Sarah Close and Carley Hathaway on the 230 days that decide your listing year

Ren Jones00:04

Welcome to Roadmap, how to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we interview a powerful agent taking lots of listings each month. And we have an exciting guest today. Today is the Rapid Fire Strategy Show. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle.

00:28Before 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. Lead Gen has 50,382 members so we have a large audience there today as well. We will 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 long way away, greater Cincinnati, Ohio. Sarah Close, welcome back Sarah.

Sarah Close00:55

Thanks for having me.

Ren Jones00:56

And she’s been here as a host, two or three other occasions.

Sarah Close01:00

Yeah. A little more comfortable in that role.

Ren Jones01:01

Yeah. And she’s here as a guest this time. I mean she sells a lot of real estate and this is the Rapid Fire Strategy Show so we’re going to work with the topics on everybody out there how to take two more listings a month. We’re going to give you some rapid fire strategies so that you, you, you take two more listings this month, next month and next month and next month based on the ideas from this show. So Sarah, you sell a lot of house. You’ve been selling 12, 15 homes a month for a long time. Long-

Sarah Close01:34

Long time. 26 years in the business.

Ren Jones01:35

And you call people-

Sarah Close01:38

Every day.

Ren Jones01:39

And you’re focused.

Sarah Close01:41

Have to be focused.

Ren Jones01:43

And you own all these market centers and have 500, 600 agents as well. So really, your real estate business is kind of a part-time job.

Sarah Close01:52

It is a part-time job. As you know, I’m a part of a team and that is, at least for where I am right now with my career, that is what enables me to stay in production just having the right kind of a structure around me of other people that are also prospecting and with a listing focus to their business.

Ren Jones02:09

And for many years, it was just you and then you and a buyer agent.

Sarah Close02:13

Exactly.

Ren Jones02:13

Because if you’re going to build something, you have to have somebody else take those buyers out.

Sarah Close02:18

That’s right. And I did that out of order. I hired the buyer agent first and not the administrative support first so I had to learn the hard way. So it’s taken me a little longer than most people. Maybe it’s the hair. I don’t know. The way we did it, yeah, we started off just me and then a buyer agent. Ultimately, got into the understanding the correct way to build a team organization and added the leverage that we need. Now, were kind of a… My partner calls it the collective success model.

Carley Hathaway02:47

Oh, nice.

Sarah Close02:47

Yeah, we’re working through a group of agents getting together every morning to lead generate and go out and kill it.

Ren Jones02:52

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Sarah Close02:53

It’s been fun.

Carley Hathaway02:54

You’re really running-

Ren Jones02:56

Let me introduce our co-host from San Diego, Carley Hathaway from carleyhathaway.com. As many of you get to see her on most of the shows so she’s here. And between the three of us, because Carley makes calls every day. She calls-

Carley Hathaway03:11

Everyday.

Ren Jones03:12

… for sale by owners and calls around listings and sales. Has been in the business a good while, but are newer to the emphasis on the some of the listing side. We’ve got a lot of great ideas that I think will really help as a reference too.

Carley Hathaway03:29

Sarah, you were saying that you have this huge team and you have buyers agents and things like that, and I think it’s really important that we prove that you have to run it a real business. Just ’cause we’re not going in and clocking in and clocking out for lunch doesn’t mean we can just go with the flow and work however we want to work. You have to run it like a business. You start every morning, what time do you usually get started?

Sarah Close03:53

Several of our sales people are in at 8:00. We have an operations meeting at 8:30. We have a scripts and role play at 8:45, and then we’re on the phones by 9:00.

Ren Jones04:01

Awesome.

Carley Hathaway04:01

Yeah. And having that structure is so key and so important in our business.

Sarah Close04:06

It’s critical. Yeah.

Ren Jones04:07

Hey, you’re your own boss.

Sarah Close04:08

Yeah, or else you’d be in the fourth hour of Good Morning America without even noticing.

Ren Jones04:14

Early on you had two baby girls and you had to be your own boss and you had to be there every morning calling expireds, FSBOs and whatnot.

Sarah Close04:20

Yeah. Absolutely.

Carley Hathaway04:23

Getting started in the morning, I think it’s so important to role play. I don’t know if you role play still Sarah, but I think for me getting started at 7:15 on a role play call every morning with different people, it’s so helpful because it just kind of cracks the ice.

Sarah Close04:39

It really does. And it kind of shakes the dust off a little bit. It sounds silly, but it gets your voice working, kind of gets your energy going. And we’re standing when we do this and it helps. So it’s just gets all the chi going in the right way.

Carley Hathaway04:53

Yeah, I definitely agree.

Ren Jones04:54

Yeah because if you practice on your first contact-

Carley Hathaway04:59

Could hurt you.

Ren Jones05:01

Oh, it does.

Carley Hathaway05:01

Every single person that-

Ren Jones05:03

It builds up the resiliency so that when you get some initial rejection, we’re just going to go back to the same agent, then you’re ready. If you don’t role play, you don’t practice, you don’t get warmed up.

Sarah Close05:13

Right.

Ren Jones05:13

Yeah. And role play-

05:13You might say, “Have a great day. Bye-bye.” And then you’ve lost a good one.

Sarah Close05:18

Right.

Carley Hathaway05:18

Yeah. And every single person that calls that could be a huge commission for you. You don’t want to blow it.

Sarah Close05:23

Absolutely.

Ren Jones05:24

While we’re talking about that early morning routine and getting that going is, because in our industry, and I don’t see it in any other industry, real estate people gradually move to second shift. What happens is they get a contract and then there’s a midnight deadline and they’re up ’till 1:00 in the morning and they get it all figured out and they go to bed, they wake up at 10:00. And then they check their email, have some coffee and get to the office at noon. And they start working from-

Sarah Close05:53

1:00 to 4:00.

