S5 E19: Season 5 Highlights Show!

Ren (00:07):
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 two, three, four listings. And this is the highlights show, season five highlights.

Sarah (00:24):
That’s right. The cliff notes version of all the good ones.

Ren (00:26):
I know. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle.

Sarah (00:32):
Copycat principle.

Ren (00:35):
I want to remind everybody, we’re simulcasting the show also on the private Lead Gen Facebook Group. They have over 52,000 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 me introduce my co-host all the way from right here in town, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Sarah (00:55):
Right down the street.

Ren (00:56):
Sarah Close is back. She is, as you’ve seen her on some of the other highlight shows, you have several Keller Williams offices in town. How many agents total? Where are you at?

Sarah (01:07):
We’re just about 550 right now.

Ren (01:10):
550 right now. Okay, good. And then you run a team.

Sarah (01:13):
We do.

Ren (01:14):
And what’s the goal for sales for your team?

Sarah (01:16):
The goal for sales is 200. We’ll be on track by the end of the quarter.

Ren (01:21):
Good. Good deal, but that’s fantastic. And every day. Headset on, calling expireds for sale, bonus, every day.

Sarah (01:30):
You know where to find me.

Ren (01:31):
Yeah. And you’ve been doing that for a long time.

Sarah (01:33):
A very long time. And what most people don’t know is she was the very first Vulcan7 customer back in 2011.

(01:40):
The guinea pig.

Ren (01:40):
And she said, “I think I like this.”

Sarah (01:44):
I think it works. It’s good stuff.

Ren (01:45):
Great. So we’re going to go around North America and-

Sarah (01:49):
Okay. Where are we starting?

Ren (01:50):
We are going to start, let’s go to a resort spot.

Sarah (01:55):
That sounds good.

Ren (01:55):
How about St. George, Utah.

Sarah (01:55):
All right.

Ren (01:55):
We’re going to see Mr. John and his son, Chase Ames. They run a big team, sell 350 homes.

Sarah (02:02):
Wow.

Ren (02:03):
Take a look at this. This is all about, because we have 4th of July coming up if you’re watching this now, but Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas. People don’t know what to do as they’re approaching a holiday. This is some of the strategy.

Sarah (02:16):
Oh, that’ll be great. Terrific. Let’s see what we got.

John Ames (02:22):
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 the top of their mind and the thing they have to get done in their life, whatever reason.

(02:42):
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 (03:14):
And those are A clients. Those are, “I have to move and I have to move now.”

John Ames (03:18):
Yep. Best of the best. They have high motivation.

Ren (03:22):
And which ones are we paying attention to. We get hung up on the ones of a strategy for I’ll talk to you in three weeks, which we can do.

Sarah (03:31):
Sure. Sure.

Ren (03:32):
And there’s somebody there. We have to… What was that old expression that was, it was a little mantra you said before you made your calls? “They’re home, they’re happy and they really want to move.”

Sarah (03:42):
List with me.

Ren (03:43):
Yeah, right.

Sarah (03:43):
Exactly.

Ren (03:45):
They’re going to be happy and they really want to move when you call them.

Sarah (03:47):
Right, absolutely. And I think what he talks about that’s so interesting is the efficiency of that time that he’s using during a holiday break. You’re able to take those contacts that you might have had several hours to get before and compress it into a much shorter time, because more people are picking up the phone.

Ren (04:04):
That’s it.

Sarah (04:05):
It’s great.

Ren (04:05):
They are. A lot more are picking up the phone. They’re not in their normal routine.

Sarah (04:09):
Right.

Ren (04:09):
And it’s fantastic.

Sarah (04:11):
They don’t expect you to be calling.

Ren (04:12):
And there’s less competition going on.

Sarah (04:14):
That’s right.

Ren (04:16):
I mean, second week of December, try to find a real estate agent. First week of July, try to find a real estate agent.

Sarah (04:24):
Right. Good point.

Ren (04:24):
So yeah, it’s fish in a barrel.

Sarah (04:24):
Yeah. Make the playing field in your favor.

Ren (04:26):
Fish in a barrel.

Sarah (04:27):
All right.

Ren (04:27):
We’re going to go closer to home.

Sarah (04:29):
Okay.

Ren (04:29):
Couple states over.

Sarah (04:30):
All right.

Ren (04:30):
In beautiful Peoria, Illinois.

Sarah (04:32):
Very exciting.

