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Brevard County boasts some of Florida's most scenic coastlines. (Courtesy of WeKnowBrevardHomes.com)
By Bob Montgomery
Like many top-notch real estate agents, Florida's Brad Kuhns can rattle off his real estate prospecting statistics as quickly as a baseball fan who's memorized their favorite player's batting average or ERA. But there's one number that stands above the rest: 100%.
That's how many of the Realtors in his weekly Mastermind Group rely on the Mojo Dialer and its browser-based lead management system.
"I have a call every Wednesday from 2-3 p.m with 15 of the heaviest-hitting listing agents in the country," says Brad, who sells residential property in Brevard County, on the outskirts of Cape Canaveral. "There's three from California, two or three from Canada, one from Arizona, a few from Florida, one from South Carolina and we get on the phone and talk about what we can do as a group to help each other be better."
"We have accountability partners and we make sure that we're each doing what we said we'd do everyday," he adds. "We encourage each other and it's no accident that we all use Mojo."
Mojo Helps You Stay Accountable
Now running the Brad Kuhns Realty Group of RE/MAX Elite, Brad has three buyer's agents and two assistants on his team. However, when he was previously at Keller Williams Realty in Melbourne, he oversaw a team of 100 agents. It's not so much the size of the team that determines success; it's more about the way the team approaches each day.
"I set standards for my team and the people who work for me. Every time we do a buyer contract, there's a list of 18 to 24 tasks that have to be done. I don't like surprises. I don't like deals falling apart," says Brad. "And 99 percent of the time that can be prevented just by doing our jobs."
"When you have your goals set up and you know there are certain things that you need to do everyday, that takes away the stress of trying to do it alone," he adds. "I couldn't be where I am today without organization. Mojo makes sure I stay focused. I couldn't do what I do without Mojo."
"Before Mojo, I had to use phone books and did everything manually. Our business is about getting on the phone every day. We have a goal for how many contacts we have to make per day to be successful. Mojo not only makes the call, but keeps track of how many calls we made, how long we've been on the phone, how many people had bad phone numbers, you name it."
Brad's Approach to Real Estate Prospecting: New School vs. Old School
Here are Brad's raw numbers for success. He aims to:
"All we need to do is make one qualified listing appointment per day. Ever think about how simple that is?" he asks. "But to do that, you have to get on Mojo everyday and use it relentlessly through all the boredom. It's kind of like fishing — you're just waiting for that one fish to bite."
"Mojo 2.0 has the sweetest dialer program I've ever seen!"" says Brad, who has been a Mojo customer for four years. "I used to spend the first 30-45 minutes of the day getting ready to dial. I can say now that I'm ready to dial in five minutes."
"We have so much more control over our data. I can download my new expired listings from Vulcan, Top Producer and BoomTown into Mojo every evening. I can transfer those contacts with the click of a button. Previously, I would have to type in the names, addresses and phone numbers, emails and notes for each one," he adds.
Despite his love for Mojo's technology, Brad's business also depends on the old-school technique of tracking his prospects on 3-x-5-inch index cards.
The cards have the prospect's name, phone number, where they came from, if they are a buyer or seller, the value of their property and what the commission would be. Brad always carries a stack of these cards with him so he can follow-up on calls when he is away from his office.
"When I am at my desk and have Mojo in front of me, I don't like old school. I just like to get going and Mojo makes it easy. But when I'm in my car, for safety purposes and so I can focus, I want to slow down. I don't want to be dialing three lines at a time." (Note: If you're not into index cards, Mojo Mobile tracks the same info and works for both Android and Apple phones.)
Brad's rule is that after 3 or 4 calls – 75% of appointments are made from follow-up calls, not the initial contact – he throws the card away.
Brad, who credits real estate coach Steve Powers of the Mike Ferry Organization for much of his success, estimates that his teams have sold more than $150 million in property over the past 15 years. Here are some tips for those new to the business:
Having Fun at Work
Brad Kuhns' real estate career has given him front row seats to history. (Public domain photo via Pixabay.com)
One of the fringe benefits of Brad's job, that obviously doesn't apply to Realtors in other parts of Florida or the country, is that he has box seats for all of NASA's rocket and satellite launches at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. History is everywhere. The Best Western hotel in Cocoa Beach, a few steps away from Brad's home, was once a popular hangout for John Glenn and some of the earliest astronauts.
"We're just south of where they shoot the rockets off. I can stand on the beach in front of my condo and watch them shoot them off. They've had 4 or 5 different launches in the past two months or so. SpaceX (a private commercial space program) has pretty much taken over. I've been here since 2001, so I've probably seen 40 to 50 Space Shuttle launches and a ton of other rocket launches," he says. "I have not sold a home to an astronaut yet, but have sold homes to lots of people who work for NASA!"
Space programs aside, Brad says he deeply enjoys the role of playing matchmaker. "When a deal falls through for a customer, I always say, 'There's a reason for that. It's because we haven't found you the perfect home.' It's amazing because 99 percent of the time, that's accurate. I'll find them a home and they'll say, 'I'm so glad that other place didn't work out. This is the perfect home for us!' That happens all the time."
To learn more about the latest real estate prospecting features included in Mojo 2.0, click here or watch this video to find out how Mojo can also be a vital sales tool for the mortgage, marketing and insurance industries.
We've always advocated for the active marketing approach – promoting real conversations with real people.
While we know passive marketing strategies can work to some degree, proof's in the pudding having conversations with prospects can reliably yield better results than print, social media and the like.
That being said, there can certainly be a synergy between active and passive strategies and we're looking to give our clients ways to capitalize on the benefits it can have on prospecting.
The latest feature to hit Mojo is letters and envelopes. With this new feature, clients can easily create prospecting letters using our letter creator and then print them, with or without envelopes, singularly or in bulk.
Here are some ways we think you'll find this useful:
Sending letters to a list of just listed/just sold addresses you've downloaded from the Mojo Neighborhood Search prior to calling them is a good way to prime your prospects for your call in the coming days.
"Hello Mrs. Jones, this is Jon Doe from ABC realty, just following up on the letter I sent. Did you receive it? Great!" -Enter remaining pitch here-
It's well-known that finding 100% of the contact information is not possible with off market data. This makes sending prospecting letters to those without phone contact information a great way to still make that critical contact. You can simply create a no-phone sub-list in Mojo (Mojo has this by default) and send these folks letters as they come in to your database. Don't sweat it, we make sure you know who you've sent letters to and who you haven't so you can avoid duplicate sends.
Another hurdle with calling off market leads is their being inundated with calls from other agents, sending them in to their 'turtle shell'. So when people just aren't picking up the phone, don't discard the lead, make sure to hit them up with at least one letter stating your intentions and ambition to get their home sold!
Staying in touch with your database is critical to receiving lots of referrals. Even simple seasonal letters about home maintenance, current neighborhood happenings or just a quick 'hello note', can result in huge referrals.
Here's an example circle-prospecting letter from our friends at Fearless Agent. If you don't have any letter templates in your toolbox, don't sweat it, your coach or even your colleagues, likely have templates that are proven to generate responses.
Dear XXNEIGHBORXX,
I am writing just to see if you may be thinking of selling your house.
Do you have any plans of moving in the future?
I want you to know that I do business completely differently that all other agents and it virtually guarantees you of two things:
One is that your house would actually sell, and two is that you would end up with way, way more money bottom line than you could get any other way.
If that is definitely what you're looking for call me today at: 555-555-1212. I pride myself on having developed a marketing plan that includes securing everything that you want, both protecting your investment, and enriching you well beyond your expectations.
At this point, however, my only goal is to have an opportunity to show you an alternative to the way "traditional real estate salespeople" do business.
My unique marketing system assures that your property will sell, and you will get more money, bottom line, than you can get any other way.
I hope to have the privilege of meeting with you.
The bottom-line: Sending prospecting letters to your leads just got super easy with Mojo. You simply select who you want to send the letters to, which letter you want to send, and print! It's really that simple:)
Of course, you may already have your letter needs covered and that's okay because Mojo is likely integrated with your provider, and while we won't be printing the letters for you, we can certainly make the task of pushing your over a piece of cake!
We really hope our clients LOVE this new feature and we look forward to releasing more marketing features to make your prospecting efforts even more fruitful!
By Bob Montgomery
Over the past month or so, we have slowly rolled out a bunch of new features and improvements to small groups of customers to doubly make sure they all worked the way we originally envisioned. Today, I'm delighted to announce that the Mojo Dialer 2.0 is available to everyone!
Some of the changes are dramatic and you will notice them right away. Some of them are more subtle and may take a bit longer to appreciate. However, the overall goal of this upgrade was to streamline our user interface – making the Mojo Dialer easier to navigate and your overall workflow more productive with fewer steps – and to specifically accelerate your daily dialing workflow.
Now, when real estate agents sit down and say they are going to call their expired leads, it's literally two button clicks instead of six or eight. It's like giving you built-in shortcuts without the hassle of having to remember shortcut keys.
Ultimately, the less time you spend setting up your calling sessions and the less you have to prepare, the quicker you will be on the phone prospecting. Many of you may have a team of callers working for you. Mojo 2.0 has a fast learning curve and will make all of your employees more productive out of the gate.
