How James Mattz sold over 5,000 properties as a lister after a million-plus dials

James Mattz00:00

I tell people all the time, I probably only did, I don’t know, maybe three or four buyer deals in my life. We’ve sold over 5,000 properties over this timeframe, and I’ve never worked with a buyer, and it’s all been listings. All listings. Lead generation in the morning, appointments and conversion in the afternoon, and it starts over every day.

00:20And so of course, I had to have a very sound system in place for managing that funnel, managing the follow-up, and being able to track a huge amount of data, because I was talking to so many people over a period of time.

Loida Velasquez00:43

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a brand-new episode of Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors, where we bring you some of the best in the industry to share with you their tips and strategies so that you can implement them in your business immediately. On today’s episode, we’re gonna be talking about a topic that perhaps some of you might be slacking on, and that is consistency, and also how important follow-up and the power of follow-up is.

01:07So with that being said, I’m gonna go ahead and bring on today’s guest, James Mattz. Welcome, James.

James Mattz01:14

Good afternoon.

Loida Velasquez01:16

James, for everyone that’s tuning in, that’s watching, that maybe is not too familiar with you, just go ahead and share with us a little bit about your background.

James Mattz01:24

Well, I have been in this business long enough to now be called the old-timer.

01:31This is my 40th year in the business, and it has just been an incredible experience. I came in early. I started in corporate America out of college with Xerox Corporation and then with IBM, and found my way into the real estate business by being an investor, and the rest is history.

01:55Someone asked me had I ever considered selling real estate, and I thought that you couldn’t make money in this business, and boy did I find out that that wasn’t true.

Loida Velasquez02:07

So it took just one conversation from someone for you to get interested in real estate?

James Mattz02:13

Well, I had a mentor that owned multifamily properties.

02:19His son and I cleaned the hallways in his multifamily properties. And from that encounter, I said I was gonna buy multifamily properties when I was able to do so. And so when I got into corporate America, that was the first thing I did: saved my money and bought multifamily property.

02:37And over the course of a few years I bought eight apartment buildings, and the rest is history. It’s interesting, I don’t own any more multifamily, because at the time my dad was alive, and he was sort of taking care of them for me. But as he sort of slowed down and said that he didn’t wanna do it anymore, I didn’t wanna do it either,

02:59as far as the management of the day-to-day. And so I’ve been doing real estate ever since.

Loida Velasquez03:05

That’s so awesome. That’s an awesome story. I love to ask all of my guests what they used to do before. So it’s great to hear, because I feel like we all have such different stories in how we got into the business.

03:17So obviously you have a lot of experience helping people buy, sell, teaching agents. Currently, what does your business look like? Are you just mostly focused on coaching agents?

James Mattz03:29

Well, I do a lot of coaching and have over a long period of time. But as far as my business, I have a team of 12.

03:40It’s mostly heavy back office infrastructure. It’s four agents and myself, five, and everyone else is support. So we have a transaction manager, administrative manager. We have a couple people in our lead generation department, a couple people in our marketing department. I also have an operations director that sort of keeps everything together, flowing, et cetera, and my role is listing.

04:11I tell people all the time, I probably only did, I don’t know, maybe three or four buyer deals in my life. We’ve sold over 5,000 properties over this timeframe, and I’ve never worked with a buyer, and it’s all been listings. All listings. And for many years it was all expireds, cancels and for sale by owners.

04:33I was just a lister. Lead generation in the morning, appointments and conversion in the afternoon, and it starts over every day. And so of course, for the nature of our topic, I had to have a very sound system in place for managing that funnel, managing the follow-up, and being able to track a huge amount of data, because I was talking to so many people over a period of time.

Loida Velasquez05:01

Yes. Wow, I can only imagine. And that’s so awesome to hear that you were focusing on listings, because I’m sure that someone that’s watching this might be thinking to themselves, and I wanna ask you the question, maybe they’ve been focusing on buyers, but they’re ready to make that transition to just focus on listings.

05:17What advice would you have for them?

James Mattz05:20

Well, three things. Number one, you have to understand that you have to build the funnel. So if in fact you’ve been working with buyers, I would say you continue to work on buyers, but you pivot and you allocate the necessary time to start building the seller funnel.

05:39Number two, you have to be consistent. Like anything else, it might take you three, four, five, six, whatever timeframe it takes is the timeframe that it takes in order to build the funnel of sellers, and that is a function of having the conversations every day. When I first started out, I went from using the classified ads, cutting them out, putting them on a piece of white paper with clear tape and using daily sheets like that.

06:13And then we got sophisticated with, I think Warnock had for sale by owners and expireds, cancels, and then it was Landvoice, and then I got turned on to Vulcan7. And so the systems became more sophisticated in delivering the data. But I was calling them every day. So my point is you have to reach out to these individuals daily without fail, Monday through Friday, Saturdays and Sundays if you need to.

06:44And then the other thing I used to do, I used to make 100 contacts a day because I was double dialing. I had a Plantronics headset in one ear attached to one phone, a Plantronics headset into another phone, and I was double dialing. And sometimes, because I knew my conversation pattern so well, I was having two conversations at the same time.

