How Bill Gabbard converts 75% of his listing appointments on 15 minutes of daily role play

Ren Jones00:00

Welcome to Roadmap, how to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we interview a great agent who’s consistently taking two, three, four listings each week, and we have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can and then use the copycat principle. If you’re watching on Vulcan7, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. Let me introduce first my co-host from San Diego, Carly Hathaway. That’s carlyhathaway.com. How’s the real estate business, Carly?

Carly Hathaway00:40

Hi, everybody. The real estate business is amazing. Definitely a good time to be a listing agent.

Ren Jones00:47

Good, good, good. Got to like that. First, let’s talk about the Vulcan7 Challenge. Vulcan7 Challenge, once a month, every 30 days, folks, once a month, shadow another agent in a market near you, two hours away, three hours away, four hours away, where you’re not a competitor. Go drive there, or even better, get on a plane and fly over, get there that afternoon, meet with them for dinner if they’re available. Next morning, get to the office early, take notes, record, download an app to record things that they say, things that they do, write a lot of notes. Follow them through the morning, go to lunch with them, and then head back home. If they’re doing what you want to do, this is the way to learn, and then do it every month. At the end of 12 months, you will have 12 amazing friends who are living the life and you become one of them.

01:47I mean, it doesn’t get any simpler than that, folks. You could just start drinking coffee at home instead of Starbucks, pay for that thing, and your life has changed forever, but you have to decide to do it. You have to decide to do it. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everyone we also simulcast the show on the private Lead Gen group on Facebook. They now have 45,000 members. When we started it was 40,000, I would like to think we brought in the other five. We have a large audience there as well, and we’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the Lead Gen folks. I want to welcome our guest today from Hamilton, Ohio and points just north of here, Mason, up towards Dayton, Troy, Yellow Springs. Bill Gabbard. Welcome to the show, Bill.

Bill Gabbard02:38

Thanks for having me.

Ren Jones02:39

Glad you can be here. Bill, I’ve known Bill for what, six, eight years or so, maybe 10 years. I’ve watched over the years, year after year after year, he’ll take eight, 10, 12 listings a month on average. Some months more, some months less, some years more, some years less, but generally it’s very consistent, a very consistent business every year and very predictable. You’re good at getting expireds, you’re good at getting for sale by owners. You’re good at getting your past clients to reconnect by all your lead gens, so I’m glad you’re here and I think we can really help a lot of the folks out there who are only getting one a month or two a month and getting them up to a much higher number. You can’t walk around with a serious look on your face, Bill. This is just a show. I was saying that to him earlier. It’s no problem-

Carly Hathaway03:33

So serious.

Ren Jones03:34

I know. He is so serious on the show, but when he calls expireds and FSBOs, he’s so playful. In fact, that’s why I wanted to have him on here because he has a way with expireds and for sale by owner, people he doesn’t know to not only get into conversation with them right away, but to kind of hit their funny bone. He’s so playful with them right out of the gate all the time. Sometimes he’ll be making calls, there have been instances where we’ll be in a room and there’ll be four or five people calling expireds on headsets. And he’s one of them. Nobody else is listing property, but he’s setting appointments left and right and people start circling around him like, “What are you doing? What are you saying?” And generally he’s making them laugh. He’s getting their funny bone. How do you do that, Bill?

Bill Gabbard04:19

Well, I want to make a lot of money and when I make a lot of money, I’m happy.

Ren Jones04:24

Good. They’re up there, Bill.

Bill Gabbard04:26

And when I talk to people on the phone, I don’t look at them as their strength-

Carly Hathaway04:30

Who doesn’t want to make a lot of money?

Ren Jones04:33

She said, “Who doesn’t want to make a lot of money?”

Bill Gabbard04:35

Well, there’s a lot of agents in my office that don’t want to, so I love those guys.

Ren Jones04:40

So you love the people in your office that don’t make a lot of money. Good, good, good. Well at least I don’t know if they inspire.

Carly Hathaway04:48

Because you take their listings.

Ren Jones04:49

You take their listings that they could have had if they came in before 10:00 AM.

Bill Gabbard04:55

I will always call people that’s expired in our office because of Vulcan can dial so fast, I don’t really pay attention. And I get agents mad at me if I get their listing. But in the same token, if they get one of mine, I just get as, I get disappointed myself and mad because I didn’t retain it.

Ren Jones05:12

Oh, okay. Yeah. But it’s all fair. But I have a feeling you’re taking a lot more of theirs than they’re taking of yours. Probably some truth in that. Wouldn’t it be good? Fantastic. Fantastic. So how do you go into this playful mode?

Carly Hathaway05:26

So Bill-

Ren Jones05:30

Go ahead, Carly. Go for it, please.

Carly Hathaway05:33

Okay. I think I have a lag online, but yeah, I was just going to ask, so can you kind of walk us through a typical day, what time you get on the phones and do you role play in the morning and kind of like how does your day start? What time?

Bill Gabbard05:48

I’m usually at the office by seven, every day. I watch some videos or affirmation videos or just get my headset to play in the game. And then I role play every morning, five days a week from 7:30 to usually 7:45. And I just, that’s a routine. I do that before I do anything else.

Ren Jones06:12

Every morning. Role play. Now don’t you know these scripts by now?

Carly Hathaway06:17

Huh?

Bill Gabbard06:18

I know the scripts, but I started to follow Mike Ferry’s routine. I have him lay it out in front of me so I don’t have to memorize them. I can just look at him and catch myself going into the script.

Ren Jones06:30

So what does it do for you to do that for years? To role play the same scripts over and over and over again for years? How does that help you?

Bill Gabbard06:37

Well, it just makes you know what to say when they ask you a question.

Ren Jones06:40

Gotcha, okay. So you don’t have to think about what you’re saying.