Ren Jones05:55

Yeah, they start working in the afternoons and late evenings, and the morning is like… I mean you go to a typical real estate office. You go to a typical real estate… Folks, go to your normal real estate office at 8:00 in the morning, who’s there?

Sarah Close06:09

Full of bowling balls down the aisle.

Carley Hathaway06:13

Yeah.

Ren Jones06:13

It’s crazy.

Carley Hathaway06:15

And Ren like you-

Ren Jones06:16

For no reason.

Carley Hathaway06:17

Yeah. So not only you got to do those calls in the morning, get on the phones by 8:00 AM, call the fresh expireds, call neighborhoods. But Ren, like you were saying, it has to be consistent throughout the year. No matter how many things you have pending.

Ren Jones06:34

Okay. So there’s the good news. There is the good news, right? It is. And that is the great news. In order to make the consistency, you have to look at this number, 230. 230. Cameras over here. 230. 230. If you’re a listing agent, that’s the number of days you have to work. You’re working five days a week, not seven. You work five days a week. You take six to eight weeks vacation or events or seminars, a combination of things, six to eight weeks. Outside of that, now you’re down to 230 out of 365 days. That’s an easy commitment if you’re doing this Monday through Friday.

Carley Hathaway07:15

Yeah. Definitely, definitely. And then also in addition to that having the consistency, I think having an accountability partner or two or three or five is really helpful, correct? Do you guys have accountability partners?

Sarah Close07:29

Well, in my organization it’s largely the team being accountable to each other.

Ren Jones07:34

Yeah, they have intense accountability because they’re seeing each other all day long.

Sarah Close07:39

Yeah.

Ren Jones07:39

Do you have a visible tracking?

Sarah Close07:41

We do. Goals and actual for the day.

Ren Jones07:44

And a lot of people use the… On large teams use the Vulcan7 leader board so that, and you can set in any way you want where it’ll track the number of contacts each person’s making. In real time, you can see who’s ahead.

Carley Hathaway07:58

Yeah.

Ren Jones08:02

This time of year is the big problem though. If we look at the thought, prospect at your highest level of intensity when you are buried with listings and pendings. For a prospect at your highest level of intensity when you are buried with listings and pendings. But nobody does, You hit the month of June and the public can’t find a real estate.

Sarah Close08:26

Right, then agents move into servicing what they have.

Ren Jones08:29

They stop looking for business, yes. And the public is most willing. I mean it’s a huge point then. How much was lost by an average real estate agent every year by not following that rule. You’ve got to find a way. They’ve got to hire summer help, somebody temporarily. Answer my phone for me, do this, that. All the $20 an hour work so I could do $300 an hour work.

Carley Hathaway08:59

Yeah, because… We need to be prospecting at all times. It’s not, oh let’s service, service that. And myself, I don’t have a team yet. I have a buyer’s agent but as far as hiring an assistant, it can be intimidating.

09:09What I did in the beginning was I just paid my TC a little extra money to do all the assistant work. It’s so simple and it’s not costing you anything out of pocket because they’re getting paid at the close of escrow. So you just got to find a way.

Ren Jones09:22

Yeah, absolutely.

Carley Hathaway09:23

Yeah. And I think we were going to talk a little bit about shadowing different agents. I don’t know Sarah if you’ve done it, but I definitely did it and it’s a really amazing experience. I think if you can go shadow someone once a month that is doing this regular calling and scheduling. It’s so, so very helpful.

09:41I was lucky enough to shadow Hal Sweasey. Oh my gosh, he runs his team like a tight, tight ship. He was on the phone, making his calls, making his contacts exactly at 7:45. He takes his break exactly 11 o’clock, gets right back on the phones. It’s really, really interesting, great experience. I highly suggest anyone to do it. Everyone to should do it.

Sarah Close10:02

Absolutely.

Carley Hathaway10:03

Yeah.

Ren Jones10:04

And you’re overdue. I don’t know which one to look at. Which one is on?

Carley Hathaway10:08

I’m overdue. Maybe I need to fly out there and go shadow with Sarah I think.

Ren Jones10:11

Yeah, there you go.

Carley Hathaway10:11

Absolutely, that’d be great.

Ren Jones10:12

You are overdue for shadowing.

Carley Hathaway10:14

Yeah. You know what-

Ren Jones10:14

It’s been a couple of months that you’ve seen a house.

Carley Hathaway10:16

I know. And you know what, it’s such a great experience because it gives you that fire and excitement and encouragement and things like that. And just seeing how their office is set up too, like their vision boards and things like that. It’s really interesting. I like it.

Ren Jones10:28

How many more deals would you have honestly if you did this shadow every month versus now and then? How many more-

Carley Hathaway10:36

Probably at least three more months.

Ren Jones10:38

Why?

Carley Hathaway10:41

I think it’s because you just use the copycat principle and you just stay focused on getting on the phones every single morning at 8:00 AM because you see someone else doing it and you see the success they have. So then you see, it is possible, it does work.

Ren Jones10:56

And your belief when you’re watching somebody do it, you embrace the belief at a higher level.

Carley Hathaway11:02

Yeah, and it’s not so scary. They’re doing it. And they’re making money, tons of money. It’s possible, it works.

Sarah Close11:10

And they have the same awful people that you have.

Carley Hathaway11:12

Totally, totally. Yeah.

Sarah Close11:14

Right on.