07:05And that was just one of those things that I could do because I had so much time on task. My team did an exercise just looking at it. They say that I made over a million dials and several hundred thousand contacts. So of course, when you’ve had that many conversations, you have mastered

07:30the conversation patterns, which I think is key. But you have to be consistent. And then three, you have to have the necessary follow-up system where you can put people who you need to talk to two days from now, seven days from now, 30 days from now, six months from now. It has to be pointed, it has to be very systematized, and you have to be able to just implement it and execute it daily and allow the system to tell you who you need to follow up with.

08:04Because if you’re trying to do it by memory, or you’re trying to do it by a napkin or a piece of paper, you’re gonna let stuff slip through the cracks. And so I never let anything slip through the cracks, because my systems told me who I need to talk to daily.

Loida Velasquez08:19

Yeah. Wow. Even just hearing you say the amount of contacts and dials and all of that, I can only imagine what it would’ve been like to be a fly on the wall, with you with your two different headsets, and just seeing you executing.

08:34‘Cause just like you say, this is master level. Sometimes we see agents, they want to be at that level, but they rarely wanna put in the work. But for someone that’s maybe struggling with consistency because they say, “You know what? I’m calling. I’m not setting as many appointments as I would like to, and I’m just not getting…

08:55I’m losing motivation,” pretty much, let’s say that. What would you say to them?

James Mattz09:01

Well, that’s what they call the monkey on your back syndrome. See, the thing is, if you look at a street, or a sidewalk, and then you have to get across to the other side, in this business, all of the frustration of not getting the conversions that you want, not getting the rapport building that you want, that’s just the dues you have to pay to get to the other side of the street.

09:36Now, the key thing is this, and this is simple. Most people track the conversions that they get. I used to track the rejection that I got. And so what I used to do is I would say, “Okay, I…” It wasn’t I wanna make 20 contacts a day, or I wanna make 100 contacts a day, or whatever it was. I wanted to be told no so many times a day.

10:04So what happened was when I pivoted my mindset to I wanna get 50 rejections a day, that’s 50 a day, that’s 250 a week, that’s 1,000 a month, that’s 12,000 nos, and you cannot tell me, if you’re tracking your nos like that, there’s no way, it’s impossible that you are not getting better in your skills, you are not getting better in your conversation patterns, and you’re not getting better in your conversions.

10:40Now, you will see at the beginning that, man, I did get 250 nos. But guess what you did if you put yourself in a position to get told no 250 times this week? That’s powerful.

Loida Velasquez10:55

Yeah. Absolutely. I think definitely that’s something that a lot of agents probably haven’t even thought of. Why should I be tracking my nos?

11:05But the more nos that you get, you’re gonna get a lot of yeses as well.

James Mattz11:09

I used to always say that I wasn’t in the real estate business, I was in the rejection business.

Loida Velasquez11:15

Yep. So as you were making 100 contacts a day, at what time would you start, and typically when would your day be over?

James Mattz11:25

Well, I would start every day, I would be in the office between 7:00 and 7:30 every morning.

11:32I would get on the phone about a quarter to, and I would be on the phone till 12 o’clock every day without fail.

11:41I even had coaches that told me, “James,” and they were right, in order for me to grow in my business, I had to get off the phone, because it had become so habitual that I couldn’t scale.

11:55‘Cause you can’t scale what I do by myself. And I learned that the hard way. But the skill that it provided me with is second to none, because I don’t think, and I know there’s a lot of coaches out there selling different concepts and strategies and methodologies, I don’t think there’s no one in the country that have made as many dials that I’ve had, and can teach how to set appointments over the telephone, and objection handling over the telephone.

12:33I know that there’s some good ones out there. One of my good friends, Jeff Quinlan, I just seen a tape that he did, and man, he was good. But I’m the godfather.

Loida Velasquez12:44

There you go. Okay. Yes, I love it. So when it comes to setting appointments, I know that a lot of agents struggle with that.

12:52It’s like they have someone over the phone, but they struggle to set those appointments. I know you have something that you’re working on that’s gonna help agents with this specifically, but what do you think is the biggest mistake as to why they’re not setting appointments, period?

James Mattz13:06

Because they get frustrated as the conversation turns outside of where they think it ought to end. For example, you’re on the phone and somebody says, “Hello, this is James Mattz. I’m calling regarding a property at 123 Main Street.” “Oh, I don’t wanna talk to no agents. I don’t have time for this.” And then they get flustered.

13:32And one of the things that I do is, “Man, I see that I’ve called you at a bad time, and I apologize for that. I’ll talk to you at another time.” Period. Because I’m not looking to try to figure out how to turn a hard no into an easy yes. Because I gotta stay on the phone until I can get those easier yeses.

13:58But the key thing is, I’ve had people that cursed me, names that I have never heard mentioned before. That became some of my best clients.

14:14Not because of the initial conversation. It’s because I followed back up with them.

14:21So the first thing is, you have to understand that if the call isn’t going the way you want, get off the phone and call the next person.

