How Paul Salazar went from $200,000 to $800,000 in GCI calling luxury expireds

Paul Salazar00:00

So for somebody new out there that is looking to break into the business, you wanna set up your schedule to prospect every single day. And if you’re new, you’re probably not gonna have any appointments. So if you can prospect, prospect four to five hours a day, you’re gonna kill it. But you gotta be consistent.

00:27You gotta door knock, you gotta cold call, you gotta circle dial. You gotta just grind. If you’re willing to grind, you’re gonna be successful, right? But I think the most important thing is have a lot of conversations, have at least five new conversations about real estate per day, right? And do your follow-ups.

Aaron Wittenstein00:54

Everybody, it’s me, it’s Aaron Wittenstein, and we’re here with Vulcan7 Roadmap. This is where we teach you how to take an additional one, two, three, four listings a week here. And we have a very special guest with us today. We have my guy, Paul Salazar, from wonderful Beverly Hills, California. Paul, say hello to everybody.

Paul Salazar01:11

What’s up, everyone? How you guys doing?

Aaron Wittenstein01:13

I gotta say, we were talking a little bit. This guy right here is just… He’s so relaxed and even-keeled. It’s nice to talk to someone like that, brother. So tell me a little bit about business. How’d you get into the business? What does your business look like?

01:26Kind of fill me in here.

Paul Salazar01:28

Sure, sure. I’ll give you a little overview. So basically, I started in ’06, right out of college, and my mom was a real estate agent. I knew I didn’t wanna do a regular 9:00 to 5:00 job. So she’s like, “Do you wanna work with me?”

01:44I’m like, “Sure.” And this is in the suburbs of LA, like an hour and a half east of Beverly Hills, where I work at currently. Selling houses in between $200,000 up to $500,000. I did that for three years, and then my mom was like, “Why don’t you go sell luxury real estate in LA?” I’m like, “Mom, I don’t know anybody,” you know?

02:02But it worked out perfectly. She ended up moving back to Colombia, where we’re from. And it was a great opportunity for me to move out of Rancho Cucamonga and move into LA. So that’s when I started in LA in ’09. And when I moved to LA, I didn’t know anybody. So I joined a team, a guy by the name of Chad Rogers.

02:21He’s at Hilton & Hyland, where I’m still at now, and I was working with him for 10 years. I should have left his team probably three to four years after we started working together, but I really had limited beliefs, and I thought that I couldn’t really leave his team because I didn’t have my own sphere of influence in LA, you know?

02:41And I think what got me out of that was I started coaching. I think it was like two months after I started coaching, boom, I left Chad. And hats off to Chad. He was a great mentor of mine. But I really needed to go out on my own. That happened four years ago, and ever since then I’ve been kind of going up.

03:03And it’s almost like I restarted my career back in 2019. So I always say I’ve been doing it for 17 years, but I’ve been really running a business as of 2019. So about four years ago.

Aaron Wittenstein03:17

So you basically have two businesses. You have 2019 before

03:21and 2019 after. It’s amazing how our businesses shift and evolve as the years progress, right? And so you’re out of Beverly Hills, is that right?

Paul Salazar03:30

Yes.

Aaron Wittenstein03:31

Okay. So you mentioned something about the luxury market.

Paul Salazar03:34

Yeah, yeah. My average price range is about $3 million.

Aaron Wittenstein03:40

Wow, okay. That’s great. And at least from my experience, and tell me if I’m wrong, are you expired, for sale by owner? You do a little bit of everything. Is that right?

Paul Salazar03:50

No, circle dial, expired, cancelled. Yeah.

Aaron Wittenstein03:52

So I know a lot of agents, at least that I speak with on a regular basis, is that they get nervous calling these high-priced expireds.

04:00These are like 2, 3 million, 4 million, 25 million. What do I do? So what’s your take on calling these high-level luxury listings?

Paul Salazar04:09

Well, I can tell you when I first started in 2019, I was practicing for months with my girlfriend at the time, and I was so nervous to get on the phones.

04:19But I knew I had to do it. I knew that I needed to start prospecting to get new business. It’s the only way I could leave my last team and go out on my own. So it’s all here, you know? And it’s so cliche to say that, but it’s true. Once we get over ourselves and our limiting beliefs, then we can start doing things.