Ren Jones11:16

Shyness doesn’t count. Folks, it’s worth making a point, shyness doesn’t count. If you call somebody, reach out to an agent who’s a top producer and you want to shadow and they don’t get back to you, it’s not because they’re rejecting you. It’s because they barely notice that you called because they have all this stuff going on.

Carley Hathaway11:33

Yeah.

Ren Jones11:35

People would call me and I’m happy to have them shadow me, but sometimes I’m like, “Okay, I got to get these 82 items done.” And I never make it down to them. But if you keep persistent. I’ll get on a live call and I’ll like, “Sure, come on out. All right, how about Thursday?” They’re happy to do it.

Carley Hathaway11:51

They really are. They really are happy to do it.

Ren Jones11:53

As long as you’re not in their market.

Carley Hathaway11:55

Yeah, you got to do a little driving, but it’s worth it. Drive out the night before, have a little dinner, meet with them first thing in the morning, try to take them out to lunch, pick their brain even more and then you’re done. Fly or drive home.

Ren Jones12:07

Yeah, and at the end of a year you have 12 great friends that are huge producers.

Carley Hathaway12:13

Yeah. And you never know could be referral business as well.

Sarah Close12:17

That’s a great point.

Ren Jones12:18

All right, so next week you’re going to have to tell us who you’re shadowing then.

Carley Hathaway12:20

I will, I promise. It’s a deal you guys. So we were just talking about expireds, how you said they’re calling the same people and sometimes they can be really harsh on the phones because they’re just sick of it. They’re frustrated, there home didn’t sell. But now with the Neighborhood Search, it’s such a friendly phone call.

Sarah Close12:38

It is. Yeah.

Ren Jones12:40

Yeah, we’ve only had that one for six weeks. Vulcan7 Neighborhood Search.

Carley Hathaway12:44

But the phone numbers are so good.

Ren Jones12:46

It’s the darling of the industry and is a good value. Vulcan7 Neighborhood Search, frankly, it’s expensive but everybody answers the phone.

Carley Hathaway12:54

Everyone answers the phone. You can get a referral out of that. Maybe they will be selling future, maybe their aunt is selling, maybe their nephew. You never know. And just the fact that someone answers.

Ren Jones13:05

And you’re competing against five other agents.

Sarah Close13:06

Right. That’s very true.

Carley Hathaway13:07

Yeah. Exactly, exactly. Like the expireds or FSBOs can be at times.

Ren Jones13:11

All right, let’s look at one other easy route. Old expired. Old expireds. And if you don’t have enough, folks, call us. We’ll send you more. We’ll find a way to get more old expireds too, because they are gold. You were talking about it earlier.

Sarah Close13:25

Yeah, and the script is so easy right now at this point. “Gosh, you guys were back on the market in 2013. Things are a lot easier right now. Would you have an interest in revisiting this idea if we could make this happen for you the next 30 to 45 days?”

13:40It might take a minute or two for them to rewarm to the idea. But we’re finding that if you’re kind of looking at MLS right now, an awful lot of the new listings that are coming on. If you hit in that history button are in fact acquired when the market was a little softer.

Carley Hathaway13:55

Yeah. I agree with you. And I think also sometimes sellers, they’re just a little tired. They’re tired of having that lockbox on. They’re tired of people trampling through their house. They’re frustrated. So give them a couple months to breathe, relax, unwind, and then they’ll try it again.

Sarah Close14:09

They will. Very true. That’s very true.

Ren Jones14:10

Good deal.

Sarah Close14:13

Yeah, I could not agree more. And to your point, there’s not 10 people that is necessarily reaching out to that particular 6, 7, 8 month old expired.

Carley Hathaway14:22

Yeah, I agree.

Sarah Close14:24

Yeah, it makes a big difference.

Carley Hathaway14:25

Yeah, definitely.

Sarah Close14:27

Absolutely.

Ren Jones14:27

Previewing property, this is… And people are like, “How does previewing property help me sell anything?” In a huge way, if you’re newer to the business, if you will go preview property every day for an hour, an hour and a half. You go look at a house, you look at another house, you look at another house, you really get… Pick a part of town after. If you do that every day at the end of a month, you know twenty areas of town.

14:51And of course while you’re there you need to knock 10 doors to the left, 10 to the right, 20 across the street. So there’s 40 people you talk to. Now, what are you going to talk to them about? The house that you previewed. It’s on the market. “Who do you know that would like to move into our area?”

Carley Hathaway15:12

Pick your neighbor.

Ren Jones15:13

It doesn’t have to be your company or your listing or anything. And you think they all care, they don’t care. You’re a real estate agent. You’re trying to find a buyer for their neighborhood. I mean you’re paid a co-op to do that. You’re paid to sell that house.

Sarah Close15:30

Yeah, absolutely.

Ren Jones15:31

They like the loyalty to the neighborhood. So it’s a huge way, if you’re newer to the business, you really get confidence, get a conversation going, and it’s a nice easy way to talk to enough people there.

Carley Hathaway15:43

Yeah. And you know what too, I think it builds your confidence when you are talking to expireds or for sale by owners because you feel like you have knowledge which makes you sound more confident, which really gives you confidence to really get that appointment and get that listing appointment and really nail it. Cause if you’re making calls and you’re a little insecure or you don’t really know what you’re talking about, it shows through. People can hear that.

Sarah Close16:07

Yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. We found that people are so much friendlier when you’re actually there in person. It’s kind of like road rage. People asking bars the way they never would like in public. And sometimes people on the phone maybe kind of hide behind the anonymity of the phone call. They’re really friendly in person. We actually had two of our listings that we took last week came from door knocking.

Carley Hathaway16:32

Oh nice. Nice

Sarah Close16:33

We have two.

