S2 E10: 31 Listings in 31 Days

Ren Jones (00:01):
Welcome to Roadmap. How to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we interview a great agent who is consistently taking 2, 3, 4 listings each week. And we have an exciting yesterday, more like seven or eight a week. We encourage you to take notes, apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle. If you’re watching on Vulcan7 or on the Lead Gen Facebook group, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. So get those questions in early folks, type them in early. Let me introduce my co-host from San Diego, Carly Hathaway. That’s carlyhathaway.com, of course. Hi, Carly, how is the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway (00:44):
Hi, Ren. Real estate business is awesome, as usual. It’s definitely a seller’s market. Great time to be a listing agent. Everything’s going awesome.

Ren Jones (00:52):
Good. Sign them up. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everyone that we are also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen group. On Facebook they have 49,000 members, so we have a large audience there today as well. And we’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the Lead Gen folks. Let’s welcome our guest today from beautiful, it’s probably warm there, Myrtle Beach, Greg Sisson.

Greg Sisson (01:20):
Hey Ren.

Ren Jones (01:21):
And you only hear two of us clapping because all the people watching… Now, we don’t turn on the applause for them, but we’ll have to get some applause to go with it.

Greg Sisson (01:30):
Maybe you can do that for me… Do that at the end for me, would you Ren?

Ren Jones (01:33):
Oh yeah, there we go. Let them loose. Let them rip. Good deal.

Carley Hathaway (01:37):
Hi Greg. How are you?

Greg Sisson (01:37):
Hey, good. How are you?

Carley Hathaway (01:40):
Doing really good. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Greg Sisson (01:43):
Thanks for having me, Carly.

Ren Jones (01:45):
So Myrtle Beach is a popular place to own a second home. Some people live there as their first home or they have a second home, and then it becomes the first home over time. So referrals are a big piece, so we want to make sure people know how to reach you and what’s the best way for them to reach you to send… Maybe they should buy something this year.

Greg Sisson (02:06):
Well, the best way to get me is if you’ve got a referral or you just want to communicate it through an email is greg@gregsisson.com. So greg@gregsisson.com, or they can call me at 843-251-2693.

Ren Jones (02:23):
Great. And I assume that they go to gregsisson.com they’ll learn a lot too.

Greg Sisson (02:28):
Yes.

Ren Jones (02:28):
To see your whole setup and everything you’ve got going on there. Perfect. That’s a wonderful thing. So folks, it’s time to get that second home.

Greg Sisson (02:36):
That’s right.

Ren Jones (02:37):
Yeah, a lot of nonstop flights to Myrtle Beach these days.

Greg Sisson (02:41):
They opened one up yesterday. I just heard today to Nashville, direct flight just opened up yesterday.

Ren Jones (02:46):
Nice, nice, nice. Is it an open cockpit with a scarf and goggles, or is it the… Just teasing.

Greg Sisson (02:53):
I’ll let you know.

Ren Jones (02:54):
Just kidding. That’s great. That’s fantastic. Yeah, because a big destination too. Go listen to some country music and then head over to Myrtle Beach just after. Yeah, fantastic. Now you’ve been doing this a while.

Greg Sisson (03:08):
Yes. This is my 20th year in real estate. Started in 97, and we didn’t talk about this, but you probably don’t know this. My background, coming from a real estate background, my father was in real estate here in Myrtle Beach and worked for Floyd Wickman, and I wanted to bring that up. He’s one of Mike Ferry’s competitors from a long time ago. So my dad was a speaker, trainer, real estate teacher for about 18, 20 years. So I grew up in that world.

Ren Jones (03:36):
Never knew that. Wow, that’s pretty…

Carley Hathaway (03:39):
You have a lot of knowledge that you’ll be able to share with us today.

Ren Jones (03:41):
Yeah, that’s where we want to go. We want to go in deep. So 20 years ago you probably called your first expired listing or first for sale owner. Would that be close to correct?

Greg Sisson (03:52):
That’s pretty close. Yeah, mainly I got turned loose with cold calling when I first got in the business. I didn’t do a lot of expires my first year or two. I basically only did cold calling.