Ren (04:33):
I knew this guy when he only sold 300 homes a year.

Sarah (04:36):
Only sold 300 homes a year, yeah. Just as a mere boy.

Ren (04:41):
And he’s way up here. Mr. Adam Merrick.

Sarah (04:42):
Very cool.

Adam Merrick (04:45):
What we bring to the table, or one thing that I brought to the table early on in my career was the Midwestern work ethic. And it comes down, in real estate I see a lot of brokers looking for the flash and what’s fun, and I call it “sexy”. Success sometimes in this business isn’t sexy or fun and you kind of have to roll up your sleeves and get right down to just doing some work. Drive and desire has taken me a long way in my career, and when it comes to prospecting, that’s exactly what it is. And you have to find a way to make it fun, set goals, crush those goals, keep daily records and weekly summaries and work really hard to improve your skill set every single day.

Ren (05:32):
What you got to do. You do it on the days you don’t feel like it.

Sarah (05:35):
Absolutely. Well, and he’s talking about competing with himself. So he is giving himself, he is gamifying the prospecting process and it keeps that repetitious boredom, it kind of harnesses that for the good guys.

Ren (05:47):
It is, and it’s such a challenge. We’re going to, a couple of the people we’re going to have on here surround themselves with additional accountability. Adam has one of those personalities that he can discipline himself to come in and do it on the days he doesn’t feel like it. Which is why-

Sarah (06:02):
Why he has the results that he has.

Ren (06:04):
… he has money to burn.

Sarah (06:05):
Right.

Ren (06:07):
He’s super successful. And so that theme, in fact, let’s listen to his morning routine.

Sarah (06:12):
Okay. Terrific.

Ren (06:13):
Here’s how he starts the day.

Adam Merrick (06:17):
It’s going to come down to the daily discipline. Having a set schedule. If you’re going to be a prospecting-based agent, you can’t do it every once in a while. You can’t catch a fish on the couch if you will. You have to get into the office at the same time every day. You need to start your prospecting at the same time every day and stop at the same time every single day and make that a staple in your business. The moment I did that in my real estate career, everything changed for me. When I took my-

Ren (06:47):
IS prospecting the first thing or do you do it in the afternoon when you can fit it in? Where do you do it?

Adam Merrick (06:50):
It’s the first thing you do every day. It’s the first thing you do every day.

Ren (06:53):
Is it an early, do you work an early day or you come in at 10?

Adam Merrick (06:57):
No, no, no. I was always the agent that turned the coffee pot on in my office.

Sarah (07:04):
No real secret while he is having the success he’s having.

Ren (07:06):
Yeah. It has to be. Think how many agents… Oh, I spend too much time thinking about this. How many agents start their day at 10:00 AM? Most of them.

Sarah (07:15):
Yeah. Third hour of the morning show.

Ren (07:16):
Most of them. And I know how it happens is they start at 8:00, 8:30 and then they get involved and they have a contract with a midnight deadline and then the next day’s morning shot.

Sarah (07:26):
Well it’s getting to bed and setting your evening routine in such a manner that it can support your morning routine, otherwise it’s a vicious cycle.

Ren (07:33):
Yeah. You’ve got to find a way to be the early in this business.

Sarah (07:36):
Absolutely.

Ren (07:37):
If you’re a lead-generating type real estate agent.

Sarah (07:40):
Right. Absolutely.

Ren (07:40):
Which are the one making a lot of money and have the time to enjoy it.

Sarah (07:43):
Yep. You got it.

Ren (07:46):
And you look at somebody like Adam and he’s been in the business 8, 9, 10 years. However, we have several people that have been in the business a year and a half, two years on this show that are making just under a million dollars.

Sarah (07:57):
That’s awesome.

Ren (07:57):
Here’s one of them. He was a school teacher-

Sarah (08:00):
Oh wow.

Ren (08:02):
… a couple years ago.

Sarah (08:03):
That’s a pay raise.

Ren (08:04):
About three years ago, he was a school teacher. Now he’s on track for 200 transactions, which is just under a million dollars. 900 and some thousand dollars in that DC/Maryland area.

Sarah (08:15):
Very cool.

Ren (08:16):
Mr. Brad Kiger.

Sarah (08:22):
All right, let’s see what we got.

