should not be practicing on potential listings, because they’re worth too much money, 10, 15, 20, 25,000 bucks, right? And then we have a group coaching call that I lead as well, which is for an hour once a week via Zoom, where I’m…

16:25I hop on and add value and share with people skills, mindset, systems, things of that nature, to help them to be as successful as they possibly can.

Loida Velasquez16:34

Awesome. So is there a website where people can go, or how can they find you?

Aaron Novello16:37

Yeah, aaronnovello.com.

Loida Velasquez16:39

Okay. There you go. So Aaron, thank you so much for all of the information that you’ve dropped today.

16:43I know that a lot of the agents that are watching this will now be able to implement a lot of the tips and strategies that you mentioned. What would be the last tip that you would leave everyone watching, just so that they can go out there and start doing?

Aaron Novello16:56

Yeah, so I think really recognizing that this is an enormous opportunity,

17:04so you might as well take full advantage of it.

Loida Velasquez17:06

There you go. Awesome. Well Aaron, thank you once again. We’re gonna make sure to put all of your links in the description box below. So with that being said, thank you everyone for watching, and we’ll see you on the next one.

Aaron Novello17:15

Awesome. Appreciate the opportunity.

Loida Velasquez17:17

Thank you.