Welcome to Mike Ferry TV. It is the week of March 9th, 2020. Two full months are done … I hope you did what your job was defined to be … because if you didn’t, you can’t make up what you lost, but you can certainly gain momentum by getting back to work … hopefully starting today.

I received an email a couple weeks ago from a new licensee and new to the Mike Ferry Organization … and he said, “Okay, I want to do … “ I think it was 18 deals in his first 12 months, which is doable, of course … and then he said, “I want to, within 3 to 4 years, get to 50 to 60 and build from there,” which is very doable. But then he asked, of course, one question at the end, “What do I do?” Because the challenge, of course, is that you are in an industry where you’re independent contractors and Brokers and Owners and Managers really, by law, can’t tell you what to do. Now, they can make good suggestions … and they do. They can do good training, which they offer and they do, but the truth is … you have to do it. It’s your job … your responsibility … to go out and do your jobs.

So, I shared with him … I said, “I wrote down one … two … three … four … five … six … seven things that can make an agent money … and if you’re involved in one of these seven … or two of these seven … or three of these seven on a regular basis, you’re going to make money in Real Estate.” Now, there’s nothing new about these seven.

I had said back to him, “You got to learn how to prospect. You got to learn how to talk to people. You got to learn how to engage people. You got to be interactive with people. You got to be willing to play the numbers game if you’re going to prospect because if you’re going to ask one person, ‘Do you want to buy or sell?’ and they say ‘No’ and then you stop … you’re done before you start.

So, the question is … the commitment to prospecting both in hours … in time … energy … enthusiasm … scripts … dialogues … obviously numbers of people that you’re willing to talk to. I’m anxious to hear what he says.

Then I said … second is lead follow-up, which I believe is probably the most important part of the whole process. I believe more business is lost from lead follow-up than probably anything else we do. So, then I said, “Okay, we have to talk about conversions. By conversions … how good are you at converting a lead of any type … I mean whether it be a walk-in lead or a For Sale by Owner lead … an open house lead … a lead your Broker hands you or a referral from somebody else … a lead you bought off the internet? How good are you at the conversion process?” And I said, “In converting leads, you really have to think about four thoughts.”

I wrote … first of all, being aggressive on your lead follow-up. If somebody says, “I’m considering buying or selling a home” … you have an obligation to follow up. You have an obligation to follow up aggressively … because if you don’t follow up aggressively and they’ve told somebody else, which they’ve already done, they have an interest in buying or selling a home … the most aggressive agent gets the transaction and we want to put you in that position.

Now, I know what you’re going to say … “I don’t want to be seen as being that aggressive. It’s not my style.” Well … you have to understand … anybody that’s going to sell their home will talk to multiple agents. Anybody that’s going to buy a home is going to see multiple agents through the buying process … and they will see up to 10 to 12 agents as a Buyer and 3 to 4 agents as a Seller. So, we have to stand out and be the aggressive one … and if a Buyer or Seller says to you, “Why are you being so aggressive?” You, of course, respond with, “I want to demonstrate to you what I’m going to do once you sign a contract with me to get your home sold. I’m going to be this aggressive trying to find a Buyer.”

So, being aggressive on lead follow-up … and then, of course, I wrote … communication … under lead follow-up. How good of a communicator are you? Are you willing to call and express your thoughts about selling and buying … or whatever the process may be for them? Are you willing to express and use the scripts that we offer?

Then I wrote down … third is the commitment to the service. If you’re really driven by giving the best quality service to a Buyer or Seller, you’re going to be going after them to get the appointment … because the lead has no value unless you convert it to an appointment … so the conversion to the appointment.

Then I wrote down next … a system for following up on the lead … because if you don’t follow up, guess what happens? Nothing. So, what system do you have in place? And, of course, so many agents today … first they want to buy a software package for lead follow-up. Well, when you have one lead, you don’t need a system … you need a piece of paper and a pen … and a phone number and an email address is all you need. So, as you prospect and do more prospecting and develop more leads, what is the system going to be? Whether it be a computer, a software package, etc. or just a 3×5 card … you have to have a system in place.