04:39And the only way to start doing it is just to actually take action. Do a little practice, practice the scripts, but at the end of the day, you will never go down a whole script, ever. Every conversation is different. It’s about connecting with that person. It’s about being consistent.

04:54So it is nerve-wracking, so I was in that same stage myself. Even though I sold real estate in this area for a long time, still cold calling somebody new that I don’t know was very scary.

Aaron Wittenstein05:07

So calling, like I said, calling the higher-end stuff, or I don’t wanna say lower-end stuff, but let’s say you have your middle market of

05:15X, okay? And then you have your luxury market of Y.

05:17What is the main difference in calling X or Y, if you will?

Paul Salazar05:25

I think there’s a couple differences. And it’s just, I would say, everybody’s not the same, right? So you may have a $20 million buyer who’s super chill, but a lot of the 20 million…

05:38Sorry, seller. A lot of the $20 million sellers are gonna know their stuff. They’re gonna be CEOs, they’re gonna be business owners, they’re gonna be very sharp. So if you don’t know your stuff, they’re done, right? So you have to… It’s all about the first 15, 20 seconds of that phone call.

05:55You gotta be really sharp. And so I think that’s one of the main differences. Besides that, they’re just like anybody else, you know? They’re getting a lot more calls. The higher-end listings are getting a lot more calls. People from an hour away, two hours away, trying to break into the market, that know nothing about the market, are calling these homeowners.

06:14And so how do they know you? I mean, obviously I work with a pretty big brand here in LA, Hilton & Hyland Real Estate. We’re a luxury brokerage, but we’re very well known because we sell a lot of the bigger estates in LA. So how do you differentiate yourself in those first 15, 20 seconds is really key.

Aaron Wittenstein06:34

Okay. Now, if you know me, I gotta put you on the spot there for one second. Your 15 to 20 seconds, the initial, what does that sound like? What are you saying to these people?

Paul Salazar06:43

To me it’s all about your tonality and being relaxed. So we’ll say, you know, ring, ring, “Hey, A-” or I’ll say, “Aaron?”

06:50With like a question mark. I don’t say, “Hi, is this Aaron?” ‘Cause we know it’s gonna be Aaron, right? So we’ll say, “Aaron?” They’ll be like, “Yes.” “Hey, Aaron. What’s up? It’s Paul Salazar over at Hilton & Hyland. Listen, I know you’ve gotten a million calls, but I just wanted to find out. I saw your house was on the market for 180 days.

07:07I saw it came off the market. What’s your plan? What’s going on with your house?” And listen, a lot of people hang up on me, and if they do, I call them right back and I say, “Hey, I’m sorry, the phone just got disconnected.” Right? So I try to stack as many facts as possible.

07:23I’m sure you’ve heard of Phil Jones. I’m a big fan of Phil Jones.

Aaron Wittenstein07:28

Oh, yeah.

Paul Salazar07:29

So I always try to stack as many facts as possible. Their house came off the market, they’ve been getting a million calls, right? And then I’ll probably mention the agent and the company.

07:41You were on the market with X at Compass. So they know that I know what’s going on, right? So I try to do a lot of facts. And the reason why I wanna stack facts is because it builds trust, right? So I wanna build trust with the person on the other side of the phone.

07:58And how do you do that? The only way to do that is to say things that he knows and things that I know, right? So when I have Vulcan up on the screen, I know who the last agent was, how many days it was on the market, what price it was on the market for, as well as the brokerage.

08:14So I’ll name all those things.

Aaron Wittenstein08:16

So basically what you’re saying is… I like that, stack facts. I like the way that sounds. That’s really good. That’s slick. I like that. At least from what I’m hearing, and tell me if I’m wrong, but there’s not a huge difference between calling a high-level,

08:32you know, a high-end luxury listing versus a regular listing. You gotta know your numbers. You have to have the proper tonality. And you have to have verbiage that makes sense. So why do you think there are so many agents out there that are like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t call the luxury stuff”?

08:52You know, why do you think that is?

