How Timothy Gohl works backward from a $300,000 goal to 16 contacts a day

Timothy Gohl00:00

When I first made the decision to make phone calls in order to generate business, of course, I had a little bit of fear. And since I’ve started using Vulcan7 for my daily phone calls and participating in the pre-game show, Take 52, what I’ve learned is the general consensus is that that’s the majority of the reason why most agents don’t pick up the phone is because of fear.

00:28And what I’ve learned is that what really pushed me through that is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. So I dove in. Yes, I did have that level of fear, but I just figured the only way to push through that is to dive in. What I did was I got in contact with other agents that were already seasoned with phone calls.

00:53Because one of the biggest things in making those phone calls is handling those objections. We wanna be good at, at least, prolonging that conversation when you do get those objections. So there was work done behind the scenes in order to get to that comfort level and to build those skills.

01:09And consistency is what really is gonna set you apart as well, right, from the next agent or the many agents that are making those daily phone calls.

Aaron Wittenstein01:41

What’s going on everybody? It’s me, it’s Aaron Wittenstein, and I’d like to welcome you all to Vulcan7 Roadmap. That’s right, we teach you agents across the country how to take two, three, four, five listings a week, and we have amazing agents across the country that we speak with on the regular basis, like my friend here, we’ve been chatting up a little bit, Timothy Gohl out of Plymouth, Michigan.

02:00Hello my friend. How you doing today?

Timothy Gohl02:03

Hey, Aaron. I’m doing great, thank you. How you doing?

Aaron Wittenstein02:05

I’m doing pretty good, for all intents and purposes. I never knew it was pronounced that way, by the way. For all intents and purposes, I’m doing pretty darn good. So, talk to me. What’s new and exciting?

02:14I hear you just got back from a trip.

Timothy Gohl02:16

I did, yeah. So we were pretty fortunate to be able to enjoy Hawaii over the last couple weeks.

Aaron Wittenstein02:24

See, that’s nice. Like I was telling you, that’s where I wanna go with the kids when they’re older, right?

Timothy Gohl02:29

Right. Yeah. Yeah, all that traveling to get there, or at least from Michigan, right?

02:36Yeah. So, but yeah, that’s definitely something that you’d want.

Aaron Wittenstein02:39

No, that’s excellent, man. Well, welcome back. I’m happy to have you on here, hang out with us for a little bit. So…

Timothy Gohl02:44

Yeah, it’s great to be on here. Thank you.

Aaron Wittenstein02:46

Oh, you’re very welcome. You’re very welcome. So I know we were chatting a little bit before we popped on here, and the one thing that grabbed me is you mentioned about the fear of the phone, okay?

02:58Would you do me a favor? Would you elaborate on that for me for a little bit?

Timothy Gohl03:01

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So when I first made the decision to make phone calls in order to generate business, of course I had a little bit of that fear. And since I’ve started using Vulcan7 for my daily phone calls and participating in the pregame show, Take 52, what I’ve learned is the general consensus is that that’s the majority of the reason why most agents don’t pick up the phone is because of fear.

03:32And what I’ve learned is that what really pushed me through that is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Aaron Wittenstein03:41

Yeah, definitely. ‘Cause it’s, how can I put this? Is that you’re here, right? And you wanna get to here. What’s the only way to make that happen, my friend? It’s a push, right?

Timothy Gohl03:54

The push.

03:54It’s just a… Yes, absolutely.

Aaron Wittenstein03:55

So at what point, were you scared of the phone at some point, or were you just a natural, just dive in, call it a day?

Timothy Gohl04:03

So I dove in. However, yes, I did have that level of fear. But I just figured the only way to push through that is to dive in.

Aaron Wittenstein04:12

Okay.

04:12So you got a new agent that’s coming in that has just signed up for Vulcan and they’re ready to get going. Now, when you say dive in, what does that mean exactly? What does that look like to you? Or, I should say, how did you do it?

Timothy Gohl04:22

Well, obviously you gotta prepare a little bit, right?