Ren Jones (04:04):
Wow. So you’ve got a treasure trove of things that if you look in there, we could pick out four, five, or six, seven of them that they could take and implement, and we could share it on this show. That people could write down some things and go, okay. Something that would help them take an extra couple listings, maybe even one a week more than they were doing, depending on how good they are. So it’d be…

Greg Sisson (04:30):
Just thinking about this before, how do we go from two to three listings a month maybe in getting that extra listing a week? And if we’re ready to jump right in, I wrote down three things.

Ren Jones (04:41):
Let me do one more thing. Can we tell him about what’s going on with you and your coach, may I do that?

Greg Sisson (04:46):
Sure. Yeah.

Ren Jones (04:47):
So we have Greg, his coach… I mean, how many listings have you taken since the beginning of the year? We have January, February, a little bit of March. How many have you taken so far this year?

Greg Sisson (04:58):
I took 16 in January, 24 in February, and I’m at nine month to date, which I’m behind on what you’re about to talk about.

Ren Jones (05:07):
So 49 listings so far. 49 listings taken folks. So is this a guy that can take one a day… For every day of the month, take a listing? Obviously he comes pretty close every month. 24 out of 28. So there were 28 days in February and you took 24 listings.

Greg Sisson (05:29):
Yes.

Ren Jones (05:30):
It’s a reasonable request from your coaching.

Carley Hathaway (05:31):
Amazing.

Greg Sisson (05:33):
Yeah, when we finished the call, it was kind of near the end, Kevin’s like, why don’t you just count the days in the month and that’s how many listings you should have? So we’ll talk next week. Bye. I was like, wait a minute. I didn’t agree to that.

Carley Hathaway (05:49):
So your goal is 30 listings a month basically?

Ren Jones (05:51):
31.

Greg Sisson (05:53):
My goal in March was 25 before that phone call and when he hung up it hit 31.

Carley Hathaway (05:59):
Nice.

Greg Sisson (06:00):
Honestly, like 31 is a huge stretch for me. 20s are kind of the standard. That’s my goal typically. This month and March, I went for 25. So yeah, 31, I mean, would be a massive month for me. 25, 26 is the most I’ve ever done in a month.

Ren Jones (06:16):
Yeah, sleep is overrated. You can do that later.

Greg Sisson (06:18):
Yeah, true.

Carley Hathaway (06:21):
So 31 listings a month. That would be amazing. That’s the goal. How are you going to do it? Just tell us. We want to know your secrets.

Greg Sisson (06:28):
Well, one of the things, you got to do things differently in your activities if you’re going to get a different result. One of the things I’m doing, and I’ve started doing in January is spending an hour on a Saturday, which I’m that guy that worked Monday through Friday, really my whole career. But Saturday morning sitting at the dining room table for an hour, I’m in strategic taking my hottest leads or the people that I couldn’t reach all week, and there’s always 10 to 20 good leads that maybe you talk to and you just can’t get them. Or maybe a hot expired, just sit down and invest 45 minutes to an hour on a Saturday, and I’m setting one appointment virtually every Saturday minimum.

Ren Jones (07:08):
So it’s a real short period of time on Saturday. You’re only spending 45 minutes to an hour and you’re getting one appointment. So that means you’re setting four appointments a month just from that 45 minutes to an hour on Saturday.

Greg Sisson (07:18):
Yes.

Ren Jones (07:19):
That by itself is huge. Because that is a time people will pick up the phone.

Greg Sisson (07:25):
That’s the thing. And for me personally, I don’t do it in the evening, but that’s something you’ve got to change it up. If you call from six to seven at night, once or twice a week, if your schedule allows or you’re willing to do that, you’re going to get the people that aren’t picking up. Sometimes I’ll switch phones, I’ll grab my wife’s phone on Saturday morning because they’ve seen my number pop up. You got to change it up because people are screening their calls. They’re tired of that realtor calling, so I’ll use my wife’s phone and get somebody that won’t pick up on line.

Carley Hathaway (07:54):
That’s a great idea.

Ren Jones (07:55):
Can we talk about that for a second? Because that is a dramatic point and it’s a secret that a lot of people don’t know. For many years, I would call, call, call, call, call, call, call and people would recognize my number. And if you use a different phone… But another one that worked really well was to use a cell phone on an area code of… In a major city about 50 to 80 miles away. Because people go, oh, that must be Sally. Hello? Oh, it’s not Sally. They would answer that nearby area code because a lot of times it was one of three people that they knew in the adjacent city. So using that separate cell phone, that is a… So far…

Carley Hathaway (08:36):
Well, that’s a great…

Ren Jones (08:36):
That’s two powerful secret points because if you use that, you will prevail. Yes, wonderful.

