AgentLocator Live Dials and Expert Talk, May 4, 2022
In this Live Dial Session, Beverly is on a mission to help Paul. Paul is unsure of how and when to ask for an appointment and has issues with being consistent with his phone calls.
One of the biggest mistakes agents make when dealing with online leads is not being consistent with their call activities. You’ll have days when you call A LOT, and then you’ll not open your database for weeks.
This results in a packed database and a call list too big to digest.
During this webinar, Beverly reveals how she creates her call lists and sets follow-up priorities to avoid being on a call rollercoaster.
Transcript:
Bev: 0:00
Hey, what's going on, Paul? Why are we here today?
Paul: 0:07
Multiple reasons, lots of reasons. So, my main reason is just to get some advice on how to, let's say, set up the meeting, to get them to meet with you at the end of the questions, at the end of the script. And I just, kind of, want to hear how your script goes.
Bev: 0:31
Perfect. Have you listened to any of my calls if you've been on any of our webinars?
Paul: 0:35
I have. I've listened to so many webinars and different types of things that I, like, not only from this system but other ones, too, that I just don't want to mix it together, right? So, that's why I'm asking with a clear mind today.
Bev: 0:48
Perfect. So, one thing that I want to make sure that we're definitely clear on because I did hear you say that you're looking for advice as to how I can basically set that appointment. And that is really what the industry has pushed so hard to teach, is speedily get the appointment. Convert, convert, convert. Where after doing this for so many years, for so many agents and so many dashboards, that's really not the 100% intention. That is the overall goal, but the intention of the phone call is not to go for the kill and get the appointment. The intention of the call is finding out where they are in the process and where we, as real estate advisors fit into their story. Because that completely changes the game of the conversation because we're not going to be as attached to that outcome of the conversion piece and say: Our leads suck. Right? Because our leads can be anywhere from: I got to find something yesterday, to: I might not even ever make a move. So, they can be such a wide array of stories and objections and situations that we cannot overcome or solve. So, that phone call or that texting conversation is, we need to find out what their intentions are, what their expectations are, and are we going to fit into their scenario or not. So, that takes away that heavy pressure of my leads off because my leads don't have a story, right? It's not that they suck. They all have a story because everybody has a story. Even if you look back at your last five settlements, what was the reason they moved? What was the reason why they moved when they moved?
Paul: 2:59
Yeah. All different reasons. Yeah.
Bev: 3:02
Yeah. So, when we're looking at having conversations with people, taking that: I've got a close you, and tucking it back and saying: Where are you in the process? What are you thinking about doing in the future of real estate? Because what we want to do is not only go for yes, we want the people that want to convert, like, right now, but we want to build that pipeline so that we can really scale our business, to set our goal to know: Hey, honey, we're going to be going on vacation next year, because I got, like, 55 people in my pipeline that if I do everything right, and I still have leads coming in. I'm going to have 55 closings over the next couple of years if I do everything right with these people, because of the conversations I've had. Yeah, okay. Does that piss you off, or does it help?
Paul: 3:58
It helps. You're setting yourself up for something, right? You don't expect all the leads to be jumping at buying a property right away. And, you know, there's a lot of nurturing involved, right? And that's what's good about the system is that you can set up the times of when you're going to call the people to nurture them, as long as you put the work into it and get the people to, you know, you develop some sort of, you know, business relationship with them. I mean, you know, as long as you guys have that connection, then, you know, the time will come. It will come, and sometimes when you least expect and, like, I've been in the middle of the road, and I've been nurturing a lead, and like, I've had one two weeks later that said: I'm ready. And then you have another one that, you know, like a year after I've been talking with them that they're ready to purchase something, so everybody's different, right? Everybody has different intentions, like you said, right, Beverly?
Bev: 4:52
It is, and you know, I always like to ask this question. Do you own a home, Paul?
Paul: 4:56
Yeah.
Bev: 4:57
And when did you buy?
Paul: 4:59
In 2016.
Bev: 5:00
And when you bought in 2016, was that your first home? Second home?
Paul: 5:06
First.
Bev: 5:07
First purchase? How long have you been thinking about making that purchase before you actually went to settlement?
Paul: 5:14
Um, a couple of years, actually. It was…
Bev: 5:17
Oh, you're one of those leads.
Paul: 5:21
Not only that, but I moved my whole area, too. So, there you go.
Bev: 5:26
Right. So, were you in real estate then?
Paul: 5:30
No.
Bev: 5:31
Okay. So, you were one of those leads. So, when did you start looking online?
Paul: 5:38
That was the very first thing I did was, that's where you go, right? Everything's online, and all the information is there.
Bev: 5:46
You bought in 2016, but when did you go online?
Paul: 5:50
Good question. I, it was, all the time. Like, I would constantly go and see if there was something in my search. Sometimes I was more motivated. Sometimes I was less motivated. Sometimes I put my search off to the side.
Bev: 6:08
You're looking all the time, but you won't answer the freaking phone. You're looking all the time, but you never call me back. You're looking, right? Yeah. You did the exact same damn thing.
Paul: 6:24
Thanks for that. It's true.