Bill Gabbard06:43

Right. Okay. And if I have to think about it, I start making-

Carly Hathaway06:47

It just comes naturally.

Ren Jones06:51

Yeah. It’s just much more natural. And that’s where that playful part comes in. Because you’re not thinking about what to say and you’re looking for to get their funny bone.

Bill Gabbard06:58

Right. If you make them laugh, they want to ask another question.

Ren Jones07:02

Yeah, we had, see this is the live camera up here. Okay. Way just above the screen. See that one behind it? So I took him over to Team Synergy for their little gathering at 11:15 today. And they said, “Well we want to see what that’s like.” So Carly, he did a role play, we did a role play and within a matter of a minute and a half, he had them all laughing because he was just zip off stuff that I mean, and if you were an expired you would be laughing, too. It was very entertaining. So maybe we’ll do a little role play and see how that works.

Carly Hathaway07:39

But I think that’s great because I feel like when we’re calling these people, they’re mad, they’re furious. Their house isn’t selling, they’re in a bad state of mind. So if you can turn that around that’s good and I think that’s what’s going to help you get the listing.

Bill Gabbard07:58

I had a listing I’m putting on the market next week. I’ve already got the paperwork signed. But I called him and they said, “Can you call us back later?” So I waited about 10 minutes and I called back, I said, “I just wanted to return the call. You told me to call you back later.

Ren Jones08:14

Did they appreciate the humor in that?

Bill Gabbard08:15

Well he started laughing. He said, “Well you’re the only one that’s called me twice so you come out and see me.” So I tried to have fun at what I do because yeah, I used to work in a job I hated. And I think every time I put the phone down I’ll say you could be going back there. So I get back on the phone.

Ren Jones08:36

Good. You could go back to the job you hated. I gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. It’s easier to call and you’ve got such a nice market. I was looking at your inventory yesterday. I was just taking a peek and looked at it. You know have a lot of 150, 250, 350, although I like that 1.3 million. Did were they an expired listing?

Bill Gabbard08:57

No, truthfully, I’d done a deal with them 10 years ago.

Ren Jones09:02

Past client.

Bill Gabbard09:03

And then he called me on a building he was trying to sell and he said, “Do you think you can sell it?” I said, “If it can be sold, I can sell it.” So I sold it in a week. Nice. So I ended up getting seven listings from that family and I’m supposed to be getting seven more next month.

Ren Jones09:20

So you’ve got quite a reputation in the area. So I was going to ask you how much of your business is coming from people you don’t know versus people you know, but I suspect you get a fair amount of repeat business at this stage.

Bill Gabbard09:34

I [inaudible 00:09:35] seldom lose a good customer if I’ve stayed in touch with them. If I lose one, it’s usually my fault because I didn’t do what you’re supposed to do and stay in touch.

Ren Jones09:45

How often are you staying in touch? What does that look like, calling your past clients, this year?

Bill Gabbard09:48

I try to call at least 10 past clients a month. I have them in my phone and I group them. So if I’m riding down the road and nobody to talk to, I’ll usually call one of them and just ask them how their day’s going and who they know might be looking to buy or sell real estate.

Ren Jones10:05

Gotcha. So you’re calling 10 a month?

Bill Gabbard10:07

Yep.

Ren Jones10:08

10 past clients a month. So two and a half a week. Okay. It’s tricky calling those half clients.

Bill Gabbard10:14

Well if you run out of people you’ll call the third one.

Ren Jones10:18

Okay, gotcha. Good. And you keep talking about pulling over on the side of the road, making calls. How you do that?

Bill Gabbard10:23

I have a ScriptBook in my car and if I’ll print out the Vulcan seven sheets. If I couldn’t get ahold of people, if I’m driving and I’m waiting on somebody, I’ll pull in a parking lot and if I’m early, because I usually try to be 15 to 30 minutes early for an appointment and I’ll pull over and I’ll just start calling people to try to set another appointment.

Ren Jones10:43

So you’re just always setting appointments, You’re a closer.

Bill Gabbard10:46

I tried to be.

Ren Jones10:49

Yeah. And there’s a big challenge, too, with not only folks calling expireds and FSBOs, but the fear of closing and that comes naturally for you. You’re always closing. When I asked him about that 1.3 million house yesterday, you know what he said? He said, Carly, he said, “You should buy it.” I mean it’s a close, that is a close and a lot of people in our business, they’re not naturally tuned to closing. But it’s okay to close. Not only is it okay to close, it’s important and for a second I thought, “Should I buy that house?” But I wasn’t looking for 1.3 million in Hamilton, Ohio. But if I was, I’m in. But so it’s a challenge with why and you’re in a big real estate office. Why, and you see this, why is it so hard for people to close?

Bill Gabbard11:46

A lot of people just are afraid to ask the questions. I mean I feel if I said “Are you looking to buy or sell the house?” Their either going to say yes or no. If they say “Yes,” I’ll say, “What time can we meet?” If they say no, I’ll say, “When do you plan?”

Ren Jones12:04

Okay.

Bill Gabbard12:04

Always try to future pace it because somebody’s going to move today and they might as well move with me as anybody else.

Ren Jones12:11

Gotcha, gotcha. And they might as well. And that’s a good mindset. Might as well move with you. There’s a lot of fear that maybe people like, “Well mom, maybe I’m not good enough.” Or things like that. They have that fear and so they don’t close and they don’t ask the question.

Bill Gabbard12:28

It’s like, I called a million dollar expired the other day, says, “How many have you closed this year of a million dollars?” I said, “After yours, it would be one.”