Brad Kiger (08:23):
My day was pretty much lead generating and if I went out on an appointment, I’d be lead generating and some of my first listings I would go on. I remember I went on a for sale by owner appointment and didn’t get the listing, but I went out and I door knocked the neighborhood after I finished the appointment and ended up signing a listing. I took the paperwork from the listing that I was trying to get and went out in my car and grabbed it. I said, “Hey, are you looking to sell?” And she said, “Yeah, I’m looking to sell.” And I said, “When?” She said, “Now.” I said, “Great. I have the paperwork in my car.” So I went and grabbed it and we sold it and I sold it in two weeks.

Sarah (08:56):
That’s awesome.

Ren (08:57):
Agents getting their own way.

Sarah (08:58):
Yeah.

Ren (08:58):
They’re not ready. If somebody says, “I want to list my house.” And I go, “Well let’s put you on the calendar for next week.”

Sarah (09:04):
Right. That’s not script.

Ren (09:05):
And I’ve got some homework… No, you have to say, “I’ve got contracts with me.”

Sarah (09:08):
Right.

Ren (09:09):
Everybody carries contracts with them or-

Sarah (09:11):
Easy to do now.

Ren (09:13):
… you make sure that starting tomorrow you always have… Carry a laptop with you. Always be ready to sign a contract.

Sarah (09:21):
Absolutely.

Ren (09:21):
Yeah. Because here he’s door knocking after he goes on a FSBO appointment and-

Sarah (09:23):
And he gets it.

Ren (09:26):
… And he goes, “Well yeah, okay, we’ll do it.”

Sarah (09:28):
That’s great.

Ren (09:29):
So see what you can do. Carry it. Be ready in that way.

Sarah (09:31):
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Ren (09:33):
Be ready in that way. Yeah, he’s having a lot of fun.

Sarah (09:36):
That’s really neat.

Ren (09:36):
A little more money than teaching.

Sarah (09:38):
That’s good. Unfortunate that that’s how our pay structures set up, but exciting now that he’s in real estate.

Ren (09:44):
Right. We had several agents, Bernie was one of them, actually we have another agent who just moved to a new city, knows nobody there, zero, and is right out of the gate taking eight, 10 listings a month.

Sarah (09:59):
That’s awesome.

Ren (10:00):
Brand new scene. Now you have to do a little more homework.

Sarah (10:02):
Yep. Yes you do.

Ren (10:03):
Yeah. You got to make sure when they refer to a certain area of town you, you can’t say, “What?” So you got to do a little more homework.

Sarah (10:09):
You can’t sound like you’re brand new.

Ren (10:10):
Right. But you can sell hundred homes a year in a totally new town and this gal’s doing it. She was at one time at your company here in Cincinnati and is now in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sarah (10:23):
Yeah.

Ren (10:25):
Watch how she does it.

Sarah (10:26):
Let’s see what we got.

Ren (10:27):
Accountability.

Kim Ackerman (10:29):
What I do is every morning is that get into the office role-play first thing and then get on the phones. I’m in a Google Hangout group and I have seven people and a business associate of mine has eight in her group. We have to be on the phones by 8:30 in the morning and we prospect nonstop from 8:30 to 11:30.

Ren (10:50):
And who are you prospecting to?

Kim Ackerman (10:53):
Primarily to expireds and for sale by owners.

Ren (10:57):
And that seems to be working for you. It sounds like it’s working very, very well.

Kim Ackerman (11:01):
It does. And what was interesting is, in Cincinnati, 75% of my business came from my sphere of influence. Repeat customers, come list me kind of calls. So when I came to Atlanta, I don’t have a sphere of influence yet, so my only recourse was to get on the phones, call expireds.

Ren (11:22):
Is your-

Carley Hathaway (11:22):
I was going to say, you’re not going to have-

Ren (11:22):
Go ahead.

Carley Hathaway (11:27):
You’re not going to have much sphere of influence moving to a new town. You’re starting fresh all the way over, right?

Kim Ackerman (11:31):
That is correct. That is correct. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (11:34):
Okay. I like it. And so talk to me more about the Google Hangouts. How does that help you stay on the phones? How does it motivate you daily?

Kim Ackerman (11:43):
Well see, you start off because you chip in money for accountability, you chip in money and if you show up you cannot be five minutes late because then you get dinged $50, okay, and that’s just in one group. But anyway, if you don’t show up at all, you get fined even more. But it does make it fun because then you’re sitting there prospecting and I’ve got friends all across the US that are prospecting with me.