What's New In Mojo 2.0?
Many of these new features were user-requested. The continuing evolution of the Mojo Dialer is a team sport. Only you can teach us how we can better help you rise above the daily grind. Here are some things you'll find in the upgrade:
At the top of this blog is a picture of a fighter jet. Why? Because David England, Vice President of Mojo, pictures himself in the cockpit while staring at our new Dialing Bar controls.
"When our customers are prospecting on the phone withe Mojo, it's kind of like being locked in like an F-16 pilot," he says. "You're locked in, it's very easy to use, all the buttons are within close proximity. Some Mojo users lock-and-load dial for 3-4 hours a day. If you don't have a friendly layout, it can cause real fatigue. When you're using Mojo, we want you to only think about the target – not your dialing software."
The best way to see all these changes, of course, is to stop reading this blog and dive into Mojo right now. However, I do have some more important things to share and want you to read to the end. So let's take a look at one of the differences between the original Mojo and Mojo 2.0.
Here's a screenshot of the old UI when someone picks up the phone. Note the split dialing controls on the left and right-hand sides of the contact form:
And here's the new Live Answer screen, with dialing controls in the centralized Dialing Bar. (P.S. If you're a lefty, you can switch the dialing bar to left-hand side!)
Realtor: "Mojo 2.0 has the sweetest dialer program I've ever seen."
Here at Mojo, we can talk all we want about how much we love our new redesign, but ultimately, it really doesn't matter what we think. We're only successful if you're successful. So I gave Florida Realtor Brad Kuhns, who has used Mojo for more than four years, a call for some candid feedback on the changes.
Kuhns' territory is Brevard County, which is the gorgeous area surrounding Cape Canaveral. He's seen dozens of launches from his front yard over the years and thinks that Mojo 2.0 is out of this world! (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun because it is not everyday I get to interview Realtors who rub elbows with NASA.)
"It's an incredible piece of software," he says. "I really appreciate what we had before, but they've been able to simplify it and make it so easy to use. Mojo 2.0 has the sweetest dialer program I've ever seen!"
Kuhns says he especially values the new Sublist Creator and the new Activities section.
"If I want to target a subdivision with 150 names, I used to have to go through three or four different pages in Mojo for my phone numbers and scripts and voice messages. Now I can do it from the one dialer page and it's just one button," he says. "We have so much more control over our data."
"The Activities page is sleek and crisp and I like how the calendar has different colors for who I have to call today, appointments, tasks, and follow-up calls. It really is a pleasure to use," he adds. "I used to spend the first 30-45 minutes of the day getting ready to prospect with the Mojo Dialer. I can say now that I'm ready to dial in five minutes. It's definitely saving me several hours a week if not five hours a week."
Saves five hours a week? I don't think we could possibly script a better testimonial.
Coming Soon: Better Marketing Tools For Email & Snail Mail
The marketing trifecta for successful real estate prospecting includes phone calls, email campaigns and old-fashioned snail mail. Coming soon in Mojo 2.0 will be new drip email marketing tools and also convenient tools for bulk mailing letters.
Ironically, in the digital age, the physical mailbox is holding its own against the email inbox to grab people's attention. With an overstuffed email box, it's easy to mass check marketing emails and delete them in one click. With a physical envelope, there's a far more likely chance of being opened when it's held in someone's hand. Though certainly there is no guarantee.
So, if you have a list of For Sale By Owner properties in your area, and you want to send them an introductory letter about what added value you bring to the process as a Realtor, you'll soon be able to bulk print letters and envelopes with Mojo. Then you could have an assistant stuff and seal envelopes as you get back to the phones.
Stay tuned….
What Do You Think of Mojo 2.0?
If you're an existing Mojo Dialer or data customer, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how such a productive platform can get even better. If you're brand new to Mojo, welcome! You won't have the old Mojo as a comparison, but will enjoy the same productivity benefits from the moment you signed up. Check out the demonstration video here.
In either case, we'd love to know what you think of Mojo 2.0's new features and redesign. Please drop us a line at firstname.lastname@example.com, visit our Facebook page, or send us a tweet to share your thoughts!
It was six years ago when we released our first mobile prospecting app, and since then, we've been on a constant development cycle bringing new products and updates to the mobile market. What started out with the Mojo Dialer on the iPhone, has become a suite of products for both the iPhone and Android platforms, designed to make the modern prospector efficient on the go.
Today, we're excited to announce that we've just released our latest mobile Mojo Dialer iOS application, Mojo on the Go! for iPad.
This new app borrows much of the user interface and functionality of our new Mojo 2.0 platform, making the learning curve virtually non-existent to those familiar with our new web-based platform. The backend has been completely overhauled, giving the user a faster more reliable app experience.
Navigation through the app has improved significantly, and we've included our new dialing bar in to the app, for a better dialing experience.
Synching of data throughout the Mojo cloud is much improved also, giving our new app a much 'lighter' feeling- with 'smart' synching, without the need to store data on the device- the app is blazing fast and has a minimal impact on the device resources.
Lastly, we've included the new Mojo 2.0 activities area in the new app, putting all of your follow-up activities (calls, tasks and appointments), in your hand, and on the go.
For more information about the mobile applications Mojo offers, please visit the corresponding store: iOS devices, Android devices .
It was this time last year when we sat down with our design team and asked this question: What can we do to make Mojo more user-friendly, easier to use, more feature packed… and most of all, appeal to a broader audience?
Since releasing the Mojo Dialer and Prospecting System on the web 3.5 years ago, we've collected a TON of user feedback. We captured input from heavy users, casual users, hard-core prospectors and the weekend warriors. All of this feedback spilled on to paper, then in mock-ups, and finally, in the web-browser.
We began testing the new platform this past December, and began our soft-launch to clients in April. At this moment, about 1/5 of our clients are using, and loving the new platform!
We 'trimmed the fat' from the entire platform, streamlining the user interface at every corner. We made the dialing workflow more intuitive, added new dialing features such as our new Dialing Bar, and select-to-dial calling mode.
We revamped the follow-up activities area, making it cleaner, easier to use – giving you every reason to start making more follow-up calls, and setting more appointments.
We've added new integrations, we've integrated with Zapier so you can connect Mojo to hundreds of other apps like Bomb Bomb, Sales Force, Infusionsoft, Contactually and many, many more.
We'll save the rest for our official announcement, stay tuned!
We expect to have all of our clients on the new 2.0 platform over the next six weeks, slowly releasing to groups of clients until complete. This is the approach we took to make sure we could offer the necessary support during the transition. We will be releasing to new clients soon and look forward to a more detailed blog post then.
We first got the itch to turn your handheld device in to a mobile power dialer control center back in 2009 when we released our first Mojo the Go! app for the iPhone. Since that time, we've released multiple iOS versions of the app, to improve the user interface and overall performance of the mobile Mojo Dialer.
During this time, the requests for an Android version of our App began stacking up, and we set out to find a core team of Android developers that could take our platform in the direction our clients wanted.
Unlike many companies who hire on mercenaries to do their design and development work, we interview, vet and reference all our developers and keep them on full-time. While this takes more time, it has many advantages long-term for our clients.
First, when an issue arrises with our web or mobile apps, the people/team responsible for designing it and coding it originally, are there to resolve the issue fast. Second, when we want to improve on our services, the people responsible are uniquely intimate with the work, resulting in much more stable results, as well as quicker turn-around times. Lastly, our development process holds the people on our team accountable; if they don't produce long-term, reliable results, they leave the team.
Last year, we found our A-team and they worked closely with our other mobile developers to create our new Mojo on the Go! for Android app.
Today, we are happy to announce their work is complete, and the app is ready for you to download and begin using in the Google Play store!
The next phase of their work will include Android tablets and we expect this work to be completed and tested within the next few weeks.
If you're an agent who likes to work on the go, make sure to visit the Google Play store today and get Mojo on the Go! for Android.
Ask the Agent: Brett Tanner
With a total topping $170,000,000 Sold in 2013 and 2014 and more than 2,500 homes sold, it's safe to say Brett Tanner and his team know a thing or two about real estate prospecting.
As a leader, innovator, investor, and top-selling real estate agent, Brett Tanner blends a unique marketing methodology with a result-driven approach for today's real estate market. These days, Tanner owns a real estate brokerage with over 150 agents, multiple businesses, flips 30+ homes per year, and is a national speaker and trainer. And prospecting was one key to that success.
Tanner recently chatted with Mojo about the benefits of prospecting and real estate cold calling.
When I first got started I started out by door knocking…. What I realized is when I went out and door knocked, my goal would be to get someone's phone number so I could follow-up later. And when I went out and networked, my goal was to get a number. So ultimately I had to take those phone numbers and I had to come back and then I'm essentially calling them.
There's only two ways to get business in real estate, either marketing or prospecting. And what I realized was first of all I could call using Mojo. I could call maybe 300 homeowners in three hours. Whereas if I was to door knock, I'd be lucky to touch 30 to 40 doors. And if I'm only going to door knock 40 doors and of those, I'm probably only going to talk to 15 to 20 people. So at the end of the day, the numbers might be only 10. And that's a really hard job. You're out there, and I'm in Arizona where it's hot, you're driving around, I mean that's a brutal three to four hours, versus I sit in my air-conditioned office with my headset on. So I kind of realized, I could cut out the first three or four steps and just get on the phone.
