How Kirsten Klaers turned a circle prospecting call into a listing in 30 minutes

Kirsten Klaers00:00

What I really enjoy is circle prospecting around my listings. And what I have found, what I really love about Vulcan7 is the ability for me to put a bunch of addresses in there, upload it, and then it finds all the people and their phone numbers for me. I think that’s absolute magic. I do the FSBO and expired life as well, but what is different about circle prospecting is these people are not expecting to hear from you.

00:31‘Cause I know that you know that when you call that FSBO, you’re one of a million that are calling them. And sometimes I just don’t wanna play there. I wanna be like, they aren’t expecting to hear from me. I find that I have much friendlier conversations with people when they aren’t expecting a realtor to call.

Aaron Wittenstein01:08

Hello, everyone. It’s me again. It’s Aaron Wittenstein with Vulcan7 Roadmap. This is how we teach you to take an additional two, three, four, like 5,363 listings a week. All right? And we actually have a friend of mine here, okay? We’ve known each other for what? I wanna say a couple of years now.

01:26Give or take something like that.

Kirsten Klaers01:29

Almost three. Three.

Aaron Wittenstein01:29

Three years.

Kirsten Klaers01:31

Yeah. If we’re gonna go by Clubhouse years, about three.

Aaron Wittenstein01:34

Oh my gosh, three years. So, my friend here, Roo Klaers. She comes from Orlando. All right. And Roo, you wanna say hello to everybody?

Kirsten Klaers01:42

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Sunshine State, vicariously.

01:46Well, actually, Aaron, you’re just up the road from me in the Sunshine State, so welcome to our sunny shores.

Aaron Wittenstein01:52

I’m actually gonna be in Orlando next Friday, so…

Kirsten Klaers01:56

Oh, fun.

Aaron Wittenstein01:56

Yeah, we’re going to party with Mickey and Fall Out Boy.

02:00It’ll be a fun weekend with the kids. So, enough about me, enough about me. Like I said, I’ve known Roo for a while. Okay? And so you’ve been a prospector for just an insane amount of time. You mentioned like 30 plus years or something like that.

02:19Is that right?

Kirsten Klaers02:20

Yeah. We don’t use the plus sign ’cause then people think I’m ancient, you know? I can’t let people believe I’m old.

Aaron Wittenstein02:26

27 and a half years, not adding anything else into it.

Kirsten Klaers02:30

I started prospecting when I was two.

Aaron Wittenstein02:33

Exactly. Right out of the womb. So…

Kirsten Klaers02:39

Yeah.

02:40Yes. And I’ve done it in many walks of life. I’ve worked in headhunting, website design, calling doctors, the dreaded gatekeeper, and circle dialing and prospecting for leads in real estate. So, good times.

Aaron Wittenstein03:01

So how long have you been doing prospecting in real estate?

03:05‘Cause it sounds like, doing it that long, everything translates, right, into what we’re trying to build here. So how long specifically in real estate have you been prospecting for?

Kirsten Klaers03:15

Residential for three years.

Aaron Wittenstein03:16

Three years. Okay. Okay. And so who are you calling right now?

03:22What area? Do you have a focus, are you kinda spreading it out a little bit, or what does that look like?

Kirsten Klaers03:28

Well, so what I really enjoy is circle prospecting around my listings. And what I have found, what I really love about Vulcan7 is the ability for me to put a bunch of addresses in there, upload it, and then it finds all the people and their phone numbers for me.

03:48I think that’s absolute magic. And so I’ve had a really great time doing that. I also use it to find properties for clients that have a wish list. So I’m hunting down properties for them. Yesterday I was… It’s kind of like an “I have a buyer” letter. This is an “I have a buyer” call, and I legitimately have a buyer, I’m not lying.

04:17And I come across a guy who’s got five properties that I’m trying to have him sell, and I collected an investor. That’s the other magical thing about cold calling. What I truly love about it is you never know what’s happening until you get on the phone call. And this is an improv business.

04:36This is not a scripted dial-a-thon. You really have to be able to think quickly on your feet and assimilate to whatever’s happening on the other side for you. Otherwise, I would not have talked this man into becoming one of my new investors.