(12:10):
You can hear the different dialects. I mean we got people from New Jersey, so we’ve got them in California, we’ve got them all over the place. So yesterday I did something for the first time ever. I did what they call Money Mondays. So we started at 8:00 AM and we finished at 8:00 PM and our goal was to hit a hundred contacts.

Carley Hathaway (12:31):
Oh my gosh. And did you meet your goal?

Kim Ackerman (12:35):
I did not talk to a hundred people, but I talked to a lot. I talked-

Carley Hathaway (12:40):
Yeah?

Kim Ackerman (12:40):
Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (12:40):
Your voice sounds great considering all those calls.

Kim Ackerman (12:44):
Yeah, I’m-

Ren (12:46):
That’s because she’s rich, Carley. She’s rich.

Kim Ackerman (12:50):
No, but it’s enough. But we make, you know what the Google Hangouts does, it almost makes like a game of it. So you’re not just prospecting by yourself, you can actually hear the other people. You cannot put yourself on mute, you can’t be doing email, you cannot do admin, you cannot do buyer calls. It is strictly 100% prospecting for new business calls.

Ren (13:13):
So I’m going to get a lot of, we’re going to get a lot of people to say, “Well where can I find that?” Talk to Kim Ackerman in Atlanta. In fact, you can talk to our next guest who also does that very same thing.

Sarah (13:20):
The Google Hangouts?

Ren (13:21):
With a totally different group. There’s lots and lots and lots of these groups of accountability. And that will, I mean that will.

Sarah (13:30):
Hold your feet to the fire.

Ren (13:31):
It does.

Sarah (13:31):
Makes it a little easier to show up on time when someone’s waiting for you.

Ren (13:34):
It does. And when you’re on the listing side of the business and you do this, you can do anything you want. In fact, this next person over here in Chicago, she hopped on a plane to San Diego for the weekend and made her calls there. We see this a lot up this way where people go down to Florida for 4, 5, 6 days. They take a little time, set listing appointments, and then fly back.

Sarah (14:02):
Yeah. Those cell phones work anywhere.

Ren (14:03):
List the property. Yes.

Sarah (14:04):
It’s amazing.

Ren (14:04):
Yeah, they do. So it’s a very common practice in Kari Kohler from St. Charles, Chicago area can explain some of that right now.

Sarah (14:14):
All right. Very cool.

Kari Kohler (14:16):
I left Chicago to come to San Diego to prospect. I wanted to be in a place where I was motivated by the sun and the water.

Ren (14:23):
I like that. So you’re just going to be dialing for dollars on Saturday, huh?

Kari Kohler (14:27):
Dialing for dollars, dialing for dinner, probably.

Ren (14:30):
Dialing for dinner. Well you’ll have some fun. I’m excited for you. See, Kari can do that. She’s built up this huge business. What’s your goal for this year? Kari?

Kari Kohler (14:38):
900,000.

Ren (14:42):
900-

Kari Kohler (14:43):
112 transactions. Yes. Well, every day I am lucky enough to be on a Google Hangout with some awesome other agents that are just animals on the phone. And when I say animals, they’re very, very dedicated to it. They’re incredibly professional and I just get to listen to them prospect, so it’s almost like we’re in the same room. So we do that every day. Then I have a mastermind call with similar agents, similar quality agents on Tuesdays. And then of course I have my coaching call on Wednesdays so I cannot rest because I’ve got people riding me constantly.

Ren (15:17):
But you live a pretty balanced life. In other words, you make a lot of money and you have the time to enjoy it because you’re on the listing side of the business. Would that be a fair statement?

Kari Kohler (15:28):
That is. That’s a very accurate statement. My boys are really important to me. They’re 17 and 19 so they are doing their own thing, but as they were growing up, I was definitely able to be with them at their games and everything else because I was a listing agent and could control my time.

Ren (15:46):
Got to love the portability of the business.

Sarah (15:47):
Absolutely. Absolutely. She’s got her cell phone and her laptop and that’s really all you need.

Ren (15:52):
Yeah, she was standing right there in the San Diego airport.

Sarah (15:55):
That’s awesome.

Ren (15:56):
On her phone.

Sarah (15:58):
That’s great.

Ren (15:59):
It’s exciting.

Sarah (15:59):
It’s kind of nice to mix up the scenery a little bit too. A little inspiration. I love that. It can get kind of gray around here in the winter. I’ll keep that in mind.

Ren (16:06):
I know, I know.

Sarah (16:08):
I like it.

Ren (16:08):
You can do it.

