Jeanne Sommer knocks the doors every other agent is only calling

Ren Jones00:04

It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap. How to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we interview a great agent who’s consistently taking several listings each month, and we have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle. Let me introduce my co-host from San Diego, Carley Hathaway. That’s carleyhathaway.com. Hi Carley, how’s the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway00:39

Hi Ren, hi everybody. Real estate is fabulous. It’s definitely picking up and it’s always a great time to be a listing agent.

Ren Jones00:48

Wonderful, wonderful. Wish I was there. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everybody that we are also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen group on Facebook. They have 51,000 members and we have a large audience there today as well. 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 Valparaiso, Indiana. Miss Jeanne Sommer. Hi Jeanne.

Jeanne Sommer01:20

Hey Ren.

Ren Jones01:21

How are you? Good to see you.

Jeanne Sommer01:22

Good, nice to see you.

Ren Jones01:25

Welcome, welcome.

Jeanne Sommer01:25

Thank you.

Ren Jones01:27

I’m glad you could be here and you’ve been successful for a good long time, and I’m hoping you could share some of the secrets of getting there-

Jeanne Sommer01:36

I will try.

Ren Jones01:37

… with a lot of our audience.

Jeanne Sommer01:37

Yeah.

Ren Jones01:39

Good deal.

Carley Hathaway01:40

Awesome. So, hey Jeanne, can you start us out with your morning routine?

Ren Jones01:44

No, I want to know our goal first. Sorry. What’s the goal this year?

Carley Hathaway01:48

Oh. Okay. Jeanne, so what’s your goal for the year?

Jeanne Sommer01:51

My goal is 150 transactions.

Ren Jones01:56

Good deal. 150.

Carley Hathaway01:56

That’s awesome.

01:58Great. So you’re on track to meet your goals. That’s awesome. So do majority of your deals come from past clients, expireds, FSBOs?

Jeanne Sommer02:08

Mostly sphere and past clients. I’ve been in the business for 28 years, and so with 28 years, obviously you build your sphere up. So I would say probably 70, 80% of my business comes from past clients and spheres, or their referrals, maybe they refer me to a friend.

Ren Jones02:25

Okay. Okay. So you do about 30, 40 transactions from expireds and FSBOs and all the rest are coming from your database?

Jeanne Sommer02:33

Yes. Which is quite a bit different from when I first started, but right now that’s the-

Ren Jones02:38

So when you started, what was that like? So people can get an idea. So if they’re in their second, third, fourth year, what did it look like then?

Jeanne Sommer02:46

A lot of expireds and FSBOs.

Ren Jones02:48

Gotcha. So you would list 6, 8 listings a month from FSBOs and expireds back then?

Jeanne Sommer02:56

Right. And I would like, what I like to do is I like to, and door knocking. I’d like to go to doors. I’m more of a door person than a call. I’d rather go to the door. So what I would do is I’d get out in the morning and look up the expireds and the FSBOs and do the mapping thing where, and go to the different parts of the neighborhood and I’d knock on their doors because I thought that was different because a lot of other people were calling them.

Ren Jones03:20

Nice. And so why don’t you, for those that don’t know what mapping is, explain that so they can try it out.

Jeanne Sommer03:27

Well, I would get in the morning and I would, there’d be like four or five expireds and there would be maybe, I don’t know, three or four FSBOs and I would look at, some would be in our area, Chesterton, Valparaiso, different towns. I would start north and I’d work my way down south and knock on their doors and ask them if they wanted to relist their home.

Ren Jones03:48

So in other words, you would follow a linear path depending on where they were located.

Jeanne Sommer03:53

Right.

Ren Jones03:53

You’d draw a single line and then just-

Jeanne Sommer03:56

Right.

Ren Jones03:57

… the most efficient path from one end to the other.

Jeanne Sommer04:00

Right. And then if I had a listing around maybe some of those areas too, I would knock on those doors too. I think a lot of people get hung up on, did I talk to that person? I don’t want to talk to them again. Oh my gosh. And they do so much preparation that just go ahead and do it. Just go ahead and knock on the doors and do it-

Ren Jones04:21

Forget the ready, aim, ready, aim part. Just right fire, huh?

Jeanne Sommer04:24

Just fire.

Ren Jones04:25

Good. Perfect. So in the beginning that was expireds and for sale by owners were the largest part of your business. Now they’re down to one out of four or one out of five.