Aaron Wittenstein04:53

So let me ask you a question, because we hear scripting, scripting.

04:56And I’m a believer in scripting, right?

Kirsten Klaers04:58

Oh, I love scripting. Don’t get me wrong. You need it.

Aaron Wittenstein05:00

And then once you get it down, your script’s down, that’s when the improvisation comes in, correct, kind of melding it to your… Am I right?

Kirsten Klaers05:11

Well, so okay, if you think about an improv in a theater, they always give you direction before you are improvising your skit.

05:20Well, that’s the same thing with a script, right? In my opinion, and again, I’ve been doing this since Jesus was a baby, in the words of Glenda Baker. I think I’m gonna steal that. I’ve been doing it for a really long time, and what happens is when you get to a place where you understand what you’re trying to get across to the person on the other side, you’ve got the bullet points that you wanna follow, then you start to be a human being.

05:49And when you’re having that human being conversation with your script in the back of your mind…

05:54That’s when you get people on the other side to start talking to you like you’re a human being and not that dude that calls you up and you hear the little bleep, “Would you like to have solar on your roof?”

06:04It’s a much better conversation. But the script is key. You must have a foundation to your phone call, all day.

Aaron Wittenstein06:12

I agree 100%. And what I love that you’re kinda doing is, I talk to a lot of people that do expires, a lot of people that do for sale by owners. That’s kind of my cup of tea, if you will.

06:22Okay? Yet with you, you’re doing things that are different, all right? And what I love is trying to find the off-market listings, kind of like your own personal inventory, if you will. That’s kind of the plan that you’re looking for, right?

Kirsten Klaers06:38

Well, it’s funny because I do the FSBO and expired life as well, but what is different about circle prospecting is these people are not expecting to hear from you. ‘Cause I know that you know that when you call that FSBO, you’re one of a million that are calling them. And sometimes I just don’t wanna play there.

07:01I wanna be like, they aren’t expecting to hear from me. I find that I have much friendlier conversations with people when they aren’t expecting a realtor to call.

Aaron Wittenstein07:12

So would you be so kind…

07:15And now what do you wanna do? What’s your favorite? Just listed, just sold, straight up circle, I have a buyer.

07:20What’s your favorite one to do?

Kirsten Klaers07:23

I mean, so I think right now, because my brain is in the place of I have a buyer that’s looking for this,

07:35my script is probably gonna sound completely nutty, but it’s what works for me, so we can play there.

Aaron Wittenstein07:43

Hey, we’re not here to judge.

07:44We’re just here to get information. So keep in mind, side note by the way, and I think, Roo, you’ll agree with me on this, you have to have a buyer when you make these phone calls, right?

Kirsten Klaers07:55

So here’s one of the things. I’ve worked in many industries where people lie to get what they want, and I chose to never be that person.

08:06I will never tell a lie. When I was headhunting, people would make up stories about how they lost somebody’s name, and I would just call up and say, “I just need the people in your department,” and they would give them to me. I’m magic that way. I will never ever, ever lie to get a lead because I think that creates already distrust with the person that’s on the other end.

08:29So if you don’t have a buyer, don’t pretend you have a buyer. Have a buyer. And if that buyer is you, that’s okay too. But you must be a buyer. So I 100%, all day long, will never lie to get a lead started, ever.

Aaron Wittenstein08:49

Well then why don’t you give me a call? Let’s see what you got. I’m curious to hear this crazy script that you have here.

08:56So yeah, give me…

Kirsten Klaers08:58

Don’t judge me, Aaron. All right. Ring, ring.

Aaron Wittenstein09:03

Hello.

Kirsten Klaers09:04

Yeah, hey. This is gonna be a crazy call. My name is Roo Klaers, and I am reaching out on behalf of a client. I’m a realtor. And I was just curious, I was trying to reach the folks at this condo, 123 Banana Street.

09:21Did I reach the right spot?

Aaron Wittenstein09:23

Yeah. Apartment 201, right?

Kirsten Klaers09:26

Yeah. Is this Aaron?

Aaron Wittenstein09:26

This is. How can I help you?

Kirsten Klaers09:29

Oh, Aaron, thank you so much for taking my call. Listen, I’m sure that you’re gonna find this crazy, but I have a client who is very interested in the condos in Freedom Marketplace. And I’m just trying to do a little networking on their behalf, and I was curious who you might know would be open to a conversation.