And as my business has grown, the change that I've made, even if I'm doing marketing to drive leads in, the leads don't just jump up and raise their hand and list with you or buy from you. You've still got to call them, prospect, cultivate. So all of our leads, no matter whether we prospect or market, go into Mojo and then we work them from there.
Perfect, so here's what I'll say: I have a team of 20 and I have 12 people right now who show up every day at 9 a.m. and they are on the phones from 9 a.m. to noon. Five days a week for three hours a day.
And again I started this business on the phone, and I started out with just me doing it. Once I got to two people doing it with me, I stepped back and watched them do it and then now I kind of manage the machine.
But really when you want to get an agent on the phone, you've really got to overcome two things: one, who are they going to call, what's the list? What's the dialer? We've solved that, the dialer is Mojo. The second is, what are they going to say?
So people's fear of being on the phone all revolves around those two things. And that's what I love so much about Mojo, because they've solved the who because you can go to the lead store and you can get expireds, get just solds, you've got options there that will tell you who to call.
And then the 'what' to say when you call, that's just a matter of getting a good script and there are so many good scripts out there.
From there I think the other reason people don't commit to it is that they don't realize that no one sounds good on the phone the first day. Here's what I tell everyone who comes into my company: after 90 days of calling three hours a day you're going to sound like the best person ever on the phone provided you do it three hours a day for 90 days. It's just that easy. There's no secret, there's no way you can shortcut it, it's like a 90-day MBA on the phone and you'll be awesome.
I think anytime that you can educate is a good thing. But I have to say I think a lot of people are using that (consultative approach) because it's easier to say here's some information, here's some information. But at the end of the day you have to be closing for that appointment.
You have to be closing. If they are filling out a lead form or they're calling on a sign, and if they get off the phone with you and they call another agent, the next person is probably not going to be as soft and consultative.
We're really pushing for the appointment right when they call and then adding value. So I would definitely say you want to balance it out. I think there's a place for it. But if you are calling brand new expired listings and you're going to try a real slow, soft approach, I will tell you it will not work.
Everyone should be operating off of a base script. The first 10 seconds to three minutes of the call should all sound the same. Some people say, 'oh I just wing it,' well, you wing it and you can't get consistent results over time.
The conversation is going to take itself where it needs to go, but we should start with a basis of a script. So there's a lot of talk about role-playing and script practice. I think it's definitely got its place and I think when you're starting out, role-playing and script practice is hugely valuable. We've done it on my team, but I'll tell you we don't do it anymore. And the reason is, if you're on the phone for three hours every single day in a room full of other people, you get really good at it. So I don't know that you need to sit here and role play with people when I'm doing this all day, every day.
By far the single biggest mistake that I see people make when they are prospecting is they don't track their numbers. So they don't know how many hours they're on the phone each week, how many calls they're making, how many contacts they made, how many appointments and how many nurtures they got.
So what we track is the number of hours on Mojo, how many calls we made in that time, how many contacts we had, if we got a nurture lead –which is anything we couldn't set an appointment on, but they are looking to do something inside of a year—or an appointment.
When I look at an agent, and they say well I'm on the dialer a lot and I say, well, that's great, how much is a lot? How do you grow your numbers if you don't know what you have?
I would say, no matter how you are getting your business, the real estate business functions off the phone. So no matter how you go out and meet people, at some point it's going to involve you picking up the phone and calling them. And in this business the more calls you make, the more contacts you make. The more contacts you make, the more potential for income that you have. So if any agent out there wants to make more money, it's going to involve talking to more people.
And so to me, getting on a dialer or getting on something that allows you to make more calls in less time if you want to have a big business or increase your business, that's the easiest way to do that.
And even if you're a referral based agent or your business is largely referral, call the people in your database more. So I would say anyone who is not on a dialer should be on one, and by tracking it you would know how to systematically grow your business over time.
To learn more about the systems Brett uses for cold calling and lead generation, head on over to our website www.mojosells.com and watch our informative videos, download our brochure and start building your prospecting system today!
Finding success with real estate prospecting without first practicing can be likened to not studying before a final exam, in a class you've missed more days than you've attended!
You might think you can wing it. You might think you can deftly deflect any objection a potential client could throw your way because, hey, you're a smart, quick study and you've heard people talk before so why not?
Let us tell you why not. In the heat of a call, you don't want to fumble for your words. You don't want to get an objection and all you can think to say is, 'jeez, yeah, that's about right. Thanks anyway.' Click. And you don't want to rely solely on your scripts, because calls can get off script in a hurry.
To be great at real estate prospecting, you need to practice and preferably role play, at least a few minutes every day. Role playing firmly embeds your core message in your brain. Do it enough, and it is as if it gets into your DNA. You won't be searching for what to say. You won't have to think about it. You will just know what to do and what to say. This not only will make you feel more confident, but it will make you sound more confident.
There are plenty of role playing scripts out there to choose from. Pick a few and then get a partner or three to work with. You can even rotate through a few of them each week to get some variety in your pregame workout so to speak.
When picking a partner, you want to make sure you are working with someone who will give it to you straight, someone who will not be afraid to give you constructive feedback on how you're doing. This is the time to work out the kinks.
It's also a good idea to challenge each other to not only come up with the standard objections, but to really dig deep and throw in obscure some curve balls. While you may never get that exact outlandish objection, it will give you a chance to hone your ability to think quickly in the moment.
It's also good to remember that these practice sessions are not just about memorizing the words. This is the time to test out your tone, mannerisms and delivery. All of which should match the person you are talking to.
Furthermore, pay attention when it's your turn to be the potential client in the role play. This is a great opportunity to see things from the client's perspective. By taking the time to see things from this perspective, it becomes easier to understand their frustrations and respond with genuine empathy for their situation in a real call scenario. Perfecting this skill, will help you build trust and rapport needed to get those appointments.
And if you're having trouble finding a partner in your real estate office, reach out to your peers on Facebook, or in a forum such as the one available to Mojo clients, seeking a partner to work with. Take it a step further, find other Mojo Dialer users in your sphere, and reach out to them not only to role play, but to share best practices while using Mojo – a win/win situation. It may feel awkward, or even a little silly at first. But just remember, this is the way to master the craft; it's how you get to the art of prospecting. It's how you develop the nuance that means the difference between a "no thank you" and a "yeah, maybe." The top earners know this. They may make it look easy while they're working the phones, but that's because they put the sweat in behind the scenes to get there.
If you are doing these things diligently and consistently, before long, you're getting on the phone and you're hoping someone throws you an objection, because you know just what to say. Before you know it, you're hoping they tell you something you haven't heard, because you're so prepared, you've studied, you're ready, and you've got this because practice makes perfect.
Craig Reger has been selling real estate in Portland, Ore. for nearly 20 years. For the past fifteen years, he has been consistently recognized as one of Oregon's top-producing Realtors and coach of the KW Maps Coaching 90-in-90 listing challenge.
Best known for his understanding and knowledge of the market, Reger served as the 2011 President of the PMAR Million Dollar Club (MDC) and was honored as the 2008 PMAR MDC Broker of the Year. In addition to running the Craig Reger Group, he is the Operating Principal of the Keller Williams Sunset Corridor brokerage office and Keller Williams Eugene- Springfield brokerage. He also coaches and trains other real estate brokers throughout the Portland area.
He recently shared some of his tips, tricks and insights about prospecting with Mojo.
In a nutshell it's consistency in your business. I feel many agents do some form of prospecting, they get some business, then they work on that business, they wake up with some paychecks and then they're out of business and they more or less repeat that process.
And it's just not a very good quality of life. The importance of prospecting is if you can time block and commit, one hour a day, two hours a day, three hours a day, whatever it is, commit to reach your goals, the business becomes so consistent. It's not perfect, but it's consistent.
If you get in front of enough candidates, you're going to get someone who is a 10 to buy or list this weekend and you're going to find somebody else whose motivation is a 2 or a 0. So prospecting allows you to work with the people you enjoy working with at a price point you enjoy working with at a motivational level you enjoy working with. And geographic areas you enjoy working with. All of that becomes controllable through prospecting. And without prospecting, you're kind of just at the whim of, 'Hey I got this one lead, and whether it's good or bad I guess I have to work on it.'
I think there are more roadblocks than there are open lanes sometimes. I think it's our mindset, I think it's fear of rejection, a lack of confidence or a lack of knowledge about what we're going to say. I think those are the biggest reasons we feel intimidated. The mindset that it won't work. Those are the most common roadblocks I see with my team or with people around the country.
I think script practice is key, I really do. I use sports analogies to explain this. Imagine if your favorite football team just showed up on Sunday to play the 49ers– they had no practice, they didn't work on their positions, they didn't work on their plays, didn't watch game tape– they just showed up and hoped to have a good game against the 49ers. That would not be a very good situation for them.
