Real Estate Investment :PROSPECTING – A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY

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You don’t need to make fifty cold calls a day to achieve prospecting success. In fact, if that is your primary method, I would question your decision-making ability. We need to do enough prospecting activity to drive the business. Picking a more effective medium than cold calling is the mark of a successful businessperson. When we prospect consistently, which is the key, it doesn’t take much. I caution you; it is also easy to think we are making progress and be merely treading water at best.

If you set a goal to make ten contacts a day, and on Monday you do ten, Tuesday three because of an office meeting, Wednesday another ten, Thursday eight, and Friday you did four because it was beautiful outside and you wanted to play golf; was that a good week of prospecting? When most Agents are asked that question, they say yes. The truth is that week repeated for a year would be the equivalent of fifteen weeks in the year of zero prospecting or almost four months. Now how do you feel about that week?

If you have some name recognition or market presence, a little prospecting will generate explosive growth. Established Agents and Champion Agents receive more benefit from prospecting than new or low producing Agents. The reason is your sphere of influence, past clients, and other sources know that you are busy. They are not expecting a call because of the volume of business you do. When you do make prospecting calls to them, it carries more of a “wow” factor.

This is also true in the more competitive forms of prospecting. If you have good market share in an area, and you decide to make calls to expireds or FSBOs, you will hear frequently from the prospects that they see your signs everywhere. You can parlay that position into a huge advantage in securing a listing presentation. Don’t make the mistake that most Agents do when they achieve a little or even a lot of success. They stop doing what brought them to their success. The time to increase is at hand; do not cut back.

My friend John Gualtieri shared this statement with me a few years ago, which I quickly wrote down. “On the road to success, you have to chop wood and carry water. When you become successful, you still have to chop wood and carry water.” The need for your daily prospecting doesn’t change when you are a Champion!

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