Bev: 6:28
But we forget that because: Dammit, I'm a real estate agent. And they need to talk to me because they want to buy a house because they're online looking. Now, you had no idea that this was going this way, did you?
Paul: 6:44
No, but I'm liking it, so it's good.
Bev: 6:46
So, let's just say, for shits and giggles, you started looking online in 2013, two years before you actually were going to make that move?
Paul: 6:53
Yes.
Bev: 5:54
Is there anything me, as a real estate adviser, could have done to expedite that process and make you buy in 2014?
Paul: 7:07
No.
Bev: 7:08
2015?
Paul:
2015, well; 2016 I bought. And in 2014, we started looking at another area. So yeah, I guess there would have been something that you could have done to, kind of, get me out there. But, I probably could have used the education to probably end up where I ended up.
Bev: 7:26
Going back to where are you in the process, and where do I fit in, right? Having that conversation about what are your plans. So, what were your plans then and having that conversation of that agent not pushing you, not forcing you, but listening and offering, to your point, education and advice.
Paul: 7:55
Actually, my plan was originally to get a cottage, and we ended up getting a house. So, that's the two different worlds, I guess, right? In totally different areas.
Bev: 8:07
It is. And that's the thing with all of our leads, right? A lot of people have intentions right now. But those intentions can change. And they honestly don't want to waste your time when they don't even know.
Paul: 8:25
Yeah, true.
Bev: 8:27
So, when we have those conversations, Paul, all I would have said to you then was: Paul, so, you're thinking about a cottage, but you're not 100% sure. Paul, what can I do in the meantime, because I really don't care when you buy. I would just really like to be the one that you would use as your agent. What can I do to earn your business? And you'd be like: I don't know. Well, Paul, when would it make sense? If I were to call you back just to check in and see what's going on?
Paul: 8:59
I would have probably said: Yeah, you know, a little.
Bev: 9:03
And then when the agent called back, you're like: Wait, what, this agent actually called me back, right? Yeah. And that's the mistake we all make. And I say we all because me included. I mean, yes, I'm sitting here, training and teaching this. But does this happen with every single lead? It's unrealistic to think that's going to happen with every single lead. You know, and I tell everybody: I always have to overtrain so that if I tell you: Six to eight attempts, then I'm hoping I'm going to get four to five. If I tell you: I'll only make four or five phone calls, I am going to get one or two, right? So, on a perfect day, we do six to eight attempts on our phone calls. Do we have conversations with everybody? Hell, no. Nobody answers the frickin phone anymore, right? And that's where that consistency comes into play. And when you're looking at your, the HLA, the high-level activity that you need to be doing within your day to meet your goals, we need to know how many conversations are going to lead to a conversion. How many conversations are going to lead to having people on your calendar that are quality? I'm sorry. So, when you're looking at quality, you want to be looking at: I have a 70% chance or more of getting this person to the settlement table. And that comes in a myriad of different ways in our conversations of where their current situation is. Have they been in their home for one year? Well, not really a high urgency, right, unless they really hate their neighbors or they're moving out of town, right? But if they've been in their home for six, seven years, they got great equity, and they're growing out of their house, because they're having a baby, or they just had a baby, needs a little bit more urgency, but they just may not have enough money for the down payment, or they may not, there's, something may be in their way, waiting until someone graduates from university or whatever, right?
There's a different level of conversation that we can have while they're in the information gathering process, that we're going to put them on our calendar because if we're genuinely putting people on our calendar, that are our future pipeline of business, we're going to treat those people much differently than somebody we're just putting on there to call back just to see, right? And that's a big mistake that a lot of us make because we want to set reminders for everybody because we don't want to forget anything. But we set reminders for people that aren't high quality, and we're like: I'll schedule them tomorrow. I just want to see if they were looking at properties online. Then tomorrow comes, and it's like: Oh, I'll do it next week. Because then I have a free day on Tuesday, then Tuesday, your day gets booked up, you're like I'll do next week. Then all of a sudden, you have hundreds of tasks. And you don't even know which one's the priority.
So, being very selective with the people that you are putting on that task, on that follow-up, being a more higher level. Now, the question from listening to what you were saying when we first got on here. How do we get those high-level conversations to know and be able to weed out the non-quality from the quality, right? So, tell me about; I know when Chrystal sent me an email, you've been busy, and you really haven't been working your dashboard. So, tell me about what your habits are over the last couple of weeks with your dashboard. Is there one attempt? Is there no attempt? There's no right or wrong answer here. No judgment.
Paul: 13:00
So, what's been going on is, I was, things were, kind of, slower for me. I had some time, so I was obviously making the calls. I got into the tempo. You get into the groove. You feel A1 because you're practicing and training and doing it every day. And then things started coming up. And then, as those things started coming up, my dials went less and less. And it went from, like, evenings for a few phone calls to not making a few those calls at all. So, then you have that break in between, and then when you do have that time to go back, you're out of the training. So, then you're, kind of, like: Oh, you know, is this going to be, you know, the Paul that I want to be on the phone, you know? So, it takes a little bit of a few people to filter through to get back onto that, you know, back on the game, so to speak. And that's what's been happening. So, I got really busy, and then I haven't been calling for about two weeks.