Paul Salazar08:54

It’s all right here. It’s just like they make a story up in their head. That’s all. We just create stories because we have fear. So whenever we’re fearful of anything, we’ll start creating stories about, I don’t know the area, I’m not good enough, I don’t know the house, they’re not gonna like me.

09:11There’s so many stories that we create. And listen, when I first started, I was horrible. I spent two months calling for two hours a day, Monday through Saturday, and I got my first listing after two months, and after that I was like, “Okay, that’s great.” And the reason why I got that listing wasn’t because I knew the house or the market or whatever, it’s ’cause I connected with that particular seller.

Aaron Wittenstein09:34

No, that makes a lot of sense, ’cause it’s about connection, you know what I mean? It’s about building the connection with people going forward. And at least to me, you seem like that’s something you’re very strong at.

09:48Am I right? Like, people tend to like you is kind of the vibe that I’m getting, right?

Paul Salazar09:53

At the end of the day, they’re gonna hire who they like. I mean, obviously some people are gonna want somebody that’s more knowledgeable. I think it’s really important to know, Aaron, the four different kinds of personalities.

10:06You have the analytical, you have the driver, you have the amiable, you have the influencer, right? So understanding who that person is at the listing appointment, not on the phone, but on the listing appointment, is super, super important. That way you can shift the way you communicate with them, so that they can understand you and you can understand them.

Aaron Wittenstein10:25

I mean, speaking of understanding people, all right? Like I said, it seems you’re running a heck of a business, okay? And I mean, what can you share with us about your production that you’re particularly proud of?

Paul Salazar10:37

I mean, I went from making around $200,000 a year in GCI when I was working on the team.

10:45And then within two years I was able to double that, and for the last two years I’ve been able to… yeah, around $800,000 in

Aaron Wittenstein10:52

GCI. That’s great. That’s really, really good. I mean, it just shows the hard work you put in, but it’s the proper training.

11:00‘Cause I mean, you said you’re reading books, and you mentioned, what is it? The Phil M. Jones. What’s the name of that one?

Paul Salazar11:09

Yeah, Phil Jones, Exactly What to Say is a great book. If you wanna learn about the different personalities and how to work with them, the Social Styles Handbook is also a really good book that talks about the analytical, the driver, the influencer type, and the amiable, and how to deal with them.

11:24And you know, I’m constantly learning and reading. Like, I went to the Phil Jones… it’s not a one-on-one seminar, but he’s like 13 people in a room and it’s him. And I sat next to him and I just was absorbing everything that he had to say. So it’s continuing to learn the skill set that you need to be a good salesperson.

11:45So you know, if you wanna get better at your craft, you have to practice it and you have to start learning.

Aaron Wittenstein11:50

Sure. So, all right. Well, we can talk about the DISC personality profile, if you will. You know what I mean? I think that’s what we’re alluding to right there.

11:59All right? And so let’s say, for example, you’re talking to someone on the phone, you isolate them as an I personality. An influencer, influential, whatever it’s gonna be called. How are you gonna modify your script when you’re speaking to them? And how do you know that that’s the person you’re speaking with?

Paul Salazar12:13

Well, the influencer type is kinda like me, right? They just like to be… like, they wanna be complimented. So you can say something like, “Oh, you got a gorgeous house. That view. Your primary bedroom, that’s a beautiful bed,” or something like that. So you wanna compliment them, you know?

12:32It’s all about them. You wanna put them on a pedestal, right? Something that they can say that will let you know if they’re that type of personality, they like to talk. So ask them questions. Ask them questions, right? And Phil Jones always says this too. The person who asks the most questions is the person in control of that conversation.

12:53So it’s really, really important as a salesperson to ask questions, and ask the right questions that lead you into a certain path, right? Which is booking an appointment if you’re making a phone call, or if you’re at a listing, to get the listing agreement signed.

Aaron Wittenstein13:08

Exactly. Yeah. So let’s talk about prospecting here for a second. Okay. So how many hours, like a week, a day, are you prospecting on a regular basis? What would you say?

Paul Salazar13:19

9:00 to 11:00 every morning from Monday through Friday.

13:22And then on Sundays I have open houses.

13:25And I also door knock. I door knock at least once a week for two hours, and I try to do four hours a week.

