Knock on doors. Get yourself a chart and measure your progress. The more doors you knock on the more sales you make.
The guru tells you it’s a numbers game. Phone ten people everyday and see what happens. Do it 4 days a week for a total of 40 weeks and you’ll have phoned 1600 people. You have made personal contact with so many people. These gurus must be right.
Many years ago these gurus were making money with their advice. Sales people were selling books, vacuum cleaners and insurance, knocking on doors and phoning people.
I am sure you have been on the receiving end of a call just as you walk into your home. They recite a script to you. They don’t even know how to pronounce your name.
These marketers used their feet or their phones and well stringed psychological triggers to get the sale. They want the kiss on the first date.
Are you sticking to your phone, your feet, your business card, a banner and a stack of pamphlets? Well you need a strong will. You need a thick skin. You need to handle rejection.
This reminds me of the cold calling book I read some time ago. It said that every no brings you closer to the next yes. Ok. You get 40 no’s and one yes. You dump 5000 pamphlets and you get one lead or sometimes even nothing. You cannot handle the rejection.
The age we live in is a new age and you will adapt or you will pack your bags.
Let’s look at a bag packing example: The other day I decided to try and dump R2000 (£133, $258) worth of pamphlets. I got two leads subscribing to my newsletter. It cost me R1000 ((£67, $143) per lead. Why did I do it? I suppose old habits die slowly.
However new age tools, like the internet, allow me to generate leads for free but if the lead generation is too slow you may opt for Google Adwords. Using Google Adwords a lead cost me, on average, only R15 (£1, $2).
Believe it or not; websites and blogs are displacing sales people.
You may think it’s not true for real estate. Do you think PrivateProperty is a threat? These guys are ranked by Google 6 out of 10 and Remax South Africa is only ranked 4 out of 10. (They have 343 000 links to their site and Remax only 4890).
What are your risks of not adapting?
- You will continue to pay an arm and a leg to market.
- You will have no easy-to-use and easy-to-market database.
- You will have no magnet pulling people towards you while you sleep.
- You will not have the tools and the system to educate your listing area.
- You will not create trusting relationships as fast as the adopter.
How can you adopt to the new age?
- Identify your gold mine; a niche: Select a small area of 300 homes and make it your mining area.
- Start a blog and populate it with keyword rich content for your niche.
- Market for free with an integrate email newsletter.
- Get an attorney or service provider to sponsor your blog and give you expert articles.
- Use Google Adwords to generate leads.
- Use hand written postcards to introduce your newsletter.
- Change your business card to invite people to subscribe to your newsletter.
- Write press releases to your local community newspaper.
Will it work the first time you try? No, it may not but when it works it works for ever.
Johan Horak
P.S. Will you stop doing cold calling? Eventually you will. Next week I share with you what and how I do it.
P.P.S. “I believe advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.” Robert Stephens
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