Carley Hathaway (08:43):
So Greg, you’re taking an hour or so on Saturdays to make these calls. When you say hot leads, what are these hot leads? Is it an expired you’ve really been wanting to go after? Or who’s on that call?

Greg Sisson (08:58):
Yeah, and you broke up a little there at the end. Who is the people I’m calling? I mean, it’s really the people that have expressed to me they want to sell. They’re highly motivated. These are the people most that I’ve talked to already that I know. I just need to have another conversation to set an appointment. So it could be any of my sources, an expired, a past client, a center of influence. I’ve got another database that I want to talk about later. SLD that stands for seller lead database. I mean, it could be… There’s not a category or a certain source. It’s just whomever is closest to setting an appointment and getting a listing from.

Carley Hathaway (09:36):
Okay. Got it. So typically, you normally work Monday through Friday?

Greg Sisson (09:40):
Yes.

Carley Hathaway (09:40):
Can you walk us through your schedule?

Greg Sisson (09:43):
Yes.

Carley Hathaway (09:44):
From morning to night, do you…

Greg Sisson (09:50):
Carly, I’m sorry, you froze up there for me.

Ren Jones (09:54):
Do you… Missed the last part of your sentence, Carly.

Carley Hathaway (09:59):
Can you just walk us through a typical day of what time you start, what time you get on the phones, all that kind of stuff?

Greg Sisson (10:04):
Yeah. One of the five things we talked about Ren and maybe some things to share with people that really propel your morning or your day and you’re prospecting and how to take more listings is the morning routine. So Carly, that’s a great question. I always say that the morning starts the night before. It’s not an original thought, but it truly does. So for me, my bag is in the car for the gym the next morning. I get up, I could just get out to the car and go to the gym, then get to the office. Usually I’m at the office by 7:15, 7:30, and I’m definitely on the phone no later than 8 o’clock. And then I go straight through. We have a little 15 minute huddle with my team, my buyer team, and we do that between 8:45 and 9. Then I’m back on the phones from 9 to 11.

Carley Hathaway (10:48):
Okay. And do you have a list of who you’re calling first thing? Do you try to get expires first or who do you call first?

Greg Sisson (10:56):
Definitely expires are first. It’s real competitive in my market, probably like most markets and expires are not that many right now. So definitely expired first. And then I’m typically done with them by 8:20. And for about the next 20, 25 minutes before my huddle, I’m going to call my hottest leads at that time, that I can set an appointment with. And then at 9 o’clock I jump onto all the other things that I’m going after.

Carley Hathaway (11:23):
And do you use scripts? What do you say?

Greg Sisson (11:26):
Yeah, I say what’s behind you. I’m a Mike Ferry. I can see Mike Ferry.

Carley Hathaway (11:32):
I forgot those were there.

Greg Sisson (11:36):
But no, I’ve had the good fortune of being exposed to Mike Ferry, the Mike Ferry organization since ’99. And so I’m doing the Mike Ferry scripts. Absolutely.

Carley Hathaway (11:46):
Okay, good. Can you give us any tips when people are just really trying to get off the phone with you? You’re already the 10th agent that has called and they just do not want to talk to you. Can you give us any little tidbits of how to overcome that?

Greg Sisson (12:01):
Oh boy. That’s a good one. So I’m like the 10th person. Wow. If they’re still on the phone with me, that’s a good thing after 10. I think one of the questions I could ask… And I can sense, you can hear the agitation in their voice almost when you’re number 10, 12, whatever. So I think you have to try to be with them in that moment and say, look, I know people are blowing up your phone. I just had to ask you… I noticed you were on the market and it failed to sell. If you had an offer close or near to full price, how would you respond? Because a lot of times they’re going to say, we’re not selling. I’m not going to put it back on the market. I try to acknowledge that I know you’re frustrated. I’m so sorry you’re getting blown up, however… And then just redirect and go right into the motivation or the question. I think that’s important.

