Real Estate is a Contact Sport

Ours is a business of people. It's all about people, contacting people, farming, FSBO's, sphere of influence, expireds, lis pendens and any other target audience we choose to service. You can have the nicest materials, have the greatest presentation, be the most orderly and knowledgeable agent there is, but if you don't engage in regular prosepcting or making your contacts, you are missing out and not getting your fair share of listings.

Its all about people, and its all about contacting people. Show me an agent who is making their calls consistently and diligently, and I will show you an agent who is honing their presentation and prospecting skills, developing a solid lead base to feed their business, and probably producing a good amount of business. It's almost a guarantee! It's all about the numbers. You have to make the contacts. If you are cold calling, or farming, you will get a listing on average for every 225 contacts you make. If 50% of your listings sell, that means you need 450 contacts per closed listing. If your average commission per side is $2,250, then you are making about $5 per phone call or physical contact (mail doesnt count) whether your call says yes, no, or hangs up (and honestly, most people are nice, even fun to talk to) If you are calling FSBO's, those numbers go considerably up, meaning your average value per phone call is much higher, and depending on your listing presentation and follow up skills, the value of each FSBO call should be 25, becasue each FSBO is someone you already know is selling, as opposed to cold calling where you may average one good lead for every 25 contacts. Likewise with expireds, they are worth about 12 to 15 times the value of the cold call.

But, to be great at anything, you have to be good at a bunch of things, not just one. That includes your prosepcting efforts, focus on a few areas where business can be found, keep working in those places, and remember, this is a contact sport, you have to do your numbers.

Agents will often avoid calling, most often because of the fear or distaste of rejection. No one likes rejection, but we have to have it to get to the acceptances. If you view rejection not as rejection but rather as a statistic that is required to get to the 1 of 25 that are good, you'll overlook it. A friend of mine jokes about how he thinks agents would rather "eat glass" than phone canvass. Maybe, but those agents are at the mercy then of those who do canvass for business, and have to hope that the proactive agents get listings that the non-proactive agents can sell to someone they get from floor time, or a relative or some other personal contact, and before any one else sells it.

No matter how you ply your trade, making contacts should be an intricate part of it. Do it consistently, keep track of your leads, and you will build yourself a business that will feed you well for years to come.

Good luck!!!