How Brandon Bennett took three listings in a month and a half of daily phone calls

Aaron Wittenstein00:00

What are you most proud of, of what you’ve done?

Brandon Bennett00:02

I think, gosh, I think what I’m most proud of is just doing what nobody else seems to wanna do. The vast majority are always trying to find a shortcut to getting clients, you know? They don’t wanna make the phone calls, they wanna wait around, they wanna try to see what marketing techniques are going to bring people to them.

00:22I think unless you’ve already sort of made a name for yourself, that stuff just simply doesn’t work. I’ve tried some of those other techniques, and really, so far what’s worked for me is just sitting down and making phone calls. And honestly, since I’ve got the Vulcan7 software, the second I decided to actually sit down and do the hard work, all of a sudden they just started coming in.

00:45Since I’ve got the Vulcan7 software, probably about a month and a half ago, that’s really when I started dedicating the time to making these phone calls. In that amount of time, I’ve got three listings, and before that it was a lot of doing the creative avoidance. If I just watch enough videos, if I listen to people do it, if I talk to people, if I go hang out at some open houses and stuff, then maybe something will just fall in my lap.

01:10But the second I decided to actually sit down and do the hard work, all of a sudden they just started coming in.

Aaron Wittenstein01:36

Hey, what’s going on everybody? Hope all is well and good. It’s Aaron Wittenstein, and we’re here with Vulcan7 Roadmap. This is how we teach you to take an additional one, two, three, 53 listings a week. And we have a friend of mine here, Mr. Brandon Bennett from wonderful Pensacola, Florida. My friend, how you doing today?

Brandon Bennett01:54

I’m doing very well. How are you?

Aaron Wittenstein01:56

I’m doing well. I’m doing well. So did you prospect today?

Brandon Bennett02:01

I did. I did a little bit of prospecting this morning. I had a conversation with a new listing. Had to make a few changes to the agreement to make him agreeable on everything. And so he should be getting back with me shortly, getting that signed, and we’ll have another one in the bag.

Aaron Wittenstein02:18

There we go. That’s what I’m talking about. So, all right, I’ll just get at it here. Brandon, how long have you been in the business for?

Brandon Bennett02:26

I’ve been here since August. That’s when I started, this August, this year.

Aaron Wittenstein02:31

August of this year. So you’ve been… Now, have you just been in the business since August, or have you been prospecting since August?

Brandon Bennett02:39

Yeah, I got my license in late July and started with Keller Williams about the first week of August, so.

Aaron Wittenstein02:49

Hmm. Well, if you don’t mind me asking, you’re coming into an interesting market is the best way to put it, yet what did you do before real estate?

Brandon Bennett02:58

I actually was an automotive paint technician.

Aaron Wittenstein03:03

Interesting.

03:03And all right, so… And then how did you go from that into real estate? Did you just wake up one morning and you’re like, “I’ve seen Selling Sunset too many times, and it’s just time to get into this?” Or what made you do that?

Brandon Bennett03:19

Okay. So a couple of things.

03:20I’ve bought and sold a couple properties in the past, and I worked with Keller Williams agents, one particularly that I really liked. And she kind of urged me, if I ever decided to make a career change, she thought I should give real estate a shot, and she thought that I would be good at it.

03:37And an automotive painter is a commission-based job, so you get in what you put out, right? The more work you can accomplish, the better the paycheck at the end of the week. And so I always excelled in that type of job. And so this just seemed like something I’d like to give a try.

Aaron Wittenstein03:55

Got it. Okay. So no, that’s very interesting, man. How do you like it?

Brandon Bennett03:59

I actually do enjoy it. I’ve always liked interacting with people, being able to solve problems and help people, and I’ve felt really blessed in the communications that I’ve had with people.

04:13You know how it goes, the good, the bad, and the ugly every time you get on the phone and talk to somebody, and hopefully you get a chance to talk to somebody. But with the few listings that I’ve got so far, it’s been an enjoyable experience.

Aaron Wittenstein04:27

That’s great. So what do you like to call?