Sarah (16:08):
I can do that.

Ren (16:09):
Yeah, there you go. You-

Sarah (16:10):
That’s very cool.

Ren (16:14):
… can do it from the, what do they call it? The equator. Galapeligo Island?

Sarah (16:17):
Galapagos.

Ren (16:17):
Galapagos. I knew you would know because you’d been there.

Sarah (16:20):
Yeah. Phone service was not great there, so maybe a little closer.

Ren (16:24):
Oh, okay. You can’t do it there.

Sarah (16:24):
But all good.

Ren (16:25):
Okay. All right. Maybe Costa Rica.

Sarah (16:28):
Yeah, that would work.

Ren (16:28):
That would work. Good.

Sarah (16:28):
Who do we got next?

Ren (16:30):
Our next one, we’re going to go up around DC, Maryland.

Sarah (16:31):
Okay.

Ren (16:31):
And she became a customer recently and decided she was going to do luxury. She had done some lower ones and now she decided, “I’m going to just jump into luxury.”

Sarah (16:45):
Why not? Make more.

Ren (16:46):
And she did and it’s pretty interesting. Let’s take a look.

Sarah (16:50):
Okay, terrific.

Toni Gage (16:53):
I think the least expensive home I sold this year was 780.

Carley Hathaway (16:57):
Nice. Good for you.

Toni Gage (16:59):
But the average, now my listings, I have a 4 million, a 1.6, I’m getting a 1.4. These are all expireds. I sold a 1.2 and that was an expired also.

Ren (17:13):
Can be done. And she talks about in that if you guys watch the full show, she talks about her morning routine. She has a two-hour long morning routine that has exercise and inspirational audio and video and-

Sarah (17:28):
Get in the right head space to get it done.

Ren (17:29):
Right. So that you can do this because mindset is a big piece. Almost everybody that we’ve interviewed is all about the mindset piece-

Sarah (17:37):
Right.

Ren (17:37):
… because that is what-

Sarah (17:38):
That’s where it starts.

Ren (17:39):
That’s what takes you out of the game sometimes.

Sarah (17:40):
Yeah, absolutely.

Ren (17:41):
And you don’t want it to, so here’s a little piece of her morning routine.

Sarah (17:44):
Okay, terrific.

Ren (17:45):
It’s just one part of it.

Toni Gage (17:47):
So I go to the gym for 30 or 45 minutes, elliptical or treadmill. And that gives you, that’s the mental advantage that I have over every other agent here that’s exhausted, hates calling. That’s the only way I can pick up the phone and get rejected about 30 times without killing myself.

Sarah (18:09):
That’s awesome. Well she was really purposeful about raising her price point and just said, “This is what we’re going to go after.”

Ren (18:16):
Yeah. So folks, can you go get a 1.2 and a 2.1, a 3.4? Yes.

Sarah (18:22):
Yes you can.

Ren (18:25):
Expireds. Yes you can. Well-

Sarah (18:25):
It’s been done before.

Ren (18:25):
Yeah. Unless they don’t have them in your market. But-

Sarah (18:26):
That’s all good.

Ren (18:27):
… we have five here now.

Sarah (18:28):
Yeah, that’s all good.

Ren (18:30):
So we’re going to go back to one of our favorite people. He talks about, Bernie Gallerani down in Nashville. He was one of those people when he moved to Nashville, he sold 49 homes his first year. He knew no one there. He had come from Nevada. He only knew one person and he couldn’t speak the language.

Sarah (18:49):
Yeah, that’s right.

Ren (18:50):
Southern.

Sarah (18:50):
It’s its own thing.

Ren (18:54):
I know. And he’s done very, very well, but he’s very driven. And he says, I think he thinks a lot of us are soft and we need to just get in there and make it happen.

Sarah (19:04):
Have a little grit.

Ren (19:04):
And take a look at his view.

Bernie Gallerani (19:07):
I said this to you when we did one of your other shows one time, and I said, “Success is not convenient.” And what happens is people get into our business or probably any business in general and they go in there and they say, “Well this just didn’t work out for me.” It’s like you can’t expect success to jump into your calendar and just show up.

(19:28):
Success isn’t going, I only want to drive five minutes to work every day. I want to be home by four o’clock. I don’t want to go to work till nine o’clock. I don’t really want to speak to that many people. Success just doesn’t show up that way. You got to go outside the box. You got to do all the things you don’t want do. You got to be uncomfortable because if you aren’t successful and you want to become successful, you have to change your behaviors.

