Property ManagementSeven Secrets of Prospecting
For many salespeople, prospecting is the most difficult activity they do. They
dread the thought of picking up the phone to make a living. Long-term success
in sales is built through solid prospecting. In order to be successful and
profitable, sales people need to apply these seven secrets of prospecting daily.
1. It gets easier after the first call.
The first call is always the most difficult. I prospected solidly for over
eight years in real estate. I never got over the difficulty of making the
first call. Getting yourself to make the first call is the highest hurdle.
The only solution is to just do it. After you make the first call, you realize
it was not as difficult as you imagined. The person on the other end of the
line was not as difficult as your mind had created. In many cases calling
begins to get fun after a few calls. The problem is most people just never
break through the initial barrier.
2. Establish a routine.
To be successful, you should have a scheduled time for prospecting daily
when that is the only activity that is being done. Treat prospecting as an
appointment. Do not allow anything to interfere with your prospecting. We
often allow distractions to creep into our prospecting time. The salesperson
who has a set routine daily of making prospecting calls at a specific time and
adheres to his or her schedule without distraction is guaranteed to succeed.
This person will not only succeed but will be a "top gun" agent, the best of
the best.
3. Big "Mo"
At first prospecting will be very difficult. Your skills will not be
developed to the level of an expert. Once you start the process, do not stop.
Momentum is critical to prospecting. Once you get the process going, your
skills will improve to generate more leads and to set more appointments. Do
not break your momentum.
Another agent in the real estate office where I worked once issued me a
challenge. The challenge was who could list more homes in a month. I knew
that I would win, since I had momentum and he did not. He had not been
consistently prospecting, so he had no momentum. I must say that he did have
the best month he had ever had. But that was because he was consistently
prospecting and had been following up on the leads he was generating. At then
end of the month, my team had taken eighteen listings and he took six. Do not
underestimate the power of momentum - the Big "Mo."
4. Exploding the best time to prospect myth.
The best time to make prospecting calls is when you have the most energy
and when you actually will call. There have been tremendous arguments over
this point by agents and trainers. Set a time to prospect and call at that
time. Do not worry about things you cannot control, such as someone being home
or not. Focus on your skill level, avoiding distractions, and prospect. These
factors you can control. I always prospected early in the morning because that
was when I had the most energy. It also got my day off to a great start, which
would carry me through the rest of the day. I always thought if I had a good
disciplined day of prospecting that I had a good day regardless of the number
of leads, number of appointments set, or anything else that happened that day.
5. Focus on the goal or objective.
Set a specific goal of what you want to happen on each call. Know what you
want that prospect to do. It is hard to achieve success in prospecting without
a clearly defined objective.
The true objective is to set a qualified appointment with the prospect. If
you are unable to accomplish that objective, then the next best objective is to
get an agreed upon action by the prospect within a specific time frame. For
example, the prospect is going to be interviewing agents next week. You and
the prospect agree to speak on Thursday about getting the appointment scheduled
for next week. The last objective is to generate a lead who will buy or sell
in the future. This objective depends on your definition of what a lead is for
a buyer or seller.
6. The power of scripts.
Highly successful sales people use scripts. To effectively prospect, it is
crucial to know what to say before you start to prospect. Scripts provide a
guide and logical sequence of questions to follow. They allow you to focus on
the response of the prospect rather than fumbling around to find the words.
The only way to move to the highest form of communication is to know what
you are going to say to the prospect. The words you say only account for 7% of
the communication. If you know the words, you can begin to focus on your
tonality and body language. Tonality accounts for 38% of all communication and
body language accounts for 55% of all communication. If you are focusing and
stumbling through 7% of the words you will be ineffective in prospecting. We
have all heard an unskilled telemarketer stumble through their scripts and
dialogues. Develop, learn, and practice your scripts so you can effectively
communicate and reach your prospect through your tonality and body.
7. It is a numbers game.
Prospecting is truly a numbers game, for two valid reasons. The first is
the more prospecting you do the less rejection bothers you. The best way to
deal with rejection is to get as much as you can as soon as you can to reduce
its effect on you. Most people you call are very nice and pleasant. They may
not need your services at this time, which is fine. Rejection is rarely as bad
as you imagine. The only way to find this fact out is to make more calls.
The second reason is you can replicate your business via numbers.
Prospecting will allow you to plan your income and results. If you track your
prospecting efforts, you will find you have ratios in your business. I would
make 25 expired listing contacts and get a listing signed. If I wanted to list
a property a day, I needed to make 25 expired contacts daily, which would then
create the desired income for my family. Contacts are defined as a prospecting
call that results in talking to one of the decision makers in the household.
What is your desired income? How many prospecting contacts do you need to
make to achieve it? As you get more skilled, the number of contacts needed
will decrease. When I first began prospecting, I needed to contact over 100
people to get a listing. Start tracking your numbers so you can play the
game. To play the game well is to know and understand the game.
Michael Jordan was the best player of all time because of his abilities, but
also because cerebrally he knows the game better than any other player. His
physical skills were not at his highest levels late in his career, but his
mental skills were beyond compare. Develop your verbal and mental skills.
Prospecting is truly an integral part of success in any sales profession.
Do not be fooled by the prospecting-free system to success. Develop and apply
the seven secrets of prospecting success. Develop the habit of daily
prospecting, and you will become one of the "top gun" agents in the world.