Aaron Wittenstein09:51

I have no idea offhand. I mean, I don’t think I know anybody who’s looking to make a move. Yeah, I don’t think so.

Kirsten Klaers09:58

Well, no worries. I just appreciate you taking the call. And I know you’ve only been there for a few years. You wouldn’t be interested in selling your condo, would you?

Aaron Wittenstein10:09

No. I mean, maybe in like a couple years down the road, when the baby gets bigger, but right now, like I said, we’ve only been here for a little bit of period of time. But I don’t know, a couple years down the road maybe.

Kirsten Klaers10:19

Absolutely. Well, I totally understand.

10:21If you don’t mind me keeping in touch with you from time to time just to check in and see how you and the family are doing, I would love it.

Aaron Wittenstein10:28

Yeah. That’s fine.

Kirsten Klaers10:30

And do you ever wanna know about what’s going on in your neighborhood?

Aaron Wittenstein10:34

Yeah. I mean, well, we do look at some of the websites online, so…

10:38I think we have a fair market idea.

Kirsten Klaers10:41

Oh, well, you might be one of the folks that, a lot of my VIPs, they like to be included on what’s happening instantly. So I try to send them market updates and kinda give you an idea of what the equity is for your home. If you’d be open to that, I’d be happy to put you on my VIP email list.

10:57And if you don’t like it, you can always unsubscribe.

Aaron Wittenstein11:00

Sure, that’s fine.

Kirsten Klaers11:02

Great. There you go.

11:08No…

Aaron Wittenstein11:09

I’m sorry, what were you gonna say?

Kirsten Klaers11:11

Well, and then I just take the conversation where it goes. I always send a thank you note for talking to me, and I include a little Starbucks gift card in there for them to remember who I am, along with my business card.

Aaron Wittenstein11:25

You’re so pleasant to talk to.

Kirsten Klaers11:28

I know.

Aaron Wittenstein11:29

Oh my gosh. You’re so pleasant to speak with.

Kirsten Klaers11:33

And people will talk to me for a good 10, 20 minutes if they have the time. I do have people hang up on me, and I’m like, “Okay, whatever,” and I keep going.

Aaron Wittenstein11:43

So all right, ’cause I mean, like you said, you’re pleasant. You listen.

11:46You take a fair amount of time to speak with them. So do you have a conversion rate that you’ve figured out as to how many people you speak with to get a listing or a transaction, or anything like that? I mean, have you broken down those numbers at all?

Kirsten Klaers12:02

So I will be really transparent.

12:06I am not the best at tracking myself, but I do… I know, ’cause we’re busy doing. Who has time to track? But Vulcan does that for me, so I do have an idea of how many conversations I’ll have. And usually, when I get to about, and this is hundreds of calls, right? When I look at about 100 calls, I will probably have had two to three actual real conversations, and I’ve probably had about 10 in there that were, “I don’t care, whatever.”

12:39But two or three of them have turned into something a little bit more, and then it’s my job to continue. So I have had the pleasure of doing circle prospecting for a client who bought a home, of collecting a gentleman who first thing… This was such a great story. Can I tell this story?

Aaron Wittenstein13:01

Please.

Kirsten Klaers13:02

It was so beautiful. I called him up and he said, “Oh my gosh, you got the perfect timing. I’m trying to list my house for rent.” And in my head I’m going, “Ugh, I don’t wanna do that.” And I’m like, “Okay.” And he goes, “Yeah, I wanna list it for five grand.” And I’m like, “Okay.” Okay, maybe we’re talking a good number here.

13:23I can do this. And he goes, “Can you be at my property in 30 minutes?” And I’m like, “Yes, I can.” So I completed my dialing, I got in my car and I drove down. I met him, he signed the paperwork while I was walking the place, and I’ve successfully leased it out. It was a decent payback for my efforts.

13:48We’re talking 30 minutes.

13:52Five grand, 30 minutes. Everybody should do that all day long. Now, we’re buying a condo for him to invest, and we’re gonna buy another condo for his mother-in-law.