Jeanne Sommer04:36

Yeah.

Ren Jones04:36

Because you might as well, you know, have a very large… How big’s the database now? If you feel-

Jeanne Sommer04:43

Right. And I do love FSBOs still, I can’t drive by a FSBO without stopping.

Ren Jones04:48

Your brakes work. So unlike a lot of real estate agents, your brakes actually work in front of a FSBO?

Jeanne Sommer04:53

I do like FSBOs. Yeah.

Ren Jones04:54

And so if you saw one and you would stop and walk up, what would you say?

Jeanne Sommer05:01

Hi, my name’s Jeanne Summer from Century 21 Alliance Group. I saw you’re trying to sell your home on your own. Is it available? And then I’d go into the script.

Ren Jones05:13

Great.

Jeanne Sommer05:13

I had a coach the whole time, but I’d go on and ask them. And then also at the end of it, just say, can I be your backup plan? If you don’t sell your home, can I be your backup plan?

Ren Jones05:23

Okay. So no fear in walking up and talking to him.

Jeanne Sommer05:27

No.

Ren Jones05:28

Good.

Jeanne Sommer05:28

I was a FSBO before I got into real estate. I think maybe that helps. So I actually say, yeah, I was a FSBO. I understand where you’re coming from. Yeah, I didn’t sell my house and if you don’t sell your house. Can I help you?

Ren Jones05:42

Beautiful thing. Beautiful.

Carley Hathaway05:43

Yeah, that’s great. Great.

Jeanne Sommer05:44

Yeah, it works.

Carley Hathaway05:46

Yeah. So you’ve been doing this a long time and you’re obviously finding a lot of success. 150 deals this year is a amazing goal. What keeps you on track? What is your morning routine? How do you keep going? Why not just take a Wednesday off? You know what I mean?

Jeanne Sommer06:04

Well, I keep my goals in front of me and I break them down. Not just yearly, but how many I listings I have to take. So I really zone into how many listings I have to take. And then I surround myself with CDs and tapes and books where really just good stuff. And because it is easy to get off track and I mean, I’m not going to sit here and say I don’t get off track. I get off track, I totally get off track, but I just know that I have to come back and the numbers are there that I have to get so many listings. Also my coach keeps me on track. My current coach is Kevin Eldred and he keeps me on track with how many, just accountability because it’s so easy if you’re on your own and if you have to meet with him once a week and he’s going to ask you what you did and you’re going to have to… It gets you prepared. Sometimes my calls are on Thursday, sometimes I’m working really hard on Tuesday and Wednesdays.

Ren Jones07:03

So it sounds like not only what you did, but it’s a very specific set of numbers. Is that true? Every week here?

Jeanne Sommer07:08

Yeah. I have to know how many listings I’m going to take. I think that’s how you’re going to control what you do.

Ren Jones07:16

And then you’re tracking how many people you speak to and how many appointments you go on versus listings taken and things like that?

Jeanne Sommer07:22

Right, right. That’s the number analyzer. And so I put my numbers in there or my assistant, my team manager puts my numbers in there.

Ren Jones07:29

What is your batting average? You go on 10 listing appointments, how many do you take?

Jeanne Sommer07:35

Well, when I first started I think I was like at 60, 70%. But I think now I’m at 90%. And I think the reason why I’m at 90% and most of my listing appointments are sphere and past clients.

Ren Jones07:48

That’s fair.

Jeanne Sommer07:49

Or you’re coming with a reputation cause somebody referred you that you know did a good job for. Yeah.

Ren Jones07:57

But to be fair, obviously you were good back then too because if you were at 70%, that’s not bad.

Jeanne Sommer08:05

No, no. Again, it’s the whole system of just asking the questions and not getting emotionally attached and-

Ren Jones08:12

Pre-qualifying before you get-

Jeanne Sommer08:13

Right. Exactly. Oh God, I never go without pre-qualifying.

Ren Jones08:17

Okay, you want to make that point. So think about it. These are a lot of people you’ve known for a long time too. You’re pre-qualifying those people?

Jeanne Sommer08:25

Yeah, you have to.

Ren Jones08:27

Okay.