04:30You like expireds, FSBO, circle dialing? What’s your favorite?

Brandon Bennett04:37

Okay. So I guess my favorite would be expireds. That’s what I’ve had the most success with. I have tried FSBOs. I mean, I’ve tried a little bit of everything, I think, with the exception of door knocking around neighborhoods.

04:48Except if I’m doing an open house, I’ll do a little bit of door knocking around the neighborhood. But expireds seem to be a sweet spot for me right now.

Aaron Wittenstein04:58

Yeah, I have to say, there’s nothing I enjoy more than calling a brand-new fresh expired first thing in the morning. It was actually funny, today I called, I didn’t call two, I called more than two expireds, but it was a good day.

05:09It was a good day. I set two appointments today. Yet it turned out both of them were in the same subdivision about a block away from… And you can’t make this stuff up, okay? It was just so funny how that worked. But, all right, so you’re calling expireds. Do you have a system in place?

05:28What does that look like? What time are you starting in the morning? Talk to me.

Brandon Bennett05:33

Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So I get to the office between 8:00 and 8:30 and get everything set up, pull up my Vulcan7 and my local MLS, maybe even Zillow. And I just pull up the tab that brings me all the expireds, withdrawns, and cancels on Vulcan7.

05:53And so I’ve tried a few different things. I’ve tried going way back about a year and calling those people up. And then sometimes I’ll hit some pretty fresh ones, and then everything kind of in between. And so I just get my list and I give somebody a call. I actually try to find a price point that seems to be selling the best right now from what I can see.

06:19And so, unfortunately, million-dollar properties aren’t selling really well right now, so I’ll stick under 500,000. I try to be sort of, what’s the word I’m looking for? Specific when I’m calling people. And I try to look their property up real quick on the MLS just to get a brief kind of idea of what the property was like, all the little details about it, so I’ve got something in my mind when I actually get ahold of that person.

06:49And when I get ahold of them, I just tell them who I am, who I work with, and I apologize for probably being the millionth real estate agent to call them. Acknowledge their frustration right off the bat. And just ask them if they’re still interested, what their motivation was when they were selling it, and just a little bit of information about them, why their house didn’t sell.

07:18The typical questions.

Aaron Wittenstein07:21

Yeah. I have two different scripts that I work with now. The first one is, how in the world did that home not sell? It’s my first script. And what I found works is exactly what you just said right there, is I’d be like, “I’m sure I’m the 43rd realtor to call you in the last 17 minutes,” yet

07:35you know. And that seems to… It lightens the load, if you will, and you kinda let the numbers do a little bit of the lifting on that end. So would you be open to giving me a call, kinda hearing what you got? Would that be okay?

Brandon Bennett07:51

Yeah, let’s do it.

Aaron Wittenstein07:52

All right. Give me a shout.

07:53Let’s say it’s 8:43 in the morning and I’ve been called by 18 agents. Give me a call. Give me a call, Brandon.

Brandon Bennett08:05

Okay. All right. Ring, ring.

Aaron Wittenstein08:07

Hello?

Brandon Bennett08:09

Hey, good morning. Is this Aaron?

Aaron Wittenstein08:10

This is. How can I… Are you another realtor?

Brandon Bennett08:14

Yes, sir. Hey, I know you’re probably getting blasted with phone calls from realtors about your property that you had listed recently, right?

Aaron Wittenstein08:21

Mm, you have no idea. You’re like the 140th.

Brandon Bennett08:26

Well, I’m sorry about that, but if you did have just a quick moment, I am with Keller Williams Realty. I’m a local realtor, and if you had just a brief moment, I’d kinda like to touch base with you on the property that you had for sale recently.

08:40I noticed that it just came off the market. Did you take that off the market?

Aaron Wittenstein08:45

That’s a good one. No. I honestly, I don’t even know what happened. All I know is, is we had our house up for sale, and now we’re getting a bunch of phone calls.

Brandon Bennett08:54

Okay. All right. So you didn’t even realize that it was basically expired at this point, huh?