Bev: 13:55
So, it's like this, right? Busy, busy, busy. I'm calling. I'm creating. I created it. I'm going to work it. Poop, I don't have anything left. I got it, right? The roller coaster, which is why that consistency is so important, which is why I'm a fanatic for call filters. Because your lead flow is only going to change if you stop it, right? And who wants to do that because we want potential. So, your leads are always coming in. That is not going to change as long as you're paying for the lead generation. But the one thing that we have control over is to make sure that we're consistent with our days no matter what. And with that consistency, it brings about the lack of needing to spend a lot of time in our database. Because if we know who our high priorities are at all times, if you have 10 minutes, you can jump in. If you have 15 minutes, you can jump in. That's all you should realistically be working, your database, every day. If you're consistent, how many leads do you have coming in a month? Ish?
Paul: 15:11
So, let's say about between 100 and 120.
Bev: 15:20
You have 100-120 leads coming in a month?
Paul: 15:23
I'm getting; okay, so let's see. Two leads a day times 30 days, so like 60. So sorry, like 60 leads max.
Bev: 15:30
Okay. So, what I have found is the rock star agent can handle 50ish a month. Now, where does that 50 fall into place? Because I can almost guarantee you that 30% of those are probably bad phone numbers. Is that safe to assume?
Paul: 15:54
Yeah.
Bev: 15:55
So, if you have 60 leads coming in, and 30% are going to be bad, you're going to have 17ish bad phone numbers. So, that's taking you down to a very workable amount of leads to work. Because what happens, as leads are coming in, you're going to be discrediting them as a bad phone number, moving them to a bad phone number, and let the bad phone campaign take care of itself. Okay? So, now you're down. So, let's say you have two leads a day. When you have leads that registered over the last 14 days, you're going to be having conversations with some of them. And you're going to be discrediting some of them as bad phone numbers. So, by the time you have the conversations, and by the time you have the phone numbers, realistically, the leads that registered over the last 14 days that you haven't spoken to, should be in the neighborhood of 16 to 18, on a rotating basis, because after 14 days are going to fall out. So, when you're looking at 16ish leads to call every couple of days. Literally, even if people answer the phone, it shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes. So, any other reason why we're not calling leads is an excuse to not do it. And I do completely 100% understand, because you're like: I got a half hour before I got to go to my appointment. I can jump in here. What if I get a hold of somebody? It's going to take too long, right? What if I get a hold of somebody? I can't complete the entire task. We can talk ourselves out of doing it because of the next thing that we have to do going up. Does that make sense?
So, that 15 minutes, you want to make sure when we're talking about you scheduling high-level activity on your calendar, schedule that in because the ultimate objective is to have more conversations. The more conversations we can have, the better we're positioning our future business in our pipeline because we're finding out where they are in the process. We're finding out when they need us in the process and what we need to do to earn their business. Does that make sense?
Paul: 18:22
Yes, it does.
Bev: 18:24
So, now, it's kind of bittersweet right now, because the catching up, you have a lot of call volume to catch up, to get back to that few minutes a day, right? And I always say: How do you eat an elephant? Do you know, did you hear that phrase?
Paul: 18:45
How do you eat an elephant? Yeah, yes, I do. Yes.
Bev: 18:48
One bite at a time, right? Because if you go in here, and you call, you're like: I'm doing this today. I'm going to call everybody today. Well, then, and like the next couple of days, and the next week, everybody's going to fall back in that bucket. Again, you're going to knock out some conversations. But you're like: Who, don't want to do that again. So, when you're thinking about your priorities, think about it in the ways of brand new leads coming in. That's your top priority, right? You want to get to that within that day, within 24 hours. Your next batch are your leads that registered in the last 14 days because we want to find out are they Paul from 2014, that's looking at a cottage and not going to be moving and buying a house in a different area for two years. Or have they increased the amount of time looking online because they're ready to go now? We don't know the difference. We just know they're online looking, and they're in our database. So, we have that as the best thing to find out because if you find out a year from now, they're like: I already purchased. You're like: I didn't do everything I could have. But in those first two weeks, we can be very aggressive, and then we say: Well, you know, if we talk to him in a year and they already bought something, I did everything I could. The next bucket is the bucket that I pulled. And this is really good news for you. How long have you had AgentLocator?
Paul: 20:10
Since last August.
Bev: 20:14
I am impressed with the activity that you have going on in your dashboard. You have, so what I pulled, I didn't even really look at the leads that registered in the last 14 days. I pulled all your leads that are Not Set, New Lead, and Tried to contact. And it appears the majority of your database is in that criteria. There's not a ton that's moved to Contacted. So, you have a lot of leads, that tells me: Oh, Gosh, you haven't had enough conversations. There are a lot of conversations to be had in here. But who's the highest priority person to have a conversation with? So, I wanted to make sure that I'm not just pulling up all the bad phone number people. But I can promise you, out of these 62, if there haven't been phone call attempts with these people at all, there's going to be 3,6,9,12; there's going to be at least 15 to 20 that are a bad phone number that we're going to be eliminating. But what's happening with these is these people have been actively engaged somehow, some way, within the last 30 days. And this is what's really exciting. Look when they registered, right? One day ago. This was October. And you can see they were viewing properties. So, I look at this as being of the highest priority. Now, tell me about; this looks like you had one in here. Was this an import? I don't know. Yeah, this was an import. Tell me about your imports and where they came from. And, kind of, was that a Facebook? I guess was that your listing?