Ren Jones (12:52):
So you’re saying, I know people are blowing up your phone, and I know that must be frustrating, but if you had an offer pretty close to full price, how would you respond? That’s what you say?

Greg Sisson (13:02):
Yeah. I mean, that just came out now. I mean, there’s probably other things I could say to that as well. But I mean, what I’m doing is I’m trying to get back to the real reason we’re calling. I mean, I know is there… If you had an offer today and you could have it closed in 30 to 40 days, would that pose a problem for you and your family? Anything to get to the root of it again would be good.

Carley Hathaway (13:27):
That’s great advice.

Greg Sisson (13:28):
To recognize is that at that moment everybody else has given up. I mean, why not just keep asking questions, trying to get that edge in there? Because all the other guys and gals, if they’re getting yelled at or they’re going to hang up. So just staying with them as much as you can is important.

Ren Jones (13:49):
Let’s say they get 37 calls and you’re one of them, and you set a lot of appointments. What I noticed in my market is they’d get 35, 40 calls and it was the same four or five people that ended up getting through every time. What is it that you learn over time that allows you to get through most of the time when all the other ones crash and burn? Is it no fear of rejection? Is it the empathy piece? What would you tell somebody to work on right out of the gate to improve, to get through more often?

Greg Sisson (14:26):
Boy, that’s a great question. I mean, it is some battle scars. I mean, the reality is if you’re first time calling and you’ve got 30 people calling at the same time, just understanding it’s going to take a little time. So build putting on the gear, the battle gear comes in the form of skills, Ren you know that, so the more skilled you are, the more you’re practicing, the more contacts you’re making outside. I mean, expires is one way. It’s a great method. There’s dozens of other sources, so don’t beat yourself up every day if you’re not getting through right away. So I guess to answer the question is it takes time, build your skill level, and have lots of sources. That’s one thing I’ve learned is you’ve got to have multiple streams of opportunities or else what happens when the expires completely go away and you’re the best expired listing agent in the town, but there’s no expires? Many people can relate to that right now.

Ren Jones (15:23):
Would it almost be better if somebody wanted to get good in that area to start the shallow end of the pool, perhaps working old expires?

Greg Sisson (15:31):
Old expires.

Ren Jones (15:32):
Because they’re friendly and nobody else is calling. I mean, I would think you could get two listings a month doing that, wouldn’t you?

Greg Sisson (15:38):
Ren, I think you’re right. In fact, for us, we’ve gone back and looked at 13 and 14 when the market was starting to warm up again. And you can go back and pull those expires and I get my staff, or you could do it yourself and find out if that… Like say you’ve got 150 of those, you can go back in the MLS and see if they’re active, don’t call them. If they sold, don’t call them. But if there’s no record of them coming back on, you may have 50 old expires from 14. And guess how easy that script is? Hey, Mr. Mrs. Seller, I noticed your property was off the market four years ago. Did you realize that the market statistics say that your home is worth about 12 to 14% more than it was then? When can I come out and show you that information? I mean, that is a goldmine. I think the old expires.

Carley Hathaway (16:24):
Yeah. I agree.

Ren Jones (16:25):
There we go.

Carley Hathaway (16:26):
Good. So I’m hearing that practicing the scripts and really having strong skills is what’s going to be really key, especially for the newer people trying this or new agents.

Greg Sisson (16:39):
Yeah. The question again cut off, Carly. I didn’t hear the last part. I’m sorry.

Carley Hathaway (16:43):
I just said, it seems like you’re saying skills and really practicing the scripts is what’s going to help the newer agents in calling.

Greg Sisson (16:51):
100%.

Carley Hathaway (16:52):
Can you…

Greg Sisson (16:52):
If I could also mention, somebody had asked me to Mike Ferry retreat a long time ago, and it goes along with your point there about skills. Greg, how do I… They’re a brand new agent. How do I become a great listing agent? How do I take more listings? I said, you’ve got to go to undergrad. Here’s what I meant by that. My first three years in real estate, I had the good fortune working with Greg Harrelson for many years, and we prospected side by side for many years, and for three straight years I made 60 contacts minimum per day. It’s not a ton, but that was without a dialer. We double dialed, had two phones, double headset, and I cold… 90% of that was cold call, made 40 to 50 cold calls, and the rest were for sale owners.