Aaron Wittenstein08:59

What do you mean by… like, what is that? I should probably call my realtor, huh?

Brandon Bennett09:05

Well, sure, you can call your realtor. That’s up to you. So yeah, you apparently had an agreement with them to list your property for a certain period of time, and I guess it didn’t sell during that period of time, so the MLS will say, “Okay, it’s not active anymore.”

09:22And so I like to just give folks a call, touch base with them and see if there was a particular reason why it came off the market, or if they took it off the market, just to see if you were still interested in selling it.

Aaron Wittenstein09:37

I mean, I guess so, if we got the right price, you know.

09:40I mean, we had it up for so long, you know what I mean? It was up for so long, and I guess if we could get the right price, we’d still consider selling it. But I think we may wind up going back with our previous realtor. It’s somebody we know.

Brandon Bennett09:56

It’s somebody you know, a good friend of yours?

Aaron Wittenstein09:58

Nah, an acquaintance, cousin’s cousin type of thing.

Brandon Bennett10:01

Okay. Okay. Well, that’s totally understandable. I hear that all the time and if that’s the way somebody wants to go, I get it. But let me ask you this. Since that realtor couldn’t get the property sold, and there’s really only a couple of major factors on why a property doesn’t sell, would you be at least interested in interviewing other agents to see what they could offer you and actually get that home sold for you?

Aaron Wittenstein10:29

Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I guess so. I guess I’d be open to it.

Brandon Bennett10:41

Well, I’d love to meet with you, just to show you what my team has to offer. No obligation, just a quick 15, 20 minutes. I can show you how I get homes sold. My team has been pretty successful in the market that we’re having right now.

10:58And you look like you have a beautiful property, and I’m not sure why it didn’t sell. But I’d love to show you what we do, how we get homes sold, and see if it makes sense for you to even work with me. ‘Cause let’s be honest, if you don’t like me, if you don’t like what I present to you, you’re not gonna work with me, and that’s totally fine.

11:19I’m fine with that. But let’s just have a brief meeting. I’ll show you what I can offer, and you decide if it makes sense for you. How does that sound?

Aaron Wittenstein11:27

Sounds fair to me.

Brandon Bennett11:29

All right, cool. Well, this afternoon I have a couple of openings. Would 4:00, 5:00 work for you?

Aaron Wittenstein11:37

Yeah, let’s do like 4:30.

Brandon Bennett11:40

4:30?

Aaron Wittenstein11:40

Mm-hmm.

Brandon Bennett11:41

All right, Aaron, that sounds wonderful. So I’ll see you at 123 Main Street at 4:30.

Aaron Wittenstein11:47

Sounds good. Thank you for your time.

Brandon Bennett11:49

I appreciate your time, Aaron. Thank you very much.

Aaron Wittenstein11:52

You know what’s crazy? So August, September, October, like three and a half months ago, okay? And how can I put this?

12:01You’re unfazed, number one, by anything that I said. All right? And number two, it’s just very smooth. You know what I mean? I mean, yeah, everybody’s got their ups and their downs and stuff, but, and that’s just me paying attention, heavily paying attention, ’cause that’s what I do.

12:17Yet you were smooth and unfazed throughout the entire process, and you’ve been doing this for, relatively speaking, a short period of time. Are you practicing on a regular basis or what does that look like?

Brandon Bennett12:28

Well, the team that I’m with, we do, yeah, five days a week for about an hour, we do script and role play.

12:37And I’ll be totally honest with you.

12:40I’ve not been crazy about a lot of the scripts that we go through, and I listen to a couple of people on YouTube I like. You probably heard of a guy named Brandon Mulrenin.

Aaron Wittenstein12:54

Yep. Yep. Good, good, good guy. Very good guy. Very good guy. Yep.

Brandon Bennett12:57

Yeah.

12:57So I like what he has to offer. I like his approach and you could probably tell I’m using a little bit of his scripting when I’m talking to people and it just works for me, you know? So it is helpful to do script and role play, but I think the type of scripts that you use that are relevant to what’s happening right now are critical when you’re doing that.

