The $180,000 Question

# OF HOURS THEY PROSPECT EVERY WEEK

The survey found that agents who make $70,000/year prospect 3.5 days per week for 60 min (3.5 hours/week). The agents who make $250,000/year prospect 4.6 days per week for 90 min (6.9 hours per week).

If someone asked you to prospect for an extra 3.5 hours every week and it would earn you an extra $180,000 …would you do it? Let’s take that one step further. 3.5 hours/week x 50 weeks = 175 hours. If you divide $180,000 by 175 hours = over $1,000/hour for your additional prospecting time.

But just putting in the hours is not good enough. First you need to find the lead, next you need to convert it. That takes practice, and the right words. Just picking up the phone and calling strangers is not enough. You need to say the right thing to pique someone’s interest enough for them to want to meet with you. That’s where the second distinction comes in between $250,000 earners and $70,000 earners – they use scripts!

USING SCRIPTS:

The RedX survey found that 81% of the agents who earn $250,000/year always use a script when they are prospecting. My guess is that the other 19% of these high-wage earners have a talk track in their mind that they have refined over time.

If using scripts has such a huge impact on your conversion rates, why don’t more agents use them? The vast majority of agents are afraid to use scripts because they don’t want to sound “salesy”.  Let me give you a wakeup call…you ARE a salesperson!

The difference between sounding salesy and sounding professional is:

1) your ability to memorize and internalize the scripts, so you understand the essence, but say them in your own words and it sounds natural.

2) believing in what you are saying. A script will only sound authentic if you truly believe in the message behind the script. For example, if you phone FSBOs and tell them you can get them more money than they can by selling themselves, do you truly believe it? If not, you’ll come across as slick and they won’t believe you.

WRITTEN GOALS AND PLANS:

The RedX survey found that 100% of the agents who earn $250,000/year had written goals and written business plans. Only 82% of the $70,000/year earners had written goals and 66% had a written business plan.

In my experience of teaching agents for the past 20 years, very few have written goals and plans. Most agents have a “sense” for what they want to accomplish this year, but they wake up every day and treat their business like a box of chocolates as Forest Gump would say.