How to build a database overnight with hot sellers in 2015 even if you have been in real estate for 5 minutes

You could:

  • Cold call telemarketing
  • Door knock
  • In your street flyers
  • Just listed / sold flyers
  • Quarterly/monthly updates
  • Banner ads on REA
  • Referrals
  • Direct Mail
  • Facebook Ads
  • Google Pay Per Click PPC
  • Google Display Ads

Lets look at each of these prospecting strategies in more detail.

Cold Calling

Please burn your money or spend it getting drunk it’s much more fun.

Let’s see, this had a pretty good success rate in the 80s.

You know, before the Internet.

The other day having dinner at mum and dad, the phone was ringing and they just ignored it, I asked why? “Oh it’s someone trying to sell something”.

I answered and guess what…

Right, so that’s a great strategy to start with. Cold calling and the person answering the phone already expects a telemarketer to be calling, we know this because everyone has a mobile phone these days.

Meanwhile if you are stupid enough to be using a cold calling company, your leads are utter garbage where the telemarketer basically forces the receiver to get an appraisal.

I know, I’ve wasted several thousands on this dumb ass strategy in my career and every single appraisal was a complete waist of time.

If you are paying for this, cancel your service today. Give me the cash and we can go to the casino put it all on black and at least you have 50% chance to get anything, plus we can feel a rush waiting for the ball to land on black.

Door knocking…

Are you serious, you know its 2015 right?

Hmmm let’s see, this dumb ass strategy is still around from the 1970s before mobile phones. It worked back then, everyone had like 5 friends and you both had to be home to have a chat on the telephone and there was like 3 tv channels.

Why it doesn’t work today?

I work from home, I’ve never had an agent door knocking my house ever, and if they did would react to their intrusion on my property like I do with every other single door knocking person.

Get the hell away from my house and NEVER come back before I call the cops. Well, that’s what’s going through my head on the way to opening the door. Hmmm, where is by cricket bat?

You better be selling cookies, chocolates or have lost your ball over the fence.

What goes through your mind when an intruder knocks on your door unannounced?

I don’t know about you, but is that the type of response you want people in your core area to remember you as… an intruder?

Can you sustain this prospecting strategy on 32 degree days; day in and day out?

Hell no, the next mentor that suggest to you to do door knocking, please slap them in the face and kick them in the balls.

They deserve it.

In your street flyers

Kill me now if I have to read another bull crap flyer from another real estate agent wanting an appraisal because you are in the street.

Bull shit!

These are the absolute best way to poor good money down the toilet and destroy the environment in the process.

Everyone cares about the environment these days and we all HATE paper promotional materials, because deep down we know it will be the death of this planet. If I’m thinking this, what do you think, and what does your prospect think about you helping to cut down the Amazon or like our prime minister wants to cut down the Tasmanian rainforest?

Hang the bastard!

All this has passed through your prospects mind on the way to the recycle bin where your expensive flyer just landed.

The success rate is so low, you are better off standing in a shopping center handing out your business cards to people.

If you want to make this work because it can, do it yourself around every appraisal using hand written notes. Nobody throws our handwritten notes, at least it can get you past the recycle bin.

Just Listed and Sold flyers

These are an absolute must have marketing strategy for every single listing. 2000 listed and 2000 sold flyers.

If the sellers do not pay, you must pay for them, they work.

These are the types of flyers you should be using. Screw the environment at least they have a pretty picture and often get into the house and people in your area want to know what’s happening.

Make sure you use these correctly.

On your just listed flyer; big photo, bit of copy about the property and your offer your market update and a link to your blog.

The just sold should be again a big photo, a testimonial from your past sale and another offer for a market update.

Under the success story, make sure you mention the testimonial is from another address because you are going to print the listed and sold flyers at the same time.

Make getting a testimonial a priority on every listing and sale, write it for him or her if you have to and get him or her to sign and approve its use.

No funny business here, there should be no need. You just have to ask.

Authentic is a must and you must ask for them a few times. Do this as soon as a contract is accepted to get the ball rolling. Also if you don’t get one, remember not everyone is good at writing or know what to say. Help them with ideas or provide them 10 of your other testimonials to help. Or write it for them.

Use your VPA/VPM seller paid marketing to fund this exercise, at least 30% of sales came from these flyers. They work to drive visitors to the property, help neighbours tell their friends who live out of the area and help build your profile.

This really takes off when every 2 weeks, 2000 people in your suburb get a just listed and just sold flyers all year long.

Do it, start now and if you don’t get VPM, fund it yourself.

Quarterly/ monthly reports

Each month the local agent delivers a nice glossy booklet. It’s a great idea however works much better when it’s NOT glossy and professional.

Wait, what?

Let your just listed and sold flyers scream professional, your report should still be warm when I get it straight from your photocopier in black and white.

Super cheap, fast to produce and now.

By the time I actually get the glossy book it’s probably 6 weeks old. The time it takes to compile the data, get the photos, proof the artwork, printers to print and make the booklet, then finally get it delivered.

It’s OLD news and your recipient knows it.

I know, I did these as my past life I was a marketing manager in a print company in my 20s. They evolved into simple b/w reports that generated many listings each year.

This is where low quality shines; even have the date printed on it, you should have these in your car and drop them around 10-20 houses around every appraisal you do. Also drop these around competitor’s listings because they won’t be doing this.

This is where an I’m in your street flyer works best when attached to this. The reader will see the date and think. “She really is in the street, better give her a call.”

Update them each time you do an appraisal and keep 20 on hand at all times. Have them on hand at your open for inspections.

Seriously 10 minutes of work, you can meet people who are walking or gardening and leave them with something of value.