Yet in our business we don't take 15, 20, 30 minutes a day to really master what we do. We go to work, which is basically like playing the game on Sunday. We don't take any time prior to going to work to, or most of us don't take any time, to feel extremely confident and knowledgeable in what we're going to say or do at work.
So I think script practice is a really big one that can take away those fears and to give us confidence in what we're going to say.
Personally, I think you dive in. My take on it is, so often people do what I call getting ready to get ready to get ready and they never actually do anything. So in some cases they are spending days and weeks or months or years, coming up with a plan, which is a form of work I guess.
They are making a plan for, wow this is going to be the best conversation and the best phone numbers and the best scripts and the best everything and that's all they're working on and they never actually pick up the phone.
To me at its simplest form, if Mojo Dialer can give me even just 500 numbers, and if I have zero scripts, I simply call up 500 people and I say, 'Hi, I'm Craig and I'm a real estate agent have you thought about selling your home?' which is not the most powerful script, right? At its most basic form, any one of us can say those 10 words.
And, if I call 500 people and say those 10 words, odds are that two or three or five or seven or worse case, if it's just horrific, one, is going to say yes. If you want to be successful at it, you pick up the phone and maybe you have a slightly better script than, 'Hi, I'm Craig do you want to sell your home?' But at the end of the day, that script would work if you did it 6 hours a day. There's no gray in my mind it would work.
I think that over time you develop your scripts, you develop your confidence, then you grow towards mastery, and at that point certainly your closing ratios and conversion ratios and appointment ratios will go up exponentially.
Recognize it's a numbers game. I think a lot of people get frustrated, of, 'Oh I called up 30 or 50 or 70 people and I didn't set an appointment.' So they stop. But what if the next three were the three that would have said yes?
It comes back to consistency. If you want to find motivated buyers and sellers, then you have to go through a bunch of non-motivated buyers and sellers. It's consistency and it's also in the quantity. And that's what I love about the Mojo dialer. It gives my team an opportunity to dial thousands, if not literally tens of thousands of numbers a week.
And if we get in front of that many people, then we are going to find people who have some level of motivation.
They don't do it, they don't do it, they don't do it. I mean, seriously.
Another is, they give up too soon. They just feel like, 'I did it for a day or a week or three weeks and that's good enough.' They give up too soon on that expired, and they give up too soon on the for sale by owner.
It's like, if I go to the gym for two weeks and work out really hard, and I haven't done that before, I'm going to be in a bunch of pain- my body's not going to change that much in two weeks. But if I go to the gym every single day or even four days a week for the next 90 days- tell me I won't look and feel totally different 91 days from now.
I think prospecting and lead generation is the exact same thing. A lot of people will do it for a day or a week or two weeks and, just like going to the gym, they're not seeing those immediate results. They are like, 'Well this sucks and oh by the way it's painful,' and they stop right as it's going to get really good.
To me that's the biggest mistake, it's not consistent they only do it when they are at a place of, 'Oh my gosh I just woke up with no or few deals in Escrow,' and they do it and it's not always an immediate results. It has to be consistent and they need to stick with it. I think those are the one and two biggest mistakes that people make with lead generation.
[Interview has been edited for length and clarity]
We know how busy Craig is with coaching and running his real estate business and we'd like to thank him for sharing his knowledge. Keep an eye out for more real estate agent Q&A:)
People who list their homes themselves don't want to talk to you. Well, they do, but they just yet don't know it. So your challenge is to explain why they need you and the value you bring. In this post, we discuss taking the right approach to FSBO lead prospecting.
This is going to take time, research, effort and some leads from Mojo's real-time and aged FSBO lead services, or your preferred real estate lead provider. It might sound like a lot of work, but remember the work you put in ahead of time will be worth it since this is sometimes a neglected niche in the market. According to the most recent statistics from the National Association of Realtors, FSBOs accounted for nine percent of the more than 5 million homes that sold in 2013. If you weren't on top of FSBOs that year, that amounted to 458,100 missed opportunities.
A key thing to remember when you are trying to convert a FSBO to a listing is to not be pushy. These folks may have already had a bad experience with an agent, which is why they are going it alone. Or they believe they are doing the right thing financially and don't need a pushy agent.
People selling their houses themselves often don't know what they are getting into. They think they can put up a sign and place an ad and someone will buy the house the next week. They aren't familiar with the intricacies of contracts, negotiations and closings. They don't know that it takes more than a sign to sell a house.
With that in mind, FSBOs typically fall into two categories: those who give selling a try, but their hearts aren't in it; and, those who don't want to pay a commission.
The first group is a nice bunch because they really aren't committed to it. You usually can convince them to meet because at the end of the day, they don't want to do the legwork. They just thought they'd give it a go to save money. Again, it's a numbers game, and if you're calling enough FSBOs, every morning, you are going to find a bunch of those who think twice about going it alone.
The other group can be pricklier. They are listing themselves because they don't want to pay a commission or perhaps because a previous agent let them down. Right out of the gate, this group probably believes real estate agents don't bring much to the process of listing or selling property. They think they can make their own fliers, put up a sign in the yard and hold an open house and be in business.
With this type of homeowner, you want to prepare for the long game. On the first call, just focus on building a relationship. Offer to bring them signs for the open house, throw in a brochure box, and ask if they have any questions you could answer before their first sale weekend. Then wish them luck and wait, until the following Monday when you call back.
On the Monday call, ask how the open house went and if they got any offers. Mention you sold three houses over the weekend and are seeing a shortage of inventory. Once again, ask if they need anything or have any questions.
Do this every Monday for the next few weeks. These conversations are great opportunities to build a foundation for a positive working relationship. Here's an approach you can consider using: You may know that, according to NAR data, in 2013 the typical FSBO home sold for $184,000 compared to $230,000 for agent-assisted home sales. As you and the homeowner get to know each other, diplomatically drop that data into the conversation. The idea with a FSBO, or really any prospect, is to be helpful while not treating the homeowner like he or she is a complete idiot who's making a huge mistake.
You could even try saying something like this:
"Look, I get it. You want to sell the house on your own; you want to save money. If I wasn't a real estate agent, I'd do the same thing. I'm not going to try to sell you a thing, but what I would like to know is if you sold the house, where are you going?"
Or something like this:
"I don't know if you know, but if something is going to happen with your house, it's going to happen within the first 30 days. After 30 days, are you thinking about getting an agent? Again because, I get it, you want to try to save the six percent. If it doesn't work out, is your plan B to hire an agent? If so, I'd like to talk to you about it. But right now, I'm going to respect your wish to try to sell it on your own, and, if you're eventually interested, I may have a buyer for you."
Have conversations on what the house could net. The most common reason people list the home themselves is because they think they will save the six-percent commission. That said, most homeowners would pay three percent to the buyer's agent if you brought them a buyer.
So that conversation may go something like this:
Agent: If I was willing to bring you a qualified buyer would you be willing to pay three percent?
Prospect: Yes.
Agent: I'd love to come out, say Tuesday or Thursday, to see your home and see if it works for the buyer. I'd also like to show you what we do to get more homes sold in less time for more money.
By shifting the focus from how it benefits you, the agent, to how it can benefit them, you are highlighting a way out that will let them save face and money. You've created a realistic win/win scenario and proven your value as an agent.
If you continue this type of dialogue, somewhere around the six-week mark you should notice a change in the homeowners. They are starting to get frustrated that what they are doing isn't working. They have lost their motivation and they want their free time back.
You want to be there when this happens. You want to be the agent who offered help, guidance and support when it seemed as though there was nothing in it for you. Because when they give up, who will they call? You. Because you stuck it out. You didn't insult their intelligence to do it on their own. You put in the work and have earned the reward of their business.
Have more questions on how engage a FSBO lead? Our friend Bob Loeffler, owner of the Fearless Agent, shares some quality tips below.
Real Estate Agent Bernie Gallerani has spent years building a successful real estate firm in Hendersonville, Tenn. One of the secrets to his success has been prospecting. In fact, Gallerani has built a team and tailored a business model that has him prospecting as much as six to eight hours a day, while the rest of his people handle the other aspects of the business.
We were introduced to Bernie back in 2008 when he opened the doors for us in the Real Estate industry. It is rumored within the walls of Mojo that Bernie just might be the first Real Estate agent to ever leverage the Mojo Dialer in Real Estate! We recently chatted with Gallerani to find out why this is his winning strategy.
A: In my opinion, it's the only true way to predict your business. When I say it's the way to predict your business, it's also the best cost. It's something you can get up and do every day, and you can have a specific time and a specific list of people to call. And that effort of an hour or two hours or three hours a day creates a certain result.
Some forms of prospecting can be the least cost effect way to generate a lead. Some of us go out and do a lot of marketing, post cards, radio ads, billboards and mail out farming, whatever it is. And there's a cost associated to all of that– a big one. With phone prospecting, you are spending your time, which is a very important commodity, but your cost of developing a lead is low.
So I will give you just an example of my particular business. Through prospecting, I must have a dialer, so I have a dialer. It's $150 for a dialer and $150 for a numbers search. So I have $300 invested in my monthly expense. For that, I will list anywhere from 12 to 15 homes every 30 days.