13:22‘Cause what’s the point in telling somebody, that you’re calling, when you know the market isn’t great, and you shouldn’t tell them that the market’s great right now, you know? People are buying and selling homes. They always are, you know? So there’s that. And the typical replies that people have, mortgage, interest rates and all that stuff that’s happening right now.

13:47So I like to address whatever issues are happening right now because obviously, even though I haven’t been in this for very long, it changes throughout the years and seasons, people’s motivations and what’s making them want to sell and not want to sell and all that kind of stuff.

14:04So I think the right scripts are really great practice. But really nothing beats just having the conversation with real people, you know? ‘Cause it’s easy to be agreeable when you and I are talking about it, but you know as well as I do that that’s typically not how the conversation goes.

Aaron Wittenstein14:27

Oh, yeah. I mean, what I’ve always found is you can script 60 to 70% of the conversation. You can script your intro, you can script your hook, you can script your motivation, your information, but after that, I don’t wanna say it’s wild, I mean, it’s Wild West. You have to be able to hold a conversation and meet them

14:45where they are, right?

Brandon Bennett14:47

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, as soon as you get into the conversation, and hopefully you get into a conversation, I think sometimes that’s the hardest part, is actually getting into a conversation. And then based on the person that you’re talking to, you gotta kinda just go with it.

Aaron Wittenstein15:07

Exactly. And it’s just, I mean, it’s relating with people on a level where they’re like, “Wait a second, I don’t know this guy, but he’s okay.” You know what I mean? ‘Cause, tell me if you disagree with me on this, like I said, it’s hard to build that rapport over the phone.

15:24It’s a challenge, you know? You can do that every now and again. Yet it’s building that like, “You know what? This guy sounds okay. He sounds better than the other people.” Right? I mean, does that make sense?

Brandon Bennett15:36

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I’ve heard a lot of people scripting and it sounds very robotic, just kind of going from a sheet of questions and possible answers that they’re staring at while they’re having this conversation.

15:48And after a little while, we all know the typical questions to ask. We all know the typical responses that people give. And it’s just kind of a matter of finding that pain point for people and their motivation and just trying to bring them back to that point where, why were you even selling this house?

16:11Oh, you wanted to move closer to family. That’s a great reason, and a lot of people are doing that. And so let’s renew that desire that you had to get that done, you know? Let’s see if we can make it happen for you.

Aaron Wittenstein16:25

Exactly. ‘Cause… Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Brandon Bennett16:26

And at least consider it.

Aaron Wittenstein16:28

Yeah, ’cause here’s one thing. May I give you a piece of feedback on the role play that we did? Is that cool with you?

Brandon Bennett16:33

100%.

Aaron Wittenstein16:34

All right. Cool. Thank you. Feedback is the breakfast of champ… No. So here’s the… Like, when you closed me at the end, you had me, okay? Then what happened was, is you started continually talking at that point, where it’s like what you could’ve…

16:49Here’s what I’ll just say, here’s what I do. You say, like Brandy says, “Would you meet with me?” So you’re saying… I’m like, “You know what? I’ll meet with you.” Got it. “Would you be offended if I stopped by Tuesday at 3:00, or would 4:00 be better?”

17:05What are you gonna say? “Yes, I’d be offended by that”? And that line right there, it works very… Just a suggestion, okay? Because once you got ’em, reel ’em in, close ’em, give them your info, grab their info, get ’em off the phone, right? And that line has worked for me for a very, very long time.

17:23But like I said, man, for somebody that’s been doing this since August, you’re light years ahead. And I mean, like I said, whether you’re learning it or not or what you got going on… How many hours a day are you calling right now, would you say, roughly?

Brandon Bennett17:42

Ooh, it does depend, you know. Of course, the busier we get, the easier it is to, I guess, shave some of that lead generation time off.

17:52But I would say, 8:30, I mean, a solid two or three hours

Aaron Wittenstein17:58

Every day?

Brandon Bennett17:58

normally every day. Sometimes I would make calls well into the afternoon if I didn’t have any appointments set or anything really important going on. I would just continue to do it throughout the day and just start writing them down, making notes on every single conversation I have, plugging those notes in.

