S5 E1: How to Take 3 or more Listings each Week During the Holidays

Ren Jones (00:01):
It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap, how to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we have an exciting interview with somebody that’s taking 3, 4, 5 listings a week. We have an exciting guest today. Today we’re going to talk about some of the techniques for managing your time and what are best practices. You want to take 150 listings a year. You want to have a million dollar income. Maybe you want only half that. Maybe you only want to make $300,000 a year. Here are some recipes that are going to work for you. All right, so when this is recorded, we’re talking about November-December. As you’re watching the show, it may be that time or it may be you may be coming on Memorial Day, you may be coming on 4th of July, you may be coming up on Labor Day. Any way you look at it, these things apply and we’re going to talk with our guests today a little bit, drop in and get their best advice.

(00:57):
But here’s some of the best advice out there. Number one, always take your vacation when everybody else is gone. Have you ever tried to reach any human being during 4th of July week? Have you? Yet we have people that are taking vacations outside of that and they’re at home 4th of July week. That’s too bad. Sure, I understand it’s a little more expensive to travel and to go places and do things 4th of July week. I’m here to say, spend the extra $700, $800, $900. Spend that, or extra $3000, whatever it is for you because you’ll make that up by being on when everybody else is available. Does that make sense? 4th of July week especially. Always be gone that week. Always, always. Labor Day, be gone Labor Day, that long Labor Day weekend. Don’t wait a week later to save $500 because you’ll save $500 and you’ll lose $15,000. You don’t work for the post office folks. Be gone when everybody else is gone. It’s the rule of thumb.

(02:01):
Now, we’re in a unique time in November-December where people say, call me back after the first of the year. And we want to get some of the best advice on that. So don’t take my word for it. We’re going to go to St. George, Utah. We’re going to talk to John Ames and Chase Ames. They take 5, 6, 7 listings a week, and they’ve got this thing figured out for the holidays. What do you say when people say, call me after the holidays? How do you manage your time during November-December? How do you manage your time at Memorial Day, 4th of July week, Labor Day? How do you work all that? Because you don’t have a boss to say, you’re on this day and you’re off that day. What do you do? Welcome John. Welcome Chase. Glad you could be here.

John Ames (02:42):
Thanks Ren.

Chase Ames (02:43):
Thank you, Ren.

Ren Jones (02:44):
Good. Yes, sir.

John Ames (02:46):
The key to that is the fact that you have to decide when you’re going to work and you have to decide when you’re going to play. And the key is don’t mix the two up. So you’ve got to have a schedule, but you know on what days you’re going to prospect and go on appointments, and don’t start crossing over because by doing that all you’re going to do is put yourself in a position where you’re never working, ever. And so to that point, you know that during a holiday season people are going to be home. Now, a lot of people don’t want to be bothered during a holiday season, but here’s the secret. People that really actually want to sell, they’ll talk to you on a holiday because it’s at the top of their mind and the thing they have to get done in their life for whatever reason.

(03:31):
So when you’re calling people during a holiday type season, you don’t care about the ones that are saying, not now, call me in three weeks, so forth and so on. You’re looking for the one that says, I would like to meet you tomorrow, and they’ll make time during the holiday season. So don’t be put off by the people that say, call me back in three or four weeks. Be willing to take the hard hits in terms of don’t call me today, call me in three weeks. You’re looking for the one that says, I’ll meet with you today or tomorrow, why don’t you come on out?

Ren Jones (04:01):
So, and those are A clients. Those are I have to move and I have to move now.

John Ames (04:07):
Yeah, best of the best. They have high motivation.

Chase Ames (04:10):
Those clients who absolutely cannot be turned this holiday season no matter what, we are building our pipeline, getting our stock and our pile inventory ready for the beginning of the year when we know those clients will be listing. So we look for the A clients right now that we know we can list and sell before the holidays, and those that absolutely cannot, we’re waiting and building them up for the new year. And as soon as new year comes, we have our list ready and we start pounding them and taking those listings then.

Ren Jones (04:36):
Perfect. So with those B clients, where do you leave them in the conversation? Call me the first of the year, what do you say?