(19:53):
You have to feel uncomfortable, you have to be uncomfortable. You have to fail forward. And that’s always the challenge with people in this business. The realtors especially because they get into business as independent contractors and they just don’t want to work. The problem is not… They just don’t want to work. And it’s like if you learn to work, Mike Ferry says this all the time. If you just learn to work…

Sarah (20:21):
What do you really think, Bernie? The guy’s got a point and I think that happens. I do think that as an industry, we have given a perception to our customers and clients historically that this is a joyful, happy, we’re driving around in nice cars, we’re wearing nice clothes, we’re looking at nice houses and they don’t see the other side. And then when someone comes into the business and all that there is the other side it can be a rude awakening.

Ren (20:47):
Would it be it fair to say that one of the biggest enemies for people that come into our business is they have to be their own boss?

Sarah (20:54):
Yeah. It really can be. Not everybody should be their own boss. And without accountability or a coach or a peer group or a Google Hangout or something to help you create that scaffolding, it can be really difficult to be your own boss.

Ren (21:06):
Yeah. A hundred percent of these people. And almost everybody who’s successful has some sort of a coach. And if you investigate it, you find that they’re all over the spectrum. We have a lot in a couple categories of the same coaching organizations.

Sarah (21:19):
Right. But the really high performers don’t do it alone.

Ren (21:24):
They don’t.

Sarah (21:24):
No.

Ren (21:26):
And they add to that coaching, the additional daily accountability with Google Hangout groups.

Sarah (21:32):
Exactly.

Ren (21:33):
But we’re going to go over here to Valparaiso, Indiana.

Sarah (21:36):
All right.

Ren (21:36):
And visit with-

Sarah (21:37):
Booming metropolis.

Ren (21:38):
Yes. And she’s in coaching.

Sarah (21:40):
All right.

Ren (21:40):
Jeanne Sommer.

Sarah (21:41):
Okay.

Jeanne Sommer (21:43):
Well I keep my goals in front of me and I break them down. Not just yearly, but how man, 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. Really just good stuff and because it is easy to get off track and I do get off. 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.

Carley Hathaway (22:16):
That’s great.

Jeanne Sommer (22:18):
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, you’re going to have to get you prepared. Sometimes, my calls are on Thursday, sometimes I’m working really hard on Tuesday and Wednesdays.

Sarah (22:40):
That’s funny. Makes sense.

Ren (22:46):
That’s it. We just have to have that accountability in so many ways.

Sarah (22:47):
And she knows exactly where she’s focusing. You noticed she said that all she’s really thinking about is how many listings she needs to take in her market to hit her goal.

Ren (22:54):
Well having an exact business plan and then tracking your numbers and looking at where you are relative to your annual business plan is a high form of accountability.

Sarah (23:06):
Right. And when you look at these marketplaces like Jeanne’s in Valparaiso, which is a very small market area, and then you look at Bernie in somewhere like in Nashville, it’s all the same principles.

Ren (23:15):
Yeah.

Sarah (23:15):
None of these themes are geographically specific.

Ren (23:22):
Yeah. The script for a 4 million house is exactly the same-

Sarah (23:23):
Is exactly the same.

Ren (23:23):
… as the 120,000 house.

Sarah (23:24):
Right. Just has a few more zeros when the check comes in.

Ren (23:24):
And the people act the same way. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a little happier day.

Sarah (23:24):
Absolutely. Where are we going now?

Ren (23:24):
We’re going to go over to the Chicago area. Orland Park. You were there. We took a trip from here, Cincinnati to Chicago. And you took several of your agents.

Sarah (23:42):
This guy’s amazing.

Ren (23:42):
Or were they on your team?

Sarah (23:42):
No, it’s all agents, all team leads.

Ren (23:43):
Agents from your office and shadowed this guy.

Sarah (23:50):
This guy’s amazing.

Ren (23:51):
Spent some time with Ron Wexler too.

Sarah (23:53):
Mm-hmm.

Ren (23:53):
Looked at how they were set up and we shadowed this guy and here’s the point. You have a, a listing expires. 25, 30 agents call, yet the same three or four or five agents meet with them.

Sarah (24:08):
Right.

Ren (24:09):
So it’s puzzling what the difference is, especially if they’re using the same script.

Sarah (24:13):
Exactly.

Ren (24:14):
Here’s the answer.

Sarah (24:15):
Right.