04:25So what I did was I got in contact with other agents that were already seasoned with phone calls. Because one of the biggest things in making those phone calls is handling those objections, right? So if you hesitate at all, the other person on the phone is not gonna probably wanna stay on the phone with you, and that’s the main thing, is we wanna be good at, at least, prolonging that conversation when you do get those objections.

04:59So, obviously there was a lot of work done behind the scenes in order to get to that comfort level and to build those skills, but that’s definitely repaid back with more conversations, being in front of more people, and the more you become confident, it’s repaid with increase in those skills.

Aaron Wittenstein05:22

All right. So we all start off, like I was, here, right? You start off here and you slowly and slowly and slowly and slowly, and eventually you get to average. You don’t have to be the best, you know what I mean? You just have to be the most consistent.

05:35Would you agree with me on that?

Timothy Gohl05:36

Absolutely. And consistency is what really is gonna set you apart as well, right? From the next agent or the many agents that are making those daily phone calls. ‘Cause if there is no consistency, all of that other things that we mentioned doesn’t really apply, right?

Aaron Wittenstein05:55

100%. So what does your consistency look like on a daily basis?

Timothy Gohl06:00

So I look at it as much as how many contacts per week. I start with the broad picture of how many contacts I wanna make in a year, and I work backwards. So as long as I’m putting in how much time it’s gonna take per week to get those contacts, depending on what else I have on my schedule, I’m looking at anywhere from four to six days per week prospecting on the phone.

Aaron Wittenstein06:25

Okay. So let me just get this straight. You go back, like you say, “I need to get this many contacts for a year,” is that correct?

Timothy Gohl06:32

Correct.

Aaron Wittenstein06:34

Interesting. I’ve been doing this a long time, I’ve never heard that before. So what is your goal, so for this year, how many contacts did you need to make this year to…

06:43You know, I know the year isn’t over yet, but to hit your goal.

Timothy Gohl06:47

Yeah. So my contact, for the entire year, is right around 4,500… 4,520 for the whole year.

Aaron Wittenstein06:58

Interesting. And so 4,520 for the year breaks down to how many per month? That’s what… I can’t do math in my head right now, so…

Timothy Gohl07:07

Yeah, here, let me break it down.

07:08I have all the…

Aaron Wittenstein07:09

Yeah, I think that would be… I like this.

Timothy Gohl07:10

Yeah. Yeah. I have everything on a spreadsheet, which I don’t have in front of me right now. But I could always bring it up.

Aaron Wittenstein07:19

Yeah, ’cause you got 4,520. You divide that by 12, that’s what…

Timothy Gohl07:24

So that works out to be right around 16 contacts per day

07:28is what I’m looking for. So the way I get those numbers is what I wanna make is… It really depends on the average per sale price as well, right?

Aaron Wittenstein07:36

Of course. Of course.

Timothy Gohl07:37

You know, per unit. So I start with a dollar figure of how much I wanna make for that year.

07:43And then that breaks down to an average of per unit.

07:49So, and my number is 300K for the year.

Aaron Wittenstein07:53

What’s your average price point over in Michigan?

Timothy Gohl07:55

In Southeast Michigan, since I’m in multiple counties in Southeast Michigan, it works out to be right around 250K per unit.

Aaron Wittenstein08:06

Got it, okay. So, it’s interesting because of the way that you’re backending it almost, where it’s like you have this big heavy-looking goal, but when you break it down, to be able to get 16 contacts a day to make over $300,000 commission, I think that’s pretty awesome, don’t you think?

Timothy Gohl08:24

Absolutely, ’cause when you look at that big number, at first it can be intimidating, right? But then when you start working the formula and working backwards and getting what you have to actually do every day, it doesn’t seem like that much, right? And I did say my contact goal is 16, but I always do more than 20 contacts a day.

Aaron Wittenstein08:42

Oh, wow, okay. So I’m just thinking here in my head because, like I say, I’m just gonna go back to that 16, ’cause I think that’s a magical number right there. And I would assume if you’re hitting 30, I mean, the market is a little bit different. You know what I mean? It’s not all what we probably

08:52expected it to be. All right. So you break it down to that. Now talk to me about what your typical prospecting… Let’s even break it down more granular then, okay? Let’s take it hour by hour. What is that prospecting, hour one, hour two, hour three? What does that look like?