18:15And then at the end of the day, going back over my notes and starting to get letters, handwritten letters prepared for everybody that I had contact with.

Aaron Wittenstein18:27

Okay. Two questions. I’ll run it back to the first one. What are you putting in the handwritten letters?

Brandon Bennett18:33

Well, some of it is kind of personalized based on the conversation that we have, and if we had just a very brief conversation, like less than 10 seconds, “Hey, yeah, my house didn’t sell.

18:46I’m not interested in selling it right now. I’m at work, I gotta go,” yada, yada, yada, that kind of thing. So I’m like, “Hey, well, okay,” at least they opened up briefly. And so I just thank them for their time. I appreciate them taking the time to have a brief conversation with me, and I just put my card in there and say, if they ever need a good agent, they have any questions, they’re more than welcome to reach out to me, and thank you very much.

Aaron Wittenstein19:12

Yeah. So it’s…

Brandon Bennett19:13

Just sort of sweet, you know?

Aaron Wittenstein19:14

Yeah, customized to each person, which makes sense. Hey, are you good with your numbers yet? I mean, have you started breaking down numbers and what it takes, how many contacts and all that stuff? Are you there yet or no?

Brandon Bennett19:25

Yeah, we’ve gone over some goals and what my goal is at the end of the year.

19:29So how many phone calls I need to make, how many contacts, all that kind of stuff in order to hit that goal, and it is a struggle. My goal’s pretty high, with the market being what it is. But what’s the point in setting a goal if it’s not going to be high?

19:49You know what I mean?

19:50So based on my peers who have been doing it for about the same amount of time that I have, give or take a month or two, I am quite a bit ahead of them. Nobody’s really doing the cold calling. And I think it’s just because for a lot of people, that’s the most difficult thing to do, is just pick up the phone and deal with rejection.

20:12But I just detach myself from the end result and just get into it, you know? It’s gonna be what it’s gonna be, but you gotta do it.

Aaron Wittenstein20:22

May I ask what your goal is for next year?

Brandon Bennett20:27

My goal is $140,000 a year.

Aaron Wittenstein20:30

Very nice. Very nice. Very nice. And just from what you’re telling me right now, from the activity you’re putting in, I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that you’re gonna hit that number.

20:40You know what I mean? I wouldn’t doubt you, you build up on that and there’s even more money to be had, or more people to help and more houses to sell, when it comes to that. All right, so this is interesting because I ask this question a lot, actually to every person that comes in, but I’ve never really spoken to a brand new agent, in essence what you are.

21:00Let’s say a brand spanking new agent, okay, fresh outta school, comes by, you’re sitting in your office, knocks on the door, says, “Brandon, I gotta ask you, can you give me one piece of advice?” What would that piece of advice be?

Brandon Bennett21:14

I would say get comfortable with hearing no. Dedicate the time, at least a couple of hours every morning, to making phone calls and talking to people, ’cause you can spend all day learning how to do it, watching other people doing it, getting advice from people who are doing it, but if you don’t do it yourself, you’re never gonna learn, just period.

21:40You gotta get out there.

Aaron Wittenstein21:42

Got it. So let me get this straight. You have to put in the activity to be able to get the results. Is that right?

Brandon Bennett21:49

You’ve gotta do the most difficult part of it, and that’s talk to people about real estate.

Aaron Wittenstein21:55

Exactly. Exactly. So, but let me just… So what…

21:59What are you most proud of, of what you’ve done? You know what I mean? Production-wise, what are you most proud of? When you look at it you’re like, “This is awesome.” What is that?

Brandon Bennett22:09

I think… Gosh, I think what I’m most proud of is just doing what nobody else seems to wanna do.

22:17You know? And I say nobody else, and I’m sure there’s tons of people who are doing it, but I think the vast majority are always trying to find a shortcut to getting clients. You know? They don’t wanna make the phone calls. They want to buy leads, and even that requires phone calls. They wanna wait around.