Paul: 22:09
Yes, I was with another system for about two years. And that's where those leads came from. And, yeah.
Bev: 22:19
And you don't know; now, let me ask you this. Do you think, because AgentLocator automatically moves the lead to a Contacted stage, I'm going to assume you weren't using the dialer in here? Is that correct?
Paul: 22:38
You can click on the lead if you'd like. You can see if I was using the dialer or not. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. In this case, it doesn't look like it, it doesn't.
Bev: 22:50
Yeah, it doesn't look like there was. Well, this was an import, though. So, once it was imported, it doesn't look like there was an attempt made.
Paul: 22:56
Okay, that makes sense. Yes.
Bev: 22:59
But you must have them up on a search once they were imported. Yeah?
Paul: 23:04
Yes. And I'd have to manually set it up through the other system. I literally have to take that lead, put it into the matrix search. And then most of the time through that search when I would follow up with them, and I'd set them up on the regular search, they would, you know, a lot of times I was too late. They had already bought.
Bev: 23:25
Yep. All right. Let me ask you this. I see a task here. Did the task transfer over from the import, or did you set the task, and why was this task set for June?
Paul: 23:39
I spoke with them. I believe it is in my notes, maybe. I must have spoken with him to set the time. I wouldn't have set the time.
Bev: 23:46
Possibly, I have it blurred, so I can't see your notes. Do you have your AgentLocator open?
Paul: 23:51
No, I don't.
Crystal: 23:55
I'll pull it up. I'll see if I can find it.
Bev: 23:58
Well, if I scroll up, we don't have the information I can unblur, right? How can I turn off the blur?
Crystal: 24:05
You can't. So, this guy is looking for; so, this conversation, I guess he logged it as a note, Paul versus a call. He's looking for an investment property, looking for his son, looking for a condo or townhouse, looking in the suburbs. Kitchener, Cambridge, Ottawa, Waterloo, Hamilton. Doesn't want to get into a bidding war. There was a call at some point. You put a note again back on September 21. That was, in September, he was putting it on hold for a year.
Bev: 24:45
So, here's the question, and this is so great for training. I'm so glad it's come up because I get this question a lot. Like, when do we follow up? How do we follow up? If I were to rewind and go back to your last conversation with him. That's where I like to ask the leads: When do you want me to follow up with you? When does it make the most sense for me to check in with you? And what can I be doing for you in the meantime? Then that way, it takes the guesswork out of our follow-up because they told us when to follow up. And then we can go: Oh, hey, Jaden, this is Paul. I'm just checking in. I, you know, we talked about following up with you and just seeing, kind of, where are you with your plans. Anything change? But now we're, it's just like rolling the dice and a guessing game because we really don't know unless you remember. And honestly, my goal would be for you to have enough conversations that you shouldn't be able to remember these conversations until you look at notes. It's easy whenever we first started lead generating, and we only have 60 leads, and we've only had 10 conversations, we remember everybody, and we know exactly what all 60 people are looking at because we have nothing better to do than to pay attention to what they're doing, and wonder why they're not talking to us, right?
So, the goal is, I don't want you looking at what they're doing. I don't want you looking at their notes. I just want you to know this is a high-priority lead because he's actively engaged. And I don't know where he is in the process right now. Do you remember him? So, if he was September, putting it off to next year, what was your mindset for June?
Paul: 26:22
My mindset at that time, I didn't realize…
Bev: 26:29
You didn't realize what?
Paul: 26:36
Can you hear me?
Bev: 36:38
I can, maybe, right now. It cut out.
Paul: 26:41
I didn't realize that the mortgage rates were going to rise and that they were going to stop the international buying, like, from going on. So, it probably would be a very good time to call him. As the market is, kind of, lovely.
Bev: 27:00
Give him information, update him and see if anything's changing, right? So, you can see and understand the importance of asking them when that phone call needs to happen next and what you could be doing for them in the meantime.
Paul: 27:17
Yes.
Bev: 27:18
Perfect. So, and this is what I mean when we're looking at; I now clicked on the second lead. I'm seeing another task that is set. Crystal, can you look at Wendy for me and see the conversations with Wendy? Call, no message left. Call, no message left. Call, no message left, but there's a reminder. So, it doesn't appear like you've talked to this person. But there is a reminder for October 4. So, what happens, Paul, whenever I was saying that we tend to task everything because we don't want to forget anybody. Our whole dashboard ends up being full of tasks then, and we don't even know who the priorities are. So, if we've never spoken to them, there's nothing to remind us to do because they're going to fall into a call filter based on them being active, looking at properties, and this lead right here, they looked at 52 properties 18 hours ago and registered back last September.
Crystal: 28:32
And there are no call notes in here.
Bev: 28:35
Do we really want to wait until October to see what's going on with her?
Paul: 28:38
No, she will have already bought by then. I should call her right now.
Bev: 28:42
Well, let's do it.
Paul: 28:43
Alright.