In my market, at $8000 commission, I sell between 12-15 homes a month. Therefore, I spend about 300 hours to earn $96000.
If I relied on post cards, and sent out 2500 a month, I would spend the same $300, but that same $300 is $3,600 for the year. And that $3,600 per year produces about 8 sales per year.
So we'll take the same $8,000 commission times 8– $64,000 in income. So you have $64,000 for the year, versus, $96,000 for the month, so you have $1,152,000 million in income on 12 sales per month in a year, versus $64,000. So clearly, the amount of money you earn is so much greater with phone prospecting.
A: Because they don't know what to say and they can't handle rejection. Because they think when people are rejecting them, they think they are rejected. They are not being rejected. They're not rejecting you. They are just rejecting the service. And if you can get your mind around the idea that they are rejecting the service–life's a numbers game. You drive a car enough times, you're going to get in an accident. Everything at some point, at some level, is a numbers game. You take a risk and there's going to be a result of some sort.
So let's take the risk of rejection. If you call enough people, you are going to get the majority of people who are going to reject what you're offering. But the gain outweighs the faults. The gain is if I get enough people to say no, eventually I'm going to get enough people to say yes. If somebody says yes, if I get somebody to say yes, I get $8,000.
So think about this, if for every 60 people you talk to, you get $8000, would you call 60 people in five days or would you try to call 60 people in one day? One-day right? Because if you call 60 people in one day and you sold a house every single day, five days a week, that's $40,000 a week. So for $40,000 a week would you be okay with hearing a little rejection? So that's why people don't prospect. They don't know what to say and they can't handle rejection.
A: There are a lot of great scripts out there available for telephone prospecting. Every lead type is going to have a different approach just based on what kind of lead they are and what motivations they have. The key to prospecting and asking good questions, is making the questions all about them.
How does that make you feel? Ultimately what will that do for you? If this happens, what's going to happen then? –See? These are all questions about them– How would your spouse feel about that? How would your wife feel about that? How would your children feel about that? How are you going to feel if this particular thing happens? How would that make you happy if X happened?
A: I can go through a whole script from start to finish and never tell them about me, the only thing I might ever say– and it's a good close for us—is, 'So what I hear you saying is if you had a good marketing plan that was proven and you knew there was a hundred percent chance that the home would sell in say the next six weeks, you'd want to use it, right? So what I would like to do with you is walk step by step by step and show you exactly what I've done already in the last 90 days to sell 87 properties. So if we could assure you one of those sales, would you want to use it?'
Everything is about them, how could we help you, how can this benefit you, is this something you'd be interested in, and I'd like to show you how we've been able to make this happen with 90 other homes in the last 3 months.
A: Think about this, wouldn't you rather have people interested in you? Doesn't that make you feel good? If I started asking you about your life, your relationships with other people, your home life and your dogs–you're going to feel good that I'm interested in you, right? And that's all it is. They say the greatest sound that you'll ever here is the sound of your own voice. Which means people like talking.
If we can get them to tell us about them it makes them feel good because we're not only digging into who they are, but also they get to talk. So as a telemarketer, as a prospector, I am always about trying to help them identify their goals and encouraging them to keep moving forward.
My goal when talking to them is to get an objection. There's a saying called Failing Forward. I want to fail forward. So every time someone says no and I know it's a numbers game, I just need to keep calling until I hear a yes, because if I hear a yes, I just made $8000.
A: The biggest mistake people make in prospecting is that they are okay or satisfied with setting a follow up call. Which means that they don't work hard enough for an appointment, they settle for a follow up call.
'I'm not doing anything right now, but call me back in a week then we'll set some time.' Why would I as an agent be okay with calling you back next week versus setting an appointment with you right now? Why wouldn't I just set the appointment?
Here's why. People believe the client has to like them. So they feel like they have to build a better rapport with them, and it's not true. So to answer your question what's one of the biggest mistakes is
[Conversation has been edited for space and where clarification was needed.]
It's hard to argue that we owe much of Mojo's cult-like following to Bernie and we'd like to thank Bernie for his straightforward approach to this interview, his willingness to share what works and what doesn't, and finally, his continued support for our company and products.
Stay tuned for more upcoming Q&A:)
Call Reluctance is the number one reason agents give for not prospecting. It can be easy to get bogged down in the challenges, roadblocks and fears we build up around prospecting. We reached out to three of Real Estate's top professionals to get a few tips to help you get you past it.
What if you start prospecting using the Mojo Dialer and everyone says no? What if no one wants what you're selling? What if they laugh, swear, scream at you?
This fear of rejection is by far the biggest reason for call reluctance. And the only way to overcome it is by accepting this fact: they are not rejecting you. They are rejecting a service. If you can accept that, the no's and prospecting become much easier.
The majority of people you call with or without Mojo, are going to reject what you're offering. But there will be plenty more who say yes and every yes is potential money in your pocket. And with the Mojo Dialer, getting to the yes answers happens faster and more often than any other dialing system.
"I mean had one guy last week who just said, 'F-You.' You know real calmly," says James Festini, coach and top producer with Century 21 in Temecula, Calif. "And I just said, 'Well thank you very much for your time.' It's not like they are going to reach through the phone or slash your tires, so physically there's no threat, so it's the emotional and psychological threat that you go through."
That being the case, he adds, why is it we still put more weight into a complete stranger saying no, than we do our spouses or significant others being mad at us, for instance?
"I should care more that my wife just hung up on me than the jerk I just got hung up on," he says. "There's always another one when it comes to the phone numbers. If you go to the Mojo lead store and you download your entire town, and you scrub with the do not call list and you've got 20,000 or 30,000 phone numbers. If you have that, then there's no reason why when you get a no, you can't just say, 'next.'"
Not to mention, you don't know these people. They don't know you. Outside of the context of this very brief exchange, this person has no bearing or weight on your life, your worth or your abilities as an agent. All they did was say no, they weren't selling their house. Okay. In the grand scheme of things, what does one or one hundred simple no's matter? They don't. This person is just not selling his or her house. They are not rejecting you.
Again, it's a numbers game. You are going to get a weirdo, you are going to get a jerk, if you do a hundred contacts a day for a year like Festini does, you are going to walk a numbers path that will ultimately lead you to at least one that will rattle your cage. But by the same law of numbers, you will have those sweet moments of success. But not if you don't try.
First of all, know this, you are going to sound terrible on your first day of prospecting. You will get flustered. You will get bored. You will get rejected. And someone, eventually, will tell you where to stick your just sold and likely insult your mother in the process. These things will happen. And when they do, be assured, the world will not end. Your job will still be there, you'll go back to your real life when you hang up and your kids will still love you.
One of the biggest fears you need to overcome is not knowing who to call. But that's really an easy one. Start with your sphere of influence and past clients. They know you, they like you and if interested, they will go with you for the listing.
Once you've done that, expand your sphere. This is equally easy since you have an opportunity to do this every time you go out into the world. Strike up conversations with the person cutting your hair, servicing your car or sitting next to you at a kid's dance recital. Consider coaching a local team or joining clubs and civic organizations in your area; sometimes just being a member of the same organization can give you a leg up or at least a second thought from the person on the other end of the phone.
Now that you've got your list, keep it in the Mojo Dialer and prospecting system and set up recurring follow-up calls for them. Whether you decide to call them every quarter, every six months or even just once a year, keep your name in front of them. That way even if they don't have something cooking, when they hear of someone else who does, you are top of mind. The best part, Mojo automates the entire process, all you do is call in to our system, and technology does the calling- ensuring you're calling the right contacts, when you want to call them.
Next, fill your lists with contacts from our Neighborhood Search. There are a myriad of contacts waiting at your fingertips, with a few strokes of your mouse, they are organized in individual calling lists, ready to be called.
"That's what I love so much about the Mojo," says Brett Tanner, agent and industry leader with the Brett Tanner Home Selling Team in Mesa, AZ. "Because they've solved the who. You can go to the Lead Store and you can get expireds, get just solds, you've got options there that will tell you who to call."
The Mojo Expired Data Service has complete off-market data including expired, cancelled and withdrawn properties. These leads are delivered daily. This service also updates the listing status of your properties so you are working only callable properties. Similarly, Mojo's For Sale by Owner service includes real time and aged data gathered from more than 30 sources.
Furthermore, if you have one or a batch of addresses and zip codes, Mojo's Reverse Data Look Up service will retrieve the numbers for you to fill up you database. Likewise, you can create a call list with Mojo's Free Form Geographical plotting webpage. This is great for circle prospecting neighborhoods awash in just listeds and just solds or gathering data for an entire municipalities a few thousand numbers at a time.
Prospecting can be stressful and unpleasant, but it doesn't have to be the boogeymen we all make it out to be at times. The first step to wrapping your mind around that concept and believing it is understanding that everyone has these fears. You are not unique. The call reluctance, the conversation going on in your head telling you that you can't do this, the temptation of distraction–everyone has these challenges. Just understand that the ones who succeed are the ones who don't use it as an excuse.
Remember the first time you talked to your significant other? Or maybe even your best friend? At first, you may have worried about what to say or how to approach that person. But then you just did it. You launched into it and before too long, you slipped into conversation and it just flowed. It seemed almost, effortless.
