Hey, Happy Easter to you too, hope the Easter Bunny brings
you a "come list me call". In my case he only brought a
hang over, guess it's not totally his fault but it's a good
practice to always to blame someone else.

I am basically new to this site,I do a whole lot more lurking then posting. However, I had to comment on this thread. I read most of this thread. It is amazing at how some on this board are so negative,condescending and downright haters.
You have a guy that comes on here,divulges HIS method of succeeding in this industry and he gets attacked(interestingly enough, from the same people who attack others on various threads). So I have to wonder about the motives of some on this forum? So what this isn't your method of generating business. But, someone, somewhere is going to latch on to what Lucky has said and will join the top 100 of his area, top 10 percent of his office or top one percent of real estate agents in this profession.

For some of you that harp on customer service, relationships, smiling and glad handing your potential prospects, I find it hard to believe from your conduct. I come on here to learn, to pick up nuggets of gold that will assist me to be great. I am in New York City, training is next to nil. People say that they are there to assist you, but they are really more concerned with themselves. So coming on here is my attempt at learning to build my own business. While door knocking definitely has its disadvantages in Manhattan,what I gained from this thread is Lucky's discipline and desire to succeed. This thread definitely expanded my thinking.

PS Maybe I'll learn one day how some of you can have posts in the tens of thousands and still build a business?

[quote]

PS Maybe I'll learn one day how some of you can have posts in the tens of thousands and still build a business? [/quote]

Couldn't be said any better. As a new agent; fresh out of high school - just only last Monday turned 20, I'm using this site to build my business for life. I truly value the opinions, hints & tips on this site - more than many of you realize.

I think that in general the attacks are on methods and not against individuals. I prefer this environment for a board / thraead rather than one where everybody is drinking from the same Kool Aid and different opinions are not tolerate.

The great value of this thread is that looks at both the advantage of cold calling and draw backs of it. It is then up to you to decide how much time and effort you want to spend on this effort.

CityDreams, well said. Your point about the same individuals attacking people in a number of threads is a good one, and hard to miss. I've wondered what type of people really want to spend their energy coming into this thread just to beat up on the idea of cold calling. I can't figure out what that is accomplishing for them.

LUCKY,Question. After making these cold calls and getting a listing presentation appointment. How important is dropping off a pre-listing package?

That is a good question. Since I do not use a pre list package, I cannot give an answer. After attending the Sales Talk Seminar, it has become clear to me it flushes out objections. (price, commission etc.)

I have to wonder, if I used a pre list package, would my closing ratio go up? Many of my appointments end up at "we need to think it over" "we need time to discuss it in between ourselves".
Well, if they already had my recommended price, commission, marketing plan, track record, they would get the discussing it amongst themselves out of the way.
That's the beauty of being new in the business. You are quicker to try new ideas because you should have more spare time and few bad habits. It takes me quite a while to implement new systems. Partly because I am busy and partly because my leads and appointments already have a defined dollar value to me and I am afraid risks make cost me $$$$$.

I know..... Excuses, excuses... I am full of them!
I should just try the damn Pre list package and see what happens.

I am new to the forum. I am not new to real estate but have not sold much. I worked for a builder but started there sept. 2009 which was the bottom of the RE market for them at least. They sold 8 homes out of 17 communities. I made a living there but not much more than that. I am planning on putting out 1000 door hangers in a few targeted neighborhoods. The door hangers will say "List your home on the MLS for $595" They will also have some design aspects but that is the main point for them to call. I plan on up-selling the prospect at the appointment. I will give very general service for an upfront fee of $595. Or, they can get full-service for 3% of the list price. My full service will be spelled out in the presentation. I Will... 1. Put the home in the MLS 2. Put a sign and fliers in the yard. 3. Create a website for the home. 4. e-mail the listing to the top 10 buyers agents in the market. 5. target the closest 5 neighborhoods within 20% above and below the selling price of their home and place door hangers of the home at those residences. 6. Do an open house the first available Sunday. 7. Market the open house aggressively with some of the above marketing techniques.

Can you think of any chinks in my armor. Can you add anything to this?