Ren Jones12:37

See there the humor is all, after yours, it’ll be one. Not a lot of million dollar properties in the area here versus say other markets, San Diego and some others where they have a lot of million dollar properties and they fight over lower commissions too. So it’s all relative. So good. Fantastic. But the ability to close… What about the ability to stay on the phone a lot longer than you might be comfortable with? Because that’s a big challenge that we talk about almost every week is getting… Because people want, “We’re going to go back with the same agent.” And the agent’s quickly getting off the phone. How do you stay on so long, because you do.

Bill Gabbard13:21

If somebody asks me they or tells me they’re going to stay with the same agent and we’ll say, “I wish I had loyalty to people that I failed to sell their house as you do.”

Ren Jones13:29

So say that again, I going to say the same. I wish I had loyalty.

Bill Gabbard13:36

I said, “I wish I had loyalty customers like you that I failed to sell to our house.” I said, “Most of mine, if I don’t sell, they’ll move on.”

Ren Jones13:44

And it just, it’s hilarious. And if some of the people use that script, it could be very, very interesting because it does kind of get their funny bones. They go like, “Yeah, why am I so loyal? They failed to sell the house.”

Bill Gabbard14:04

Like I had one, they had the agent, I won’t say the last name, but our first name was Cindy. And I said, “Well when do you plan on interviewing the right agent for selling your job?” And I went down the script, I said, “Why do you think your house didn’t sell besides Cindy?”

Ren Jones14:19

Besides Cindy?

Bill Gabbard14:20

So I wanted to look if it was something with the house or-

Ren Jones14:23

Yeah, is it some other reason besides Cindy. Yeah. So yeah, I mean you get there, you get them chuckling and it works. So we have to get that comfort level. We have to, what do they say? Fake it ti you make it. Close. I don’t think you even have, probably don’t have. People will slide seven pennies forward for closing. I bet you don’t even have that because you just hanging on their close until they get tired of talking to you.

Bill Gabbard14:50

It’s like my team, they’ll say, “When do we quit calling?” I said, “When they die or I they list then keep them because if they list high, we’re going to get them back later.”

Ren Jones15:02

There we go. Because they keep coming back if they overprice it. That is true. You’re doing for sale by owners much?

Bill Gabbard15:09

I don’t do as many as I used to. Paula does most of them on the team.

Ren Jones15:12

So you’ve got somebody on your team making some calls, too.

Bill Gabbard15:14

Yep. She’s very good on the phones.

Ren Jones15:15

Good. We lost Carly so I guess she’ll dive back in, hopefully. Yeah, we had some bandwidth issues going on in San Diego. Must be the fires. So we’ll see what happens. Oh, good point. So let’s talk about something we were talking about at lunch. You said you’re the only one in your office that dresses up professionally when meeting with clients and also in the office. So-

Bill Gabbard15:53

I get a lot of people that make fun of me the way I dress because they think I overdress and then I have the problem. I think they underdress.

Ren Jones16:03

Yet you produce more than most of the people in the office. I think there’s one other person that does really, really, really well. Couple people that do medium up there. And you got a lot of people in your office. You’re one of the highest producers in the office and they’re all giving you a tough time because they’re wearing red t-shirts and shorts and flip flops and golf shirts.

Bill Gabbard16:23

And they’ll ask me, why do I dress the way I do? And I look at them, I say, “Why do you dress the way you do?”

Ren Jones16:28

Yeah. So yeah, I mean you dress you’re the trust department of the bank and some clients coming in to discuss their money.

Bill Gabbard16:37

Right. Well we’re really dealing with our biggest asset, most of us.

Ren Jones16:43

Yeah. It’s a big decision. And so you’re, how many times do you believe you beat out people just from that alone? Just taking it up a notch. Somebody comes in wearing a golf shirt, another person comes in wearing blue jeans, another person… And then you walk in. What I mean, what’s that worth in listings taking over the course of a year, an extra 10, 20 listings?

Bill Gabbard17:01

I would say I probably get 10 extra listings a year.

Ren Jones17:03

Okay. An extra listing a month roughly from just taking it up a notch. So folks just take it up one notch. One notch, one notch. I know you think you’re in a rapport by being, but if you take it up one up, it won’t hurt you. It won’t hurt you.

Bill Gabbard17:18

Well I spend a thousand dollars a month to get coached. And-

Ren Jones17:23

How long you been doing that?

Bill Gabbard17:24

I’ve been doing it about seven, eight years now.

Ren Jones17:26

Seven or eight years. So you’re saying, I mean what, that’s about $9,000 a year. That’s so 60, $70,000 you spend on coaching already.

Bill Gabbard17:39

Right.

Ren Jones17:39

Do you get a return on that?

Bill Gabbard17:41

Well I’ve made a return every year. I wouldn’t keep doing it.

Ren Jones17:44

Yeah. Okay. Good. And it seems to be very common on these calls that everybody’s paying a thousand dollars a month to somebody to coach them. If you weren’t in coaching, what would happen?

Bill Gabbard17:55

I believe I would slow down by what… I know I have to report every week what I’m doing.

Ren Jones18:00

Gotcha.

Bill Gabbard18:01

So I tried to make him happy because if I make him happy, I’m happy.

Ren Jones18:06

Oh, okay. Gotcha. So you have a good coach. Fantastic. Good, good. Yeah. Well that makes a difference.

Bill Gabbard18:12

I have two great coaches.

Ren Jones18:17

Oh good.

Bill Gabbard18:17

You being the first one and the one I have now.

Ren Jones18:18

There we go. Yeah. And I’m excited for you because it seems to be working and then you do a business plan. What’s your goal for 2018?

Bill Gabbard18:27

We’re going to do 150 transactions.

Ren Jones18:30

150 transactions.

Bill Gabbard18:31

Yes.

Ren Jones18:31

So we’ll move up. Okay, good. Good, good, good. So that’s like 14, 15 transactions a month, something like that as opposed to 10 or 12. Okay, fantastic. What do you do on the days you don’t feel like prospecting? How do you work on the mindset in this business? Or is that an issue for you?