Then the third thing I said to him is … then you have to prequalify. So now … I’ve got to prospect … I’ve got a lead … I’ve converted it to appointment … I want to make sure that appointment has the ability to sign a contract if I do my job the right way on behalf of the Buyer or Seller.

Then, of course, the listing presentation … or the showing presentation … and, let’s be honest, it’s a little bit more challenging to learn a good listing presentation than it is to show property to a Buyer, which is why most agents work with Buyers … but the problem we have today is the lack of inventory. So, with the lack of inventory, if I have five good qualified Buyers to work with me, I can’t show them property if there’s no property for sale. Therefore, defining your process of whether I want to be a Listing Agent or Showing Agent becomes critical. Where do I want my income to come from? So, learning your listing presentation … learning what to say … learning how to show property … on how to demonstrate a home to get them excited about the opportunity to own it … becomes critical.

Then I wrote down next is closing the sale … having the courage to say, “Would you sign a contract please?” In my seminars, for years, I used to make the audience repeat out loud five times … “Would you sign the contract please? Would you sign the contract please? Would you sign the contract please? Would you sign the contract please? Would you sign the contract please?” Five times … with a big smile … because for so many salespeople that are not believing in themselves … they have a hard time asking people to sign. But isn’t that really nothing more than the end to a good presentation?

If you’re showing property to a Buyer and they’ve been prequalified by the lender and you’ve prequalified them as to the type of home they want … and you’ve shown them that home … don’t you have an obligation to ask them if they’d like to buy it? Then there’s that shock when they say “Yes.”

So then, of course, we also have to handle objections they give us … because, in most cases, whether it be Buyer or Seller, during prospecting … during lead follow-up … during prequalifying … during listing presentation … during showing property … during the close … they will commonly give objections. But what I said to this young man in this lengthy email I sent him … was the fact that the objections are not very original. They all say the same thing. So, therefore, all we have to do is learn the answers.

Then, of course, the last part of this process in making money in Real Estate is … I said, “You have to learn to negotiate … bring two parties together … whether you represent the Seller or the Buyer, negotiating is bringing two parties to a common goal, which is the transaction … the movement of the property from the Seller to the Buyer.” So, you have to be willing to help them negotiate because every Seller wants this price … every Buyer wants this price. So, therefore, closing the gap is what it’s all about.

So, the truth is, the hardest part of what we do is those seven … is the prospecting … lead follow-up … prequalifying … listing and showing … closing … objections … or negotiating … that gets in your way. I’m going to say, for most people, it’s probably going to be lead follow-up. Prospecting … you’re going to find somebody that sells they want to buy and sell, but if you can’t find them, then convert them to an appointment … how much value do you have in the prospecting you do? It’ll be fun to watch to see if this young man responds to me. I hope he does … but more importantly it’d be fun to see if he’s able to do and learn how to do each of those.

So, here we are now … in March … Are you planning on being in Real Estate at the end of this year? I assume the answer is “Yes.” Are you planning on having multiple transactions close between now and the end of the year? I assume the answer is “Yes.” I assume you’re going to take some commitment towards learning how to list property? I’m assuming the answer is “Yes.” Don’t be upset if it doesn’t all happen tomorrow. It takes time to learn how to sell. Your Broker will confirm that … your Manager will confirm that … any of the good agents in your office, if you’re newer, will confirm that … and those that are really good will tell you it took time to learn how to do the process.

Follow the process. Understand that the lead follow-up and conversion rate is critically important. You’re going to have fun for the next 8 or 10 months in Real Estate. We’re here to help. Talk to you soon.

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Mike Ferry is the global leader in real estate coaching and training. Watch Mike each week as he discusses a variety of topics to help real estate agents and brokers. Grow your real estate business by improving your mindset, developing your skills and creating a plan of action to increase your production!