Prospecting can be that way too. Really. Yes, there are initial doubts and reservations, but if you just start, just jump in, your training will take over and the conversation can be just like talking to an old friend.
It's just a conversation. Let's break it down.
To start with, there are literally thousands of scripts out there you can use to help you get the basics down. We offer dozens in our upcoming book Prospecting: The Art and Science of A Winning Strategy, we also preload the Mojo Dialer with a few scripts for each lead type. Practice them, do a little role-playing and then get on the phone and do it for real. Because truly that is the only way to get good on the phone; the only way to master the art of prospecting.
Sometimes though, you can start with something as simple as "Hi, I'm Jane Doe, I work for XYZ Realty, are you interested in selling your house?"
It's not a sexy script, granted. But push comes to shove, when your brain goes fuzzy and you find yourself at a loss for how to start or where to go your script can be that simple. And what's more, if you ask 500 people that simple question, someone will say yes.
Nobody sounds good on their first day. But if you call three hours a day after 90 days of calling you're going to sound like a pro. It will seem effortless. You will have heard most everything you are going to hear and will know how to handle it, so there will be few if any surprises to shake you.
Furthermore, over time you develop your scripts, you develop your confidence, and in that way you grow towards mastery," says industry leader Craig Reger, with Craig Reger Group Realtors.
"And at that point, certainly your closing ratios and conversion ratios and appointment ratios will go up exponentially," he says.
It's all about confidence. And by doing it a lot, you're going to get good at it. Reger likens it to going to the gym. If you just start going to the gym after you haven't been for five years, you aren't going to be the guy squatting 600 lbs. and knowing how to use every machine because there's a lot of complicated stuff there. But say instead, you just go on the treadmill, and you do that for a half hour for 30 days straight; at day 31, likely you're looking pretty fit and feeling pretty proud of yourself and oh by the way you've probably learned a couple other pieces of machinery just from watching other people or doing it and you've added to your arsenal- using the Mojo Dialer is no different.
"And that's how I look at lead generation," he says. "Just start. Have one or two scripts. And as you get consistent– and I don't mean you do it once and then you don't do it again for three more weeks, it's like do it for 60 days in a row, Monday through Friday 9 to 11, and tell me on day 61 you haven't internalized the script, added to it and by the way have success and confidence."
We hope you these tips helpful. The difference between being successful on the phone and giving up, has always been being able to accept no for an answer, knowing who to call and what to say when you call them. Once you're solid in these three areas, it's a matter of firing up the Mojo Dialer and pressing the start calling button.
A big thanks to Brett, James and Craig for being part of the contributing team behind our upcoming prospecting book Prospecting: The Art and Science of A Winning Strategy.
Mojo Selling Solutions has been the industry leader in Power Dialer technology in Real Estate since first introducing the Mojo Dialer in 2007. Since then, Mojo has added many prospecting tools to the Real Estate agents arsenal including Real Estate lead data, hosted web-based lead management tools and a suite of mobile products designed to keep agents productive on the go.
The headset feels like lead, your eyelids, even heavier. The people on the line are all starting to sound like the teachers in a Peanuts cartoon, 'Wah, wah, wah, wah, no.' Meanwhile, you've already doodled the equivalent of the Sistine Chapel on your calendar and you are trying to move the clock hands forward to the end of your prospecting hours with the power of your mind.
And it's only been 15 minutes.
The call ends and the next thing you know you're like a jacked up squirrel sprinting after every shiny thing he sees– "Ooh! Facebook," "Oooh, a text," "Is that cake!"– doing everything and anything not to have to make that next call.
Prospecting can be hard, it can even be deadly boring and staying motivated is one of the biggest challenges you will face. But you have a choice: you can accept that and give into the temptation of that distracting cake, or you can make a lot of money.
There's no way around it, prospecting is the only duplicable and predictable way to grow your business. That inevitably means getting on the phone and staying on the phone for long stretches of time. So, in the face of that inevitability, learning how and finding ways to stay motivated are key.
Here are a few to get you started:
Lastly, you can't expect prospecting to work overnight. It's not a silver bullet, but stick with it consistently and stay motivated! It is the only proven effective method for predictably growing your business.
Don't just take our word for it. We've had the pleasure of serving North America's top agents for over 10 years. During this time, we've extracted tons of information from them to share with other agents, especially those just getting started. Check out the rest of this blog for priceless tips and tricks.
People who list their homes themselves don't want to talk to you. Well, they do, they just don't know it yet. So your challenge if you choose to accept it is to explain to them why they need you and the value you bring.
This is going to take some time, research, effort and leads from Mojo's real time and aged FSBO data service, to be successful. But the work you put in will be worth it since this is sometimes a neglected niche in the market. According to the most recent statistics from the National Association of Realtors FSBOs accounted for 9 percent of the 5,090,000 homes that sold in 2013. That translates to 458,100 missed opportunities.
A key thing to remember when you are trying to convert an FSBO to a listing is don't be pushy. These folks may have already had a bad experience with an agent which is why they are going it alone. Or, they believe they are doing the right thing financially. Whatever the reason, and this might sound nuts, try to help them. Give them some selling tips. Real Estate expert Ron Quintero even suggests offering to send them some open house and for sale signs, throw in a brochure box. When they eventually realize how hard it is to sell a house on their own, you are going to be the one they call because you were genuinely helpful.
The person listing his or her own house is, number one, trying to keep as much of their equity as they can, which is understandable. So acknowledge you understand that and then show them how selling a house by themselves doesn't actually save them money. Start out by asking them what their plan is if the house doesn't sell right away. Ask them to consider the money it will take to cover the mortgage, insurance and utilities for a month. Then have them multiply that by six months if the house doesn't sell right away. The number they will be looking at will be the same or greater than the 6 percent they'd have to pay you to sell their house quicker.
You also may want to point out that according to NAR data, in 2013 the typical FSBO home sold for $184,000 compared to $230,000 for agent-assisted home sales.
Folks selling their houses themselves often don't know what they are getting into when they decide to sell themselves. They think they can stick out a sign and put an ad on the internet or local paper and someone will come and buy their house the next day or the next week. They aren't familiar with the intricacies of contracts, negotiations and closings. They don't know that it takes more than a sign to sell a house. (According to NAR statistics, when it came to advertising 36 percent used a sign; 32 percent didn't actively advertise.)
Now, you know if given the chance, you could easily handle these things. They don't know this, so you need to tell them. So you call an FSBO up on your mojo power dialer, and being more helpful than solicitous, ask them a few questions about their plans when it comes to advertising, holding open houses, what they will do if a potential buyer wants to use some creative financing to buy the house, contracts, addendums to those contracts, closings, etc. The more details they learn about that they didn't realize were part of selling the house, the better you are starting to look to them.
Now since you will have already done some research on the property from the fresh Mojo FSBO and Expired leads you received that morning, it's also a good idea, once you've established rapport to talk about the property itself. Pitch how you could advertise it and offer an opinion as to what some of pluses and minuses of the property.
"By watching and waiting, you can target FSBO sellers with properties that have been on the market longer than the average for listings," says Real Estate Business Expert James Kimmons. "You can study their property using Mojo's FSBO data before initial contact, do a CMA, and determine if a price adjustment must be made. Once you're ready to contact them, you come armed with solutions to their marketing dilemma."
The best part about this says Kimmons, is that you will not be competing with nearly as many agents as in other real estate niche markets.
"Your conversion percentage from FSBO to listing will become quite high as you gain experience," he says. "You'll be able to give examples and references of previous FSBO properties you've taken to closing. This can be a great real estate marketing niche for those who take the time and effort to perfect their approach. "
(Want to find out how you can benefit from Mojo's Real Estate Dialer and Real Estate Lead Service? Click here to learn more about how Mojo and their FSBO data can help you be more productive, better organized and dramatically improve your real estate prospecting results!)
That's right not only has Ben Kinney used Mojo for years, he loves Mojo! And late last week he released this video to tell everyone just how much.
"If it wasn't for Mojo," he says. "I'd have no Mojo."
And that's saying quite a lot since Ben Kinney, who is an entrepreneur, professional speaker, author and real estate agent with Keller Williams in Bellingham, Washington, has been listed in The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends' top 1,000 agents for three years running. Kinney is also the founder of NVNTD, Home4Investment and a co-founder of Brivity.
And he likes us. We will try to stay humble. Check out the video below for some great tips.
Prospecting can be one of the more challenging parts of the job, but it's still the most effective way to get new business. After all, real estate is a numbers game. The more people you contact, the more leads you will get. The more leads you get, the more properties you will sell. It's just that simple.
Some experts say setting a time for prospecting first thing in the morning yields the best results, mostly because both you and your callers are still fresh and eager to go. While others swear by prospecting on the weekends and evenings–after the dinner hour– because that's when people are home. No matter what time you choose, the important thing is that you do it.