Make sure it’s at least an A4 page, and attach a just listed or in your street flyer (before you burn them) because it has your appraisal offer and website link. This is the closest you should ever get to door knocking.

Only intrude if the person happens to be out front.

Direct Mail

Seriously, this is an excellent strategy as it works very similar to online advertising for effective lead generation.

The difference is the cost, lead times and difficulty in determining success.

The benefits are that you can laser target specific addresses, but with even tougher laws about mailing makes it more challenging and is on the way out.

For clear effective strategies on how to do this and get results, you should read:

You should have a direct mail system in your business especially for past clients and appraisals. It will enhance any email campaign and you can offer email recipients a paper option or vice versa, which help reduce your costs.

What you put in the messages will be what you put in your blog. Write once use many.

Banner ads on REA

Give your money to charity instead of feeding the RealEstate.com.au beast.

Several clients I work with used these and they are the absolute worst and most expensive way to generate leads online. I tracked a high volume area and the banner ad was at the time $686 per month. From that it generated 14 clicks.

In other words $48 per click. What, you like throwing away good money?

How many of the clicks were agents? Probably most of them; because from 14 they got 0 leads over 6 months. Not one.

What about my profile?

It will not matter when you have market share. Save your money and invest it into far better performing strategies. Don’t feed the beast, they don’t want your success they want your money, to pay Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Don’t blame Arnold; I’d take their money too.

On another note their email advertising plans produce even worse results.

Referrals

Kind of the impossible when starting out, but it really is a horrible strategy to rely on. Referrals should be the icing on the cake not a focus. They take time and are unreliable.

And when you do get that awesome referral and its 15km away from your core area, please enlighten me on how great a business strategy that is.

This is the best strategy for agents who tell you “I don’t have an area, I work everywhere”. Good luck with that.

Facebook Advertising

You say, “I have a Facebook page, it doesn’t work”.

No shit, press delete you do not know what you are doing, have less that 500 likes and what you have been told is wrong.

Slap them in the face and kick them in the balls too.

This stupid strategy was what all the “pros” talked about 3 years ago and please tell me, where are they all now?

It DOES NOT WORK; it can, but in a vastly different way then a crappy page about you and your listings.

Sorry, try again.

What I’m talking about is paid advertising that can literally fill a database overnight with hot and warm seller leads.

Facebook made it very clear to everyone that from January 1st 2015 if you do not pay for ads we will not show your stuff.

This is 100% true. For you to succeed on Facebook you must pay.

Oh, but…

Let me stop you right there before you hurt someone. This is not about Facebook pages or Likes. Its about driving traffic to the well constructed appraisal page, excellent blog posts and all with the goal to get visitors to subscribe to your database.

Or, we tried Facebook and it didn’t work…

Bollox, you need to do this right and have an automated system in place before you spend any money.

Its not technical anyone can do this, but it does require work to set it up and is ONLY for serious real estate agents.

Real estate seller listings are a long-term goal, you must fish up-stream for business and you will dominate your competition in as little as three months.

If you want to make serious money in real estate, you must invest in clear effective marketing strategies that deliver a return on your investment and be track with analytics.

If you spend too much money online you can end up with too much business.

Google Pay Per Click or PPC

This requires the exact same system that your Facebook strategy uses.

The exact same process.

You must spread your online advertising, not everyone is on Facebook. But everyone has seen a Google ad and clicked on them.

Think of Google PPC like a bus seat ad, make sure it is there for people in your area to click on when they are on the web.

Google Display Ads

This is your Just Listed and Sold flyer and you can again use seller paid VPM to fund them. If you aren’t using the Google display network to advertise your listings to 100% of the Australian market you are a bloody idiot.

Create a Google Adwords account today, create a display ad for your current listing, select some keywords and have the click go to the listing on your website.

Ensure your landing page with the listing has an offer on the page for the buyer to SUBSCRIBE to your database.

Use other people’s money, to drive traffic to your listings and build your database and profile.

In a couple hours you could even find a buyer, I kid you not.

If you want to go broke, stress out and finally quit real estate. Start with door knocking, cold calling and printing garbage.

Get a stupid post bike to deliver flyers while you are at it too.

Lets be real here, you have the opportunity to earn $500k – $1m in your first year, which is a lot more than a specialist medical surgeon. Do you see your doctor delivering flyers and door knocking for business?

Don’t you want to be thought of as that guy?

Would you list with an agent that did that? No way I would.

I’m going to give you the roadmap to success even if you are the new kid on the block using advanced tools and strategies for serious career real estate agents

Do this and you will be unstoppable.

Big disclaimer; if your competitors are already doing this, beware it may be better for you to find another area to start in, but there are also alternative ways to get in.

Once your system is in place, your competition will have to outspend you, they will revert to the usual “copy what he’s doing” and lie about you to potential listings and ultimately fail.

Stop doing prospecting crap from the 80s, the world has moved on its 2015 and easier that ever to generate leads.

Like overnight gangbusters success.

Here is what you need to get started

First, ignore everyone’s stupid advice as I’ve clearly explained why. Let me know in the comments if I’ve forgotten any other dumb ass prospecting ideas left over from the 90s.

You are going to need a few tools to get started:

Invest in tools suitable for 2015 not old rehashed techniques from 1980s.

Take a couple days setting this up and it will take you through to the end of your career.

Do this right and you will have to hire staff faster than you realise when you execute this clear, simple and strategic plan.

The best part is you can analyse all the data and make changes based on FACTS not feelings.

Make sure to subscribe to more tips and clear effective success strategies.

Comments

  1. How refreshing! Great article its music to my ears. I’m sick of hearing the same old shit spat out about the funnel and x calls = x connects = lardi bloody da!!! Keen to implement

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