John Ames (04:43):
Good question. So let’s say that right now we’re at November 26th. We have five weeks until the first of the year, and if someone we’re talking with today or Thursday of this week or Monday of next week, they say, well, give me a call back after the first of the year. Our response is we chuckle. Well, Ren, we appreciate that. But being as aggressive as we are, and that’s how we sell at least 350 houses a year, do you really think we’re going to wait until January to call you? Look, I’ll give you a call back in about 10 days and we’ll check in with you then, okay? So shorten up the cycle time that they’re giving you and put them on your cycle time and just say it with a chuckle and happiness. But you’re doing two things. Number one is you’re establishing rapport. Number two is you’re taking control of the timeline and not letting them take the timeline because 80% chance if you wait until January 7th to call them, Ren, what’s going to happen?

Ren Jones (05:37):
You and 14 other agents are all waiting for the day they can call them.

John Ames (05:41):
And someone else is going to list them eight days from now because you weren’t talking to them in eight days.

Ren Jones (05:46):
Because they chuckled and you didn’t.

John Ames (05:48):
That’s right.

Ren Jones (05:49):
That’s powerful because think about when you say that to them and they hang up and they go, whoa, I think they’re a pretty strong outfit I just talked to. They wouldn’t take first of the year for an answer.

John Ames (06:03):
Nope.

Ren Jones (06:03):
That’s great. That’s fantastic.

Chase Ames (06:05):
Ren, do you know what a he be we be is?

Ren Jones (06:08):
No.

Chase Ames (06:09):
So on certain holidays we call them he be we be holidays, he be playing, we be working. As far as Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, those types of things, you need to decide for yourself if those people are going to be taking the day off and sitting at home or if they’re going to be gone and out of contact. So when you know that they’ll be home and just not working, those are the holidays that we definitely don’t take off and we keep working. But we know that some holidays they’re definitely out of town they’re definitely playing with family, and those are days that we will take off as well.

Ren Jones (06:39):
Now, I know you guys take some days off because I know some of the adventures. I have heard some stories, let’s put it that way. But so how do you work the off versus on? How do you know when you’re off? I mean is it something on your calendar that says, I’m off, or how do you tell yourself?

Chase Ames (06:57):
So on our team, we require both ourselves and every team member to take at least four vacations a year, actual calendared vacations because we know with our level of production and how hard we push all the time that we will get burnt out. So we understand that we have to take vacations and we are calendared and required to take at least a week long vacation four times a year.

Ren Jones (07:20):
Yeah, because you produce more that way.

John Ames (07:22):
Exactly. Exactly right. I mean, let’s be honest. You’re in here grinding the phones, going on appointments for two months, two and a half months, three months, let’s be honest, at about three months, you hate this thing. You don’t want to talk to clients, you’re not fully engaged, you can’t wait for the day to be done, and that’s costing you business. So to that point, like Stephen Covey and Sharpen your Saw, there are certain times when you owe it to yourself to just go out and recharge. You’ve got to shut down all the production and really get on vacation and leave this thing behind.

Ren Jones (07:56):
So four times a year?

John Ames (07:58):
Exactly. At least four times a year.

Ren Jones (08:00):
Shut it all down, set yourself up so you don’t have to, because there are people that go on vacation and they take everything with them and they’re on the phone the whole time. The family’s at the pool and the they’re working.

John Ames (08:15):
Right, exactly.

Ren Jones (08:16):
None of that crap. Tell me about January 1st, what goes on with the Ames team on January 1st, anything?

John Ames (08:23):
Chase just reminded me to remind all of you about my number one quote is, “Work when you work, play when you play, and don’t mix the two up.”

Ren Jones (08:32):
Love it. That’s it.

John Ames (08:33):
So really and truly when you’re working, make sure it’s real work time. But when it’s time for your family, you have to remember that your family pays a huge price for the industry we’re in, and they deserve the time when you tell them you’re on vacation. So make the vacations planning a part of the process for your entire family. The kids, the wife, everybody knows on this date we’re headed to Cabo for a week, or on this date we’re doing a cruise up in Canada so that the whole family’s engaged understanding why dad’s gone this Tuesday or why mom is missing two nights a week is so that we have the income to have that great vacation, but we have to earn that over the timeframe. So work when you work and play when you play and don’t mix the two up.