Aaron Wittenstein14:02

So what you’re trying to tell me is this stuff kinda works a little bit.

Kirsten Klaers14:05

It works…

Aaron Wittenstein14:06

As long as you work it.

Kirsten Klaers14:08

100%. And then yesterday when I was doing my circle prospecting trying to find him condos to buy, I came across someone who was renting out their condo that might be open to selling it instead of renting it. And then another gentleman that I just talked about earlier that had five of his own, and I turned him into one of my investor leads.

14:31So you have to be open to what is going to show up for you, and then know how to use that to your benefit and their benefit.

Aaron Wittenstein14:43

Hmm. So I mean, ’cause I think the interesting part is we tackle expires and for sale by owners ’cause it’s low-hanging fruit, okay?

14:49And so does everybody else. So you get the competition, yet what happens here when you’re doing the circle prospecting, which is what you’re doing, it sounds like, at a relatively decent high level…

14:59You have no competition. Or very little competition, if any, right?

Kirsten Klaers15:04

Every once in a while I’ll have somebody say, “You’re like the fifth realtor to call me.” And I’m like, “Really?”

15:13“Well, thanks for taking a minute to chat with me.” And that’s why I follow up with a thank you note, because I feel like that differentiates me from every other realtor on the planet that just calls and drops, you know?

15:23And I think that’s the thing. It is so important to be different because there are so many people calling. And even if I were doing FSBOs and expireds, it’s still important for me to be different.

Aaron Wittenstein15:40

It’s true. And listening to you speak, I think what grabs…

15:45It’s your articulation is what gets me the most. It’s your spacing and your articulation is what draws me into wanting to speak with you. You have the proper pauses. You say the right thing at the right time. And like I said, I speak to a lot of people on a regular basis.

16:04I enjoy hearing your voice, which is pretty rare.

Kirsten Klaers16:12

But no, so the thing about… I think that’s the difference between… And you do this well, too, because you have to have the attitude that this is a conversation, you’re talking to a real person. If all you’re doing is trying to go collect something, everybody knows you’re a taker.

16:31If you’re not giving, you’re a taker. And very, very seldom do people want to talk to takers. But they like to talk to givers.

Aaron Wittenstein16:42

Yeah. And at least from the vibe that I get, the sale for you is secondary to the relationship. Am I catching that right?

Kirsten Klaers16:53

Well, absolutely. And I think… I worked in timeshare for seven years on the phone, and selling a $200,000 timeshare over the phone in 45 minutes is one of my best times. Because if you think about it, if I can do that, then of course I can get you to talk to me for 15 minutes about your property, and maybe get you to let me in your house.

Aaron Wittenstein17:27

Yeah, so I mean, so you set up an email search, for example.

17:33Let’s say you get 25 people that you set up on an email search. How often are you staying in touch with these people? Do you have a system in place to make that happen?

Kirsten Klaers17:41

So what I have done is when I get someone that is genuinely willing to talk to me and willing to be, like they say, “Well, I’ll keep you in mind,” kind of a thing, I will put them into my CRM and put them into an email campaign drip.

17:59And then the other people, if they raise their hand to get an equity report, they will be on a monthly market report for their neighborhood, and they will get an update on that all the time. So that will continue until they disband it. And then there’s other people, the other thing that I do is I have those folders, where this person needs to be reached out to in January, February, March.

18:23That stuff. I have those too, and so I’ll continue to follow up with that as well.

Aaron Wittenstein18:30

So I mean, with everything you’re doing, sending the card and the Starbucks gift card and the follow-up, is it getting to a point now where you’ve been cultivating this so long where people are reaching back out?

18:40I mean, how’s that been going?

Kirsten Klaers18:44

So I think the difference between the circle prospecting versus expired and FSBOs is that these are long game. So if we aren’t having it happen in the first 30 minutes, this could be years. Months or years. We’re building a long-term relationship with them.

19:05This is a marathon, not a sprint. Whereas getting into the expired and the FSBO mindset, those require more of an active interaction. So you really do have to tap into those. You’re the driver of that bus. You’re the motivation behind the interaction, whereas if you have this other one where they can come back to you, as long as I put them into something that would give them the opportunity to reach out to me, it’s like a geo-farm.