Bev: 29:13
And that is my beautiful 23-24 ring rule. Because she's going to be like: Oh shoot, I just missed that call. Who was that? And you have a higher chance of her calling you back. So, 23 seconds next. 23 seconds next. 23 seconds next. If you wait for it to go to a voicemail and you listen to the voicemail, you leave a voicemail; it's going to take you two minutes per lead. You can get four dials in and create callbacks and increase your conversations more than letting it go to voicemail and leaving a message. Now, my conversation with her, if you haven't heard how my intro is, I like to eliminate my own objections out of the gate. Because if we get too wordy, when she would be answering the phone, she's seeing a number on her phone that she does not know. What is her first thought when you see a number that you don't know?
Paul: 30:17
Telemarketer or a salesperson.
Bev: 30:21
You don't want to be that person, right? So, she already has the defenses up, getting ready to hang up on you. So, we have seconds to make that impression for her to determine if she's going to continue the conversation. Now you Canadians are much nicer than us Americans here. So, most of you, like, I get less hung up on in Canada than I do in the United States. I can tell you that. So, the quick lead-in is we want to go right to why we're calling. She doesn't give a damn who we are. You don't care what company you're with, what website you are. She doesn't care how many awards you've got, how great you are. She just wants to know who the hell was calling me that I don't know. So: Hey, Wendy, this is Beverly. I saw that you were online, and you've been looking at some homes in Collingwood. Yeah, yeah. Tell me about that. What's your situation? What exactly are you looking for? It looks like you've been looking for a little while. Ask. So, what is your most common objection? What do you hear whenever you get to that point? Where do they say?
Paul: 31:30
They're just looking.
Bev: 31:32
Just looking, awesome. So, what is your situation right now? Do you own a home, or are you renting?
Paul: 31:43
I'm renting.
Bev: 31:44
Renting? Are you in a lease term, or are you month to month?
Paul: 31:48
Month to month.
Bev: 31:49
Month to month? So, when would you like to make a move happen?
Paul: 31:50
Soon.
Bev: 31:51
Right? So, we're asking the questions and like peeling back those layers because if she's in a lease term, it gives us a time frame. If she's month to month, what are your plans? What are you looking for? So, that way, I hear agents, they are like: Hey, this is Beverly. I'm with exp. And Atlanta Home Advisors on atlantahomeadvisors.com. And they are like: Huh, who are you with? Right? So, if you just say: Hey, this is Beverly, or: Hey, this is Paul. I'm just checking in to see. I see you are online looking at homes. Oh, yeah, I was. It gives them less of a chance to lie to you. It gives them that: Oh, yeah, I was. And then you get to ask that follow-up question.
Paul: 32:49
Yes. That's a good point because the script that I have been using, I recently just did exactly what you said. I turned that script into about 2,3,4 sentences to start the conversation. And I try, like, to break it down. The other script that I was using sounds more like a telemarketer. So, that's exactly what I'm seeing now is: Hi, I am Paul. I just want to thank you for logging into thehomestreetcenter. I want to make sure that your experience is a pleasurable one and also provide you with proper customer service from the start. And then I go into the question: Are you looking at purchasing? Okay, it sucks.
Bev: 33:34
Here's the thing, Paul. It's not that it sucks. It's that that's what everybody's doing, right? Because here's the thing, when you get a phone call, and you don't know who it is, you don't hear a damn word that they're saying. You're just trying to figure out who the hell it is, right? Cut to the chase. Hey, Paul, I saw that you were online looking at homes in Collingwood. Okay, who is this? Paul. Oh, it's Paul. Okay. Yeah, well, what's your story, right? Where if it's that long-winded, they're like: Oh, my God, just yes, I was online looking. Like, let's get to the point here. Right? It gives them a longer time to think about hanging up on you. And at the end of the day, when you think about great customer service, what makes customer service so great? From an experience.
Paul: 34:31
Being there is to service the customer, to actually provide customer service, to be there, whether it's by voice or by text message or by email, and be flexible for a customer.
Bev: 34:44
Yeah. And even like going out to dinner, right? We have a restaurant, so I always, there's so many lessons to be learned when you go out to dinner. And you have a server that comes over to your table. And true story, we went to a high-end steakhouse. It was our anniversary, my fiance and I met three years ago, first. We go to a high-end steakhouse. And I think he might have overhyped it, but I think a lot of it has changed since he had been there. He's like: It is so amazing. Well, he wore dress shorts. And he's like: I don't even know if I'm going to be able to wear dress shorts. And I'm like: Really? Like, he had a really nice button-up shirt, you know, sleeve shirt. And I'm like: I think you're going to be fine. It's kind of 2022, right? Because he was dressed up really nice. We walk in there; there are people in their jeans, there was a lady there in workout pants with a sweatshirt and a jean jacket on. There were kids over the table banging their silverware. And I'm like: And you were worried about your dress shorts. And even when we were looking at the wine list to order wine, they were like: Um. He's like: No, I'm not a sommelier. But I would suggest this wine. Now, we went to a restaurant a couple of weeks before. And he's like: You know what? Let me test your palate because you give me some ideas. He put three bottles of wine in front of us and let us taste all three. He didn't even ask. Where was my experience better?