Timothy Gohl09:07

Yep. Hour one, expireds.

09:11Then I move over to for sale by owners.

09:16Now, depending on what I have going on for the rest of the day, but if I’m satisfied with my contacts, I could stop there. If I’m not satisfied with how many contacts I made, obviously the lead follow-up is always there.

09:29But for new contacts, I’d like to expand on that, then I start on my sphere of influence and complete the amount of contacts I actually wanna make for that goal for the day.

Aaron Wittenstein09:41

Got it. Now, if you were to pick one, and you were only allowed to pick one type of source to call for the rest of your life, what source would that be?

Timothy Gohl09:52

I’d say expireds.

Aaron Wittenstein09:53

Expired, that’s my guy right there. I love me some good expireds. What objections right now are you seeing in the market, and how are you handling them? What are the big ones you’re seeing right now?

Timothy Gohl10:05

The biggest objections that we’re seeing is, “We’re gonna stay with the same agent.”

10:11The one that you just gave me, “We’re just gonna sit on it. We’re not gonna sell right now. We decided to wait.” That’s a big one.

10:21Those two are actually the biggest ones that I’ve noticed right now. I’m trying to think of one other one, or I remember hearing of maybe one other one or two other ones.

Aaron Wittenstein10:31

So when someone says they’re going to stay with the same agent, which I never understood. That one always blows my mind. It’s like, “Hey, they didn’t do a good job the first go around. What were they holding back on you for?” Right?

Timothy Gohl10:42

Yeah, exactly.

Aaron Wittenstein10:42

So what are you saying to those people?

Timothy Gohl10:44

What I ask them is that, obviously I confirm that I’m hearing them.

10:51You know, I can appreciate that you’d like to work with the same agent. However, let me ask you a question.

10:58What did that agent cover with you or tell you that they’re gonna do differently this time around to get your home sold?

11:05If they say, “Nothing,” then it’s like, well, maybe you should have another opinion.

11:10It can never hurt you to interview more than one agent, because it really comes down to that agent’s daily activities

11:18of what gets home sold.

Aaron Wittenstein11:19

Exactly. No, that makes sense, and what I would say is, doesn’t it make sense to have a second opinion to keep everybody honest?

11:26And that’s perfect. You know what I mean? Both ways are really good to go right that way. In your market right now, are you seeing a lot of people kind of freaking out because of interest rates? Are you handling that? Would you consider that a condition, an objection?

11:37You know, what’s your opinion on that?

Timothy Gohl11:40

Yes. We are hearing that, you know? And that can be a tough objection to work through, right? My opinion is that is more of a standard interest rate that we’re seeing right now, historically, right?

11:54Now lifestyle can really be a determining factor for somebody to actually make that move at that point.

12:01So kind of shift it to where, hey, let’s stop talking about numbers and interest rates and what is your real reason why you wanna move in the first place? Because obviously you did. If you were on the market just recently, you just expired this morning, what is that root reason of actually why you wanted to initially sell?

Aaron Wittenstein12:23

Sure. It all comes back to motivation, right?

Timothy Gohl12:24

Yes, sir.

Aaron Wittenstein12:25

Sorry, so let me ask you this. I love asking this question. You get a new agent, walks across your office, and they knock on your door and they’re like, “Timothy, give me one piece of advice that will change my life.”

12:38What is it? What’s one piece of advice that would change my business?

Timothy Gohl12:41

Be consistent in this business and it’ll definitely repay you not only of what you see as far as your income goals, however it repays you in your life as well in general. Lifestyle is a huge contributing factor of why I love this business.

Aaron Wittenstein13:02

So all right. So I wanna say thank you so much for being on here, my friend, and thank you. Like I said, working everything backwards from the top to the bottom, I think that’s so darn important. So, thank you very much, Timothy, for hanging out with us today. I really appreciate it.

13:18Hang out with me for one second. And everybody, we look forward to seeing you at the rest of Vulcan7 Roadmap. Take care.

Timothy Gohl13:23

Thank you, Aaron.

Aaron Wittenstein13:25

You’re welcome.