I have cold called in the past, on and off. It has become clear, to me anyhow, thru lurking on this thread that in order to see results I'll have to be WAY more consistent.

I made 50 cold call contacts yesterday, I'm using a Dolphin Power dialer. And...here I am again today. 50 contacts is my goal, I have never done that before by cold calling. I got my numbers from the Cole directory. My office has a subscription.

I do have 3 leads from yesterday and today so far. I'm writing this while the power dialer dials.

Thank You Lucky, and Hunter too.
Hunter's comments, that most folks commenting here won't stick to this, struck a nerve with me. Thanks again.

Okeydoka

I would eliminate the $595 gimmick. Makes you look like a cheap desperate prostitute(don't get mad... I am entitled to my opinion like you are yours).
Use the creativity to design another door hanger, like a SOLD offering a free market evaluation.
You get what you are looking for. Also, you don't need to overpromise on the full service offerings but if you have time to do all those things, so be it!

Okey Dokey,

Good for you, keep going and never ever stop.

Those leads you have in your lap are a result
of your actions.

Can you give me a better description of what the door hanger should say/be about. I get that you don't like what I have but I want a strong call to action. Not just "oh here is another Realtor doing the same old thing." I realize that the 595 is cheesy but I want a high rate of return on my advertising. I want to have 10 listings in the next three months. I own a credit card processing business and I am at the point where as the owner I don't do much and have time to list some homes. I am shooting for 300k and up. I want to deal with fewer sales per year but still make a decent income.

I believe that if you advertise $595 commission then you are intentionally trying to steal the business away from another agent who may already be working that lead. If they were going to sell, and they did not have an agent, they would call you regardless. So if they did not have an agent and they would call anyway, why prostitute yourself unless you were trying to undercut the competition because it's the only way you can compete? You do not need all the business! Just the business that pays the most for the least time and energy spent. What is better, doing 100 deals at a $5,000 discount rate or 50 deals at $10,000 full commission rate? (sample example of course!).

I hope your answer was the 50 deals. I don't think you are going to have anything magic to put on a hanger. It's all about consistency and persistence!

Another great email from Mike Ferry;





Good Morning One-on-Ones,

One of our great clients, Mr. Michael Pepin down in Florida, had sent me an email recently and I dug it out today because I wanted to share with you what he said.

He was quoting the Governor of the state of Florida ... a Mr. Rick Scott, who in a recent speech said "In my business career, I was never shy about picking up the phone and making a cold call to try to make something good happen within my business. As Governor, I've been making these same cold calls every day to recruit companies to bring jobs to the state of Florida."

Mike went on to say that the Governor of Florida is a very, very wealthy man, and then Mike said what I thought was the most important part of this email ... "If the Governor of Florida can prospect every day, and he's rich ... why do agents who are broke not prospect at all?"

Well, for Mr. Mike Pepin ... I have the answer. The agents who are broke and do not prospect at all ... which are the same agents who complain, criticize, condemn, moan every day about the industry and the business, and never have a positive thing to say ... are the same agents who tell everybody that will listen why learning how to be a great salesperson is not the right idea. Mike Pepin, you already knew this, and that's why you're so good.

Here's a thought for all the moaners and complainers in Real Estate ... they're willing to spend the time talking to people every day to complain about the business and the industry. They will spend as much time as they can trying to convince anybody they can on why everybody should be as unproductive as they are. Here's a thought ... what if those same people took that same energy and time, and talked to people that they did not know ... do you think they'd get more business?

I don't know the Governor of Florida at all. However he and I do have one thing in common ... we both pick up the phone and call people we don't know on a regular basis to improve the quality of our businesses.

You may not like the Governor of Florida, and you may not even like me ... but try doing what we're doing to improve the results that you get. I know it will work for you.

Mr. Mike Pepin ... thanks for the great message.

My parents need their roof redone ...they just received 3 quotes from roofers...one of the roofers lowballed the price a lot...my parents picked one of the other two higher quotes...they instantly didn't trust that the lowballer would do a good job, simply because of the super low price....my parents said " If that roofer was any good, why would he have to lowball so much?"