Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we're continuing our series on 10 Money Getting Ideas with one that's a little bit different - 'Fall in love with your prospects'.
Now, you'll see what I mean by that because there's nothing more powerful than love as a motivator, and this idea, when you start thinking about it, 'what if you were really treating each prospect like they were the love of your life?' is kind of an interesting mindset.
You'll see some of the thoughts that this leads to.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep087
Dean: Hello, welcome to the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast. Today, we're continuing our series on 10 Money Getting Ideas.The one today, it's a little bit different. This one is called Fall In Love With Your Prospects. Now, you're going to see what I mean by that, because there's nothing as powerful as love as a motivator. You'll see that it's a little bit different, but this idea, when you start thinking about it, what if you were really treating each prospect like they were the love of your life? It's kind of an interesting mind frame for you, and you'll see some of the thoughts that it leads to. So, enjoy this episode.
Number eight, fall in love with your prospects. And I say that just to raise the level of attention that you pay to the people who ask for something, who come into your world there. I like that idea of really going... Treating them like they are five star prospects, treating them like they really are going to buy a house. Most of the time, people treat leads or buyers like they're not five star prospects until they prove that they are. This whole mindset that we are conditioned to think that people are unqualified leads, or looky-loos, or all this negative stuff that goes around. Even the whole lead industry, the jargon, and the leads, are they scrubbed lead? They're somehow dirty or something.
It's really the truth. It's like we don't want to get our hands on people who aren't qualified and going to buy right now. The thing is that, think about them in individual terms, knowing that collectively the value of them is pretty large, you almost can't go wrong.
I'll explain what I mean by that. You hear me talk a lot about thinking about the portfolio value of something. I think in terms of a bundle of leads. If you have a hundred leads, for instance and if we take what we know about leads in general from all the best practices of lead management. There's a company called the Inquiry Handling Service that handles all kinds of leads across all industries. Those little reader service cards, if you see them in magazines or at trade shows. If you inquire about something, they send out the literature and fulfill those leads.
And to get what they do is they follow up with people in 90 day increments, and they do what they call "Did You Buy" surveys. If you're at the home show and you've inquired about faucets, they'll call you up and say, "Audrey, we sent you information about faucets 90 days ago. Did you buy some faucets?" And do that at 90 days, that's six months. Every 90 days they'd take a sampling of the people who responded to that and measure what happens.
Typically what they find is that over 18 months, just over half of the people who inquire about something, will buy what it is that they've inquired about. If we just say that half, and let's extend it to two years. That for real estate, if we say that half of the people who inquire, who asked for Market Watch, or ask for something, will do something in the next 24 months. That gives us a pretty good estimate benchmark, and to calculate what the portfolio value of that 100 leads might be.
If you take that bundle of a hundred, and let's say that the average commission is $5,000 just for our round math there. If we eliminate 50 of them, 50 of them are not going to buy. They're not going to buy now or they're not going to buy later. We've eliminated that. 50 of them in this scenario will buy in the next two years, and that's a $5,000 commission times 50 of those people means a $250,000 portfolio value of that.
Now, even if you ... number and you cut that in half, and you say, "Well I don't think half of the people will," but let's cut that in half and say that 25% of them will buy, or 20% of them, whatever that is, you ... what that bundle of leads is actually worth. So if you took that 250,000 and you cut that down to 20%, you'd have T times 5,000 is 100,000. On the most conservative of sides, that's a hundred thousand dollar value for that 100 leads.
Now the challenge is, that you don't know who among those 100 are going to be the ones who actually buy. You can't tell just by looking at their name and their email address who's actually going to be the buyers. You take that probability analysis and you make your ... on how you're going to treat them based on what makes the most sense.
The most prudent course of action, if you look at it, is if you divided into quadrants and on the right and left side, you've got now and later, they're either going to buy now, being in the first 90 days, or later longer than 90 days. What the inquiry handling service says is that of the people who do buy, only 15% of them buy in the first 90 days.