Bill Gabbard18:50

Well, I usually, I mean, I struggle like everybody else. There are some days I hit the phones truly hard. There’s some days I just make the phone calls. But if I’m, I can tell my tone of the voice or how I feel, I may step away for a couple hours and come back or come in the evenings and do it. Because if your mind’s not there, people can tell it.

Ren Jones19:11

Yeah, I would imagine they could. Yeah.

Bill Gabbard19:14

But truthfully, probably in a 30 day period, I’m at the office every day and if I’m going to be there, I’ve got to, my goal is to make an appointment and make a paycheck.

Ren Jones19:24

Good. Make an appointment, make a paycheck. Good, good, good, good.

Bill Gabbard19:28

It’s like this month in December, my team and we should have closed probably 15.

Ren Jones19:33

Okay. And that’s a good month.

Bill Gabbard19:35

Yeah, we closed 10 last month.

Ren Jones19:40

Good, okay. And so if you do 15 a month, then you’re there. So let’s get some questions. We’re going to need to, I’m encourage our Vulcan 7 audience to ask some questions just because we can see those. So hopefully, they will have some questions for Bill. While I’m waiting for the questions to start popping up, so you have a couple admins?

Bill Gabbard20:01

I’ve got one admin.

Ren Jones20:02

One admin. One.

Bill Gabbard20:03

Yes.

Ren Jones20:04

Wow. He or she is busy.

Bill Gabbard20:07

Yep.

Ren Jones20:08

Ouch. Is that, I remember times when you had two.

Bill Gabbard20:12

Well I had two and then I started checking to see why I wasn’t getting repeat business and I found out I was paying wages and getting nothing in return.

Ren Jones20:21

Oh, okay. Gotcha. All right, so you got one real good one. And then you have, what do you have on the sales side? Anything? Buyer agents or you have somebody that prospects with you.

Bill Gabbard20:30

I’ve got three buyer agents and then I’ve got a new guy joining the team. He’s going to be managing the people to make sure we report our calls every day to him. He’s going to record them and then we’re going to start tracking who we’re working with so we can keep up with where we’re at with each customer.

Ren Jones20:50

Wow. Good. Fantastic. Good, good, good, good. And question, come on Vulcan 7 people, we got a lot of people logged in so we got to get some questions going but I’m going to ask the typical questions. We’ll do a role play and then unless Jesse sees something that’s not working, because normally we get loaded down with questions right here. Let’s do a quick role play just for fun.

Bill Gabbard21:17

Okay.

Ren Jones21:19

And you probably used all your funny liners, but there’ll be about to be something else. So yeah, call me up. Call me up.

Bill Gabbard21:25

Ring.

Ren Jones21:26

Hello.

Bill Gabbard21:27

Hi, I’m looking for Ren Jones.

Ren Jones21:29

Speaking.

Bill Gabbard21:29

Hi Ren, this is Bill Gabbard with the Bill Gabbard group of Keller-Williams. And I just called and let you know I seen your house came back on the market as an expired listing.

Ren Jones21:37

Yes.

Bill Gabbard21:38

I just calling to see when did you want me to come over to get it back on the market for you?

Ren Jones21:41

When did you… I didn’t want you to come over to get it back on the market. We’re working with Susie.

Bill Gabbard21:48

You’re working with Susie, great.

Ren Jones21:49

Yes.

Bill Gabbard21:49

So you don’t want to put it back on the market?

Ren Jones21:51

No, we’re going to put it back on the market, but bring me a buyer.

Bill Gabbard21:56

Well, I would love to do that, but what I’d like to do is come out and see your house so I can make sure it matches up with the right buyer. Let me ask you this, Ren, if you move, where you moving to?

Ren Jones22:06

Montana.

Bill Gabbard22:07

Montana. How exciting.

Ren Jones22:09

Yeah.

Bill Gabbard22:09

How soon was you wanting to be in Montana?

Ren Jones22:10

Well, I’m back and forth there now. We bought 20 acres and we’re getting some fencing up and kind of excited about it.

Bill Gabbard22:19

Oh great. Sounds like you’re ready to be in Montana full time. Is that?

Ren Jones22:22

I am.

Bill Gabbard22:23

Well Ren, what do you think stopped your home from selling besides Linda and your house?

Ren Jones22:29

Well, Bill, it’s just this market. We want 350 for this and until we get 350, we’re going to hold tight.

Bill Gabbard22:45

Okay. So you think that house is worth 350?

Ren Jones22:46

Yeah.

Bill Gabbard22:47

What did the market tell you or what the Linda bring to your attention?

Ren Jones22:49

Well we told Linda it was worth 350.

Bill Gabbard22:52

Okay, so Linda thinks it’s worth 350.

Ren Jones22:54

Well we told Linda it’s worth 350.

Bill Gabbard22:56

Well what did Linda do best that you like?

Ren Jones22:59

She held it open every week, every Sunday.

Bill Gabbard23:02

She held it open every week.

Ren Jones23:03

Yeah. One time, Saturday and Sunday.

Bill Gabbard23:05

You realize last Sunday, my team put three houses under contract that were years on the market?

Ren Jones23:10

Oh, well, that’s very nice.

Bill Gabbard23:12

Let me ask you this, what would you expect a powerful agent like myself to come out and get your house on the market?

Ren Jones23:19

Well, we’d expect a lot of work to and we would expect a sale.

Bill Gabbard23:25

Well, I’ll tell you what, Rn, I’d like to come out and just show you what my team can do to get your home sold so I can get you to Montana in the shortest amount of time available. Would you have any time today at four?

Ren Jones23:36

All right? Four o’clock.