(17:35):
Now, here’s why I’m telling you this, when you have 60 conversations, real estate conversations every single day, calling neighbors, you’re in the mode of talking or having the real estate conversation. You do that for three years, you’ve got an undergrad. You’ve heard it all. You’ve heard all the same responses. It’s natural for you to go… You know your scripts. Until you become that comfortable where, wake me up at two in the morning, I can make a cold call or an expired. It has to be that ingrained and internalized. So that’s important for people, the new agents, to make a lot of contacts. I mean, I don’t think you can underestimate just being in the game and making a ton of contacts to get an education in the real estate conversation.

Ren Jones (18:20):
They call that an unconscious competence.

Greg Sisson (18:23):
There you go. Exactly.

Ren Jones (18:24):
It comes out, you don’t know what you’re going to say, but some part of you knows what you’re going to say.

Carley Hathaway (18:28):
Yeah, definitely.

Ren Jones (18:30):
SLD, seller lead database.

Greg Sisson (18:33):
So one of the things we did a long time ago, and things have changed with email and texting, but with… So years ago, probably 10, 12 years ago, we started collecting people’s email addresses and created newsletters and things we send out. Now, everybody does that now, and I realize that, but I’ve got probably about 12,000 people in my database from the last 10 to 12 years that I either talked to or they signed up for my newsletters. And so these people are getting communication from me two to three times a month through email.

(19:07):
I wrote down 15 to 20% of my business comes from this database where, hey Greg, it’s Mary Lou from New Jersey. We’ve been getting your emails for five years. We’re finally ready to sell the condo. Would you give me a call back? I mean, that’s two to three of those a month, every single month from just consistently sending information out in the form of video or text. So this is not an overnight thing, but whatever your database is, if you’ll send quality content to them that’s relevant about the marketplace and be consistent, it will eventually create a return for you. That’s what we call the SLD.

Carley Hathaway (19:49):
I like it.

Ren Jones (19:50):
I think other than people you know and your past clients, how are you adding to that database? How do you… Do you add a certain number of people every week, every month?

Greg Sisson (19:58):
Yes.

Ren Jones (19:59):
Because newer agents don’t have that many people and they can’t wait to create past clients fast enough, how can they add to their database?

Greg Sisson (20:05):
So every single conversation… If you’re making 10 contacts a day or 50 contacts a day, every single person, you can get them an email. You get their email address. Now, I think there’s a shift happening that I know that there’s text messages getting people’s cell phone, I don’t know when this is coming. It’s already out probably, but I think there’s going to be much greater opening when I can send messages and market updates through texting. I’m not doing that yet. But to just answer your question. Every person you talk to get their email address. Mr. Smith, I send a very simple brief market update specific to your neighborhood, your area, your home, et cetera. Do you mind if I send that to you each month to keep you up to date on the marketplace? If you ever need help, any help, throw me in the file. Something like that.

Carley Hathaway (20:51):
Perfect. And how often are you reaching out or sending them this information?

Greg Sisson (20:55):
So I send two informational like video emails per month, and then I send one text email per month that just has the market update, the market statistics, what I’d sold that month and my commentary on the marketplace.

Ren Jones (21:11):
Some good value then. So you’re really sending a lot of value and no apple pie recipes here.

Greg Sisson (21:16):
Yeah. And no pictures of me and my dog.

Ren Jones (21:19):
No pictures of you and your dog. Just a video of you and your dog. That’s fine. So when I look at this now, and going way back, you and Greg Harrelson, you’re making 60 calls a day and you’re a newer agent. What do you say to somebody who’s watching this and going, I don’t know that I could make 60 calls a day? I don’t know that I can make 40 calls a day. What do you say to them? How did you get your head wrapped around the idea of making that many calls so early in the game?

Greg Sisson (21:46):
It was 60 contacts, so you probably had to dial…

Ren Jones (21:49):
Contacts. Yeah, I don’t mean to dial.