Paul: 36:14
In the second place.
Bev: 36:15
Yeah, right? Because they cared enough to ask. They cared enough to go above and beyond. I'm not going to forget. And they also set an expectation that now when I go to another restaurant, I don't get that kind of service. I'm like: Nothing compares. I want to go back. I want to go back. So, if we can always be mindful of setting that experience when we're on the phone with somebody, they may not use you. But they will never forget that conversation if you're asking them questions and genuinely care about where they're going, what their expectations are, and what their goals are. Is everybody going to be all warm and fuzzy and want to talk? No. There are people that have really bad days. And I've been doing this long enough to realize you can call a person today, and they're going to be nasty on the phone, hang up on you. But you may call them back in a week or two, and they're nice as pie. It's like they just did a complete 180. And you don't even realize it was the same person. People have bad days, right? Exactly. Exactly. So, you never know what you're going to get. But all we can do is be consistent with finding out where is Anne in the process. Anne registered 221 days ago. She's looked at 80 freaking properties. Anne, what is going on? She isn't the one now. This is a different one. I didn't try calling. I tried calling Wendy, I think, before.
More than likely, there's a 99% chance it is a bad phone number. Third-party dialers sometimes don't detect, and sometimes they'll just ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing when it won't even go to a voicemail. I would mark this as a bad phone number. I can't see it. But if it's a quick, busy, sometimes in Canada, I realized you have, like, really bad service in certain areas. And they could just be out of network or out of service right now. So, sometimes I'll leave a note in here: Fast busy. If I get fast busy three times a day: a) you can check it manually with your phone and see if it goes through; b) if you get fast busy three times, just move it to a bad phone number. But you can see we had 61 leads in here, and now when I go to the next one, it is going to be 60 because I'm pulling people out. What should have been six; oh, I didn't change it as a bad phone number. If I didn't change it as a bad phone number, you'd have been down to 60 leads. Or if we talked to Nedim and we move his status to Contacted, it's going to drop this number too. So, you're always going to be moving people out of the filter based on conversations. I'm going to try. What's going through your mind right now? What questions do you have?
Paul: 38:27
My mind is I have to be better at filtering.
Nedim: 39:38
Hello?
Bev: 39:39
Oh, hello, I was looking for Nedim.
Nedim: 39:42
Who's calling?
Bev: 39:43
This is Beverly. I'm checking in. Are you all looking at some homes online? Looking at condos?
Nedim. 39:51
Yeah, but he's not here now.
Bev: 39:54
Okay. Are you actively looking? Are you thinking about a move? Do you want us to give a call back when he'll be in?
Nedim: 40:03
Yes, yes.
Bev: 40:04
Perfect. What was your name?
Nedim: 40:06
Give me a call later, okay?
Bev: 40:08
All right. And what was your name, ma'am?
Nedim: 40:12
Doesn't matter. Just give me a call later.
Bev: 40:17
Okay, so I'll just call you Mrs. Doesn't Matter, and we'll give your husband a call back later. Bye, bye.
Have fun with it, right? Okay, so when you call back: Hey, Mrs. Doesn't Matter, if she answers the phone, right? Have fun with it. And she laughed, smiling about it. So, here's what's cool, right? The husband wasn't home. But I went, and I asked that extra question. Are you actively looking? Are you looking to make a move? Yes, yes, yes, she said. It's worth your callback. Absolutely worth your callback. Now, my rule of thumb is I would set a task for this, so I don't forget, but leave her as Tried to contact. Because right now, the quality of this lead is not super high. But if you maintain the consistency of calling people that are actively engaged, you're not going to be over-tasking yourself because she's going to fall in your call filter anyway. So, that way, we don't have to worry about over-tasking ourselves. Because what are the odds of you being able to call this evening and talk to Nedim? Slim, right?
Paul: 41:53
If she picks up, then yeah, very slim.
Bev: 41:57
Yeah, well, the chances of them picking up the phone because this is where we fail: a) we don't call back or b) we call back, and they don't answer the phone. And then we never try calling back again. That's where we fail. It's going to be one or two. Because the odds of the third one happening that you call back and you convert is a very small percentage. That's what we want to happen. But that's where the smallest percentage of a chance comes into play. And when it does, you're like: Score! But the consistency, if they do not answer the phone tonight, I would leave a voicemail. Hey, Nedim, or: Hey, Mrs. It Doesn't Matter. This is Paul. You spoke with Beverly briefly today. And I was just checking in when to talk to you about your home purchase. When can I call you back again tomorrow? I'll try calling back again tomorrow. Tell them what your next step is. Or, also feel free to give me a call at this number. Now, what I didn't ask is if this was a cell phone number. Because if it's a cell phone number, you can follow up that voicemail with a text.
Paul: 43:17
Very true.
Bev: 43:18
Hey, Mrs. It Doesn't Matter. This is Paul. I was just checking in to see if Nedim was home for a conversation. Have him give me a call at his convenience. Don't expect him to drop everything because he doesn't know you yet. Because what happens whenever you're under contract and there's a fire going on, they're calling you at midnight, right? You can't get rid of them whenever they're worried about things, but you haven't established that relationship yet. There's not a connection yet. So don't get offended if he doesn't call back or doesn't answer the phone, or doesn't respond to text messages. It's all okay. It's our job to be consistent and make it easy for them.