James Mattz (24:16):
See people don’t smile enough. You got to smile a lot. Particularly when you’re talking and you’re making a point with them and then you get to the thing you want them to do and you’re smiling and that kind of thing and so forth. Those are the small things that really make a difference because at the end of the day, people do business with people that they can trust.

Ren (24:37):
Interesting is, you’ll sit there and you’ll call a handful of numbers and you’ll get through and have a conversation with them. While there are people, are regular people will call that same list and get a goose egg.

James Mattz (24:48):
And get nothing.

Ren (24:49):
Every day they’ll get a goose egg.

James Mattz (24:50):
Yes.

Ren (24:51):
So what are the little things that you’re-

James Mattz (24:53):
Well, the-

Ren (24:55):
The things that get you through that the other ones don’t get through?

James Mattz (24:58):
The difference is in my voice inflection. And a lot of people are robotic with the scripts. “Hi, my name is John Doe and I see that your home came off the market. When do you plan on interviewing the right agent?” And when you get that script from several people, it’s like click, click, kind of thing.

Sarah (25:23):
He set four appointments while we were there. Four.

Ren (25:25):
Four!

Sarah (25:27):
Yeah. For real, with all these people around.

Ren (25:28):
They sat there and they watched him set four appointments.

Sarah (25:32):
Yeah. He’s amazing.

Ren (25:35):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s a treat.

Sarah (25:35):
And he’s very dynamic on the phone. It’s very conversational with him. You feel like you’re talking to a friend and he’s talking to people he just…

Ren (25:42):
Folks.

Sarah (25:42):
… knew for three minutes.

Ren (25:44):
You can fly nonstop to his town from anywhere in North America. Go shadow him.

Sarah (25:49):
Yeah. It was a great day.

Ren (25:51):
We’re going to have some fun. We’re going to go to Bend, Oregon.

Sarah (25:55):
Okay.

Ren (25:55):
Redmond, Oregon. Bend. Oregon.

Sarah (25:57):
Beautiful.

Ren (25:58):
Ah, it is a beautiful area. I went out there and spent some time there with them a long time ago. But he did, and you’re going to want to watch this folks. It was season five, episode 16. You’re going to want watch it. He does about eight or 10 role plays of specific scripts stumbling blocks. Carley was role playing with him because everything she’s getting stuck on in her making her calls in San Diego, she threw at Tim and he handled them. So this is just one sample. Go watch all of them.

Sarah (26:31):
Oh, that’ll be great.

Ren (26:31):
Here it is.

Tim Davis (26:33):
Do you have any time this week or next week to get together?

Carley Hathaway (26:36):
Yeah, I’m looking though, would you do 1% commission?

Tim Davis (26:40):
1% commission? Be hard to sell it at 1% for you because you want to net the most money, correct?

Carley Hathaway (26:46):
Yeah, yeah.

Tim Davis (26:47):
Yeah. And you want to get all the agents working for you besides by yourself to help get that price. Okay? So let me show you how we can cover the fee. All right, and still net you the most compared to what you could do with your marketing. If it doesn’t work, you just tell me it doesn’t work. Does that sound good?

Carley Hathaway (27:07):
I guess that would work. Yeah, I guess I have nothing to lose.

Tim Davis (27:09):
Yeah, just a business decision. So what’s best for you? Morning or afternoon?

Carley Hathaway (27:16):
Morning.

Tim Davis (27:17):
All right. Morning. I’ll be there eight o’clock tomorrow. See you then.

Carley Hathaway (27:18):
Sounds good.

Ren (27:20):
Very conversational.

Sarah (27:21):
Very smooth.

Ren (27:22):
It reminds me of when, and this happens from time to time if they fly into Cincinnati to shadow you and they’re listening to a very conversational, sensible conversation. And then their business is forever changed. We call it the Vulcan7 challenge. Go shadow people.

Sarah (27:36):
Yeah.

Ren (27:37):
Go shadow James Mattz. Go shadow anybody that’s on here. They’ll all say yes.

Sarah (27:43):
They will.

Ren (27:44):
Unless they’re in their market.

Sarah (27:45):
Well, and it makes, frankly, the agent’s going to have a great day because they are on.

Ren (27:49):
Yeah. And it’s a great day-

Sarah (27:49):
It’s showtime for them.

Ren (27:51):
… for a shadow. So can’t miss.

Sarah (27:53):
Yeah.

Ren (27:53):
Everybody wins.