Carley Hathaway16:35

What’s kind of like your thing that you say when you’re door knocking? Do you have a go to script?

Sarah Close16:38

It depends. What we’ve been doing is actually called, in our team, we’re calling it “circle prospecting for our buyers.” Because our inventory is so thin right now, we genuinely in many cases have a buyer that is looking to purchase in a particular neighborhood. And it’s very simple script.

16:54“Hey, our buyer’s very familiar with the inventory that’s already available and we’re out here kind of boots on the ground doing some legwork for them to find out who that may be interested in moving soon. And I’m just curious, who do you know that we should be having a conversation with in your neighborhood?”

17:09And you’ll find the Gladys Kravitz that will tell you everyone’s laundry. You know what I mean? There’s always one. And that’s the one you want. And in both cases, the properties that we listed were referred by another neighbor that said, “Hey, I hear so and so is considering moving.”

Carley Hathaway17:25

That’s wonderful. See. And-

Ren Jones17:28

It’s a Monday through Friday job. This is daytime Monday through Friday. People think of real estate as nights and weekends. It’s only if you make it that. It’s Monday through Friday daytime and that fits it. It’s fits fine.

Sarah Close17:41

Yeah, it is nice out.

Ren Jones17:42

Now speaking of that, if you have a reluctance around talking to people, getting rejected, we’re going to go to the easiest way in our business. And that’s why it’s there folks. It’s not there to sell the listing as you know. The open house is the lowest level of rejection for a real estate agent. So that’s why it’s there.

18:05But here’s a way to make an open house make a lot of money. So if you’re afraid to talk to people, approach them and you want them to approach you, start out with open houses. Did this with one of your buyer agents five or six years ago over off of Heaton or something like that. Big house with a double lot. I don’t know if you remember that one. It was fixed with a rail fence.

18:27Because she goes, “Well, I held that one open and only had two people.” And I said, “I could tell you how you can have 40 or 50 people.” And I said, “Meet me at 12:30.” She goes, “Open house until 2:00.” I said, “I know.” Meet me at 12:30. I had 45 signs loaded up. We split them, you take 20 some, I’ll take 20 some. And we put them out, let off all the main roads. Big signs with balloons on the main roads. Little lead ins, left and right turns.

18:52And we had dozens of people come in the door, dozens. And then we just asked the key questions. “How long have you been looking for a home? Have you seen any homes you’re interested in? How soon do you need to be in your next home? Do you need to sell an existing property to buy the next? Have you spoken to a lender? What did they say?” We’d go through all that list.

19:15And we would make everybody sign in. Name, phone, email. That’s it. Not how did you hear of us, not are you working with an agent. Name, phone, email. Name, phone, email. If anybody left one blank, we put in a fake one. So everybody came in and saw that list full.

Carley Hathaway19:32

Like it.

Ren Jones19:33

And then we never asked early on.

19:35“Hi, I’m Ren. Are you working with an agent?” “Yes, yes.” “Who?” “Mary Smith.” You’re making them lie to you. You’re making them tell you a lie.

Sarah Close19:48

Yeah.

Ren Jones19:49

You’ll find out if they’re working with somebody just by asking a lot of questions.

Sarah Close19:52

That’s exactly right, exactly right.

Ren Jones19:54

Don’t make them lie. Because everybody’s working with somebody and everybody’s not.

Carley Hathaway19:59

Yeah. And then we have to go back to, remember pre-qualifying how important that is. Right? Cause we don’t want to be spinning our wheels or wasting our time. So I think pre-qualifying buyers and sellers is so important in our industry. I don’t want to waste going to a listing appointment, driving 20 minutes, preparing for it, sending my listing packet, all that stuff, if they have unrealistic expectations. They want a hundred thousand more than what it’s worth. They owe more than it’s worth. You got to really get those brick walls down.

Ren Jones20:28

And with buyers and sellers, we need to ask the questions and deeper questions. If they give you a surface answer, say, “Oh great, tell me more about that.” I mean, how many times do agents go, “Oh, buyers are liars.” Well, what happened? Well, I took her out three times and then she told me her fiance… We looked at 30 homes, she picked one out and then she goes, “I got to get my fiance look at it.” Why wasn’t the fiance looking before? Because I didn’t ask, “Are there any other decision makers or who else is involved in this thing?” So we don’t ask enough questions.

Sarah Close20:58

Right. Yeah, absolutely.

Carley Hathaway21:00

I agree with you.

Ren Jones21:00

We have to be a master at that.

Carley Hathaway21:00

Yes.

Sarah Close21:00

What will come out of that is if you have someone that’s reluctant to answer those questions with you, it’ll give you a good sense of their seriousness about the process. Because if they’re genuinely looking to have a real estate transaction, they’re going to welcome someone who’s taking the time to really do a thorough analysis up front, because they probably don’t have any time to waste either. And if don’t, that’s a good red flag that perhaps this is not going to be where I put… I’m not going to put all my eggs in this basket.

Ren Jones21:29

Yeah. And that’s where a call reluctance comes in. If we’re talking to enough people, we can use the four letter word, “Next.” So when you read somebody that’s, they’re not ready, “Next.” Because I’m talking to so many people, “Oh, there’s somebody standing behind you that needs my help.”

Sarah Close21:47

And we’re going to be able to make them ready.

Ren Jones21:51

And so many people, we’ll get questions like that on here. “How do I motivate my buyer?”

Sarah Close21:56

You don’t.

Ren Jones21:57

You can’t. Next. Make more calls. Because somebody has to pick out something today and we just haven’t found them because you’re not talking to enough people.

