Sorry for me previous bad post. Just received an iPhone an not up to speed on it yet.

Anyhow, there's only so many contacts one can make in a year. One thing I've learned is every successful business needs to add, improve and upgrade their systems every quarter.

Active Prospecting is the engine of my business. Adding these systems are designed to work in synergy and multiply the effectiveness of my prospecting.

Hunter,

What numbers do you keep track of?

Makes a lot of sense, not exactly cheap but it seems to be paying of
for you. There is a guy I know who does a lot of phone work but
he pays a company to send out those fun cards each month and is doing tremendously well. He is in the top ten of the 300 agents in his office. He works all over the Central districts and East districts. Treats the job real
serious and makes big money. Some guys call him a "Robot" who are jealous of
his production.

Right now I working on my mailing list, sending out all these "Newsletter"
with had written envelopes, it's a lot of work. I like the break from running
around like a chicken with it's head cut off or grinding away on the number.
I know it's wrong for me to be doing it but I need the break sometimes, just
to slow down and these maillings do bring in high quality calls.

I did a deal this year with another 50 deals per year guy, he has 1000 people
in his people farm, just turned 50 and had 250 guest to his birthday party,
the day I did the deal with him he was having lunch with his dentist. Good
guy, he says he doesn't work a lot, I don't believe him.



Kip,

I buy a 250 page note book and each day write down the following.


Attempts:


Contacts:


Leads:


Appointments:



The note book enables me to carry it when door knocking or just
use it on my desk when on the phone. I only really add up Attempts,
Contacts and Deals each year. At the end of each day I can see that I
have done something and I feel better about my life. I got this from
Mike Ferry about 14 years ago, it's simple but works. Some times I
do a formula that Ken McClaulan (Remax Hallmark Owner) gave me which
is 40 new contacts 10 follow up. 40-10, it works but hard to get all
ten in. You kinda get talked out by about 3pm or 4pm.

My numbers last year didn't make a lot of sense, wife went back to Europe,
had a major brain injury from a car accident. I turned into a "Realtor Retardo" for quite some time. At least the insurance is paying to get my brocken teeth fixed, this "treatment plan" is still going on but not affecting my work.


ALWAYS KEEP A SIX MONTH RESERVE IN YOUR REGULAR DAILY ACCOUNT.
THINGS CAN AND DO HAPPEN.

IF YOU GET IN A MAJOR CAR ACCIDENT IE. CANT READ, SLURRED SPEACH, DON'T KNOW
YOUR POSTAL CODE, GO TO A LAWYER, DON'T DEAL WITH THE INSURANCE YOURSELF, YOU
WILL GET F.. OVER BIG TIME.

GET OUT OF A RUT, EXPLODE YOUR BUSINESS
DAILY PLAN...

10-10-100

10 follow up contacts

10 past client/sphere contacts

100 new contacts

HUNTER;

Here is a suggestion if you'll take it.

Ditch the newsletter system. It's WEAK and they know it. I didn't say it does work but there are much more effective direct mail campaigns.

Must be monthly and DIRECT to the point.

"if you want to know what your home is worth, ie; SELL! CALL ME!

Trust me when I say, been there, done that in regards to Newsletters.

"ARE THERE ANY DIRECT POST CARD MAIL CAMPAIGN COMPANIES IN CANADA OR THE U.S THAT SOMEONE CAN RECCOMMEND"


THANKS FOR THE INFO. HUNTER

I really like POSTALREALTOR.com. High quality with low prices.

How can they have a name like that? That's against NAR rules on the use of the REALTOR trademark.

[another example I guess of how selective NAR is about who they want to persecute over the trademark "violation" and who they leave alone. Which is why I laugh when people send me messages telling me my username is violating trademark rules...yeah, ok,LOL]

It's a very good website with a good gallery of cards. I have used some of the prospecting cards. They are what I mean by saying that the mailings must be bold and to the point. This year I am switching to more of the listed and sold type cards customized with a little of the prospecting language.

A realtor friend of mine emails me a beautiful newsletter, (the best o have ever seen) from out east. I hardly read it and because it does ZERO prospecting and is too long to read, I never think of him as a maritime agent or for selling real estate. If he mailed me one of those cards, the impact would be totally different. Again, I am not saying the newsletter idea does not produce a trickle of results but a high quality mailed mailed campaign will produce both.

I have used both and there is no comparison with results.

I'm not criticizing the value of the website. I just find it interesting that NAR hasn't bullied them into changing their name.

Your plan packs one hell of a punch. Twelve years ago I was at the printers
picking up my 4000 door knock newsletters and a friend of mine had the same
cards as yours, they were pre-printed and he was just having them put his
name on them and yes he grosses double what I do.

Here is my new strategy which my coach and I have been working on for 2011.
In the past, the majority of my focus has been on prospecting at the expense of lead follow up. I would get my prospecting done to generate the leads I wanted but I rarely would get any measurable follow up done. I would guess I would get 1/2 an hour per week of follow up in, just calling the leads that would come to the top of mind only.
Even with this lop sided approach, I've managed to close $4-500'000 consistently for several years.

Our new strategy, is to do 1 hour of prospecting first from 8:30 to 9:30, followed by a minimum of 2 hours of lead follow up, or 15 follow up contacts and or messages left. Still 3 hours of active calling/prospecting per day with roughly 50 new contacts per day.
This is an attempt to lower my lead database down to manageable levels. At times it would balloon to 150-200 leads because of my lack of calling/purging. Now I have it down to 75.
Too soon tell but so far so good. I am having my best year ever. Currently at $270'000, closed and pending with quite a few good listing appointments and listings under my belt.

In my marketplace and I am sure in many of yours, this is peak season for generating leads. Many of the transactions if not most occur in the second and third quarters because the families with children want to move when the kids are out of school, after the snow melts, etc.

Knowing this, we should be EXTRA motivated to double our prospecting and lead generating activities at this time. (I actually like to start in the previous October so that I have a ROARING 1st, 2nd and third quarter)

DOUBLE it up, it will pay huge dividends.

NOW IS THE TIME TO PROSPECT,PROSPECT,PROSPECT, AND FOLLOW-UP,FOLLOW-UP.WHICH LEADS TO APPOINTMENTS AND LISTINGS TAKEN .THE SPRING MARKET IS HERE.

Thanks for the motivation Lucky. I am going to make sure I try to make some cold calls every day this week.

I suspect this new plan is a result of the success of your Post Card Campaign, you have been at it consistantly for quite some time and probably invested well over $10,000.00. Glad to see it's working well for you, very few agents use this medium, too costly for most and or a lack of patience.