14:29But the other thing is, people think that they can get the conversion through their talking and their presentation, and that’s not it. You get the conversion through your questions. You question your way to the rapport. So for example, I get on the phone, and this is some of the scripts I used to use a long time ago.

15:00I’ll try it with you.

Loida Velasquez15:02

Okay.

James Mattz15:02

Hi, how do you pronounce your first name?

Loida Velasquez15:07

Loida.

James Mattz15:08

Loida. Hi, Loida. This is James Mattz. I’m with Keller Williams, and I was calling regarding your property at 123 Main Street. I saw it came off the market, and I was really hoping that you might still consider a buyer.

15:22Would you?

Loida Velasquez15:24

You know what? At this point, we’re not sure. We’re just getting so many calls this morning, and we might just hold off on putting it back for sale.

James Mattz15:33

And certainly I can understand all the calls. I was looking at some of the pictures. Gorgeous home. In your opinion, why do you think it didn’t sell?

Loida Velasquez15:44

Well, you know what? The agent said that the home was probably gonna go under contract within 30 days. We had a lot of activity and showings, but we just didn’t get an offer, and then the agent just stopped reaching out. So I’m not really sure what happened.

James Mattz16:00

Well, I gotta tell you, I am so shocked by that, because just looking in your market, there have been eight properties that have closed in your area in the last 90 days.

16:12Let me ask you, where were you planning on moving to next?

Loida Velasquez16:17

Well, we just wanted to downsize. We wanted to stay locally here in the area, just something smaller, a two bedroom. It’s just my husband and I. The kids have already gone off to college.

James Mattz16:28

So what I’m hearing you say, you’re looking to downsize because the present configuration of the home doesn’t really meet the needs that you see you and your husband having going forward.

16:40Is that correct?

Loida Velasquez16:42

Yeah. It’s just too big. We don’t need all of this space. We’d rather have something small just for the two of us.

James Mattz16:49

And so if there was someone that would buy your home at a price that would get you the dollars you’re looking to net out at the closing, so that you can get to the configuration lifestyle that you want, is this something that you can see yourself considering?

Loida Velasquez17:07

Possibly. If there was an actual buyer that was qualified, maybe. I’d have to talk to my husband about it. At this point, we’re just kinda frustrated, and we’ve been getting calls since 7:00 this morning.

James Mattz17:22

Well, you know what? I can certainly sense, just in the conversation that we’re having, the frustration that you are experiencing.

17:29And right now, there are buyers that are looking for homes like yours. Today is Thursday. Wednesday, I’m sorry. I’m gonna be in your area tomorrow and Monday looking at other sellers’ homes. Be a good day for me to come out and take a look at it, either one, tomorrow or Monday.

Loida Velasquez17:54

You know what, at this point, usually our schedules are just kind of crazy.

18:01Maybe Monday, but I mean, if you come, you just wanna take a look at the house and that’s it?

James Mattz18:07

Absolutely. And let’s see. I’m gonna be in that area Monday between 1:00 and 2:00, or 4:00 and 5:00. Which would be better?

Loida Velasquez18:16

Probably later in the day. That’s when…

James Mattz18:18

Later in the day.

Loida Velasquez18:19

Both of us are here. Yeah.

James Mattz18:20

Why don’t we do this?

18:21I’ll pencil it in for Monday afternoon, and of course, I’ll follow back up with you prior just to reconfirm. Would that be okay?

Loida Velasquez18:31

Yeah, that’s fine. That works.

James Mattz18:33

Awesome. Awesome. Okay. So again, that’s just an example. I just asked you questions.

18:41I was asking you questions. I wasn’t saying I was the best.

18:44I wasn’t saying I was the this or the that, and the blah, blah, blah. All I did was ask you questions, and the formula is you have to do it with questions, and then you do it with understanding or confirmation. And then you go to the next question, and then you go to confirmation. And then you go to question and confirmation, and question and confirmation, until you weave the conversation to the appointment.

19:18Now, of course, there’s some nuances in that that you have to understand, and that’s what I’ll be teaching in the class. But it’s all about setting appointments. Because if you can get good at setting appointments, it will change your life, change your business, change your bank account.

Loida Velasquez19:36

Yes. Which is what everyone wants.

Loida Velasquez19:40

So tell us, how can agents reach you and connect with you, whether they wanna participate in the class or even just get coaching with you as well?

James Mattz19:49

They can reach me on my cellphone, 708-473-7508. It’s best to text me with all your information and what the nature of the call is. I always return all my calls.

20:04And my email is james@mattz, M-A-T-T-Z, megagroup.com.

Loida Velasquez20:12

Awesome. Awesome. Well, James, thank you so much for hopping on with us here at Vulcan7. Really appreciate all of the gems that you dropped, and especially the role play. I think sometimes we can talk all about it, but it’s great when agents can actually hear you and see how you’re asking questions and what you’re saying and things like that.

20:30So thank you so much.

James Mattz20:31

You’re more than welcome. I hope that I was able to offer some value.

Loida Velasquez20:35

Yes, yes. And for everyone that’s watching, we’ll see you on the next one. Bye.