Sarah Close22:09

Exactly.

Ren Jones22:10

Which goes back to having accountability and goals. How many contacts are you supposed to make every day, Carley?

Carley Hathaway22:17

My coach and I have been working on this and my goal is 27 contacts a day. I had a little struggle with it last week, so I’m going to try to pick up Saturday mornings calling, just for an hour or two to try to get my numbers back up. Mix it up a little bit. But yeah, my goal is 27, definitely.

Ren Jones22:34

Good. Good.

Carley Hathaway22:35

So that, I mean with the expireds, the for sale by owners and the neighborhoods, especially if my time is running up, I want to hurry up and call neighborhoods because I know I can talk to people when I call neighborhoods. You know what I mean?

Sarah Close22:47

Exactly.

Ren Jones22:48

Yes, absolutely. Good, let’s look at some questions. Let me see if we’ve got some questions. Let’s see. Oh, we got a few. Looks like we’ll find out.

Sarah Close23:00

Your eyes are better than mine. I can’t read that.

Ren Jones23:02

I know.

Sarah Close23:03

I know. I’m squinting too like, “What is this said?”

Ren Jones23:05

Way up here. Ren, we can hear you.

Carley Hathaway23:08

Mark is rocking on the phones by 8:00. Good for you.

Ren Jones23:12

How do your folks respond to getting calls that early? Curious. So you guys get on the phone at what, 8:00?

Sarah Close23:17

Eight o’clock.

Ren Jones23:18

Eight o’clock.

Sarah Close23:20

Fairly well, you’re going to have two camps. You’re going to have the folks that are completely irritated that you’ve reached out to them at all and they cannot believe they are involved in a sales process. Sorry, your house is on the market. You’re not going to probably be able to fix that, whether you call at 8:00 or at 4:00 in the afternoon.

23:37You all smother folks that you’ll call and you can genuinely tell that it’s too early for them. My approach has been, “I am so sorry. I tell you what, I’m going to give you a buzz back this afternoon.” I don’t ask, I just tell and I’ll call them back later. They will forget that they talked to me. And then they’re happy after they’ve had the four o’clock.

Carley Hathaway23:54

Yeah. Honestly, I haven’t had any issues with starting calls at 8:00 AM. No one has said, “Oh, it’s too early” or anything like that. I think-

Ren Jones24:01

Yeah, in your market it’s sunny. It’s 6:00 AM too.

Carley Hathaway24:03

Oh yeah.

Ren Jones24:06

In the winter at 6:00 AM, it’s sunny.

Carley Hathaway24:08

Yeah, definitely. So I think also this question can kind of go back to mindset as well. You need to go into these calls with the attitude of “I’m here to help you, I’m going to help you.” Not, “Oh, they’re going to be annoyed with me when I call.” You can’t think like that.

Sarah Close24:23

Very true.

Ren Jones24:25

Art McGivern says, “I have a hard time finding someone to practice scripts with. They either throw softballs or work inconsistently. Any recommendations?”

24:34Script practice, I believe on. And Art, if they don’t, just email me. We have on Vulcan7 a list of different companies, role play sites where they trade role play partners. So you should be able to go there and thumb through and find a link that’ll lead you to that.

Carley Hathaway24:51

Yeah. And I think it’s important too, to switch up your role play partners. Because when you start to become friendly, that’s not good. Right?

Ren Jones24:58

Right. Find somebody in your time zone that live outside your market.

Sarah Close25:01

Right. Agree.

Ren Jones25:04

“What are you doing to get more listings each week?” Well, a lot of the things we went over.

Carley Hathaway25:09

Yeah, calling.

Ren Jones25:10

“Is it possible to hear a role play? How does your call flow sound?” That’s Bobby Gallegos.

25:18Carley-

Carley Hathaway25:19

Oh God.

Ren Jones25:20

You’re always are the seller with the… You should, you know. Let’s do some practice. What do you got? You’ve got subscription.

Carley Hathaway25:33

All right. Who should I call? Sarah, Ren?

Sarah Close25:37

Sure. Why don’t you call Ren. Ren’s guns and roses.

Ren Jones25:39

Call me up, call me up.

Carley Hathaway25:40

Go easy on me, okay?

Ren Jones25:41

All right.

Carley Hathaway25:43

All right.

25:43Hi, I was looking for Ren.

Ren Jones25:46

Speaking.

Carley Hathaway25:47

Hi Ren. My name is Carley, I’m with Keller Williams. How are you today?

Ren Jones25:50

I’m doing great.

Carley Hathaway25:52

Good. Well I’m calling cause I’m sure you’re well aware that your home is coming up on my computer as an expired listing. So I was just calling to reach out and see When do you plan on interviewing the right agent for the job of actually getting your home sold?

Ren Jones26:05

I’ve had nine calls and as you know, I was listed with Chris Heller. I don’t think there’s anybody better in San Diego. Is there?

Carley Hathaway26:11

Oh, you know, you never know. That is a great question, but you’d have to see… Oh, I don’t know. I’m all stuck. You get me nervous. Okay. If you did sell the home, where would you go next?

Ren Jones26:23

I’m going to Chicago.

Carley Hathaway26:25

Oh, you’re going to Chicago. That’s exciting. What’s bringing you to Chicago?

Ren Jones26:31

Not enough wind here. I understand Chicago is a little windier.

Carley Hathaway26:34

Yeah, the Windy City. Well, that’s exciting. And when do you have to be there?

Ren Jones26:38

Actually, yeah, I’m back and forth there now.

Carley Hathaway26:40

Okay. All right. So you really want to get moving quickly then?