Paul: 44:00
How would you work that then? Okay, let's say I call Mrs. Doesn't Matter tonight, and they don't pick up, and was it Nedim?
Bev: 44:09
Nedim.
Paul: 44:12
Well, maybe. Okay, so let's see. Nedim doesn't pick up tonight. Let's say his wife doesn't pick up tonight. I will try again, let's say tomorrow. And then I try consistently, let's say, for another four days. And then what would you do from there?
Bev: 44:25
My rule of thumb is: three strikes, you're out. I will attempt three times purposefully by task. If I am not successful within those three times, they go back into my call filter. Because with this particular call filter in my database, this is my third priority call filter. My first priority are the new leads coming in. They are in the New or Tried to contact status that have zero phone calls, that I have not made a phone call to. My second priority filter are the leads that registered over the last 14 days that I have not spoken to, my Tried to contact. Because I can go right to that filter, and I know exactly who I need to call. And I can keep it moving, right? But the main priority there is changing up the times that you're calling them to increase your chance of getting a hold of them. Because if you sit down at your phone or your computer every day at 8:30 in the morning, people have habits because they're getting to work, they're getting their kids to school. They're never going to answer the phone at 8:30 if it's a bad time. But if you call that list at 8:30 on one morning, and then two days later, call that whole list again at noon. And then two days later, you call that whole list again at 4:30. And then you call them at six o'clock. You're changing up the timeframes, increasing your chances of catching them at a better time to answer the phone. So, then your third filter is this one, leads that registered after that 14 days. 15 days or more, all of your leads that are actively engaged within the last 30 days and have a phone number that's not bad. So, what's going to happen, I like to call these every seven days. Because if I've just come off of trying to call you six to eight times in the last two weeks, the chances of you answering the phone are pretty slim, and I can't maintain that level of volume with all of my leads. So, we have to move them down that priority chain, to say: Oh, if you maintain activity, I'm going to call you every week. I'm going to try every week. And my favorite story is one of our leads that registered in May, called us in November. We attempted calling him, and then just think about your calling habits and just think about how many attempts do you think from May to November we tried calling him. How many phone calls do you think?
Paul: 47:04
Let's say, May…
Bev: 47:06
May to November.
Paul: 47:08
So, let's say in a month, November, 15 times?
Bev: 47:15
78.
Paul: 47:16
Whoa.
Bev: 47:18
78 phone calls. Two voicemails from May to November. And my agent calls: Bev. I had a lead call me back. And that happens once in a while; she's like: No, no, you don't understand. She went through and counted all of our call attempts, which is why we love to log calls, right? If you go back and see how many licks does it take to get to a certain lollipop. So, when you count the calls, you're like: How much money did that cost you? Zero. You paid for the lead back in May. They call you in November. And they said to her: I feel like we owe you a phone call. Because you've been so consistent with your phone calls and trying to get a hold of us. We were in the area looking around. We're not ready to move until April. But we do have a home to sell where we live, which we have an agent, but as diligent as what you have been in trying to contact us, we know you're the agent for us here because you don't even know us, and you were working that hard. Our price range was 250,000. They were 500,000 cash.
Paul: 48:28
Impressive.
Bev: 48:29
78 attempts, never spoke to him.
Paul: 48:34
Something like that comes together for sure.
Bev: 48:36
Well, it's one of those things where we don't think we're doing anything. People don't answer the phone. But we are, right? Even by making the phone calls, like: Whoa, nobody answered the phone. I'm in. I'm out. I'm done. You're doing something. Especially if you follow; just think about, Paul, if your phone rings, and it rings more than four times, are you annoyed by the time you answer it?
Paul: 49:03
Yeah.
Bev: 49:04
Yeah, you're, like, trying to stop it ringing. Or you have it on Do Not Disturb or whatever, right? So, we have to be; but they're like: Oh, God, this number comes through, like, every couple of days. I wonder who this is? Or: Oh my Gosh, I tried to get to it, and it stopped ringing. Your curiosity is more peaked when somebody calls and hangs up than it does if it rings through.
Paul: 49:35
Very true.
Bev: 49:38
Right? So, by what we feel is doing nothing, we're doing everything. Because we're making our attempts. We're making our calls. We're attempting to have those conversations. So, I challenge you to say: What's my conversation ratio instead of your conversion ratio because it's in the conversations that bring the conversion. But if we're not in here attempting and trying, we're not having the conversations; it's going to bring about the conversion.
Paul: 50:08
Yes.
Bev: 50:13
So, I am going to move this to Talked to lead. And I'm going to go ahead and set your task for tonight, so we don't lose that. And I am very descriptive in the subject line. And do you know how it shows on your calendar here?
Paul: 50:42
Let's see. The subject will show up in the calendar? It will show up as the subject, right?
Bev: 50:49
Yes. Yes, yes.
Paul: 50:53
And that's another thing I see. So, it's the description. So, I'll have a follow-up with a lead. And then, like, follow up. And then so, I'm getting constant emails that say the same thing. And I don't know who it is, so I'm, kind of...