Bill Gabbard23:38

Okay. What I’m going to do, Ren, is I’m going to do a little research on your house. I’m going to call you back say 11 o’clock. I just want to ask you a few more questions to make sure when I come out tonight, our appointment shouldn’t take over 15 or 20 minutes.

Ren Jones23:51

Okay. Fair enough.

Bill Gabbard23:52

I’ll call you back 11. Is this the best number to reach you at?

Ren Jones23:55

This is the best number.

Bill Gabbard23:56

I’ll talk to you at 11.

Ren Jones23:58

Alrighty. Awesome. Thank you, sir.

Bill Gabbard24:00

Thank you.

Ren Jones24:02

Daniel said, “How do you get out of with people that don’t want to pay a full commission, by the way, what do you charge?”

Bill Gabbard24:08

I charge 6%.

Ren Jones24:09

You charge six, okay.

Bill Gabbard24:11

Yes.

Ren Jones24:11

Yeah. What do you do with people that want to pay you less than that?

Bill Gabbard24:13

Well, I’ll just ask them. I’ll say commission’s only a chart, a cost when you sell.

Ren Jones24:19

Okay.

Bill Gabbard24:20

So it doesn’t matter how long we put it on the market, it’s not a cost. I got to pay for everything up front to help you sell your house. And at the end of the day, I expect to get paid for it. And if I do all the marketing and another agent happens to sell it, they get half of that 6%. So I can’t afford to give you any the other half away and I’m not allowed by our MLS rules to charge less for the buyers agent. So I just go ahead and list it for 6% and when we have a contract on it, you’ll see what you got for your money.

Ren Jones24:53

And that works.

Bill Gabbard24:53

Yes.

Ren Jones24:55

All right. So you don’t really get a whole lot of that. Okay. Somebody, Travis wanted to know, “What’s the most effective script you use to get for sale owners to realize they need an agent to list their home?”

25:07What is the issue with for sale by owners? We’re in an overheated market in a lot of the country. There are places where it still is not, and this is one of them where it’s for sale by owners generally have the ability to sell themselves, at least save half of the commission because usually an agent’s involved. When you’re talking to a for sale by owner, how do you help them see that need?

Bill Gabbard25:31

Well, I’ll ask them who their lender is, what title companies they’re using. Once we get it under contract, who they going to send it to make sure everything is done correctly for them.

Ren Jones25:42

Okay.

Bill Gabbard25:43

Because truthfully a lot of for sale by owners in our market, as agents as whole, we get so excited to brag about we sold the house in the neighborhood, we get on Facebook and all the social media and say, “I sold the house in one hour.” Got 10 buyers looking and to put the address in and next thing you drive up around that address. You got it for sell by owner, for sell by owner and you’re not going to, until those people see they can’t sell it, they think the for sale by owner is the way to go. And most of the time they’ll ask you offer you the 3%. So really you’re just trying to negotiate 3%.

Ren Jones26:17

Yeah, they’re trying to save 3% and really aren’t they selling it at a lesser dollar typically?

Bill Gabbard26:21

Most of the time.

Ren Jones26:22

Most of the time. And when you talk to them, how do you help them understand that’s going to? That-

Bill Gabbard26:28

Well they’ll say, “If we get a contract, we review it.” I’ll say yeah, for 3%.”

Ren Jones26:31

Oh, so you’re going after the safety part of it?

Bill Gabbard26:35

Right.

Ren Jones26:36

Because there are a lot of crazy contracts. The fall through rate on a for sale by owner contract is pretty high. Generally.

Bill Gabbard26:42

I truly had a personal friend that sold his house not too long ago for sale by owner and he called and asked me if I’d review the paperwork and I said, “Yeah, I charge a 3% to do that.” He said, “You’re going to charge me?” I said, “Well you go to work today for nothing?”

Ren Jones26:57

There, you got to work today for nothing.

Bill Gabbard27:00

But I truly set my standards. I won’t negotiate the commission.

Ren Jones27:04

So it’s the standards. And really I think for a lot of sale by owners, if they don’t have to move or they don’t have to move in any timetable, the need for the services goes down. So we’re better off to focus on people that need to move and need to move right away because they’re going to want somebody that’s got an aggressive program that’s going to drive the price north.

Bill Gabbard27:24

Well, it’s just like truthfully on my million dollar listing. The guy, I walked in, he said, “I can get it done for 4%.” I said, “You probably can but you can’t with me.”

Ren Jones27:34

There you go. You just have to defend that. Shawna West said, “I’m somewhat new and keep getting people that want to wait until spring and I can’t seem to overcome it. So I just continue to follow up.” What say you, Bill Gabbard.

Bill Gabbard27:52

Well, if they tell me they want to wait till spring. I’ll say, “Do you want to get the most money out of your house today or do you want to wait till spring where you got competition? And the interest rates are projecting to go up. So it’s going to make you a less buyer six months from now than it is today because we get your house sold today while the rates are good, you can afford more of a house.”

Ren Jones28:12

Good. So you’re saying two points here is demand and supply because right now the demand is high and the supply is low, so they could get a little, they’re sitting more favorably as far as selling at a better price now versus spring. And then you’re saying that projections are interest rates will go up. So if they’re buying a house and you say, “Are you?” And then they say, “Yes we are.” “Then you’re going to want to do this now while you can lock in a little lower rate.” Okay, good. So hopefully that helps, Shauna. How do you handle sellers trying to get a, Oh we did that. “On your listing presentation, what percent do you stay on your script? How long is your listing presentation from the time you walk in the door to the time you walk out?”

Bill Gabbard28:57

If I have one that we actually sign, probably 30 minutes, 35 minutes.

Ren Jones29:01

30 to 35 minutes with paperwork signed. Okay, good. Which we know, based on what you’re saying, that means that you’re asking a lot of pre-qualified questions before you go. Yes. Probably canceling some appointments before you based on that and not going. And then we know that you’re probably sending a pre-listing packet.