While prospecting can be the most challenging part of the business and takes a bit of mental psyching to get in the mood, it's a proven effective path to getting sales. According to the National Association of Realtors, for every 25 calls you get one lead on average. That doesn't sound like much until you figure, you can make up to 300 calls per hour using the Mojo Power Dialer. Doing the math, that translates to 12 an hour! At the end of a two-hour block, you've got more than two dozen and more than enough to keep you busy.
Have a script and practice it with a colleague until it sounds natural and easy. Make sure the script has you using your best phone etiquette, such as asking the prospect if this is a good time to chat. Also, build enough flexibility into the script so you're getting in your key points, but also remaining responsive to your prospect. If you are getting ready to call specific prospects, for instance an FSBO lead you received from one of Mojo's real time or aged For Sale by Owner data services, use key words from the ad in your pitch, suggests Larson Educational Services in Fort Meyers, Fla. Additionally, lead with a hook such as, "I have some news you might be interested in." Douglas Driscoll, CEO, of Starr Partners says this gets a prospect curious and hopefully captures their attention. Further, if you ask a prospect for five minutes of time, stick to it. End the call at five minutes, if they want to keep talking, you know you have a prospect worth following up on.
According to the National Association of Realtors it's a good idea to decide pick an area you want to target–this can be by neighborhood, by market niche, or by price range– but make sure that it's big enough to meet your income goals. Mojo's Just Listed/Just Sold Neighborhood search has a mapping feature that allows you to do this easily. When you are setting your income goals and your territory, remember to take into account that there will likely be other agents in the area gunning for the same business. Using services like Mojo Expired Data, Real Time FSBO Data and Aged FSBO can help you get an edge on the competition however and help mitigate their effectiveness on your turf.
The prospects can't see you, but that doesn't mean they can't sense if you are listening or if you're excited about your pitch. First thing, close your email windows and put away anything else that might distract you from focusing on your potential client. Next, go hands free. This will allow you to walk around and keep your energy up. It will also allow you to use your hands while you talk. This may not seem like it's important, but most people talk with their hands. Allowing yourself the freedom to do this while you are prospecting will help keep the pitch conversational and natural. Because, as Douglas Driscoll says, strong relationships are built on information not promotion.
From what they are looking for in a property to what their golf game is, keep good notes on the person that you are talking to. That way when they call back, Mojo ID will display all of their information, instantly prepping you for your call. It's also important to track data and look for patterns such as which niches are the most responsive, which days work the best, your success rate, and adapt accordingly. This is easily done through Mojo's cloud-based organization system. Remember, as Sales Guru, John Boe says, "It's critical to have a computerized client contact management system to record your remarks and track future contacts and appointments. Relying on your memory is a very poor business decision that can cost you dearly. "
(Want to find out how you can benefit from Mojo's Real Estate Dialer and Real Estate Lead Service? Click here to learn more about how Mojo can help you be more productive, better organized and dramatically improve your real estate prospecting results!)
Since the end of the Great Recession, the market has slowly but surely started straggling back from the brink. However, noticeably absent from the table in recent years have been first time homebuyers. Yet, there's good reason to believe that's about to change. The biggest driver of that change? The Millennials are finally ready to leave the basements and Pretty -Pony -clad bedrooms of their childhood nests and when they do, research shows they want to buy a house from you.
While nothing is a sure thing, industry leaders are confident that a perfect storm of factors is taking shape that will nudge this demographic–at 77 million strong– into the market. In fact, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University found that "the number of households in their 30s should increase by 2.7 million over the coming decade, which should boost the demand for new housing."
Millennials–defined as those born between roughly 1981 and 1999– are a funny bunch. In the wake of the great recession anywhere from 30 to 50 percent–depending on the year– went back home to live with their parents to save money. They had seen firsthand the effects of the housing and crash and vowed they'd do two things: save up and never own a house. And many kept these promises often leaving their childhood home to live the carefree life of a renter. And since many of them delayed marriage and children in favor of career, they could.
But now, they are getting older, with the oldest of the generation just turning 34 this year. The rings are on the fingers and babies are on the way. Their careers are taking shape and becoming more stable. They want roots. They want community. They want for their kids what they had, but better. In short, they want a home. Ninety-three percent of them anyway, according to Trulia.com.
And now is the time. Rents are rising faster than home prices and if nothing else, this generation likes a value. They see the benefit of paying themselves with a house payment instead of someone else with rent. Furthermore, where credit might once have been an issue, it will be less of one in 2015 and beyond since lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released new, more relaxed lending guidelines aimed at the first-time homebuyer late last year. Combine all this with an increase in new construction of smaller starter homes, a stronger job market, and still-low interest rates and you have the makings of a significant new, untapped market.
Not only that, but when millennials start buying it's going to have a ripple effect. Those who've been wanting to sell but fearful no one was buying will start to feel more confident that there is a large group of potential homebuyers champing at the bit to get into a home and will start to look to get theirs on the market.
So what does this mean for you? It's going to be critical to have the systems you need in place to seek out and accommodate all this potential business. For instance, Millennials are a social generation. They want their communities and neighborhoods to reflect that. When they aren't living in densely populated urban villages, according to Nielsen Research, they are seeking out "urban burbs." These are suburbs that have the feel and amenities of more urban areas. To find these neighborhoods, use the Mojo Just Listed Just Sold Neighborhood search. This tool allows you to map out a calling area right in the middle of a hot ticket area or an up and coming neighborhood that might meet any Millennial's must have list. It's instant, it's targeted, it's perfect for this purpose.
Now, this trend is not a secret. People have been talking about it for months. That said, Mojo–with tools like Real Estate Expired Data, Real Time FSBO Data and Aged FSBO — will stock your call lists with the most effective and most up to date information, allowing you to catch millennials and prospective sellers quicker than the competition.
And don't forget the Triple Line Real Estate Dialer. For while millennials may not have landlines, their parents likely do. This creates not only a great opportunity to enlist the parents' as allies in your quest for their millennial's business while real estate prospecting, but also presents yet another market to tap. After all, with their millennial gone, it may be time for mom and dad to begin thinking about their own new chapter.
(Want to find out how you can benefit from Mojo's Real Estate Dialer and Real Estate Lead Service? Click here to learn more about how Mojo can help you be more productive, better organized and dramatically improve your real estate prospecting results!)
There's something to be said about "staying under the radar," operating in a place where the threat of your presence in the marketplace is unknown. It's a great place to be: Trust us, we were under the radar for years. Everyone leaves you alone and no one assaults your brand online where you cannot defend yourself.
Unfortunately, we're not under the radar anymore. In fact, we're the beacon everyone is now targeting.
It wasn't until about 2011, when the first "micro sites" began popping up targeting our company with bogus data – including fake reviews, incorrect feature information and outright lies about our company. It was a shameless attempt to harm the brand we've spent so long creating.
Who would do such a thing? Well, we're not going to point fingers, but let's just say it is those most threatened by Mojo, the ones who want a piece of what our company has created. Instead of innovation, their only way to get some of the action is to operate in the mud.
Some of the site creators are obviously our competitors and some are hired guns operating offshore, those who specialize in quickly creating one or two-page sites using various "targeted" URLs and keywords.
Not all are completely anonymous. I mean really, when you include 10 companies on your bogus review sites, and include nine pixellated (obviously cut and pasted from the original website) logos and one high-resolution, high-quality company logo, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the mystery source! 🙂
We don't mind legit online review sites, of course. It's just that they don't exist for our domain. The Internet is filled with hotel and restaurant review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor, and you can also find plenty of review sites for consumer electronics – not to mention what you can find under any product sold on Amazon. For example, the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer is a popular item on Amazon at the moment, and why wouldn't it be- finally, perfectly sliced banana's on morning oatmeal!
"What can I say about the 571B Banana Slicer that hasn't already been said about the wheel, penicillin, or the iPhone…. this is one of the greatest inventions of all time." – Amazon review
But who really puts in the time to review power dialers? No one. Quite frankly, it isn't a big enough marketplace for anyone to care. The only people who benefit from these so-called "reviews" are competitors, affiliates and anyone with a grudge to carry out.
So what do these sites say that's so bad about our company? Nothing too bad actually, or the savvy consumer would recognize the site for what it really is – a hatchet job with a hidden agenda. Instead, they knock us in a lot of small areas, while promoting their product right next to ours with extra stars and features alleged to be better than ours.
To save you the trouble of searching for these mistruths, here is a quick sampling:
Mojo Dialer Review Mistruth #1 — We don't work on a WiFi signal.
This one is great! Tell this to the thousands of customers who use Mojo every day on a WiFi connection. Like with ANY web-based product, you need to have a good WiFi connection. That's all.
Mojo Dialer Review Mistruth #2 — We're WAY more expensive than the competitors.
I love this one! We ARE more expensive than our competitors, just as you would expect from any premium product. But WAY more expensive? Not so. If you think $15 per month (on average) is not worth an analog, copper-line connection, the fastest/easiest to use user interface on the market, access to our customer service that absolutely crushes our competition, then we're not the company for you.
Remember that $15 a month savings when you call an expired listing and they can't hear you, or there is a delayed hello – and they hang up on you.
Mojo Dialer Review Mistruth #3 — You can't get our customer service on the phone.