Bev: 51:07
Yeah, it's all about the title. If it's - I need to text the lead. I need to check to see if there; let's say you have a conversation with a lead, and they want you to set them up on a search. And you just want to make sure that they got the email because you're going to tell them, you know, I can set you up on a search, but the emails may go to spam. I just want to make sure you're receiving them, so I'm just going to check back in three days. So, all you have to do right here in the title is ensure that they opened the emails or check on their activity, on their search activity. Then that way, you know exactly what it is. And then you can even structure your days as such that Thursday's is my day that I want to make sure everybody I had a conversation with, that they're opening up their emails, and they're getting them. So, make your calendar work for you and make your leads work for you on what you want to do at what times and what your priorities are. But I would remove this task and move it back. She is Tried to contact. Or, I am sorry, she's Contacted, but it's not refreshed yet. So, she's going to fall out of this bucket.
The other mistake that we all make is you try calling this evening. You complete the task. You leave her in Contacted, and she falls into the abyss. You lose her. So, we have to be mindful of either creating other tasks so that we don't lose her. And this is where the "Three strikes, you're out" rule comes in. And I would do, today's Wednesday, I would try tonight. I would try tomorrow night. And then I would try on Saturday. And if you don't get an answer back, and maybe even shoot a text, if you don't get an answer back, move it back to Tried to contact, and this filter is now in here. So, I have this filter as a Webinar filter. So, this filter is in here. This is your priority three filter that's been set. As long as she's actively engaged, she's going to stay in this filter until you move her. Is that helpful?
Paul: 53:27
Very much. Thank you.
Bev: 53:29
Are you excited about calling leads now?
Paul: 53:31
Yeah. I'm just thinking, like, 26 seconds, right? Like putting in that attempt. If you don't try, you'll never know.
Bev: 53:44
Exactly.
Paul: 53:45
It's funny, I joined AgentLocator, and I was doing the smallest budget ever. And I had a lead, and I talked to her. And I actually just ended up doing a deal with her. We ended up selling her place. And, you know, that was because she became, like, a super fan. So, what was cool about her is that if I forgot to follow up with her, she would follow up with me. And I just thought she liked talking. Next thing we know, we have the deal. So, it was really cool.
Bev: 54:20
So you know it works, and you know what to do. It is just really creating those habits that are going to give you the results you're looking for.
Paul: 54:31
Yes. And to make those emails. Like you said, to prioritize the tasks, that's very important, and to set those titles because, you know, it's not the same as knowing exactly why you're following up with that conversation or what you're trying to accomplish. So, I think every little bit makes a difference, and that's exactly what I'm going to be doing. My titles and I'm going to be more descriptive so that I'm not tricking myself.
Bev: 55:06
Fantastic. Crystal, is there anything in the chat? Or are there any questions that have come up that we need to address?
Crystal: 55:13
More or less, I know some of them are going to do some door-knocking, so they were talking with each other. Talking about consistency. Stan was asking the question with respect to signing with the bad phone numbers to verify at signup. There is no verification or two-step. I know they're working on some alternate forms for you guys to be able to choose from. The reason why we left that is so that they're not doing all these two-step, you know, authentication, right off the bat is the number of leads that you are going to generate is going to decrease by a fair amount. Simply because you're making individuals jump through too many hoops just to see what they want to see, they're going to just go somewhere else and find out.
Bev: 56:02
Yup. And bad phone numbers, if you're looking what they're active on and you're trying to get a hold of them via email saying: Hey, I saw that you were looking at this property, would you like to go see a tour of it? Or where are you in the process? I tried calling you on this number. If you're on an attempt to get their phone number, you're going to increase your chances, and they're going to be your best leads because no other agents are working them.
Crystal: 56:29
And some of them are going to give you a phone number, right? Because every system they're going in there, they're putting in a bad number, right? So, it's, if they really want the listings, and some of them will essentially give you the number, and some of them don't actually intentionally give you a bad phone number, right? They'll do 644 instead of 647, right? That wasn't intentional. That was, they've got chubby fingers, right? So, it's, they're all different. I find that most of the leads that come in where something is off, and you'll be able to see when they change the number that it's like one number, like it's one digit off from what their actual number is. But then, of course, you do get the malicious ones. And it's all like 1111111, ABC. Those, of course, happen.
Bev: 57:20
Well, it was a pleasure meeting you.
Paul: 57:21
Likewise, likewise, Beverly. It was very enlightening today, and I appreciate the little boost because I'm getting back on tomorrow. I'm making it a mission. It doesn't matter, eight, nine whenever I get the chance, before I…
Bev: 57:35
Just remember, you were that lead once, too. So, every time you look at calling a lead, just remember your situation and put yourself back in those shoes; and what were the questions that would have helped you?
Paul: 57:46
I needed that. Yeah, no, thank you for that. That was really enlightening.
Bev: 57:51
Good. Well, thank you, Crystal. Thank you, Paul. You guys have a wonderful rest of your day.
Paul: 57:57
Thank you, you as well. Bye.
Crystal: 57:59
No problem, you as well. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Beverly. We'll see you again in a couple of weeks. No problem. Bye.