Jeanne Sommer08:27

I mean, yeah. And I don’t work with buyers. I have a buyer’s agent that’s been with me for 22 years. So she takes all the buyers. So she does the pre-qualifying for the buyers. But the sellers, I always pre-qualify the sellers.

Ren Jones08:41

So you’re making money and you have the time to enjoy it.

Jeanne Sommer08:43

Yes.

Carley Hathaway08:44

Good for you.

Ren Jones08:47

Good.

Carley Hathaway08:47

And how long does a typical listing appointment take for you?

Jeanne Sommer08:50

About a half hour.

Carley Hathaway08:51

Oh perfect. That’s great. And do you send a pre-listing packet out?

Jeanne Sommer08:56

Yes, we email it. We email information on the team. Information on just the… Now one thing I have not been bold enough to do, which I need to start doing, I keep saying I’m going to do is I have not included… I hope Mike Ferry doesn’t watch these things. I have not included the seller’s net with the suggested price. So I would tell people that are listening to this to have the guts to do that, to start out doing that. It’s like you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. It’s kind of hard for me because I’m just in the routine of giving them everything else, but I always pre-qualify and set a pre-listing package out. Yes.

Carley Hathaway09:33

But you don’t like to tell them the price beforehand. But even though you feel like you should?

Jeanne Sommer09:38

I guess I just have never done it. So it’s habit. Everybody thinks that I don’t want to do that script or I don’t want to do, we all have our scripts, we all have our habits.

Ren Jones09:46

But notice folks notice the accountability in her. And we have a lot of people in a various coaching programs that are on this show. But notice how well, and we’ve only interviewed one person that said they weren’t in any kind of coaching program, which was rather unusual because 98% of the people are in some sort of a coaching program. Notice how, in her case right here, she’s concerned that maybe her coach might be watching this and be concerned that she isn’t doing a net sheet and preparing all that ahead of time for the seller. So that, look at the power of accountability in being successful. That’s huge.

Jeanne Sommer10:25

It’s so funny. You’ve gone to the Mike Ferry, you’re familiar with him?

Ren Jones10:29

Yes.

Jeanne Sommer10:31

He does seminars. And when he asks people in the audience who’ve been there going to him for years, how much percentage, what percentage do you do Mike Ferry? And a lot of people are like, Hmm, 60%, 60, 50. But even that 50, 60% makes you a lot of money.

Ren Jones10:46

Right? Because I mean 150 sales, what kind of money is that in Valparaiso, Indiana?

Jeanne Sommer10:52

Well, our average price range is about $250,000.

Ren Jones10:59

Okay, so you’re talking about 1.2, 1.3 million in income, is that right?

Jeanne Sommer11:02

Well, no, no, no, because it’s 50,000 and then you’re thinking… It’s a little over a half million a year. I mean, I do not, so I confuse people with that. So I really try and do the numbers because all my deals are net, they’re-

Ren Jones11:15

It’s a great life. You’re making more than the physicians in your market.

Jeanne Sommer11:20

Yeah. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway11:20

Love it. That’s a good way to look at it.

Ren Jones11:23

That’s right. Got to love it. What a wonderful life too.

Carley Hathaway11:28

So listen, you were saying earlier, you listened to a lot of books and CDs and stuff like that. Is it just positive affirmation stuff or is it motivational or what gets you going?

Jeanne Sommer11:41

Different or Earl Nightingale and CDs, things like that? I don’t watch the news. I don’t know what’s going on with the news. We just had some friends that visited this last weekend and they couldn’t believe I didn’t know half the people in the news.

Ren Jones11:56

Love It, love it. This is wonderful.

Jeanne Sommer11:59

I can’t do anything about it.

Ren Jones11:59

Folks, here’s a how about that? No news.

Jeanne Sommer12:03

Yeah.

Ren Jones12:04

What do they say? No news is good news. There we go.

Carley Hathaway12:06

That’s a way to stay positive for sure.

Jeanne Sommer12:08

Yeah. So I don’t do that.

Ren Jones12:10

You’re not missing anything worthwhile or real.

Jeanne Sommer12:14

No, no. And I can’t watch anything that somebody’s getting hurt or killed or I just, oh my gosh.

Ren Jones12:20

There you go.

Carley Hathaway12:21

Yeah, yeah. And so you mentioned too, that you have a buyer’s agent. Do you have other people, you have a team? Do you have an assistant?