19:38You can put stuff out there for six months, two years, and then they call you, right? So it’s not the same. It’s not as quick as a FSBO or an expired.

Aaron Wittenstein19:50

See, that’s where you get me in my FSBO expired mentality with that type of stuff. All right, so let me ask you this. So you’re sitting at your desk, all right?

19:58And knock, knock, knock. Mr. Brand-new Agent comes across your desk. Okay. And he’s going, “Roo, I hear you’re really good at this. You got a good personality, able to build good rapport. What piece of advice do you have for me?”

Kirsten Klaers20:16

Well, the first thing you have to do is find out if you have phone call reluctance.

20:23And if you do, then you have to work through that. You really have to understand why you’re afraid of the phone. A lot of times I do have people call me and say, “How can I get better?” My coach would send me people in his coaching organization, his team, and say, “You need to talk to Roo about how to cold call,” because they just wouldn’t make themselves do it.

20:45And what I’ve found is that they’re terrified of calling people. They’re just freaked out. They just can’t do it. And when I was working with another friend of mine, you know her, Miss Anita.

20:57What we learned for her, and everybody has a different switch, is that she needed a mission for calling people cold.

21:06And I think if you are without a reason to call people, and sometimes it’s not just good enough to have a FSBO or an expired, it’s literally you have to have a real reason inside of you that makes you wanna make this call. It can’t be external. And then you can get past that fear of the phone.

21:24And then when you’ve gotten past the fear of the phone, having a script is very important because you have to measure yourself until you get really good at it and you can just do this stuff. If somebody wanted me to start cold calling their list and I just looked at the list, then I would know how to talk to these people.

21:45I don’t have to have a lot of prep on it, ’cause I’ve already got all these scripts in my head that I’ve used in the past. But if you don’t have anything, you need to start and you need to talk in the mirror and you need to memorize that stuff. You need to get so good at your script that it sounds like you’re having a conversation with someone in your family.

22:05And then when you’re there, when you make that call and they say something weird to you, you’re not gonna be going, “Oh, duh, oh. I don’t know what to do now.” You’ll be a human being. Gosh, I don’t remember where I learned this. But this gentleman, I can’t even remember his name, but he gave me such an amazing bit of wisdom.

22:30He said, “Script like a robot, respond like a human.” I know. I was like, “Boom.” Script like a robot and respond like a human. And the whole concept about this is when you initiate the call, you talk from your script, and then when they respond to you, you be a human being, not a script.

22:54And that was… I was like, “Who are you? Where have you been all my life?” This was the best thing on the planet. ‘Cause that’s how I do it, but I never really understood it like that. And that was like gold. Mind blown.

23:14It’s like, wow, I’ve been doing this for how long and that’s the first time anybody’s really put a fine point on it and made it make sense. Yes, and that is exactly what you need to do. You need to script and then respond as a human.

Aaron Wittenstein23:27

I agree 100%. So let me ask you this. Give me final last words for everybody in the Vulcan7-iverse.

23:35What do you got for us?

Kirsten Klaers23:35

Do it. Whatever you focus on expands, and work the work. It’s crazy and old-fashioned, but working is what works.

Aaron Wittenstein23:50

Beautiful. All right, Roo, a lot of people nowadays moving to Orlando, so let’s say they wanna get in touch with you because you’re awesome. How does one get in touch with the wonderful Roo Klaers when they have clients that are moving to Orlando?

Kirsten Klaers24:03

Well, you can call me. I’m happy to receive your call. It’s 407… You’ll put it in there for them to call me?

Aaron Wittenstein24:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you got? Shoot us your number.

Kirsten Klaers24:14

Oh, 407-493-5615. You can find me on the Instagram, the Facebook, the YouTube. I’ve got a YouTube channel, Living in Orlando.

24:26Instagram, Your Home Your Castle, because I live down the street from Mickey. And it’s all about him. And yeah, I mean, I’m open to any form of communication that makes it easy for them.

Aaron Wittenstein24:39

Awesome. Well, I wanna say thank you very much. This is great information today.

24:43You’re welcome. And guys, thank you very much for coming out and hanging out with us, and look forward to more episodes of Vulcan7 Roadmap. Take care, everybody.