85% of the value of that bundle of leads is older, longer than nine-... it's going to mature 90 days or longer. We've found that to be true when we look at Chuck's numbers, and we look at all the things over that two year period. Chuck found only five of the people that, that he actually in that bought a home with him. We're in the first 90 days and you can see that that makes sense, because buying a home is different than buying faucets or buying, a new furnace or something. When you look at that and you extend it out, let's even say use that 15% as an example. 15% of them are going to buy first 90 days, 85% longer than 90 days, but only half of them are going to be in that category, because divided top and bottom rate the quadrants there, the yes half is 50 of them and the no half is 50 of them.
Those 50 are not of any value anyway. The only course of action that makes any sense immediately right now, is to treat everybody like they're in that quadrant that's going to buy in the first 90 days. The only way you'll know whether you guessed wrong is 90 days from now and you'll still be there when they turn into a buyers in that 90 day period.
If you start imagining and really personifying these people. If you imagine rather than just this name and email that comes in on your website or this form that gets filled out. We've talked about this concept of imagine if they really walked into your room here. They really walk in and right there in front of you. What would you say and how would you treat them as real people? Rather than just these anonymous, this name and contact information, inanimate.
You're looking at it as what if you really took it on you that this was the love of your life. That this is the person that you want to, woo and to win. All of that or if you're not... I use that as a example, because some people are attracted to like, being super nice to people and really bonding with them and going above and beyond. Sometimes, what if you took that mindset and you created the provocation that if I give you this bundle of a hundred leads and I'm going to come back in two years. If any one of these people have bought a home without you, you're going to be beheaded. How would you treat that bundle of a hundred leads now?
It's a whole different thing. The reason, if that was really true, what would you do? What would you really do? If your life depended on you being there to help them, if they decide to buy a house. That's the thing, right, is you would in a lot of cases be dead, because you don't bring that level of intensity to it, right? Like if you look at even the spread out value of that bundle. If we take that it's worth $100,000 if at 20% $5,000. $100,000 for the a hundred people, that's a 1,000 per person. If you spread it out over them, there's some real value in really connecting with them. Let's talk about it, because I think that, yeah, Audrey.
Audrey: Great. 1,000% fall in love with my prospects. One of the things in real estate is, it can be draining. There's only so many hours in a day. How do we maximize the intensity to our prospects and not just be totally drained? What are our tools there that are the... as we're talking about the maximization tools or the exponential tools.
Dean: That' a great question, because of the corollary to you falling in love with them is, it's even more value valuable can get them to fall in love with you.
Audrey: Yes.
Dean: That's really what the real thing is, right? When you start thinking about how could you treat these people? What could you do that's going to impact them? It's this conversation that led to the whole daily videos at Milton daily homes. Of thinking, how could we do something that's great for everybody, but do it in a way that is time efficient too? The people who really want it, the people who are going to buy a house. They would totally appreciate and love getting a daily video with somebodies insightful review of these new homes that have come on the market today, because they're out scouring the market. They know the market better than most of the realtors know the market. Especially in the neighborhood and the price range that they're looking at it.
If they've been looking for a while, they're pretty much the expert in that price range. They're just looking for the right house to come along. You can't have that level of intense interest in the price range in the area that they're looking in, but you have an advantage in that you have access to the information faster than they do. And you have access to all of the information and your insight about that information.
You become the alpha in that situation that the people who are... You've got to be able to out scoop them. If you've got more and better information than they have, they're going to be drawn to that. The people who are ready to... You also have to be prepared that you're going to polarize the people who are not interested in that and that's okay. It's okay that you're going to lose some people who don't want to get a daily video, because they're not going to buy. Right. That's okay. The only person that you are focused on is doing the best thing possible. Providing the best available information for the person who is going to buy a home in the next 90 days. That's where you really get down to having the highest probability conversion system, rather than just taking that passive approach.
