When I was doing Mike hard core for the first five
years of the business I didn't receive many referrals
at all.

Regardless of the approach quality referrals are
few and far between. The more business you do well
the higher the probabity but you have to view them
as gifts from the universe. Once in a while you will
connect with a individual and they will go to bat for
you in a major way.


How many friends have you referred to your dentist?

I read pages 1-3 and pages 94-96 and I find this concept of just calling people more and more intriguing and something I would like to try. Where do you get lists and an auto-dialer? I assume this is just something that will dial multiple numbers until it gets someone on the line? I have never taken a Mike Ferry course, can you give me a sample script of how you start this once they answer the phone?

Don't forget, this perceived aggressiveness gets toned down when you personalize it with your own tonality. I see it as directness and professionalism.

Try going to any other respected professional. Do they sugar coat, beat around the bush, wing it everyday and go by their gut feel. Pathetic!!!!

This is why public dislikes Real Estate Professionals, lack of professionalism and they are LAZY LIARS! Not the direct professional script.

Talking to my accountability partner yesterday. He decided to go FSBO on one of his properties. Ad in the paper etc. One of the things he wanted to see is the calibre of the agents calling. He was blown away! ALL the agents were weak, idiotic, unprofessional, unscripted, desperate, and stupid!
He paraphrased the best one for me to hear. Agent kept saying he was number one, 4% er, Ie: a lost realtor.

So, believe me, very few stick to a proven script and they make you look like you actually know what you are doing and are a professional.

Hunter, you say that referrals are "few and far in between", what about Buffini's and Stumpf's models of business by referral? What about Tom Hopkins, who also seems to say that after a few years most of his business came from referrals? I don't mean the times when you connect (those, I would think, would be harder to come by), but just when someone feels that you've done a good job, and refers someone to you. This is the way we found our realtor when we bought a house - asked friends for referrals, then interviewed and tried out the guys recommended to us.

As for my dentist, I've referred 4-5 people to him personally, and posted on a board that I'm on, so there are likely more people coming to him from there. He's a good dentist (unfortunately, I have others to compare him with) Same goes for the doctors that I've had dealings with...

Lucky,

BOY is it good to hear from you!!!!!

How are you doing? any numbers from your prospecting lately???

Thank you sooo much..we thought you left us//

Nj Canuck,

You can NOT rely on referrals in this business, thats waiting on business. Yes after 5-10 years you can build up a nice referral business which could be 50-75% of your overall business...

regarding aggressiveness...sellers want that in an agent!!

in this market if you are selling a home you want some nice agent LYING to you..about todays market?? Of course Not.

professionals go for authority..period.

Most of us are not best friends with our doctor lawyer or whatever..!!

if you go in there weak trying to be best friends you will lose,
they are not looking for best friend..they are looking for a powerful agent! an aggressive agent...

Hmm, that's one issue that I've been told I have - I'm very direct, and because of my tone (according to many) I come across as aggressive even when I'm just excited... this system would be very natural to me, but I'm very weary of using things that would exacerbate this problem... that's why I'm trying to understand whether it's a positive or a negative in this profession...

also, as far as I understood from the DVD one of the big issues was that agents didn't follow the system directly and didn't do as well because of it... I'm thinking that any agent who is good at his job, and responsive to people will do well, no matter what system he uses... I do think that cold-calling/door-knocking is a good and inexpensive idea for new agents for sure (cannot comment on the experienced ones, as I'm not yet sure whether referrals are a feasible expectation)




Well, I've seen too many "respected professionals" who have no bedside manner at all. So it's not an issue of not beating around the bush, it's more an issue of following social norms when presenting information. My concern with what I've watched has to do specifically with clients feeling afterwards like the decision was pushed on them, and not like they've made it themselves... this would leave a bad taste in their mouth, and I think they would be unlikely to go back to that agent another time or to recommend him... I do realize that it wastes very little of everyone's time, and personally I prefer a direct approach...





This is not to say that I haven't seen many incompetents, have you read Get Smarter, by Mr. Schulich? I like the way he puts it, he says that the proportion of real professionals is about the same in any profession, and just from my experience I'd have to agree, he says that about 80% are mediocre, then there are 10% who are atrocious, and 10% who are great... this goes for everyone from doctors to teachers to realtors




I agree with that, my concern was the tone, specifically because it's a problem that I've been told I have

To me, it's the scripted individual who appears to be most unprofessional. I can detect in a nanosecond when someone calls me and is scripted. It is an immediately indentifiable style and tone, and I don't care how well you do it or how experienced you are doing it, it sounds like what it is: a script. If you cannot call someone and discuss real estate issues comfortably and extemporaneously, you are not likely to have any success in this business. It's basically called knowing your subject matter cold. You should be totally at home dealing with any real estate issue that can come up in a typical conversation. People sense that, react favorably to it, and usually will give you the listing without an issue.