Ren Jones26:45

Yeah, it’s a business and so I’m always on a flight to Chicago.

Carley Hathaway26:47

Okay. Well what do you think stopped your home from selling, Ren?

Ren Jones26:51

Oh, it’s probably our fault. We want more than we think it’s worth.

Carley Hathaway26:56

Oh, I understand. I understand. Well, do you currently have an agent or do you have an agent you’re working with now?

Ren Jones27:04

Yes, Chris Heller.

Carley Hathaway27:06

Okay. All right. How did you happen to pick that agent?

Ren Jones27:12

I heard that his ads on the radio.

Carley Hathaway27:15

Oh, okay. Radio ads. Okay. Well, what do you think he should have done to get your home sold?

Ren Jones27:21

Well, I don’t know. I guess he probably shouldn’t have. Let us list it for what we listed it for.

Carley Hathaway27:28

That can be tough. I mean, you know, need a really strong agent to help you. You need someone that will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Right?

Ren Jones27:36

True.

Carley Hathaway27:36

Yeah. So what do you expect from the next agent that you choose to work with?

Ren Jones27:43

Well, wait a minute. The plan is to just to stay with Chris Heller. That’s what I told the other eight agents who called.

Carley Hathaway27:45

Yeah, I totally appreciate where you’re coming from, but I would really like the opportunity to interview for the job of selling your home.

Ren Jones27:52

Yeah.

Carley Hathaway27:52

Are you available tomorrow at 3:00 or Thursday at 4:00?

Ren Jones27:57

What do you do differently?

Carley Hathaway27:59

I would really love to walk you through that process. To do so I’d really love to meet in person, so why don’t we do it tomorrow at four o’clock?

Ren Jones28:06

Four o’clock. Okay. I’ve got it down. See you then. You know where I live?

Carley Hathaway28:12

I do. I know your address and everything.

Ren Jones28:14

There we go. There we go.

Carley Hathaway28:16

That was a little intimidating. Ren Jones.

Ren Jones28:19

There we go. All right. Well, I don’t know. I think some of those sellers can be even more.

Carley Hathaway28:25

Oh yeah, they’re tough. I got flustered because it’s you.

Ren Jones28:29

There you go.

Sarah Close28:30

That’s hard. We talk about that in the morning. A lot of times it’s easier almost to speak sometimes with someone that you don’t know.

Carley Hathaway28:40

Definitely.

Ren Jones28:40

It is in some way. Yeah, because then you don’t care then-

Sarah Close28:40

It’s just more expensive if you mess up.

Ren Jones28:41

… then it’s next.

Carley Hathaway28:42

Yeah. Yeah. It was fun.

Ren Jones28:42

Let’s see.

Carley Hathaway28:42

Do we have any more questions?

Ren Jones28:47

Oh, we’ve got people in here writing to each other to role play.

Carley Hathaway28:58

Oh, that’s good.

Ren Jones28:58

Let’s see.

Carley Hathaway28:59

Ren, What do you think about… I remember you mentioned once to record a listing presentation, do a role play and then record it.

Ren Jones29:11

Yeah. It’s real important to record your listing. Have you recorded your… You’ve done that before.

Carley Hathaway29:15

Yeah.

Ren Jones29:15

Where you just set up your cell phone and record it and then watch yourself.

Sarah Close29:19

It was awful.

Ren Jones29:21

I mean, you learned so much about… I mean, still to this day… I showed you recording of my listing presentation.

Sarah Close29:28

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway29:28

How was it?

Ren Jones29:29

I did a spoof one one time for fun, because I’d been recording it. The first round, I learned my body mannerisms. Back then I was touching my forehead a lot and I’m like, “Why do I touch my forehead all the time?”

Carley Hathaway29:42

Interesting.

Ren Jones29:44

You start noticing things. It gives you feedback.

Carley Hathaway29:46

Yeah. I think it can be really helpful if you’re… Me being from California, I used to say “like” a lot. Every other word was, “Like this, like this, like this.” And you learn not to do that or say a “umm” a lot.

Ren Jones30:00

Yes, indeed. So that can make a big difference. Let’s see. They’re going on and on and on about role play partners on here.

Carley Hathaway30:08

Well, good. Practice those scripts.

30:14I really like the scripts with Vulcan7. It’s easy to just print them up, practice them, internalize them, make it second nature so you don’t fumble like I did in the beginning of the role play.

Sarah Close30:26

When they are internalized, it gives you the opportunity to really listen to what that person is then saying to you. If you’ve got those questions kind of loaded at the ready, then when they go off, they go rogue on you. It’s easy to whip out the next question and bring them back, back on track as opposed to feeling that you need to deal with that particular comment. It’s no, you just bring them back with your next question.

Ren Jones30:52

And that’s what she did on that. She’s fumbling around for a second there and notice she just went to the next question on the script there. It was fine. Nobody even remembered what the last question was.

Sarah Close31:03

They don’t.

Ren Jones31:04

They don’t. They just don’t. So Steven McPherson raises something that a lot of people feel. “What do you do to overcome the fear of calling? I can talk to anyone in person, but cold calling kills me. Help.”

31:15Talking to strangers on the phone bothers him a lot more than over the phone. I mean-

Carley Hathaway31:21

Than in person

Ren Jones31:23

… in their face. So how do you get past that?

Carley Hathaway31:28

For me, you just do it. That’s it.

Sarah Close31:31

Again, it takes a lot to do it.

Carley Hathaway31:31

Just do it. How ever miserable you think it is, just do it.

