Mike Ferry: Ok, welcome back. It’s a week later, I’m in the studio from last week doing two weeks. As I mentioned, I’m overseas for several weeks doing programs for our companies overseas. I decided that I would record two weeks in advance. And this is the second half of our talks about prospecting thoughts, lead generation thoughts, hopefully to help you understand, to inspire you and to get you to do a little bit, if not a lot of prospecting, to make sure that this year, starting today, February 14th, the continues to be a great year. It should be a great year. It only will not be a great year if you’re not in conversations with people. I’ve written down a series of thoughts and the first thought I want you to look at is I used to for many, many, many years, start every seminar with three letters written on the whiteboard. I’d read a capital P four prospect, a capital P four present and a capital C for close. And then I would do a little survey of the audience, and some of you see me do this in the past. I would say, OK, there’s three fundamental parts of selling anything. Prospecting, finding a person that could buy your product or service. The presentation of that product or service. And then, of course, getting them to agree and sign a contract of some type to take delivery of their product or service.

Mike Ferry: And then I would always ask the same question which of these three is the most important? And virtually 80 percent of every audience, and this went on for probably 10 or 12 years, daily doing seminars. 80 percent would say P for prospecting is the most important, to which I would say, OK, tell me why. And they would smile and say, it’s because if you don’t have a person to talk to, who do you sell to, who’s going to list, who’s going to buy if you don’t have a human being to converse with? And I say, you’re right. About 15 percent would say no, no, no, it’s not prospecting, it’s the close. Boy, if you can’t get the pen in their hand and a signature on the paper and close that deal down and get it buttoned up, you’re never going to get paid. And I would say, you know, you’re right. And then I would look at the five percent that pick presentation, and I would say, hopefully you pick presentation because you had a valid reason, or you picked it because you didn’t vote for the first two. I believe and I’ve tried to convince audiences for years, the most important step in the Real Estate transaction process is the ability to present because we’ve all driven by a For Sale by Owner and not stopped. And then I ask the question Why did you not stop? I was busy on my way to an appointment.

Mike Ferry: I wrote the number down. I’ll call them back later. Really? I mean, really think about that or you find there’s an Expired Listing and you don’t stop and talk to them for whatever reason. The challenge is knowing what to say, but then the people, the close say, yeah, but even when you know what to say, if you can’t button them down, listen, closing is a natural ending to a great presentation. If I know what to say, the close is relatively easy. If I don’t know what to say, I mumble, I fumble, I stumble, and you know, we got to wrap this thing up and you know, I need to get so, you know, hopefully you agree with me. Folks, would you sign the contract, please? Because I answered all your questions that we’ve discussed all the benefits and you do want to move forward, so would you sign the contract, please? Learning to present makes prospecting fun. Learning to present makes the close easy, but you can’t do it to a wall. You can’t do it to a podium. You need to have people. Second thought I wrote down, by prospecting even a minimum amount of time. One of the benefits is that you’re pretty much assuring yourself of achieving the production goal you’ve set. There’s no guarantees in Real Estate.

Mike Ferry: The only guarantee is if you’re not involved with people, you’re not going to do any deals and you’re not going to be in the business. But that’s not the kind of guarantee we’re looking for. We’re looking for a guarantee. Mike, how do I do my ten 20, fifty-seven thousand five hundred deals? And the answer is, are you willing to talk to people to make that happen? So, let’s say that you say to me, well, I’m buying one hundred leads of month or five hundred leads a month or I’ve got three different referral sources that send me leads. And then if I sell them, I pay a twenty-five, 30 percent referral fee. You got to talk to them once you get the leads. So, your conversation in prospecting many times is when you get the leads from a realtor.com, et cetera. You’ve got to call them. They’re not calling you. They’re not emailing you. They’re not texting you, saying please call me, I want to sell my home. We have to call them. So, we can’t really get around the fact that if we want to achieve our goal, we have to interact and talk to people. Third benefit I wrote down, prospecting is the path to building a sustainable business. Meaning it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the economy, doesn’t matter what’s going on with the marketplace. It doesn’t matter how big or how small your market is.