Of all the incorrect Mojo Dialer review information out there, this one really burns our butts. In 2014, we fielded more than 40,000 customer service and sales calls and the average wait time was 54 seconds – yes, less than a minute!
Not only are we blowing the doors off our competitors in this department, but when you call Mojo, you are speaking with a tenured employee with at least five years at Mojo. You're talking with someone who understands your industry and our platform intimately. The customer feedback we get every day validates our approach, but give us a call and decide for yourself.
There are more inane and inaccurate comparison claims found on bogus Mojo Dialer Reviews websites, but we've made our point.
If you want the facts about Mojo, just call us. If you don't want to call us, ask your colleagues. The odds are that one of them already uses Mojo. Mojo is recommended by top real estate agents, brokers and coaches not because they gain financially from it, but because it works for them, it works for their staff and it works for their students, period.
These fake Mojo review sites are great entertainment for all of us at Mojo! They are a result of us operating above the radar, being the gorilla in the jungle and are a reminder that being at the top of the food chain has its headaches.
Happy Prospecting!
P.S. If you happen to own the 571B Banana Slicer, can you let us know your thoughts on it? Is there really an alternative to smushed slices of banana?
Business history is filled with products that were invented for one purpose and wind up solving problems in a second unexpected area. Listerine mouthwash, for example, was originally envisioned as an antiseptic treatment for cuts and scratches. Coca-Cola was meant to treat headaches and anxiety. And believe it or not, the colorful children's modeling clay, Play-Doh, was intended to be a new wallpaper cleaner!
Now, a savvy Atlanta real estate recruiter has found a new use for Mojo – as a tool to rapidly find competitive talent and hire them. Matt Broyles, the Business Development Director for Metro Brokers, a Better Homes and Garden affiliate with 1,700 agents in 25 offices around Greater Atlanta, uses the Mojo Triple Power Dialer to contact every agent/broker in the area to check if they are happy with their career trajectory.
"I'm looking to find agents who want to make a change," he explains. "The top producers are happy where they are. I'm targeting talented people who feel like they are dying on the vine and falling through the cracks. We have a training program that pays a lot of attention to them and gets their business up and running fast."
In a recent month, Broyles made 10,600 recruiting calls and he has an ever-changing list of more than 30,000 local agents. From March 2014 until the end of the year, he had actually talked with more than 17,000 agents. He avoids using scripts and focuses on one simple question: "Have you considered changing real estate companies now or in the near future?"
"They're either going to be interested or not, so I churn and burn. I don't care about the total number of calls I make. I care about the number of appointments and hires," Broyles says. "It's the same thing in real estate. Listening to the phone ring doesn't close deals."
Out of those 17,000 live calls with Atlanta agents, Broyles has hired 50 people in less than a year. "Fifty people is an entire real estate office," he notes. "And we turn those agents into top producers with our X-celerater training program. We give them the tools, resources and support to succeed, everything from coaching, sales training and marketing support to leads and assistance with their websites and SEO. The average agent sells three homes a year. Our new agents alone sell twice that many in their first year using our system."
A 20-year-veteran of selling real estate (at Metro since 2006), Broyles previously found Mojo invaluable for making prospecting calls to his Expired, Just Listed, Just Sold and FSBO prospects. The purpose of his phone calls may have changed, but the tools are still equally effective.
"Point blank, I can't make my calls without Mojo. I'd rather be shot – and I'm not kidding," he says. "I'm no different than any real estate agent. If you're going to be making phone calls, you lose a lot of money by not using Mojo – and I don't get paid to say that."
Broyles worked as a bartender when he first got his real estate license in 1993. He was inspired by cassette tapes of pioneer real estate coach Mike Ferry.
"I never looked back," he recalls. "In the beginning of my career, I helped a local RE/MAX agent go from 50 to 100 deals a year for four years straight just by making cold calls eight hours a day. Another top 10 RE/MAX agent approached me and I helped them go from 100 to 200 deals a year for six years straight. And there was no such thing as Mojo back then."
"I was hand dialing two phones at the same time with a double headset," Broyles adds. "I had an ear piece on each ear and a microphone on each side of my mouth. It was absolutely excruciating. Needless to say, Mojo is now the most valuable tool in my business."
Prospecting Advice
Based on his 21 years of prospecting experience, Broyles offers the following advice for real estate agents new to making cold calls:
"Even though I've been making calls for 21 years, I'm still learning everyday. It's always new for me. And the thing that makes Mojo so awesome is that it takes the monotony out of making calls," Broyles says. "You can easily burn out quickly in this business, but Mojo helps me have more conversations and stay engaged in the process."
The Mojo Dialer and real estate prospecting services are all about making you as efficient and productive as possible. It is loaded with time saving features designed to cut out the drudgery of the sales and lead management process. In this post, we wanted to highlight 3 features in Mojo our customers get giddy about when utilized. These features are often overlooked, but make no mistake about it; these 3 features polish the power dialer and help make Real Estate prospecting a breeze.
Okay, you probably got Mojo to blaze through a list of leads, to find the gold nuggets worthy of your time, right? Makes sense, hand dialing is awfully slow, and well, sitting and waiting for the deals to happen won't work either. This is what we hear from new clients coming on to the Mojo prospecting system. They are gung-ho to begin peeling those gold nuggets from their lists of off market properties, past clients and just listed/just sold data. Sales is a numbers game, right? I don't need to follow-up.
Yes… and no.
That same customer who came to use looking for the gold nuggets, begins to realize the effort they are putting in to finding the gold nuggets, also generates a ton of warm leads. These are the leads worthy of follow-up, who need just a few bumps to be the gold nugget they were originally prospecting for. Yes, they are doing good, old-fashioned follow up.
Click to Call makes this follow-up a breeze! Follow-up calls are placed in the follow-up planner of the Mojo Calendar. Automating these calls is as easy as initiating click to call from the first record to be called. From there, they simply click the phone located on each record, and the Mojo Dialer will place a single call to the lead. This is great because it allows the agent to fully investigate their previous notes, and property or contact details before they make the call. Oh, it's a fingertip saver also:)
Bottom-line: Mojo customers are making their follow-up calls, and turning their warm leads in to gold nuggets, and those gold nuggets in to listings and sales! You can check out our follow up video here.
You're logged in to the Mojo Dialer, real estate prospecting at up to 300 calls per hour: you're in your groove. Your pitch is fine-tuned, you're totally engaged, you're a machine. Then, someone asks you to call them back in 10 minutes.
That can't be! I'm calling, pitching, determining yes or no. I don't have time for "Call me back in 10 minutes". It is ruining my Mojo! I have to set a reminder, by writing it down or by setting a computer based alert, I have to wait for the time to come, log out of my dialing session, call the person using my desk or cell phone, and then log back in the dialer and resume where I left off… Right?
Heck no! Well, not with Mojo anyway. We came out with our quick call back feature 2 years ago, and agents absolutely LOVE IT once they figure out where to find it.
The quick call back feature allows agents to easily schedule same day call backs from the main dialing screen in intervals of 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Once the quick call back is set, the Mojo Dialer keeps track of the time, and when the quick call back is due, the system automatically pauses the current power dialing session and places the call. When you've completed the call, our system automatically restarts your original power dialing session.
Bottom-line: You can schedule your quick call backs, without doing anything more than a button click, and the Mojo Dialing System will pass it up to you when it is due. You keep your momentum, your lead is blown away by your follow up skills, and you pitch your next listing or sale!
Real Estate prospecting revolves around the status change date (or sometimes the off-market/expired date). It represents the day a property changes status. It could be from active to expired, or it could be from expired to active. A property changing to an off market status such as expired, is a great lead for a real estate agent to call on. In fact, an entire lead industry was built on it. A property changing from expired to active, is a property that is now off-limits. Meaning, you can't call on it without risking a slap from your MLS.
Okay, so how does the status change date filter make the top 3 overlooked features of the Mojo Dialer?
Many real estate agents struggled with managing their properties in other dialer/lead management systems before switching to Mojo. This is because the Mojo Dialer treats properties as unique records, and dynamically updates contacts on the properties as changes occur; property addresses don't change, people do. So, when an agent imports, or has their property data posted to a dialer, it is very important no duplicates exists. This is to prevent 'cross pollination' of properties existing in the database, so no one ends up calling on a property that is active. Additionally, the agent can see the entire property history on the 'one' property record and it gives them insight on the listing status change history for the property, valuable information when pitching a listing appointment.
Here is the issue with the 'one property' approach, and the pain our status change date filter eliminates.
Other dialing systems inherently dial from most recent contact/property to the oldest, in that order. If you are dialing expired leads in August, and one of the properties you imported last January has just expired again in August, you would need to dial through ALL of the expired properties from August back to when the property first came in to your dialer, before you called that fresh expired. Wow, that is a mouthful!
With Mojo's status change date filter, our real estate dialer doesn't care when the property was first entered in your system, it doesn't care about the create date of the record, it ONLY looks at status change date. This ensures you are ONLY calling on the MOST RECENT expired or off-market properties.
Bottom-line: Our real estate driven dialing logic is the easiest to use, most powerful dialing logic available!
For more information and to learn more about real estates #1 prospecting system, visit our feature area today!


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