Ren Jones31:35

Well, you got to look at the whole process because it’s the morning routine. Number one, at the same time every day, role play at 7:30. On the phone at 8:00. The role play process, all those routines pull you into it and force you to do it. And then you’re doing it the next day, then the next day, then the next day, the the next day. So each day you improve 1%, a little bit further, a bit stronger, a little bit further, a little bit stronger, a little bit further, a little bit stronger.

Carley Hathaway32:02

You definitely build your stamina. For sure. My goal was 27 contacts, I was like, “Oh my God.” So I had to start with 10 and then I worked up to 15 a day and then I got to 20 a day. You know what I mean? You have to build your stamina. And I think you’re right, Ren, it’s just doing it, doing it every single day, starting at 8:00 AM. Just making it a habit.

Sarah Close32:22

And I think rewarding that habit and knowing that you are in fact looking for a no and a rejection frankly, just as much as you’re looking for a yes. Because it’s just a numbers game. And I love your idea of, Carley, just taking it and kind of building that muscle and just doing it each day, because you got to give yourself some wins.

32:41If you go out and say, “Oh my gosh, that’s it. I’m going to role play for 30 minutes every day. I’m going to prospect every day starting tonight for four hours a day.” And you’ve not prospected consistently for 15 minutes a day ever. That jump is not likely to be super successful.

32:56And then you subconsciously have had a situation where you let yourself down and you have any equity, if you will, to build on that with. So give yourself something that’s really achievable, reward yourself, enjoy the rest of your day and go back and do it again a little bit more tomorrow.

Ren Jones33:12

That’s it.

Carley Hathaway33:12

Yeah.

Ren Jones33:16

Marvin makes a observation that after a little bit of time, sellers will stop answering the phone.

Sarah Close33:25

Yes, they will.

Ren Jones33:25

They just hide out. Do you just continue to call them throughout the day ’till you get an answer or do you move on to the next day? What do you do there? Of course the magic answer is be one of the first ones calling.

Sarah Close33:35

Yeah. So that’s actually is a magic answer. The other thing is, it’s funny that he mentioned that because I’ll say to them, don’t answer your phone anymore today. Because the seller is like, “Oh my gosh, what do I do to get my number off of this list?” And I say, “You know what I would do? I would stop answering my phone if I don’t recognize the number.” They’re like, “Oh, that’s a good idea.” And then I call back tomorrow.

Carley Hathaway33:55

Smart. Cut down your competition.

Ren Jones33:58

It does. And that does work.

Sarah Close33:59

Yeah. Put some breaks on that stuff.

Ren Jones34:00

That works. That works.

Sarah Close34:01

I’m like, “If you don’t recognize number, you can guarantee it’s going to be an agent. Just don’t call.”

Ren Jones34:06

Okay. And to work around that. So now we have to give you the idea how to work around that ’cause you can’t call everybody at 8:00 AM. I mean, you call all the best ones at 8:00, 8:15, 8:30, and then all of a sudden you turn around, it’s 9:15, you want to call some people and they’re not going to pick up. So what you do is get on your cell phone provider, a cell phone with an area code of a major city a hundred miles away.

Sarah Close34:32

That’s a great idea.

Ren Jones34:33

It works

Carley Hathaway34:33

Smart.

Ren Jones34:34

What happens is everybody knows two or three people in the major city a hundred miles away. They go, “Oh, that’s Susie. Hello? Oh, it’s not Susie.”

Sarah Close34:43

That’s a great idea.

Ren Jones34:45

It works.

Sarah Close34:45

I’m totally getting that.

Ren Jones34:46

It works. I would make all my calls and I’d go over to the other cell phone after about an hour and work that one and all the people that didn’t answer start picking up.

Sarah Close34:54

Oh, that brilliant.

Ren Jones34:54

It works. It works very well.

Sarah Close34:56

That’s a really good idea.

Ren Jones35:00

Do that one.

Sarah Close35:00

Yeah, I will do that one.

Carley Hathaway35:01

Yeah, I’m doing that one too.

Sarah Close35:01

That’s awesome.

Ren Jones35:07

We’re getting more and more and more that people lining up role play partners on here.

Carley Hathaway35:09

That’s great. And don’t forget to line up your accountability partners too. Even if it’s just a quick text like, “Hey, I’m on my fifth contact and still going.” Or if you do affirmations in the morning like, “Hey, I’m onto my morning affirmations.” Or even do affirmations with someone.

Sarah Close35:24

It can feel a little lonely when you’re by yourself out there so I think it’s great to have some connection of someone that you can actually have a safe place with. “Man, I just got kicked in the teeth.” Give you little encouragement to get right back out there. We’re all doing the same thing.

Carley Hathaway35:41

You have to find your own little tips and tricks to get past a rough phone call.

Sarah Close35:47

Absolutely.

Carley Hathaway35:48

So if it’s shooting your friend a quick text or your role play partner a quick text, that’s helpful. If it’s going and doing five jumping jacks, do that.

Sarah Close35:53

Yeah. One of the guys I work with today took a quick walk around the block. He said, “I just need to take a quick walk.” Came back and he is on, frankly, I think I heard him got an appointment like three calls after that.

Carley Hathaway36:04

There you go.

Sarah Close36:05

Yeah.

Ren Jones36:05

That’ll work.

Carley Hathaway36:07

Got to have the right attitude.

Sarah Close36:09

So, makes a difference.

Ren Jones36:10

Yes, it does. Andrew says, “Overcome the fear to call? Simple, go hungry. Look at your tone and tell them, sorry, no new business today because I forgot to have business I actually have to speak to people.”