That's where doing those daily videos, you get the attention of the people who are in the market scouring the market right now. They're looking for the latest information and you've got to take that attention and be able to direct it in the right way. You've got to now be able to be a leader. You've got to be able to and pay what their next need is, what their desire is, and be able to present them with an opportunity to get that desire filled.
You can't take the approach, that passive approach that we talk about that. When I say that Jay Abraham coined this phrase that people are silently begging to be led. It's absolutely true that people are silently begging to be led. It's true for real estate agents too, because they're silently begging to be.... Waiting for a prospect to call you up and say, can you tell me about this house? You'll jump to their service and you jumped to attention. Yes, of course, because they've taken the initiative and done that. Right. It's almost like that we don't want to take that initiative, but it's taking that initiative that people are really, they really want. That's why there's so much about those kind of polarities that happen. Like the most successful radio personalities are people who have polar responses to them.
People love Rush Limbaugh or they hate Rush Limbaugh. People love Howard Stern or they hate Howard Stern. Both of those guys are only paying attention to the people who like them. They're doing exactly what those people want rather than trying to play the middle and please everyone. Not get somebody upset or not, because I'm sending them too many videos. Focus on the who you want to be a hero to, who do you want to serve? Who do you want to fall in love with you? People are going to fall in with you if you're the best provider of the information that they want. When you have their attention and you've got that, now it's about taking the initiative and anticipating what they're going to need next. That's why we always talk making offers that are on like they're going on.
You've heard me talk about bringing you into my living room and sitting you down and saying, Hey, there's lots of stuff in the fridge. If you want anything, go ahead and help yourself. You know that that's not the way that we're wired. Right? If I contrast that and I sit you down in the living room and I come out with a plate of freshly baked cookies and I say, would you like a cookie? It'd be very difficult for you not to take the cookie because it's right there and you don't want to reject me. All this society stuff, the way that we're wired for propriety is so ingrained that we're helpless against it. If you realize that and you know that your setting up things that are going to have kind of a domino effect. That I know if I give you this cookie and then you eat the cookie. It's a pretty good chance that if I come out and offer you some milk after that, that you're going to want the milk, because the cookie just made you thirsty, right.
The same kind of thing that you've got to imagine that if somebody asked for the report on the lakefront house prices. If I anticipate that they're interested in house prices because they asked for this report, I know that this is going to tell them what all of the lakefront houses are selling for. I can anticipate that their next need is, well what is my house worth? We've got the free pinpoint price analysis where we're saying, find out how your house is worth with a written analysis of the most comparable homes to yours are sold in the last six to 12 months and homes that are currently for sale. That's exactly what I need. You know that somebody who's looking for them. When they see these daily videos, they maybe are going to that they like. Rather than say, if you have any questions or if I can help you, please feel free to give me a call I'm here to help.
That kind of passive stuff or versus saying, we run daily tours of homes at 10 o'clock and 1 o'clock if you want to see any homes, just jump on one of the tours. It's already happening is way it sounds that way, it makes so much sense that you're offering something to somebody in a way that is what their need is. You're doing it in a way that is making it comfortable for them to do it. You're not, it's not, they're not reluctant to... They don't take the initiative you made the anticipated and you've got something exactly what they want.
That's the kind of thing that I'm talking about. When you take that approach to as close to you can get as doing the daily videos for people with the updates. Now that requires some level of commitment and discipline and consistency to doing that.
Sometimes I know that, people don't feel that comfortable with their ability to make that kind of a commitment to some things. It would go to like the minimum effective dose of falling in love with the X is at least sending them a weekly email that has all of the new listings that have come on. Some form of interpretation, some kind of bonding to let them know you know who you are and the kind of people that you're helping and what's going on in the market and still making those offers. People, making the offers of people that come on your tour of homes or to come to your home buyer workshop or to get a free home loan report. Whatever you anticipate as the next needs being right there for them and doing it in a consistent way. That's really the thing that's going to make them sort of fall in love with that level of service, because they can depend on it. They know that every day this is coming.