Bill Gabbard29:20

Yes.

Ren Jones29:20

Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get in and out the door in 30 minutes.

Bill Gabbard29:23

Well truthfully, if you ask people a lot of questions on the phone, they’ve already made their mind up most of the time when you get there.

Ren Jones29:31

So you get a lot of people that they already know they want to list with you before you get there.

Bill Gabbard29:36

Yep.

Ren Jones29:36

Okay.

Bill Gabbard29:39

If I feel like I don’t have that, then I really do, I’ll drive around the neighborhood and just to make sure what the competition looks like so I can compete with the competition.

Ren Jones29:49

Perfect, perfect, perfect. Lance wants to know how many hours a day do you prospect?

Bill Gabbard29:58

I would say a good two to three hours a day every day.

Ren Jones30:01

Okay. So you role play 7:30 to 7:45. Then you go on the phones at what, eight?

Bill Gabbard30:05

I get usually about eight, five after. Just according how as the role playing goes. Sometimes we run over a little bit.

Ren Jones30:14

Okay. Somebody want know what your name is? Bill Gabbard. Bill Gabbard, Keller- Williams.

Bill Gabbard30:22

Associate partner.

Ren Jones30:23

Associate Partners, West Chester, Ohio. “Bring me a buyer and I’ll pay you 3%.” What do you say to that to I have a funny feeling that you have something that you say.

Bill Gabbard30:34

I’ll say, I love that when they say, “Bring me a buyer and I’ll pay you 3%.” I’ll say, “If you let me list it, I’ll bring you 10 buyers.”

Ren Jones30:43

You let me list, I’ll bring you 10 buyers. Bring me a buyer, I’ll pay you 3%. Well let me list it and I’ll always be closing. He closes. He closes, he’s always closing, he closed me and I don’t want to buy a house. Do you pre-qualify a hundred percent of the time? Do you ask all the questions?

Bill Gabbard31:02

I will say we’re 95% there.

Ren Jones31:05

95%. So Robert, 5% of the time he’s dropping the ball. Why are you dropping the ball 5% of the time? Robert wants to know.

Bill Gabbard31:12

It’s according because my buyer’s agent, sometime they get us an appointment and they’ll set it before I know we have it. So I have to try to get everything ready and I set a standard on that. They have to at least have a day before… If they set the appointment where we have time to pre-qualify and everything because we went on a couple appointments last month. If we would’ve really pre-qualified, we’d have got the listing.

Ren Jones31:35

Gotcha. So the more thorough you pre-qualified the… So that’s a good question. So that’s a batting average. What is your batting average, listing appointments to listing taken every 10 appointments, you go on, roughly how many listing?

Bill Gabbard31:54

I would at 75%.

Ren Jones31:54

75%. Okay. And I know who your coach is so I know why you’re so effective there. Oh there was a good one there. Oh, I’m going to ask this because when I met you, Robert Star wants to know, “What year, make and model car do you drive? How important is that?

Bill Gabbard32:18

I’ve got a 2016 Cadillac SRX.

Ren Jones32:22

SRX. Okay, good. And when I met you.

Bill Gabbard32:24

I had a Ranger pickup truck.

Ren Jones32:30

Which in Hamilton is not so bad.

Bill Gabbard32:35

Right.

Ren Jones32:37

Do you find it hard to get people on the phone or set an appointment this close to the holidays, Bill?

Bill Gabbard32:44

You’ll have… The people answering their phone are serious. I have to do a lot of callbacks and what I try to do is if I don’t reach them in the morning, I’ll call my agents and ask them to start dialing them so one of us can get ahold of them.

Ren Jones32:58

Okay. Okay good. So you just work a little harder. And then when we run into this time of the year, it’s been part of the discussions over at Team Synergy across the parking lot, is a lot of people are begging off to the first of the year. How do you handle that? Because that’s a lot of people that want to say, “Talk to me after the first of the year.” How do you handle that?

Bill Gabbard33:23

If I can’t get them to commit earlier, I’ll set an appointment for right after the first of the year.

Ren Jones33:28

So you have your calendar posted January, February calendar, posted.

Bill Gabbard33:31

Yep. I tried to… As Steve Powers, my coach, says it’s better to have one on the books and have to have them call you and cancel is not to have the appointment at all.

Ren Jones33:42

I know, I found that was true. I used to collect hot leads and I was so excited. I had all these leads for January and they just melted away. So then ever since then I started doing like you do, set an appointment, say like, “January 10th is a Wednesday, how does your schedule look for four? Would six be better?” And they would say, “Just call me.” And I would say, well it’s easier for me to take you out of my schedule than to put you in for me. Let me pencil that in. I’ll call you a week ahead.” And then I would fill that calendar up, January, like you’re doing, you’re filling your January calendar up and then you’ve got listings, folks. Because if you have leads at the beginning of the year, you and nine other people do have the same leads. But if you’ve got set appointments, people are going to go, “Well I set an appointment with Bill Gabbard, there must have been a reason. These other agents are calling me. But I set an appointment with him.”

Bill Gabbard34:32

Something I’ve been doing as of the last couple months when I have an appointment scheduled, I will have my administrator call them up to remind them we got an appointment and make sure they’re confirmed with it. That way you have two confirmed appointments with the same person.

Ren Jones34:48

And two-thirds of those people honor that appointment or they move it slightly. But two-thirds, if you set 20, 30 appointments for January, two-thirds of those people are going to meet with you. That’s what I found. Seems to be pretty darn good, especially if you’re following up. So go ahead and set those appointments, but then if we can get them in December, because you’re making the point, demand and supply, there’s nothing for sale. This is a great transfer time of the year, people are relocating, starting a new job and you’re in an area where people are starting in a lot of new jobs.

