Prospecting Strangers

Your goal should be to continually grow your database of prospects. If you don’t prospect strangers, your database will shrink over time as people you know move out of the area, build ties with another agent, etc. Your goal should be to add new prospects to your CRM system every week.

Prospecting strangers is a never-ending source of leads. Once you master this skill, you will never go through a slump in your business. There is an endless supply of new people to call to generate opportunities. Stranger business is a doorway to new networks. Birds of a feather flock together. If your new client likes you, they will open doors to their friends and family, and your business continues to grow.

Every new listing gives you eight touchpoints to prospect the neighbors. Worked properly, one listing generates the next.

1. Just Listed Postcard
2. Phone the neighbors to tell them about the new listing
3. Open House Postcard
4. Phone the neighbors to invite them and their friends to your open house
5. Under Contract Postcard
6. Phone the neighbors to let them know you have other interested buyers in the neighborhood
7. Just Sold Postcard
8. Phone the neighbors to let them know how much the neighbor got, and are they interested in selling

How do you choose a geo farm to prospect?

• Start with your own neighborhood.
  You know why it is a great place to live. When you call homeowners, you can introduce yourself as their neighbor (people are always friendlier to neighbors). Think of how nice it would be to get a new listing only a few minutes away from your home. You’ll save hours of commute time back and forth for showings.
• Choose a high turnover area.
  Choose an area of approx. 500 homes to start. I recommend choosing an area with a medium price point as those houses sell as quickly as you put up a for sale sign. My recommendation is to choose an area that has a turnover rate of 8% of greater (e.g. 500 homes x 8% = 40 sales/year).
• Don’t worry about competitors.
  Even if there is a strong competitor in the geo farm you want prospect, don’t let that stop you. Homeowners likes options. I would even go as far as to prospect around the competitor’s listings/sales. Let homeowners know that a new listing has come on the market and that typically brings interested buyers to the neighborhood. It would be a great time to sell if they are considering it.

How to you build your confidence to prospect strangers?

• Know the demographics.
  Research your geo farm (general age, income, family dynamics of the area). Different groups have different motivators. Boomers want different things than young families. For better results, tailor your conversation to speak to what would motivate that demographic to move.
• Know your market stats.
  Do your homework before you pick up the phone. It will raise the quality of your conversations. What has sold recently in the area? How long does it typically take to sell a house in their area? What do similar houses sell for?
• It’s a numbers game.
  Reports of the death of cold calls are greatly exaggerated. Especially during the pandemic, cold calling has made a resurgence. A reasonable cold call success rate is 1-2% and on average it can take 18 conversations to find someone who is willing to talk to you. Stay positive and don’t take it personally when someone is mean. Don’t let a complete stranger who you wouldn’t even recognize if you passed them on the street ruin your day.
• Follow up on “maybe” leads.
  Most salespeople use cold calling as a hit and run strategy. Without proper follow up your conversions will suffer. Every time you have a “maybe, but not right now” conversation, add the lead to your CRM system, along with details of your call, and a reminder to follow-up. Put them on a drip marketing campaign to stay in touch with a mixture of video messages, texts, emails, phone calls, handwritten notes, and market updates. Eventually everyone sells.

If you want to learn more about how to improve your prospecting skills in 2021, check out https://leadersedgetraining.com/virtual-training.

Chris Leader
President
Leader’s Edge Training