Mike Ferry: If you’re talking to people, you’re going to get your fair share of the market starting probably today if you start talking to people. I wrote down the fourth benefit. Prospecting gives you the confidence to do a deal at will. If you needed a commission, check in forty-five days. Could you do something in the next three or four days to generate a commission check in forty-five days? And the answer is yes. Just go out and spend the day in conversations with a smile on your face, dressed appropriately and a simple script that you can download from Mike Ferry, you will get a lot more confident because, you know, and Tommy Hopkins taught me this. What? Forty-five, fifty years ago? Every no I get brings me closer to a… You said it in your mind… The word, yes. I wrote next benefit number five prospecting allows you to build a predictable sales business because the numbers don’t lie predictable, meaning we know that if you keep track of your numbers as you talk to people, whether you’re doing a two days a week or five days a week, whether you’re doing at an hour a day or four hours a day, if you track your numbers each day, you’re going to start seeing a rhythm or a pattern to the numbers. You know, do you have to talk to 10 of your database to get a referral? Do you have to talk to 30 to get a referral? Do you have to talk to five by owners and Expireds to get an appointment? Do you have to talk to 15 if you’re doing Just Listed Just Called.

Mike Ferry: Are you getting one in every seventy-five or one in one hundred? And if you track your numbers, your numbers don’t lie. So now I can predict my responses and results. Number six, prospecting allows you a wonderful opportunity to build your database by substantial numbers each year because you’re going to meet people that may not want to do anything in twenty twenty-two. But as a matter of fact, my husband’s going to retire in 2023. You know, let’s go communicate and let’s follow up and send me information on the market. And if you do that, you’re building your database. But I think probably benefit, number seven, prospecting quickly allows you to outpace the competition. I mean, think about this, I don’t know how big your office or company is, and I don’t know how much support they put behind what we do to help you become more productive. Hopefully we can work together management and ourselves to help you produce. But your competition many times, even in your own company, if you actually start talking to people every day. What’s the matter with him? What is she doing? I heard her on the phone calling For Sale by Owner man, doesn’t she understand that she should be on social media? Well, I mean, you can outpace the competition by the activities you’re involved in.

Mike Ferry: But then I wrote, I actually wrote this one number eight is probably the most important one. Prospecting allows you to pick your price points you want to work. I remember very distinctly several years ago getting a call from Karen Bernardi, and she said, Mike, you know, our marketplace is appreciating in value. Boulder, Colorado. Somewhat because of the university and technology. And you know, it’s Colorado’s magnificent and beautiful state to live in. And I think I could be working a higher price point. So we worked out a plan for her to raise her price point to the degree she made the decision. She wouldn’t take a listing under this price in her market at that time. Well, if she started and she calls me back three months later, the people at eight 50 are the same as the people at three fifty. They just have a different income level because the people are the people. And then the last point on this series for today, and then we’re going to wish you a great couple of weeks and Tony Smith will be with you next week. Prospecting allows an agent to become very familiar with the market, the activity in the market, which makes you much better at showing property as well as listing property.

Mike Ferry: The strength of talking to people gives you the strength to understand your market. Is your market going up in value? Probably. Is going down in value? It happened in two thousand eight to two thousand twelve. Is your market very flat? Is your market expanding? Are people leaving your market? Which of course, during our tragic COVID period of time over the last eighteen twenty-four months has been very common for some markets to grow, and some markets to diminish. Well, talking to people keeps you aware of market conditions, which then allows you to make much better and stronger presentation. So, I hope last week and this week are a value. I’ll be back in two weeks with you. Tony Smith will be with you next week. Have a great month of February because remember there’s 11 months to complete. And as my friend Neil Schwartz says, it’s a race to the finish line. And as we had a great client down in Texas, used to say all the time, “Mike, It’s a marathon, not a sprint”. And I would always smile when Marsha said that because this is a marathon. We’re talking about your career. We’re talking about your life, the lifestyle for yourself and your family. Let’s improve the results by talking to people. Thanks for today.