Bill Gabbard35:21

There’s a lot of growth in our area.

Ren Jones35:22

What to you have? You have AK Steel? You have some Proctor & Gamble people up there, you have GE up there. You’ve got a lot of major players changing jobs around for January 2nd starts.

Bill Gabbard35:34

Yep.

Ren Jones35:34

So it’s a good, that’s an exciting time of the year for that.

Bill Gabbard35:37

We got our first, my team and I got our first relocation buyer that’s under contract, closing the last, 29th of this month. And I just never did really want to do a lot of relo.

Ren Jones35:50

You didn’t do a lot of relo, but if they’re going to jump in the boat, you’re going to catch it, huh. Good, good. Let’s see what… We got that. Do you, Yeah, we already discussed the ROI on coaching. Hang on, let me go down, see what we have in questions. “Do most of your listings come from for sale by buyer expired? You use any other systems that have been effective for getting listings?” So for sale by owners expires past clients, which is what, half of your business is?

Bill Gabbard36:23

Yes.

Ren Jones36:23

That’s a lot of your business because you’ve been doing it.

Bill Gabbard36:26

This is my 19th year.

Ren Jones36:27

19 years. Good. So you would have a lot of people that you’ve sold homes to that are in your level of services so high they’re coming back. Fantastic. And then what else? Calling around listing sales, anything like that

Bill Gabbard36:39

We call Just So, Just List It. We call around neighborhoods. Let people know that we’re actively working in the market.

Ren Jones36:48

Some target areas, places where people transfer a lot.

Bill Gabbard36:51

Right.

Ren Jones36:51

Okay. Fantastic. “What will you be implementing for your team to make 2018 more productive than 2017?” asks Annie O’Sullivan.

Bill Gabbard37:02

Going to, I got a new guy coming on the team as I mentioned, and he’s going to call every day the agents and see how many contacts they made, how many leads they are working with and we’re going to put a board up where everybody’s got their leads and we’re going to hold him, where we going, like Bernie does. When do you expect that to go into contract? When do you expect it to close?

Ren Jones37:22

Okay.

Bill Gabbard37:24

Systems. I just feel like if we have their name out there, we won’t forget who they are.

Ren Jones37:30

Okay. Yeah. And so it comes, it’s visibility, to be able to see that and not forget. Okay, perfect. Malcolm’s trying to ask a question. I have a funny feeling. I know what he’s trying to ask because, but it’s typed in kind of funny. January 1st is the largest expired day of the year.

Bill Gabbard37:47

Yes.

Ren Jones37:47

Do you work it?

Bill Gabbard37:49

Well as of this year, yes. Because my coach told me I had to.

Ren Jones37:52

Yeah, because it is. I mean if you have five expireds a day on January 1st and you have 30 on the first of the month, on January 1st, you generally have what, 4, 5, 6, 800?

Bill Gabbard38:05

Yes.

Ren Jones38:06

Hundreds and hundreds. And I know as a company for us, we actually do, we have twice the manpower and systems and circuits set up because just so much. It’s like 12 inches of water going through a one inch pipe overnight on December 31st, the number of expireds, Let’s talk about that January one list because it’s different than a regular expired list. I mean we know that unlike most January one lists, when you have 800 to 1200 expireds, they don’t go right back on the market two days later, typically, not from that list. What do we know about that list?

Bill Gabbard38:49

Well you just have to stay in contact with them. You call all you can today and then I just go through all of them. Then when we get close, we start going back to the ones we want to really circle around.

Ren Jones39:01

I find that list is good for two months. It’s good. There are a lot of people that, they withdrew the listing on in November, early December. It expired overnight, December 31st, showed up on that list and then they put their house back on the market late January, early February, late February, early March. So we get a couple months out of that list. Unlike other lists, you get a lot of mileage out of that list and it’s a big one. So I always worked January 1st. I would do six hours of prospecting, I’d get there early and back then I had to look up phone numbers, spend and have other people looking up phone numbers for me. And then calling until four in the afternoon. The only thing you have to do folks is mirror and match. If they go “Hello/” you get mirror and match. “Hello.” Because on January 1st, they’re not chipper sometimes when they answer the phone. So mirror and match. How do you get a homeowner to lower their asking price on an overpriced home when they’re firmly convinced that it’s priced right?

Bill Gabbard40:08

Well I just take comps out there and show them. I’ll say the market’s saying this is what it’s worth. And I understand you feel like everything you’ve put init, it’s worth this much. But if you sell it now, get it down to the price now, you’ll get what the market’s saying now. Because if you wait longer, the competition gets ahead of you. You’re allowed to be overpriced more then than you are now.

Ren Jones40:31

All right. So you’re just reasonable with them a little bit because that’s all logic. So Abby, thank you for that question. Don Sheets, “Who do you compete with and you kick his butt, isn’t that right?” He says, “Bill has awesome skills and his best asset is his easygoing, friendly personality. When he’s talking with you, it’s like he’s known you forever. I know his success at cold call lead generation is way above the average agent.” That’s not a question, Don, do you have a question? But thank you for that. It’s very kind of you to have one of your competition.

Bill Gabbard41:02

Yep.

Ren Jones41:03

Your competitors.

Bill Gabbard41:05

Well Don is one of the reasons why I really enjoy what I do because Don’s good at it as well.

Ren Jones41:12

He is, yeah. I’ve been over to Don’s office. I thought that WLW radio tower is going to fall over on me. He’s so close to it there. So do you find your conversion rate for expireds is higher than for sale by owners?

Bill Gabbard41:24

I say the expireds is higher than for sale by owners.

Ren Jones41:27

Is it for you? Okay. Gotcha. And then we find the reverse happens, too. Every once in a while you meet somebody that’s so good at for sale by owners, but it gets to the script.