Aaron Wittenstein13:31

So talk to me, like you’re doing your 9:00 to 11:00, what does that look like? Who are you calling? What’s your plan, if you will? And talk to me about that.

Paul Salazar13:40

Sure, sure. So I got a really great morning routine, right? But if we’re talking about just prospecting, we start around 9:00, 9:30 after we look at the hot sheet and look at all the inventory with my team. But I’m in the office. I used to do calls here at home, where I’m at right now, by myself.

14:00But then when I had the team, we did Google Meet, and then one of my team members was like, “Why don’t we do it all together in the office?” I’m like, “Sure, that sounds great.” So now I drive to the office in the mornings, and we cold call together. And I cold call for two hours, in between 9:00 and 11:00, 9:30 to 11:30.

14:17And the first hour is gonna be expired calls, canceled, and for sale by owners. So that’s the first hour. And then the second hour is gonna be follow-ups.

Aaron Wittenstein14:25

Got it. So I mean, you’re doing… And then, okay, so then you alluded to the fact of you have a particular morning routine that you work with as well, okay?

14:33‘Cause I’m always a big fan, success leaves clues, and I found very high-level people like yourself have a tendency to do the same thing in the morning. So I’m always curious to see if there’s any deviations to that. So walk me through that.

Paul Salazar14:44

Yeah, sure. It starts the night before.

14:46You have to have really good sleep. So I just hired a health coach. I just turned 40 a few months ago, so I really wanna be a really healthy person and have good longevity. So one of the things that we’re working on is energy, right? ‘Cause if you have a lot of energy, most likely you’re gonna have energy to prospect, energy to door knock, energy to do all these things that we have to do in order to grow our business, right?

15:12With low energy, we’re not gonna wanna do those hard things, right? So for me, it’s how do I maintain this level of energy throughout my life for a long time? I wanna be able to do this for a long time, right? So it starts with eating healthy, right? So I do intermittent fasting, so I’m eating from 12:00 to 8:00, or from…

15:30Actually, sorry, from 12:00 to 7:00 or from 1:00 to 8:00. That’s my eating time, right? And this has really helped me become more focused at work and just feel better in general, with more energy. So I’m usually in bed by 9:30, I read a book for 15, 20 minutes, and then by 10:00 at night I’m asleep, and then I have the alarm at either 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning.

15:53I get up, I make my drink. I don’t drink coffee, but I have like a cacao drink that I make. And then I go back to bed. I read a book for like 15, 20 minutes. I go for a workout. I do a short little meditation. I do my gratitudes. And then it’s off. I do role play with two guys, one guy on Wednesday, one guy on Friday, and then I have my social media meeting with my social media guy in Dublin, 7:30 in the morning on Mondays.

16:24I have my team meeting with my ops manager from 8:00 to 8:45, and then at 8:45 when I arrive to the office, I meet with my team. I have three agents on my team, and we go over the hot sheet, look at all the new inventory on the market. We do a little bit of role play, and then we’re off to the races and we’re making calls and we’re trying to book appointments for the day.

Aaron Wittenstein16:49

Sure. You got a machine, right?

Paul Salazar16:51

You have to. You have to have a schedule, and it’s gotta be very strict. If you don’t do it, then listen, there’s plenty of people out there that find business other ways, where they have a big sphere of influence.

17:07I don’t have a big sphere here in LA. Like, almost all my family lives an hour and a half away, and all my friends, right? I do have friends here as well, and I do get referrals, but my business is new as of four years ago. So most of my business, I would say 70 to 80% of my business, is still new business.

17:22So it’s from door knocking, circle dialing, expired calls, FSBOs. Like, that’s still my bread and butter right now.

Aaron Wittenstein17:27

That’s great. And I mean, it’s just building all that within a four-year period of time, I mean, I hope you are, but you should be very proud of yourself.

17:36Because that’s nothing to sneeze at, if you will. Okay. So check this out. All right, let’s say that there’s a brand new agent, okay? Brand new agent, like I’m talking 24 hours out of class. They decided to come work at your company.

17:49They walk past your desk. You’re like, “I hear this guy’s pretty awesome.” This person knocks on your door and says, “What do I do?”

17:56What’s the first piece of advice that you will give this brand new agent?