Chase Ames (09:22):
And you leave your phone behind.

John Ames (09:23):
And actually, a lot of times when I go on vacation, I’ll actually hand my phone to my team and my phone stays behind.

Ren Jones (09:31):
Love it, love it. There we go. These are some best practices, everybody. We really appreciate you dropping in for a few minutes. I know you’ve got some family back home, you got to go see here in a bit, but thank you both and it’s pretty exciting what you’re doing up in St. George. I’ve told this story before. There’s a real estate agent in your town that said to me one time talking on the phone and I’m asked about your name. She goes, “I don’t know why he thinks he needs every single listing in St. George.” Got to love it, don’t you?

John Ames (10:06):
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Ren Jones (10:09):
All right, we’ll see you guys soon. Thank you again. Have a great rest of the week.

John Ames (10:15):
You’re welcome, Ren. Thank you all. By the way, everyone, look, between this and Ren and this Vulcan system, they have made millions upon millions of dollars for the Ames team. You cannot get there without Vulcan without Ren.

Ren Jones (10:30):
Well, thank you for the endorsement. I appreciate that. It’s the old expression, does your system work? And then the question is, do you?

John Ames (10:39):
Exactly right. Exactly.

Ren Jones (10:41):
All right. Take care.

John Ames (10:42):
Thanks, Ren.

Chase Ames (10:43):
Thank you.

Ren Jones (10:44):
Bye-bye.

John Ames (10:44):
Bye-Bye.

Ren Jones (10:46):
Wasn’t that a great interview? A few more thoughts that we need to look at. When you’re planning your year, always have the next two months out in front of you. So if you’re in November-December, you want to be able to at a glance to look over, and if you’ve watched these interviews before, if you ask somebody about their schedule, you’ll see them look over to the side and they have a big calendar up for the next two or three months, and on the days they’re off, it says OFF. It’s real clear they’re off. And if you’re a one person show, you absolutely want to do this. You want to have on a marker board OFF on the days you’re off, On the days you’re on to tell you, you better be working hard when it says ON, and you better be enjoying yourself intensely when it says OFF. It works. We know that works. So that way you can actually not walk around. Am I working? Am I not?

(11:41):
Now, when you’re talking to people about the first of the year, the B clients that Chase and John mentioned, a lot of times they may say, well, call me after the first of the year. And I would always say, all right you’re talking about the first week in January or the second week of January. Well, the second week of January. Okay, well January 14th is a Wednesday. What I’d like to do is tentatively pencil in one o’clock on that day or four o’clock on that day. Would that be okay? And then I’ll call you at least a week ahead and make sure that time works. Go ahead and set tentative appointments. Fill up your January calendar, even your February calendar. Go ahead and fill it up with tentative appointments. When you call back again, because you’re going to call back as they do two or three more times, you can stop using the tentative word, just remind them of that appointment on January 14th.

(12:38):
So load your calendar up because your competition may have leads if they have anything at all going into the first of the year and you will have bonafide appointments. All this is very important to have some structure, have a schedule, and enjoy a lot of time off.

(12:53):
Now, one last thing, and John and Chase didn’t mention this, but if you really want to have a schedule, it lends itself to the listing side of the business. You want to be a listing agent. You want to have 80% of your business coming from the listing side. Have someone else for you on your team or by referral, handle a lot of the buyer traffic. Okay? We want you to make a lot of money. Thanks for being here. And I want to thank Aaron Wittenstein who broadcast this show as a simulcast on the Lead Gen Facebook group. If you want to be part of that, go to facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And he has a nice program there called trajectorynow.com as well.

(13:40):
And then finally, if you really are serious about listing property, go down, go get some delicious Graeter’s Mint Chocolate Chip. It’s the only one for listings. You can go to graeters.com and you can find it anywhere in North America at your local store and look online to find the store. It’s the only flavor, they have a lot of other flavors, but those are for working with buyers. If you’re into the listing side of the business, get the Mint Chocolate Chip. If the listing is a little slow to sell, dig a hole in the front yard, bury it upside down, and your listing will sell very fast. Anyway, thanks for being here. We’ll see you next week on an exciting Roadmap show. You too can list three or four, five listings a week. You can. You can. See you soon.