Jeanne Sommer12:28

I have a team manager. I have a team manager and she manages the team and does the showing. She does, she manages me basically. And then I’ve got a buyer agent that’s been with me for 22 years and I’ve got two listing specialists that actually go on listing appointments with me. Or even go for me when I’m not there and yeah.

Ren Jones12:45

Because you were… when we talked last week, you were in Arizona, so you… When you’re on the listing side of the business, you can do that. You make calls from Arizona too?

Jeanne Sommer12:54

Right? Yes you can. Well, yeah, it’s mostly real estate’s become so technology.

Ren Jones13:00

So you go to warmer climates, make some calls back there, get on a plane, go list the property.

Jeanne Sommer13:06

Yeah. Yeah. So it works.

Ren Jones13:08

It’s a happy life.

Jeanne Sommer13:09

Yes. Very good.

Ren Jones13:11

Good. Deal.

Carley Hathaway13:12

And do you have a schedule that you stick to as far as lead follow up calling your past sphere and how do you calendar that? Make sure you touch all your past clients?

Jeanne Sommer13:23

Okay, so Ren and I were just talking earlier, that’s probably what I struggle with the most is the schedule. I’m a morning person, so I like to get up really early in the morning and I’m in the office in the morning, but I’m not going to… I get off my schedule. That’s why I go on the numbers that I have to talk to so many people or I need so many listings. But usually, basically in the morning, I listen to positive affirmations, role play, and then go ahead and make your calls, the sphere and things like that. And then the afternoon obviously appointments.

Ren Jones14:04

Perfect.

Carley Hathaway14:05

And what does that phone call look like if you’re just calling a random past client that maybe you sold their house three years ago?

Jeanne Sommer14:13

Okay. So especially when new taxes come out or “Hey, you just bought a house to me a year ago? Did you file your exemptions?” I try and add something of value or I look at the hot sheet. If there’s a house that’s sold in their area, I’ll say, “Oh, I sold Mr. And Mrs. Smith a house.” I see some house went on the market. I might come and say, “Hey, did you see your neighbor put their house in the market?” So something I try and make it a value them. And if you ask for their help and say, “Hey, I need your help, it’s a little, we need more listings. I’ve got these buyers. They’re waiting for the next listing to come on the market.” They like to help you. People want to help.

Ren Jones14:53

Perfect. So you’re bringing value to every call. Sometimes you’re asking them for their help because you’ve got, there’s a need there to, somebody wants to buy in a certain area or whatever it may be good. That’s beautiful. What else do you with your database?

Jeanne Sommer15:07

Especially if you have a buyer.

Ren Jones15:08

… database. How else do you stay in touch with the database? Do you mail anything? Do you send them anything or how do you stay in touch?

Jeanne Sommer15:18

I mail them. We probably mail them maybe just twice a year. I probably should do that a little better too. It’s mostly phone conversation and talking.

Ren Jones15:27

Okay. But they know where to find you.

Jeanne Sommer15:30

Yes, they know where to find me.

Ren Jones15:32

Good. And you’re really touching a lot of… Do you do A, B and C or are they all getting equal calls?

Jeanne Sommer15:37

Oh no. Well, I’d like to say they all get equal calls, but you have your favorites and then if you find the rainmakers-

Ren Jones15:43

Well, there is an A list somewhere.

Jeanne Sommer15:44

There is an A list.

Ren Jones15:46

Consciously or unconsciously.

Jeanne Sommer15:48

… And if you find the rainmakers, the one that you’re going to do a great job for both clients and one client probably would never refer you. Not because they just wouldn’t talk to me, they’re just shy. The introverts, you find that person that’s going to give you the referrals, the rainmaker and that person I’m calling more.

Ren Jones16:05

In a situation where there’s two of them, husband, wife, whatever it may be. Are you calling talking to both or you just pick one?

Jeanne Sommer16:13

Yeah, because my husband and I could be in the same house and we don’t even know what the other one’s doing. Same office. We work on the same office. He on one side. I’m on another it. Yeah, you need to call them both.

Ren Jones16:23

Okay. So you’re calling them both. Good point to make. Perfect. Good. Wonderful. Well this has been very helpful information. Anything else you would want to say? You’re looking at someone out there, they’re struggling to take one listing a month or two listings a month. What would you tell them?