Greg Sisson (21:51):
But prior to dial 180, 200 homes. Great question. I have the good fortune of being around my… My father told me, Greg, listings were the name of the game. They always have been. They always will. I was a weird one because it was normal. I got the connection between making contacts, prospecting and getting listings. That’s just what you had to do to get listings. I didn’t know any better. And the reality is there’s all kinds of magic pills. You can get listings from doing this, doing that. It’s a sales business. I’ve totally been convinced of that my whole career and always will be that it’s a contact sport. And until you wrap your head around, you can take two listings a month and probably not have to prospect. But if you want to take 6, 8, 10, 12, 20 listings a month, you’re going to be prospecting.

Ren Jones (22:40):
31.

Greg Sisson (22:40):
31.

Carley Hathaway (22:41):
31.

Greg Sisson (22:42):
Exactly. Thank you.

Ren Jones (22:44):
So maybe it’s you just have to go up to 80 contacts. I almost wonder if that isn’t the magic answer is 60 contacts a day. Kahil, who we interviewed a few weeks earlier, she makes 57 contacts a day for years. That must be the magic answer or one of them.

Greg Sisson (23:04):
I mean, I wrote down, increase contacts, increase skills and increase enthusiasm.

Ren Jones (23:10):
Talk about that.

Greg Sisson (23:11):
I talked about that with my team recently. The buyers or the sellers that we’re in front of, they care about themselves, not us. So we’re an actor, we have to put on… As my dad said in the 80s, it’s showtime. And so I have… I’m not enthusiastic. Well, you have to become enthusiastic for that little five minutes you’re with someone or one minute on the phone, you owe them that. Or at least if you want to get great results, you better have enthusiasm. So I think that gets underestimated. I think that’s a skill that people can focus on and think about. And it’s not fake or over the top, but be excited, repeat, approve all the things Mike and our scripts teach us. That’s part of the enthusiasm is acknowledge them. Good for you. I appreciate you telling me that.

Ren Jones (24:04):
What do they call that? It’s showtime.

Greg Sisson (24:06):
It’s showtime. That sums it up.

Ren Jones (24:13):
Let’s go into some Q&A.

Carley Hathaway (24:13):
So how do you…

Ren Jones (24:13):
Let’s get some Q&A if that’ll work for everybody. Because you have now… I’m looking at… There are five or six questions we answered as this went along. Jeff Colon wants to know, who are you coaching with?

Greg Sisson (24:24):
Mike Ferry’s the company, and Kevin [inaudible 00:24:28] is my coach right now.

Ren Jones (24:28):
Okay, gotcha. Perfect. And we answered what time you’re calling. We just answered about dials versus calls. What do you say you doing for sale by owners and what do you say to get past the fact that they want to save the money?

Greg Sisson (24:44):
Yeah. I got to tell you, and I’m making a confession. I’m not calling for sale of owners right now. One of the things, I’m the only person taking listings on my team and the amount of listing opportunities. And that’s something I’m working on, is adding and listing personally.

Ren Jones (25:08):
Where’d our audio go?

Greg Sisson (25:10):
There you go.

Carley Hathaway (25:12):
Can we get into your mindset a little bit and… Hello?

Greg Sisson (25:15):
I can hear you.

Carley Hathaway (25:16):
Can we get into mindset a little bit? And what motivates…

Ren Jones (25:22):
We lost her again. Jordan. Oh, hey. He wants to know, what do you consider cold calling?

Greg Sisson (25:30):
Yeah, I mean, a cold call is a just sold call. Literally like, hey, I just sold another home or another home just sold down the street on Primrose Lane. We know when someone sells a home, usually two more sell right away. Just wondering when do you plan on moving? So it’s a totally cold call.

Ren Jones (25:51):
Okay, perfect. Melissa wants to know, well, this is… She’s looking for somebody to shadow. Melissa, send me an email if you would and we’ll find you somebody to shadow. Okay. Good. Carly, are you back? Go ahead.

Carley Hathaway (26:07):
I don’t know. Can you guys hear me? I didn’t even know I got cut off.

Ren Jones (26:09):
It just crashes every so often. Move your router.

Carley Hathaway (26:13):
So my kind of question was, you want to stay positive and energetic when you’re on the phone with them. How do you keep that mindset? How do you stay positive if you’re getting beat up all day?

