You want to double your business, and you are already making calls, you need to double, triple and 10x your follow up. This is how you are going to increase the number of appointments and the number of FSBOs you are listing. Massive follow up!
In this chapter, I am going to tell you why follow-up makes the difference when getting listings and then I am going to walk you through my process to Design a massive follow-up system for sellers.
One thing I want to go ahead and get out of the way is, I do not automate a drip campaign. I think that is a huge mistake agents make. Everyone is looking for an easy way. There isn’t one. There may be some things you can automate like follow up notifications, but a 15 or 20 email canned email sequence is not something that will work in today’s market.
Most agents have a “catch you when I can system, meaning they follow up if they don’t have anything to do and they happen to see the person’s name on their desk.”
There is a cool off factor in our business. Most agents don’t understand this, but there is a cool off factor in every business.
This is an example of what I am talking about
Let’s say a driver see a police officer on the side of the road. How long will that driver slow down?
- 5 miles
- 5 minutes
- Less than a mile
Most of us will slow down for less than a mile. This is the cool off factor. People have very short memories. Most real estate agents are very bad at keeping up with people. With buyers and sellers when you are Out of sight you are out of mind.
I am going to tell you what most agents do, and then I am going to give you an example of what my follow up system looks like.
First I want to give you an example of what most real estate agent follow up systems look like. So you just hung up with a fantastic potential client. You had a great meaningful conversation (by meaningful, I mean they told you all of their deep dark secrets about selling the house down to the penny of what they needed to walk away with and how he just got transferred with work and has to move). Now you are sure you are going to list this house, but this is a crazy week, and he says “call me on Monday.”
How many times has that ever happened to you? I bet this sounds very familiar.
Well, today, the day you talked to him is Tuesday. So by Wednesday, he kind of cools off a little bit,(the cool off factor takes effect) he doesn’t hear from you, no emails, no text, no pre-listing package. Thursday rolls around, he has talked to a couple more agents from his craigslist ad he threw up the night before. Now it is Friday, Mr. Seller does not remember your name. You haven’t followed-up. Out of sight, out of mind.
So come Monday, 6 days later, when you call, he does not know who you are, never heard of you, he doesn’t remember talking to you. There is so much clutter and competition out there, a week later (depending on the market) he talked to 10 other agents already. All of them used scripts and were better and more confident on the phone than you. You had 6 days where you gave an opening and let another agent get involved in the conversation you were having with that seller. By the time you talk to him, it has already been on MLS for 2 days.
So your job once you have a serious conversation with a listing prospect is to do 2 things.
#1 keep them hot on you – stay in front of them – Do not let them go
#2 keep them hot on selling their house
If you’ve built a good rapport, you do not want to lose that, and you need to keep that conversation going. Hopefully you made a good impression; hopefully you told him you were sending over your pre-listing package, and you actually had one to send over.
Hopefully you followed up by text as soon as you hit send on the pre-listing package.
Do not mail this package initially unless the seller still lives in 1982 where the internet didn’t exist. By the time the mail gets there, you have given another agent a chance to step into the conversation! Mailing this package is the last resort to get it to them.
Now the whole real estate sales process in today’s world revolves around trust and respect. I am a big believer we use to broker information. When I first started selling real estate we brokered information, 10 years ago we brokered information, now that information is widely available to the general public. Now we broker trust. Every minute, every day the prospect does not hear from you this trust and respect level you built on that initial call starts to fall off.
Now I want to tell you what my follow-up process would look like with this same seller.
After I talk to a potential seller, I get their email – My favorite line I use is “Hey, Mr. seller, I want to send you over some information about me and my company, that way you know who you are talking to (or you know who is coming by your house). My pre-listing package goes out within an hour. It is all set up on my laptop. I just drag and drop it.
Then type up an email. Now that email is very important, you want it to reference the seller point of pain. The point of pain is the reason they told you they are selling. You want this email to be confident and strong. Do not write “I think we can sell your house” write “Our marketing works, I know we can sell your house.” If you do not have confidence in yourself why should they have confidence in you?
Then I text them as soon as I push send, with just a short text “Hey, this is Jason Morris, I want to make sure you got my email.”
The next day, day #2 I’m calling him “hey I wanted to make sure you got my package and see if you have any questions about my company and me?” I answer any questions – I then try to close for an appointment again. I try to close for an appointment on every call.
Day #3 I call and say “I was on MLS this morning looking at homes in and around your neighborhood, is yours a 3br? (Confirm the stuff you guys talked about)”. Next I confirm the price. Then, I try to set another appointment. “I know this week has been a little crazy for you, I know you have to get this place sold, so you can _____(whatever reason they told you). I would like to go ahead and meet you this weekend? Would Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon work for you?” I try to set the appointment again.
If they say no, I try to set a time and day for next week. If they say call me back on Monday, put them in your calendar for Monday. But send him over your net sheet – with a short email “hey I worked this net sheet up to give you an idea of what you will walk away with. I will bring all of the information with me when we meet next week.”
So in this scenario between your initial call and your follow up call was 6 days.
My first follow was under an hour, my second one was under 24 hours. In the first 24 hours you sent an email, you sent a confirmation text, and you called to follow up. By Friday you have made 4 to 5 contacts. Other agents have made 1 call.
Plus every followed wasn’t being pushy or salesman-y, it was offering something of interest to them. I offer help each time. I always follow up with the mindset of helping and educating. As far as most people are concerned, by the time Monday rolls around I am working for them. I tell sellers “I do a lot of work before coming to someone’s home.”
I have never had anyone say “hey I didn’t work with Jason because he just followed up too much, the guy kept me too informed.”
Now make sure you use those motivating factors you talked about in the initial conversation.
Now what to do if you call Monday and you don’t get them on the phone? Who has a great CRM they are using? If you don’t have a CRM, get yourself a spiral notebook to start out with. You need something to keep up with all of your potential clients.
You need some sort of system to keep up with people.
You need to record every action you take. If you work on a CRM, you can automate your follow-up, and by automating, I am not talking about spam follow up. I am talking about it automatically schedules when you need to follow up.
So let’s say Monday you can’t get the seller on the phone. You need to text and email. “Hey, you wanted me to follow up with you today, just left you a voice mail. Give me a call at your earliest convenience.
Do you see where follow-up makes the difference? if you were that average agent competing for the listing with we, who do you think would get it?
If you can’t get in touch with the person when you call, send an email and a text, for the first 10 days. You can go longer, but typically I have talked to most sellers within 10 days.
You need to vary your follow up times you are calling. By my follow up attempt 7 or 8 with no answer my messages are typically, “I have been trying to get in touch with you, do you still want to sell your house?”
What I want to do in this chapter is help you design your follow up the system and what happens when you have had that initial conversation with them. I believe most listings will take 12 to 14 follow ups before setting the appointment and taking the listing. You can get lucky and get the listing sooner.