Paul Salazar18:01

I think the most important thing is… Well, there’s a couple things.

18:04First, you have to know the market, right? So this is why we look over the hot sheet every single day, to see what’s coming on the market, what’s pending, what’s sold, to understand things, right? And then number two is we have to have a plan. Like, all right, what’s your plan moving forward? What’s your schedule gonna be like?

18:22So I always say prospect in the morning, ’cause that’s when you have the most energy, and prospecting is very draining for a lot of people ’cause it’s not easy. So that’s a lot of energy being used. A lot of people wanna call in the afternoons. I’m like, “You can do that, but most likely you’re gonna be tired and you’re not gonna make your calls.”

18:38Do your calls in the morning, right? So for somebody new out there that is looking to break into the business, you wanna set up your schedule to prospect every single day. And if you’re new, you’re probably not gonna have any appointments. If you could prospect, prospect four to five hours a day, you’re gonna kill it, but you gotta be consistent.

18:58You gotta door knock, you gotta cold call, you gotta circle dial, you gotta do open houses. You gotta just grind. If you’re willing to grind, you’re gonna be successful, right? But I think the most important thing is make your calls, door knock, open houses, have a lot of conversations, have at least five new conversations about real estate per day, right?

19:18And do your follow-ups. So I think that’s the advice I would give, is just focus on booking appointments with people that are looking to buy and looking to sell or lease.

Aaron Wittenstein19:28

There you go. That’s a heck of a lot of advice. I hope someone walks past your desk one day and asks exactly that.

19:36He just laid down the foundation for what needs to be done right there. So let me ask you this. One final word… I mean, you just gave a ton of pieces of advice right there. But what’s one final word for all the people that are watching us today?

Paul Salazar19:54

Look, treat this as a business. I think people get into real estate because they’re watching Selling Sunset or Million Dollar Listing, and they’re like, “Oh, this is gonna be easy,” blah, blah, blah. But it’s like anything else, right? You can be a multimillionaire in this business in any market, selling $200,000 houses or selling multimillion-dollar houses, right?

20:17But if you look at everybody who’s successful, they have a plan and they take action, right? So write a plan down. What’s your plan? When am I gonna prospect? How’s that gonna look? And then just execute the plan and just have the conversations, book the appointments.

20:35And if you’re new to the business, join a team, get a mentor. Mentorship is really, really important. Get a coach. That’s also really, really important. And get Vulcan7, because honestly, that’s the best data in the business. I’ve been using you guys for the last four years, and because of Vulcan7, honestly, I’ve made millions of dollars, because they have the best data, and that’s honestly the most important thing.

20:59I used to have another dialer and another system, and I’d be wasting my time with people that weren’t the real owners of those houses, and time is money, right? So you really wanna be able to focus your time with the real people and the real owners of those houses.

Aaron Wittenstein21:17

I appreciate it, man.

21:18No, and that’s all good stuff. And the nice part, like I said, is what I’ve learned from you today. All right? I’ve actually learned a lot of stuff from you today, but the one thing that I keep coming back to is the luxury market

21:30is no different than contacting

21:31the normal, what do you call it? The regular, the standard market, if you will. So-

Paul Salazar21:37

Yeah. I mean, listen, like you said, Aaron, it’s all the same. It’s all the same. The only difference is you, and it’s up here. It’s up here.

Aaron Wittenstein21:46

I agree. All right, my friend, thank you very much for being here with us today, Paul.

21:50If anybody needs referrals, if anybody looks to refer business to you in wonderful Beverly Hills, how do they get in touch with you?

Paul Salazar21:57

The easiest way is to follow me @PaulSalazarGroup on Instagram, YouTube. I’m on LinkedIn as well, but just follow me on Instagram, shoot me a DM. I’ll send you a message right away, and I’m always happy to help too.

22:11So if there’s an agent out there that wants to have a conversation with me and wants to get started in the business, or wants to start prospecting and has like a mind block, give me a call. I’m easy to reach. You can email me. You can find all my information online. Just Google me.

Aaron Wittenstein22:27

There we go. All right, my friend, thank you very much for being here. We’ve learned a ton from you today, and have an amazing day. All right?