22:34They wanna try to see what marketing techniques are going to bring people to them. And I think unless you’ve already sort of made a name for yourself, that stuff just simply doesn’t work, or it doesn’t work very well. And I’ve tried some of those other techniques, and really so far what’s worked for me is just sitting down and making phone calls.

Aaron Wittenstein22:59

And here’s what I’ll tell you, my friend, don’t stop. You know what I mean? You build that muscle memory up. You put in three hours a day, five days a week, and you’ll… Like, when you do that, you’re already doing it, you know what I mean? So it’s not like you’re not doing it. You’re already putting in the work that needs to be put in, and like I said, 140, you’re gonna crush 140.

23:18I mean, you just have to, is the best way to put it.

Brandon Bennett23:24

Right. No, absolutely. And honestly, since I’ve got the Vulcan7 software, probably about a month and a half ago, that’s really when I started dedicating the time to making these phone calls. So let’s just say in about a month and a half’s time, and that’s with calling a few FSBOs, which I just kinda like to call FSBOs every once in a while because they have their own challenges, and it’s easy to get appointments with them.

23:54But a lot of expireds, doing some circle prospecting with a couple of listings that I have gotten, and just been doing that part of it. But in that amount of time, I’ve got three listings in about a month and a half, and before that it was a lot of doing the creative avoidance, you know.

24:16If I just watch enough videos, if I listen to people do it, if I talk to people, if I go hang out at some open houses and stuff, then maybe something will just fall in my lap. But the second I decided to actually sit down and do the hard work, all of a sudden they just started coming in. And a couple of them have been from when I did a little bit of phone call lead generation time previous to getting Vulcan7, and just nurturing those leads.

24:42Just keeping in touch with them. The whole follow-up thing I think is critical ’cause very few people are ready to go right now today when you make that phone call, you know? You’ve gotta just kinda keep touching them as the weeks go by, and some of them will eventually be like, “Wow, this guy’s not just one and done.”

Aaron Wittenstein25:05

Exactly. Exactly. No, it’s in this follow-up. It’s all in the follow-up. I always say 11% is now, 89% is later. It’s just the way that it is. So, all right. So my friend, give me your, what am I trying to say here? Your last words, if you will, to all the Vulcan7 people here.

Brandon Bennett25:25

All right, my last words. So hey, everybody. The most difficult part is the thing that really gives you the most positive results, you know? And I would say just do it, you know? Don’t hold back. Don’t try to find some magic bullet. It’s great to learn. It’s great to watch other people do it.

25:46But unless you do it yourself, it’s never going to happen. I mean, period. You’ve gotta dedicate yourself to the most important part, and that’s talking to people about buying and selling homes. And honestly, from my perspective, being on the listing side has been much better than just trying to be on the buyer side.

26:09And when you capture somebody on the listing side, you’ve found what could be a friend. You’ve found somebody that trusts you and that’s, I don’t know, that’s worth… It’s priceless. It really is priceless.

Aaron Wittenstein26:26

I agree. All right, my friend. So let’s say someone has a listing in Pensacola, Florida, and they’re like, “I gotta refer this out to somebody.”

26:34How do they get in touch with you, Brandon?

Brandon Bennett26:37

Oh, 100%. Well, they can get in touch with me. They can give me a phone call, if it’s all right if I give my number out.

Aaron Wittenstein26:43

Please, yeah. Go right ahead.

Brandon Bennett26:45

Okay. Well, my number is 850-876-0981. I’m a part of the AceCon team powered by Keller Williams, so you can also find me that way.

Aaron Wittenstein26:59

Beautiful. All right, my friend. This was great. Thank you so much for doing this. I’m gonna be staying in touch with you, all right? Just so you know that, because next year I wanna see how much you just do… I mean, this is amazing what you’re doing. So shake hands. Thank you very much, my friend. It was an absolute pleasure.

27:12And, all right, guys. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Well, thank you. You’re very welcome. Everybody, thank you so much for hanging out with us, Vulcan7 Roadmap, and look for other episodes coming down the pipe. Take care.