I love Ben Many Numbers. That's all.

If you choose to only work who you know it's your choice, this is what 99% of the agents due everywhere. I have met many agents across north america that work active vs passive. Don't follow the herd.

I am active and during this past spring opened a brokerage in order to be able to try to get away from doing the same old things that everybody else is doing and at the same time had my best year to date. I plan on improving year over year until I am within that small number of agents at the top in the area. I know you have to go out and find business but my point was that around here, cold calling is not likely the way to do that. We all have to find things that work for us and I am glad that cold calling works for you....here, it would not be the best route to success.

[quote=MHT]I am active and during this past spring opened a brokerage in order to be able to try to get away from doing the same old things that everybody else is doing and at the same time had my best year to date. I plan on improving year over year until I am within that small number of agents at the top in the area. I know you have to go out and find business but my point was that around here, cold calling is not likely the way to do that. We all have to find things that work for us and I am glad that cold calling works for you....here, it would not be the best route to success. [/quote]

Glad you are setting goals. However I am not sure I agree that prospecting would not work in your market or any market.

Case in point: I have a friend/fellow agent who moved from the Toronto (GTA) market to the Muskokas (cottage country, alot of absentee owners, low, low, low density) as a lifestyle change. He is a disciplined prospector. Second month in the Muskokas he took 10 listings as a newcomer in that market. Admittedly there was a lot more creativity and driving involved compared to working an urban market.

Today, Saturday Jan 2nd, 2010 was my first prospecting day for the new year. I will use this thread to convey my strategies and systems I am implementing in my process to double my business from 50-75-100 deals. For those that want to follow along, offer imput & suggestions or ask questions....you are all welcome to joing in.

>Today 100 new contacts in 2 hours, 210 numbers dialed.
>10 PC/SOI contacts
>10 follow up contacts

Reults....From cold calling; 3 leads, 1st was listed last winter, was not happy with previous agent & so I set a listing appointment for Tues evening. 2nd was lady who owns a 8 store strip plaza who may want to sell-said for me to follow up in Feb. 3rd was a widow who needs to scale down, she said to call in Feb.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

From SOI/PC calls, 1 lead from past client that said wants to list Jan/Feb. Glad I called her. She said many agents calling and that somehow they knew she was considering selling. (from friends and neighbors who she may have expressed interest in moving no doubt) This is a $900k home....agents are going to go after this lead aggressively in a compeditive market like mine. Like I said before....I am not calling them...rest assured, other agents in my market are!

Lucky, I'm definitely interested in the details so keep posting. I think many are afraid to post their successful techniques because they think they are "giving away the farm." Also, many agents don't want to let other agents who are near them know exactly what they are doing. You protect what is valuable to you, ya know?

I know my former broker did do cold calling, as a matter of fact, she was successful with just about any technique she practiced. I never had to do it, but if given enough details, I may try cold calling as an experiment, or bring on an agent who will do it. I'm a stickler for details though. So the more details you can post - the better.

Oh, wanted to ask you. When you run into "I was not happy with my previous agent", that usually translates to "my home was listed waaaay above market, and I didn't do any of the prep work inside the house to make it appealing." Do you really want those? I know that there are many listings that I just don't want: bad subdivision (nothing sells), listed too high, seller just not motivated, etc. what percentage of those listings do you actually turn down? I would guess that since you are cold calling, there would be many listings you just didn't want.

How do you get around the DO NOT CALL list on cold calls as well as calling expireds? I used to do this & don't amy longer because of the DO NOT CALLs. Zembridge

Lucky is in Canada. Maybe they do not have a Do Not Call. Do Not Call has pretty much killed cold calling in US.

Do Not Call - Canada

[quote=lizl]Lucky is in Canada. Maybe they do not have a Do Not Call. Do Not Call has pretty much killed cold calling in US. [/quote]

Yeah I still "cold call" even people on the DNC list....

Except during that call I do not ask for their business nor do I ask for referrals....Once I get the area I want to farm I then get the phone numbers in that area...

When I call I ask to speak to the person by name....Then I tell them who I am and that I will be in their neighborhood and I am giving their neighbors information about what's going on in the area and home values for their neighborhood etc... And since I will be in the area I would like to stop by and give you the same information

So far I have gotten positive responses and when I drop off the information I usually do a follow up call to make sure they received the information and I ask them if it would be okay if I contact them in the future

(haven't gotten a no yet)

During the call I keep it as short as possible to just let them know I will be in the area dropping off information....I do not tell them about myself really the only thing about me I include with the information is my business card (and the info is printed on my letterhead)....Also when I am out if I run into someone and they want to talk about rel estate I usually end the conversation after 2 minutes telling them I have other scheduled commitments and i have to go and I will call to schedule a time for us meet (which works great)

That's a pretty good idea. Tell the world what your goal is , which creates extra accountability, which significantly increases your chances of attaining your goal.

I don't know, but I believe that the Attorney General in my state would say that such a scenario is a violation of the law, as well as its intent. One thing is for sure, any unsolicited caller better not call again, if the person on the other end says the magic words: "I am on the Do Not Call list."

Just so long as you only call each person one time, you can probably avoid trouble. If every real estate agent in town, every car salesperson, every magazine hawker, every carpet cleaner--you get the point--got that one freebie call per household, there would not be much point to DNC lists.

Lizl.... Well it depends on how you look at it....MY intentions one the initial call is only to let them know I will be in the area and would like to drop off some information

But before I did any of this I did get legal advice (as well as contacting the RE Commission) and they both basically told me I am stepping on a thin line and to walk carefully....

But you are correct if everyone got 1 freebie there would be no point in the DNC...

Wow I can't believe you were talking about the secret. I just downloaded it to my ebook. I also have my own brokerage here in upstate ny and looking to make triple last year which was horrible