(27:54):
Yeah. Fly in, shadow them and forever change your life. They all have Vulcan7 challenges. Do that once a month and at the end of a year you have 12 great friends who are making a million dollars a year and you become one of them very quickly. Very quickly.

Sarah (28:11):
Absolutely.

Ren (28:12):
So make your coffee at home, save that money and spend $800 a month to go do that.

Sarah (28:18):
Yeah.

Ren (28:19):
Okay, last one.

Sarah (28:20):
All right.

Ren (28:21):
This is fun. She’s in a very competitive market with a lot of top players and she’s starting her second year, she was with Brand X and was calling expireds with Brand X and then she switched and she’s like, “Whoa.” She’s now taking two or three listings a week, two or three listings a week in her second year in business, second year in business. She demonstrates very well a way of approaching someone and using the permission question to see, “Would you be okay If asked you a couple of questions?”

Sarah (28:59):
Getting that buy-in up front.

Ren (29:00):
Yes. Watch.

Katie Englar (29:02):
The biggest thing is not for us to figure out how we can help you. That we sort of already know, at least an overarching view before I even get to your personal situation. But it’s getting to be able to have that part of the conversation. So how I handle it is just, “I just have a couple of questions for you. If right now is not a good time, I totally respect that, but if you do have a few minutes, I just needed a little bit of clarification,” and go from there and that’s what that conversation sort of looks like. I feel like some people are very non-respectful and pushy past that comfort zone. And you’re not going to build the trust if you can’t respect them in the first five minutes of the conversation.

Sarah (29:47):
That’s a great point.

Ren (29:48):
Katie Englar. Yes.

Sarah (29:50):
That was a great point.

Ren (29:52):
And this is all so new to her so yeah, so her people skills are right high out of the gate.

Sarah (29:57):
Yeah. Say common sense should not is-

Ren (29:59):
Yeah.

Sarah (30:00):
It’s not common, but that is an excellent point.

Ren (30:03):
So is that point. Common sense is not that common. It’s a challenge out there and to get smooth in conversation.

Sarah (30:10):
Right.

Ren (30:12):
And a hundred percent of us can go watch somebody do it-

Sarah (30:17):
Yeah. Sure.

Ren (30:17):
… and emulate that. And I would-

Sarah (30:17):
Just a little nuance pick here and there.

Ren (30:18):
And take your cell phone and download an app and record. Lay it down, record them making calls for four hours and then play it every day for the next year.

Sarah (30:28):
Yeah. You’ll hear different things every time.

Ren (30:30):
You’ll be just like that and rich.

Sarah (30:34):
Who doesn’t want to be rich?

Ren (30:35):
Yeah. And like Kari Kohler, standing in the San Diego airport, you go anywhere you want make your calls in the cold weather. Go to the warm weather. So I want to thank Aaron Weinstein, who simulcasts this show as well on Facebook. His group is called Lead Gen Scripts and Objections. It’s at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And he has a program called trajectorynow.com. Told him I would mention that. And then if you’re watching on that group and you’re not involved with Vulcan7, go to vulcan7.com/leadgen for a special deal. And then most important, I told her I was going to have her… I’m getting the look.

Sarah (31:21):
You’re getting the look.

Ren (31:24):
The secret that everybody has out there. The secret to listing property, what makes them powerful? Is it the accountability? Is it the coaching? Is it the conversational, is it role playing? It is shadowing? It’s all those things, but there’s one that stands alone as the highest and best thing you could do. And they go online to graders.com and they look where they can get locally. And you can right there in one of your stores in your town, you can get delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip. This is the one for listeners. What are the flavors for working with buyers?

Sarah (31:58):
That’s probably Rocky Road.

Ren (31:59):
Right. Yeah. Or yeah, it could be. Or if you’re really awful, you’re doing Cherry Garcia from another one.

Sarah (32:10):
You are so bad.

Ren (32:12):
And then if the listing is slow to sell, you dig a hole in the front yard and bury it upside down and that listing will sell just like that.

Sarah (32:20):
Yeah. St. Joseph’s in a quart size.

Ren (32:21):
That’s it. St. Joseph’s in a quart size. Thanks for being here. Next week we’ll have somebody on season six-

Sarah (32:29):
All right.

Ren (32:30):
… who’s taking 2, 3, 4 listings a week. Thanks for being here, folks.

Sarah (32:32):
Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me.

Ren (32:35):
Thanks for being here.