Sarah Close36:23

Yeah, it’s a good one. One thing I would add to that call reluctance piece is there is nothing that says that the only calling you can do is to folks you don’t know. So you can kind of get that process rolling with folks that you’re going to have a good experience with. Past clients that love you, sphere of influence that have been good referral sources for you in the past. You can kind of slide that process in to get started.

Ren Jones36:45

People you know and the people you don’t know. And what’s interesting, I love calling people I didn’t know. It’s the people I know I didn’t want to call.

Sarah Close36:50

Yeah, I’ve got it.

Ren Jones36:52

Everybody’s different in that regard. You can get your kids involved in a way to overcome the call reluctance too. You just put a little goal on the board to say, “We’re going to go on vacation here. If mommy makes all our contacts, I’m going to write them down every day, then we’re going to go here.” And they’re going to ask you, “Did you make all your contacts? Did you make your 27 contacts? Did you make it?” It can drive the goal. And we just get everybody involved. Accountability on the refrigerator.

Carley Hathaway37:21

Yeah, great idea.

Sarah Close37:21

It’s really good idea. It really is.

Ren Jones37:27

Yeah.

Carley Hathaway37:28

Do you have any other questions?

Ren Jones37:30

Mervin says, “I’m getting a zero result from emails. Is there a subject heading or a tip to get email response from expireds and FSBOs?” No.

Carley Hathaway37:40

You have to call. Email’s an easy way out.

Ren Jones37:44

Direct. Direct. You got to talk to them. You have to speak to them.

Sarah Close37:52

Absolutely.

Ren Jones37:53

Live or phone. Can I drop the phone? No. I mean maybe one listing a year off of email if you did hundreds of millions of them.

Sarah Close38:02

You can follow up with it, but not initially. And that is one thing we try to do when we have a call with an expired or for sale by owner or cancel. If we can’t nail that appointment right there, boy, I’m looking for the email. I want to be able to keep in contact with them and turn them into a nurture that I can then build that relationship with over time. Cause my competition’s going to drop off. They all are.

Carley Hathaway38:29

When you do have a good phone call with someone but you weren’t able to set the appointment, what does your follow up email look like?

Sarah Close38:35

The follow up email will be very straightforward. It’ll say, “Nancy, thank you again for spending a little bit of time sharing with me what you guys have on deck for your place over on Winding Way. I completely understand how exhausting this process is and that you need to take a step out of the ring for a while. As I suggested, I’ll keep you in touch with what’s going on in the marketplace and certainly feel free to reach me if I can be of any assistance in the meantime.” Something real generic.

Carley Hathaway38:58

Very straightforward

Sarah Close38:59

Yeah, and it gives me the opportunity-

Ren Jones39:00

And you’re doing videos too.

Sarah Close39:01

Yeah. Love the videos.

Ren Jones39:02

And that’s built into Vulcan7 at no extra cost. We have storyteller videos so we can do email campaigns to your expireds and FSBOs and they get to feel a connection with.

Sarah Close39:12

Exactly.

Carley Hathaway39:13

Yeah. We want to see your face, you got to get your face in front of people.

Sarah Close39:16

Sure. Absolutely. It’s that same idea. It gets you out of the road rage category and puts you into the nice people.

Carley Hathaway39:21

Yeah.

Sarah Close39:22

It’s really weird.

Carley Hathaway39:23

It is weird. It’s kind of like those people that write mean Yelps. They’re like, “You’re so mean. You wouldn’t be that way in person.”

Sarah Close39:30

Right. Very much so. Very much so.

Carley Hathaway39:33

I Know. You cross that barrier and all of a sudden they’re like, “Oh, she’s a nice person.”

Sarah Close39:36

Right. Absolutely.

Ren Jones39:37

Great. Well ,this has been an exciting show. Hopefully there’s some good tips. I think if you take three or four of these ideas, you’ll take an extra two listings a month a night. And that’s all we’re going for here, if we can help you do that then. Play this over and over there’s and take a few notes.

39:55If you’re watching on Vulcan7 and you want to get involved with the Lead Gen Facebook group, over 50,000 people now. All about lead generation. Facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And I want to thank Aaron Wittenstein who runs the group. He does a lot of give back. He runs a little program called trajectorynow.com.

40:18And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not involved with Vulcan7, make sure to sign up at Vulcan7.com/leadgen for a special deal. And then… Yes. We discovered it on the last show.

Sarah Close40:34

This is so funny.

Ren Jones40:35

I know.

Sarah Close40:35

What am I going to do with you?

Ren Jones40:41

Mint chocolate chip Graeter’s, mint chocolate chip. Only the mint chocolate chip helps with listing property. It’s the only good. Not the black raspberry, none of that. Not the peach and the s’mores, none of those flavors. Those all help with your buying business. For selling business, it’s the mint chocolate chip. In the slower markets, if you’re having trouble selling the house, dig a hole in the front yard, bury it upside down.

Sarah Close41:05

You can count on the chocolate chip.

Ren Jones41:05

It’s a handy tool. This is your tool for selling homes.

Sarah Close41:08

That’s so funny.

Carley Hathaway41:10

Great show you guys. That was really fun. I hope a lot of people got some great information out of it. Even just one or two tips.

Sarah Close41:17

Thank you.

Ren Jones41:17

Thanks.

Carley Hathaway41:18

Thanks, Sarah.

Ren Jones41:18

Appreciate it, Carley. We’ll see you in your town next week, week and a half from now, something like that.

Carley Hathaway41:28

Yeah.

Ren Jones41:28

At the live coats events this month.

Sarah Close41:30

Very cool.

Ren Jones41:32

See you then.

Carley Hathaway41:32

Bye everybody.

Ren Jones41:33

Bye everybody. Thanks for being here. Watch it again and again.

41:33