Jeanne Sommer16:41

I would just say take baby steps. Look at all the successes. Stop by a for sale by… You are going to mess up. I mean even I… You’re going to fumble, maybe you’re not having a good day or whatever. Just go out there and keep trying. Keep going out there. Knock on the for sale by owner. And if you really come from a place that where I really want to help you. I want to help you sell this house and they need to sell the house. You have a motivated person. It’s all going to work out.

17:10The other thing I would like to tell new agents is that get involved. In clubs, in events, your chamber of commerce. Get involved with things like that. Make a list, be seen and ask people. Make sure that when you do meet somebody that they know you’re in real estate. That you’re not like a secret agent.

Carley Hathaway17:35

That’s a really good point. I think we forget to talk about that. Is that working your community or going to mixers or things like that can be really helpful.

Jeanne Sommer17:44

It can because they get to know you and especially if you know the market, you ask them where do they… because I’ll be out and about and I’ll say, “Hey, where do you live?” And they’ll say, “This neighborhood.” I’m like, “Oh.” And they’re like, “Why do you ask?” “Well, because I’m in real estate and I know that a house just sold down the street from you.” So then you come the expert and then they’re, who are they going to call? They’ll call you when they-

Carley Hathaway18:06

Yep, definitely. Yep.

Ren Jones18:07

Perfect. I like how you were talking about coming from contribution if, because people can feel that, whether you say it explicitly or not, they can tell if you’re coming in from to help them in some way. They feel that.

Jeanne Sommer18:19

Right.

Carley Hathaway18:19

Yeah.

Jeanne Sommer18:20

And even if you have nothing to gain. I mean, it doesn’t matter if you have anything to gain or not. If you help people, it’s all going to come back to you.

Ren Jones18:28

Yeah. Everything works really well if that’s your approach to sales.

Jeanne Sommer18:33

Yes.

Ren Jones18:33

That’s for darn good deal. This has been a real treat it. It’s been wonderful, Jeanne, and I’m glad.

Jeanne Sommer18:41

Thanks Ren. Thanks for having me.

Ren Jones18:42

Good to-

Carley Hathaway18:43

Yeah.

18:45Thank you so much. It’s been really great and I think we all have some great takeaways from your interview, so thank you so much.

Jeanne Sommer18:51

Thanks, Carley. Thank you.

Ren Jones18:53

Good deal, thanks.

Jeanne Sommer18:55

Yeah, well thank you.

Carley Hathaway18:56

Thank you.

Jeanne Sommer18:56

All right.

Ren Jones18:56

Thanks Jeanne.

Jeanne Sommer18:56

Bye.

Ren Jones19:03

We’re going to take a little commercial message. If you’re watching on Vulcan7 and you want to get involved with the Lead Gen Facebook group, they can be found at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And I want to thank Aaron Wittenstein who runs the group, and he has a program called trajectorynow.com.

19:24And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you are not yet involved with Vulcan7, make sure to sign up at vulcan7.com/leadgen for a special deal.

19:34And then many of you have asked, what is Jeanne not telling us? What is her real secret? Well, just like most of you in North America, you can go and find Graeter’s mint chocolate chip. This is the one for listings. You want the delicious mint chocolate chip. The other flavors are for working with buyers. And we’ve proven that over and over. If you are a listing agent, if you’re a powerful listing agent, you’re going to go, after you’ve done your calls, you’ve talked to your 20, 30, 40 people for the day, you’re going to get the mint chocolate chip and enjoy the day. And that gives you the power you need to list property. If the listing is slow to sell, go out in the front yard, dig a hole in the ground, bury it upside down, and that listing will sell just like that. All true Carley.

Carley Hathaway20:18

Yes.

Ren Jones20:18

Now Carley’s discovered that ice cream works.

Carley Hathaway20:22

I finally discovered it.

Ren Jones20:24

I know this is a big month for you. How much are you making in commissions this month?

Carley Hathaway20:27

$40,000.

Ren Jones20:28

$40,000. Got to love it. Got to love 40K in a month. That’s not a bad month.

Carley Hathaway20:35

Best one I’ve ever had. So happy.

Ren Jones20:37

Are you going to do that next month?

Carley Hathaway20:39

Absolutely. And every month hereafter

Ren Jones20:42

Good. We’ll get your spoon out and for the rest of you, go to graeters.com to find a location near you in North America.

20:50See you everybody next week.

20:50