Greg Sisson (26:22):
Yeah, it comes back… Carly, great question. It comes back to that morning routine. We kind of talked about that. It has to be meeting free in the morning. What are you listening to when you’re at the gym? If that’s what you do, what’s in your earbuds? What are you doing? What are you listening to? I mean, I don’t have any news, any media in the mornings. Who do you hang out with? What are you reading? What are you focused on? What are you listening to in the car on the way to work? So I think all of that’s important to protect that mindset. And the other thing frankly is if you know where you’re going and your goals, the prospecting is the bridge to get you from here to where your goals are. And I think you have to just put the connection there and say, hey, they don’t know me, I’m never going to see that person. So if they were a jerk, it’s meaningless.

Ren Jones (27:16):
Yeah. Michael Higdon, what is he down in? Louisville, Kentucky, around there. He wants to know, are you still doing business with the state’s probate dead people? He has a house to sell.

Greg Sisson (27:29):
Yes.

Carley Hathaway (27:29):
Just spit it out.

Greg Sisson (27:32):
Yeah. Usually not with the deceased specifically Ren, but their representatives. Yes.

Ren Jones (27:38):
So you are doing any… You want to know how much of your business that makes up? I guess at one time you must have been doing a lot of that.

Greg Sisson (27:43):
Yeah, I mean it’s probably small percentage right now, but probably 10, 15%.

Ren Jones (27:49):
Okay. So you’re calling people where it comes up at the courthouse and following that? Or are you also working probate attorneys, people that settle estates? Are you doing…

Greg Sisson (27:58):
Both.

Ren Jones (27:58):
You doing both? You do both. Okay. So you’re calling through and staying in touch with a list of 20, 30, 40 attorneys doing probate work, and you’re looking at that courthouse list once a month and making those calls. Good. Is that an extra listing a month?

Greg Sisson (28:13):
There you go. Yeah.

Ren Jones (28:14):
You’re going to need it this month.

Greg Sisson (28:17):
Yeah, I’m going to need a lot more than that.

Ren Jones (28:21):
Here’s a good answer and I’m going to enjoy this one. Bill. If you’re taking 20 listings a month. Bill, he’s going to take 31. How do you service them, getting them on the MLS, open houses, marketing follow up? How do you service them?

Greg Sisson (28:35):
That’s a great question.

Ren Jones (28:36):
If you’re busy fishing, who’s fileting the fish and cooking the fish?

Greg Sisson (28:40):
That’s a great question. I’ve actually got two gals in my staff that are on the listing side of the business. So I’ve got what I call our listing coordinator, and then I’ve got a client care coordinator. We really focus on customer service. I know everybody says that, but I probably am slightly overstaffed in that area, Ren. So got the listing coordinator, gets it in, she coordinates with all the photographs and gets it in the listing. And then my other girl, Jessica, follows up with all the feedback. She is talking to my sellers constantly. So she is very much in communication with my sellers.

Ren Jones (29:14):
Well, if you’re slightly overstaffed, that doesn’t hurt because you can stand at the river and keep fishing and keep bringing those fish in. You need 31 fish. Bobby Johnson wants to know what’s your system for setting seller expectations from the start of the relationship? You know how people don’t set those, and how their seller is calling every day at random times. How do you set those?

Greg Sisson (29:34):
That’s a great question too. I mean, I think what you do is when you take the listing, that’s when you set the expectations after the signature is there, I believe, and let them know. I think it’s important to ask the seller, Mr. Miss Seller, what’s the best way for us to communicate with you? Would you like a text, an email or a phone call weekly to give you an update? So put that on the seller. A lot of them want email, may want to text, may want a phone call. So I think that’s important. Put it on them and allow them to tell you how they want to be communicated with.

(30:03):
But I think the expectation to tell them, my job is to go ahead and get out there and market and find a buyer for your property. My assistant, Jessica, is going to monitor that feedback, communicate with you, help make suggestions along with me if we need to make any adjustments. So you want to go ahead and set that future pacing that, hey, if the market is not responding in the first 30 to 40 days, we need to possibly look at an adjustment.

Ren Jones (30:28):
Perfect. Benjamin wants to know what your definition of a contact is? What do you consider making a contact? Not just emailing them. What’s the definition of a contact?

Greg Sisson (30:38):
Talking to a decision maker. Someone that can make the decision on the phone.

Ren Jones (30:43):
Okay. Well now a lot of times when we call sphere, you know them, they know you, you leave a meaningful message. Do you count that at all or?