One of the things I know that Chuck was looking into. I don't know where it was, but he was using something called Follow Up Boss as a followup program. Are you familiar with it?
Audrey: I am. Yeah.
Dean: What are your thoughts on it?
Audrey: He's very happy with it. We're going to talk about it and on one of the Academy calls coming up here. That's kind of a... Yeah, a good, it's been a good experience. We'll get the full report from him on that.
Dean: All right. But the whole thing and that's where now what we're saying when the evolution for that was that, Chuck was generating so many leads and couldn't keep up with the seven step connection process. So people were falling through the cracks. We made that shift of how can we serve everybody and delight everybody. Spending that less time doing the video for 5,000 people instead of spending hours and maybe talk to five people while the 5,000 get neglected. It just made sense. Flip that around like that now. If you can do that, you've got that systemized and you can do the seven step connection process when they do ask for something. It's even even bigger. You can't, it's one of those things where you can't over serve somebody when they're in need for information and serving what they need. What they're looking for. It's just, it, the only danger is, in under serving them. Of not being there when they have the information or when the information. Not that they don't think that you had kind of information.
Like with Sean, when we were talking about the new home people. We just had a couple of people who've bought new homes and didn't know that he could have helped them buy that new home. They mostly think they're going to go to the builder and just buy it from there. You'd brainstormed at lunch some of the ways to get, let those people know that he could serve them there too. What's your thoughts about this whole lead conversion process and falling in love with your prospects? Michelle. Where's the mic for Michelle?
Michelle: A couple of thoughts. Our company just hired a new social media girl and she said, well, if you can't commit to doing the video daily, why don't you just do it once a week? Not in place of the letter I send out, but in addition to. Have the little letter that I write up, but then also do a verbal one so that they start reading it or listening to a video. That was pretty cool. And then...
Dean: A lot of times when people, what we've done is set up a March blog. Where it has all of the information, all the links, the new properties has the offers that, the tour of homes, all that stuff. You could use the email just to send people to the blog to watch the video.
Michelle: That's what she wants me to do, but she wants me to build up some content first.
Dean: That makes sense. You can use the video as a trailer for bringing people to the blog to read the rest that you've got the whole, you kind of bring people from all the, all the angles.
Michelle: Then my other thought was last week, I wrote some stuff about buyer agency in my letter, in my market watch newsletter. Then I thought, why don't I just create a little video about being about buyer agency and how it works.
Speaker: Perfect.
Michelle: Then just maybe always put that every week in my letter or something that says, find out more about how to hire a buyer agent, or 10 secrets, or some catchy title that you've got.
Speaker: All that stuff... When you start thinking about it. One of my friend Mike Kenics has this formula of what kind of videos that you could do. An idea is that, the 10 most frequently asked questions. Certainly is a good start, the things that everybody asks, but then doing the 10 questions that people should ask that they don't ask and doing a video about those. That gives you... There's 20 little two minute videos right there. That's good fodder for your market watch blog.
Speaker: What Sally and our buyer agents are doing now, is doing a little 15 second video saying, I just want to let you know that there's a real person behind these emails. I'll be in touch shortly. Short, quick, simple and it goes out with the first email with the list actually.
Speaker: Perfect. That's the kind of thing where, you start thinking about that if you were really trying to let them know that you're here for them. That's a great thing.
Speaker: Is that in the can email. Have you set that up? Because I got to thinking of... I don't... I was listening.
Speaker: The first email with the list.
Speaker: With the...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay. I was just... Because I got the listening to that I love marketing message about whoever the guy that put the... In his confirmation email changed it around. I got to thinking about that, about what can we do within the confirmation, but we've got some good things in there. Could you add a video or a link to a video in that confirmation email right out the gate.
