Hey, hey, everybody! Hope all is well!
Keller Williams Chairman Gary Keller, speaking online and at the Keller Williams Family Reunion Conference last month in Atlanta, spoke again and again about the importance of continuing LEAD GENERATION in weak markets.
Those that master the art of CONSISTENT Lead Generation will not only survive any market downturn, but will THRIVE through it, and BUILD MARKET SHARE for when things turn around, as you know they will, later on.
How do we agents and brokers generate qualified real estate leads?
Many use Open Houses, Mailings, Telephone Contact ("Telemarketing" is a DIRTY WORD - never use it!). Others use extensive Networking, or sponsor or host Community Events. Others develop and run Seminars - Buying in This Market, Selling in this Market - or, as is more common these days - Handling Distressed Property Sales in this Market.
Here, at Dean's Team, one of the "legs to our table" involves good old fashioned PROSPECTING! Expired Listings. Pre-Foreclosures, For Sale By Owners. Buyers or Sellers Around our Listings. (Listings priced, of course, to sell!)
When we talk to others about prospecting and phone calling, however, many raise the new-age excuse - "We can't prospect. You know . . . there is THE DO NOT CALL LIST."
Heck, these folks never prospected BEFORE the Do Not Call List - the List now gives them a great alibi!
A few say they IGNORE the rule! Wrong answer, folks!
There is a way to quickly, easily - and WITHOUT CHARGE - screen all phone numbers for Do Not Call Status. How?
Click on www.Telemarketing.DoNotCall.gov, and register as an Individual "Telemarketer." You DO NOT have to ask your Managing Broker to do it - please, do it on your own!
The directions are easy to follow, and you get a user name and password with which to log in to their national phone database. Here, you can sign up for up to 5 Local Area Codes (in Chicago, we have eight, so we chose the ones we use most frequently - I imagine you can do the same, especially if you are in a smaller market area).
They have something called "Individual Phone Number Lookup,"but INDIVIDUAL is a misnomer. You can actually check up to TEN numbers at once, in seconds. (First, you have to certify that you will not abuse the law or the system, which is a pain, but a very brief one).
Those FSBO's and Expired Listings that are Do Not Call Positive - drive to the house, walk up the stairs, and door knock - better impact anyway, although it does take a bit of moxie (I've been doing it for 14 years - no one's hurt me yet - but don't do this at 11:00 at night!)
The folks that are NOT on the do not call list - roughly, 30% - call! Here you'll be doing something that most agents do not do, because they do not fully understand.
You never know, you might get a listing or two out of this. Perhaps? And you'll never have to use that "Do Not Call" alibi ever again!
Try it - and let me know how it works for you, of if you have any questions!
Hope This Helps! BTW . . . No Referral Fee Requested Here - but, I will take a cup of coffee the next time you come to Chicago. Just call!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
Hi Dean,
In Georgia, our listings have been modified to allow calls made by real estate agents to sellers. There is some discussion as to whether this applies to calling after expiration, but at least it is a move in the right direction.
Interesting - I am now seieng the tile lists I get modified to not have the DO NOT CALL people...