Greg Sisson (30:54):
I do. I count a contact if I leave a message for a good past client or a sphere.

Ren Jones (30:59):
Okay, gotcha. All right. Because people, they’re working with that little definition thing because it’s that two year old answers. Hello.

Carley Hathaway (31:06):
Yeah, I don’t think that one counts.

Ren Jones (31:09):
Not a contact.

Greg Sisson (31:11):
I wanted to mention something, Ren, that we talked about five, maybe a nugget or two that I’m doing. I think it’s been a huge help for me in taking more listings. Has anybody out there watching, and I know I can’t hear you, but has anybody out there ever set at a table and they want to list with you, but they need about three weeks and maybe they need 30 days. They’re going to fix the fence, they’re going to paint the front door, they’re going to steam clean the carpets, maybe replace something. And many of you may be doing this, but I’m getting a signature then and I’m getting them to sign an addendum to hold it off the MLS. And do a pre-marketing campaign, and that’s what I call it. And Zillow allows you to do a coming soon.

Ren Jones (31:54):
And some MLSs have that officially now too.

Greg Sisson (31:58):
Okay. Do they?

Ren Jones (31:58):
Yeah.

Greg Sisson (31:58):
Okay, so coming in the MLS…

Ren Jones (32:00):
Depends on your market. Coming soon is in our market as an official field.

Greg Sisson (32:05):
On the MLS. Okay. So it may look… Take advantage of that because you walk out of that listing. Okay, I’ll call you in three weeks and you get the house ready and I’ll come back and list it. Well, sorry, my neighbor is a realtor and he came over and listed the house. Take the listing.

Ren Jones (32:21):
Anybody that does not get a signature then is crazy because it’s too risky. There’s going to be too many conversations in that two, three weeks.

Greg Sisson (32:29):
That’s right.

Ren Jones (32:29):
You’re absolutely right.

Greg Sisson (32:31):
I’ve got about 12 to 15 coming soons at all time. It seems to be in our market. We’re getting a lot of those.

Carley Hathaway (32:39):
That’s a great piece of advice. I think that’s really smart.

Ren Jones (32:41):
It is. Amin Dhani wants to know what listing appointments to listings taken. What’s that? What’s your batting average?

Greg Sisson (32:48):
I’m right at 80%. I think it’s like 81% right now.

Ren Jones (32:51):
81%. Good, good, good. So I know you’ve got a lot you want to get done between now and the 31st.

Greg Sisson (32:57):
Yes.

Ren Jones (33:00):
So forget the sleep. It’s going to be fun. This has been a great show. There’s a long list of ideas you can implement right now. And the thank you for these. So much. I need to read a little piece as a thank you because we have lots and lots and lots of viewers on Lead Gen and I want to thank them for doing the simulcast. If you want to get involved with them, they have 49,000 members. They are found at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. Thank you Aaron Wittenstein for doing that and your expired mastery elite.com program.

(33:38):
And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not involved with Vulcan7, heaven forbid, go to vulcanseven.com/leadgen for a special deal. And then the most important thing, if you have made your six hours of calls like Greg because he needs it this month, treat yourself, spoil yourself, do something great. My best advice, of course is to go and get some delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip and a big spoon and just enjoy yourself, have a few bites, and then go on with the rest of the day. It’ll make those Saturday morning, 45 minutes to an hour calls to take that extra listing. You’ll have a smile on your face. You’ll have that energy and enthusiasm that Greg’s talking about.

Carley Hathaway (34:22):
Yes.

Ren Jones (34:23):
You agree, Carly?

Carley Hathaway (34:24):
Yes, definitely.

Ren Jones (34:26):
E&E, energy and enthusiasm.

Carley Hathaway (34:29):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (34:29):
Good. I love it. I love it.

Greg Sisson (34:32):
Thanks for having me, Ren.

Ren Jones (34:34):
Thank you so much, Greg.

Carley Hathaway (34:35):
Greg, thank you so much. I think we all got a lot out of this call.

Ren Jones (34:37):
I’m excited about 31. 31.

Carley Hathaway (34:40):
Thank you so much, Greg.

Greg Sisson (34:41):
All right. See y’all.

Ren Jones (34:43):
See everybody then