Dean: Yeah. That's if you can do a personal video for somebody that is just for them. Maybe adding that into your seven step connection process or as part of the email that you follow up when you left the voicemail on their... When you a message on their voicemail. That's the kind of thing that... Those are wow experiences. They kind of go above and beyond. I love that there's some range of what you can do. My challenge for creating things for realtors or for business owners. Creating tools like that is that, I have to strike the balance between what people could do and what they're likely to do and what they will do. There's that... That's the thing, right?
If people, they could research and write their own postcard and put that all together, and find a printer, and send that out. They're likely to download a postcard that I've already created and find their own printer or whatever. They will, if it's easy, download the postcard, just put something in, make one phone call and be done with it. That's pretty easy. That's where I have to look at is, it's the difference between creating couture and rare that's the thing. Couture is cooler and could be much better, but not everybody is willing to take the time to do a daily video every day of all the new listings that come on the market. Every day for two and a half years. Even though every single time he does it, it's worth $1200 or $1,500 over the course of the year.
Michelle: What's his gold score?
Dean: Yeah. I don't know. That's interesting.
Michelle: Got a huge up
Speaker: Financial implementation, that's my weakness.
Speaker: Right? That's funny. There you go, but that's the kind of thing. My job is to come behind you and at least... What's that?
Audrey: I find it stereotypical.
Speaker: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: The three of them were laughing over there, not just one of them. They're all laughing.
Dean: I know. Well, Nikki is a trained... What do you call it, what you are? A facilitan. That's certified in Kolbe. Yeah. Anybody who wants to go and do that. Kolbe.com is a K O L B E .com. It's a test that shows your cona diff strengths. Which you like, how you like to work. Knowing what your strengths are, knowing what you like to do, my job is to outline the minimum effective dose, the ready-to-wear thing that you can do that's going to get you the high result. For this, it's the minimum is a weekly email that goes out to everybody with links to all the new listings.
That's, pretty, you gotta be able to at least commit to doing that or to finding somebody who can do that for you. That's all that really takes. It's amazing the consistency of what... How that consistency works out. Doing things on a consistent basis and being there when they're ready and having an offer that is leading to the next step. Always people are silently begging to be led and if you're there and you're leading them in a direction that's good for them, that they want to go in, they're going to follow, because that's what they really want. They'd rather come jump on this tour of homes that's happening. Then call up somebody else and have to, from cold call them and ask them to show them homes. It sounds far less friction to just, "Oh, this, there's already this too, or let's just go on this". That sounds like summer. I'm likely for somebody to do. Okay. Any other thoughts about the lead conversion, or experience, or questions, or concerns? Zach, you look like you're pretty excited.
Zach: I've been following your plan for many, many years in one way or the other. [crosstalk 00:31:02] Yeah, more of the other. And mostly delegating it. I started to getting listings six months ago and I'm doing all the followup for the first time these years. I really do love it. I treat these prospects, like prospect.
Dean: Right.
Zach: From the moment I started talking to them. It is a big difference than talking to an expired.
Dean: Yeah. Oh absolutely.
Zach: A big difference. I liked a lot.
Dean: Oh, that's awesome.
Zach: I've been telling the world about your plan. I don't know if you're a sales have gone up.
Dean: They're through the roof.
Zach: Good.
Dean: You're very influential, powerful man. You know that right?
There we have it. Another great episode. If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can go to listingagentlifestyle.com. You can download a copy of the listing agent lifestyle book, the manifesto that shares everything that we're talking about here and you can be a guest on the show, if you'd like to talk about how we can build a listing agent lifestyle plan for your business. Just click on the be a guest link at listingagentlifestyle.com. If you'd like to join our community of people who are applying, all of the things we talk about in the listing agent lifestyle, come on over to gogoagent.com. That's where we got all the programs, all the tools, everything you need to get listings to multiply your listings, to get referrals, convert leads, and to find buyers. You can get a free, truly free, no credit card required trial for 30 days at gogoagent.com. Come on over and I will see you there.