The plasticky mechanical objection-handling script jockey is perceived by most smart people as a hustler, and they usually react predictably: by hanging up or closing the door.

Hey Lucky,

How are you finding this new follow up gig were you
take a break at 3pm and then go back at it at 5pm.


NJ,

I know two agents who ran very successful farms for
over a decade and switched to "By Referral" (not sure
of the guys name) and did very well. The one lady
was in my office and her Mantra was I'm only going
to work with people I know from now on. The other
guy has three young kids and a wife that doesn't work
so he had to make it work no matter what.

I wasn't talking about completely relying on referrals, but it would seem to be a waste if the opportunity to have business come to you is completely ignored, don't you think?




you're confusing aggressiveness with authority and truthfulness ... these may be related, but don't have to be, in fact I've never heard of a direct relationship between these characteristics



I would argue that clients are first and foremost looking for a competent agent, that's why I think that if an agent is good at what he does any system would work for him... again, being strong and being aggressive are not necessarily related, just like you will probably agree that a larger dog may be stronger, but one of those little loud ones will be more aggressive

this goes along with what I think - competent agents have clients no matter what system they follow (if any)...

Hunter, lucky, do you guys get referrals now? What percentage of your business are they? If you work a farm, and are aggressive, do you have a harder time going back to the same people in that farm?

I find this concept of just calling people more and more intriguing and something I would like to try.

Where do you get lists and an auto-dialer? I assume this is just something that will dial multiple numbers until it gets someone on the line? I have never taken a Mike Ferry course, can you give me a sample script of how you start this once they answer the phone?

On your first point you are wrong, the two agents I referred
to spent over a decade farming to build their business. They
then switched over to "By Referral Only" which to me is a joke.

Your second point, you should call Price Water House Coopers, Yamana Gold, Kinross Gold, De Havilland, Imperial Oil and on and on and ask them why they use a looser prospector like myself for their managers ,senior managers and directors
when they relocate. I've had runs of over seven months
of not having the time to prospect due to people calling
me and requesting my help.

For farming you cant use "when do you plan on moving?" but a
lot of Mike Ferry's ammo is very helpful.

Are you saying that those agents were incompetent when they switched? There's obviously a learning curve involved, like with any job. Except that with real estate you cannot rise to the level of your incompetence (which is what happens with more traditional, salaried jobs ;)). Why is "by referral only" a joke? Are those agents that you mentioned doing worse on this system than right before they switched?



Here you're contradicting yourself if you've had periods of half a year where you didn't prospect, how are still a "prospector"

Also, what a company chooses and what people choose for themselves are different things the criteria are different, as fewer emotions are involved when selecting a service for someone else than for yourself

Again, I'm going to guess that you are a competent, experienced agent, and that's why you have business. Same likely goes for lucky, navarac, perky and those other agents who have been in the business for a while, even though you guys have different approaches. And I'm saying this as someone looking in from the outside and trying to learn without already having an attachment to any particular system. I'm not trying to criticize, just to gain as much knowledge as possible, so I can become successful without repeating many of the common mistakes.

I'm not contradicting myself at all.

Prospecting got me noticed and lead me down
many interesting paths.

1) I had a door knock farm of 4000 homes.
2) Royal Lepage Real Estate( Relocations)
took note that
I was doing well in that sector.
3) They started sending me business.
4) One of their senior people left
and opened their own relocation company
and took me with. I still do work for
this person.

It all started with prospecting and yes I am a
prospector and am not contradicting myself.

My mother bought me a Hugo Boss Cashmere jacket and
a few boxes of Mike Ferry's cassette tapes and told
me to door knock for three yours day. If you want
to charge her with child abuse go right ahead, she
made a lot of money in real estate and can easily
destroy you in court with her deep resources.

I love my mother very much even though she makes me
manage her income properties which I hate.

And? Like I said, you're probably a competent agent, as just prospecting wouldn't help you if you didn't know what to do with your clients after you got them.

Which program got you started? (if you remember the name) Do you have any tips on selecting a farm? It sounds like yours was huge, how long did it take you to go through it?