Bill Gabbard41:39

I will tell you, Paula on my team, she’s better at the for sale by owners than I am. And I don’t try to infringe in her territory because if she’s getting the appointment, I’d rather her get them.

Ren Jones41:53

You get them and you close. Well, we know you can close. My biggest problem is hearing, “My biggest problem is hearing no for an answer.” That’s not his problem. “I need to get past the first few nos and hopefully it’ll be okay. Any advice?” Marty wants to know. Yeah, I guess it bothers him when he hears no. Does it bother you when you hear no.

Bill Gabbard42:17

Well no because not everybody’s going to say yes. So if you get used to the no’s, you just put calluses to you. Then when you hear the yes, you get excited.

Ren Jones42:29

There you go. There you go. So I don’t think, no. So Marty, it’s a mindset. Isn’t it really a mindset. Do you kind of look at it as a game?

Bill Gabbard42:38

Well I always figured no is no today, but it might be yes tomorrow. So you call them back tomorrow. Because you really, truthfully, when you call people today and especially in our market where we got so many calling every day when it expires first hits, they get tired of the answering the phone. So I wait till the next day and I’ll call them back and I’ll say, “I just wanted to make sure you decided that you didn’t want to sell your house.” Because truthfully they want to sell it. They’re frustrated because it didn’t sell and they’re looking for somebody to help them tell them why it didn’t sell.

Ren Jones43:12

Yeah. So just go back again.

Bill Gabbard43:14

Yeah, yeah.

Ren Jones43:15

They’re just frustrated. So the no’s, Marty, the no’s are just frustration. They’re just frustration. And if you think it’s a game and if you’re coming in contribution, “I can help these people.” If you’re thinking that, they’re going to get that from you, they’re going to get it that you’re just trying to help them. And if you are, they win. You win. Everybody wins. Here’s one that I toss around that or be having a beer with somebody or whatever, chatting to people in the business. “How early would you start calling on New Year’s Day?” I did it for many years that this is your first year doing it. So you may not have an opinion on it.

Bill Gabbard43:57

I’m going to start at nine.

Ren Jones43:59

That’s what I always did. And that’s what seemed to be the consensus. Nine. There were some that went a little earlier than that, but I think nine o’clock. And you got to mirror and match. If they’re talking like this, you can’t go, “Hi.” So we have to mirror and match. So nine o’clock’s a good time, bill. Oh, okay. Don Sheets finally has a question for you. Okay. Because he wants to, he’s concerned because he’s in your market and I think he’s afraid he’s going to get crushed. He wants to know where you see your team five years from now, Bill.

Bill Gabbard44:31

I hope bigger and better.

Ren Jones44:34

Bigger and better, Don, bigger and better. So you don’t have a number, 250, 250 units, 350 units. Are you going to go up to Columbus? Are you going to work your way up to Columbus?

Bill Gabbard44:43

Well, truthfully, I had that plan and work. Dan Young joined my team, which he is no longer with us, but he is going to help me build my team in Dayton and Columbus market. So I’m looking for somebody actively now to help me grow it into the Columbus and Dayton market.

Ren Jones45:00

Okay. So if any of you are, maybe you’re watching from Columbus and you’re looking for a business partner. There, you guys can combine efforts. So last question here from Travis Dyson. “When you go by and you take a look and the house has,” what Travis is referring to is presentation issues doesn’t show well or whatever, “How do you convince the sellers to resolve these issues? Or you just take a pass on taking the listing?” What do you do? How do you work that out?

Bill Gabbard45:29

If they’re not willing to change the house and they’re not willing to price it to sell, then you’re just wasting your time. So I’ll just tell them I’m probably not the right agent at the time to put the house on the market.

Ren Jones45:42

And then doesn’t that sometimes send a wake up call and they all of a sudden get serious?

Bill Gabbard45:45

Yeah.

Ren Jones45:45

Sometimes.

Bill Gabbard45:47

It’s like I had a guy said, “I want you to be flat out honest. What do I need to get my house sold?” I said, “We got to paint it. We got to get the pet smell out.” “So I’m taking my cats with me and my daughters.” I said, “I understand that, but they’ll stay here if you don’t replace the carpet and clean it up now and that’s going to cost you more money to get the house sold.”

Ren Jones46:07

So just logic, common sense, you’ll just talk common sense. If they can’t comprehend that and then you take a pass.

Bill Gabbard46:13

He said, “Well I’m not going to replace the carpet. It’s fine for me. I’ll say it’s fine for you.”

Ren Jones46:19

He’s used to it. He’s used to it. Yeah. So, good. Well this has been a wonderful experience having you here and a lot of helpful advice. And I know everybody’s going to enjoy playing this over and over and over and taking some of these ideas. Take a playful attitude when you’re talking to people. Take a helpful attitude, come in contribution, be playful like, conversational and you, too, can have a wonderful business and compete with Don Sheets. All right, Bill Gabbard, it was a great having you here.

46:54Last couple things. If you’re watching on the Vulcan7 network and you want to get involved with the Lead Gen Facebook group, they are at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. Also, I want thank Aaron who runs that group. He’s a real giver. He helps people go from good to great and thank him and his expiredmasteryelite.com program.

47:21And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not involved with Vulcan7 and you’re coming up on the new year, sign up for Vulcan 7. There’s some good pricing at vulcan7.com/leadgen. And if you have a question that was not answered or anything, my personal text, text me and I’ll answer your question. (513) 409 1620, (513) 409 1620. But if you have done your job, you spent four or five hours looking for business, get a big spoon and get some delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip recommended by Bill Gabbard and many other people across the country. It’s available all over North America. Just go to graeters.com and look up your flavor and go buy it all around. Have a good time. We’ll see you guys next week in seven days.

47:21