Interview with Max de Vries, http://maxdevries.com/
How important is prospecting in your realtor business and what approach do you use?
Prospecting is the business. It is absolutely critical. My team and I start every day with prospecting. We follow the Mike Ferry system. From 8-11 we focus exclusively on prospecting.
What approaches do you use for prospecting?
As mentioned we follow the Mike Ferry system and have done so for the last 10 years. We cold-call every day. We start early. After we have some coffee and practice a few scripts with each other, we close the doors and start calling around 8 am.
We use an auto dialer. We have three groups that we normally call, expired listings, FSBO’s (For Sale By Owner) and leads we get from the title company. When we have a listing, we also call in a radius around that listing. We vary the approach. The one day we might focus on FSBO’s and the next on the leads. The key is to put in the hours and make the calls.
At 11 am we get together and compare notes.
What targets do have for prospecting? How do you measure success?
The primary goal we have is to consistently put in the hours. If you do that success will follow. With our approach, the results are different from day to day. Sometimes you have 2 or 3 leads, sometimes nothing.
What do you feel are the keys to success in prospecting?
There are three keys to prospecting success:
- First, don’t be afraid to be rejected. You cannot be shy. You have to talk to people in this business. You are not going to be successful by being a secret agent.
- Second, prospecting is a numbers game. You have to be aware of that and then put in the time and effort to make the numbers. Real estate is hard work.
- Third, learn the scripts. What I see with new realtors is that for whatever reason some of them don’t want to use the scripts. They improvise, make things up and in the long run that does not work. They don’t last.
As you put in the numbers and make the calls you get better and better at answering the questions. There is not a question that prospects can ask that I or my team does not have an immediate answer for. You need to be able to answer the questions to get them as customers. Being able to answer the questions is something you develop over time and comes with experience.
In this day and age, there is resistance against being called. How do you deal with objections on the phone?
That is handled by using the scripts. Don’t try to improvise just use the scripts and practice them.
In terms of prospecting – have you changed your approach over time and what are some of the changes that you’ve implemented to improve your prospecting?
Not really. There are many systems in real estate that can work as well, but we stuck to ours and it has worked well for us.
What advice do you have regarding prospecting for realtors who are just getting started?
There are only two things: Take a mentor and work hard. The real estate business looks like a simple business, but it really is not. It requires a lot of hard work, a lot of experience and perseverance. Prospecting is absolutely critical for success especially when you are just getting started. A starting realtor needs to be prepared to put in a lot of hours. I sometimes see new realtors just doing a few things on Facebook and the rest of the time they take it easy and I am thinking that is not going to work. To be successful you need to be prepared to work hard. You have to talk to people.
How could your life as realtor be made easier, specifically with prospecting?
We have the system for prospecting. The auto dialer certainly helps. What we could use is more data and better-quality data.