Get more listings quickly, easily and right now
What To Say Now Episode 49
Despite the fact that we are facing unprecedented market conditions, you have to let go of the myth that this is a hard market. None of that matters if you focus on your goals and have the right strategies and processes in place to win - not only this year, but this month! Today's episode is all about what you need to do to get listings (with an s, as in more than one) this month.
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Show Notes and Links:
What To Say Now Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/whattosaynow
Full Show Transcript:
Dan Stewart (00:05): Yeah, you. Real estate professionals. I bet you could use more listings about now. Huh? Almost certainly. If you sell real estate right now in the US or Canada, you are going, "Ah". This is an unprecedented, absolutely bonkers market. And you need strategies to generate listings right now in the month of May. If that's your position, you are going to love this episode of What to Say Now.
Dan Stewart (00:47): Hey, I hope you're seeing this. I'm Dan Stewart, your friend on Facebook, if nowhere else. Today is a very cool day guys. Today's a very cool day because there's so much interesting stuff going on in the world that creates listing opportunities for you, my friends in real estate. It's simply a matter of having the right structure, the right systems, the right processes in place. So, that's what we're going to talk about right now today. So, for those of you who are just joining us, my name is Dan Stewart. I'm the founder of Happy Grasshopper. And I run a Facebook group that you should definitely join called What to Say Now. So facebook.com/groups/whattosaynow, that is definitely something that you want to be part of. Now, every week in this group, I go live like I'm doing today. And we tackle issues that agents are having from around the country.
Dan Stewart (01:41): And we've heard from dozens and dozens of people that you're experiencing unprecedented market conditions. If you are a buyer's agent, you're feeling really fatigued right now because you're writing more offers than you ever have, and likely seeing less of them accepted. That hurts. If you're a listing agent, you're seeing so many people are approaching what you view as your sellers, your clients, attempting to win their business, right? So, there's a few things that we have to cover if we're going to thrive in this type of climate. And my goal for our session today is to give each of you exactly what you need in terms of strategy and structure, and yes, even content, so that you can get after this and really win the month. So, here's how we're going to start, right? We're going to start by talking about the opportunity that actually exists for you today, and where you can find it.
Dan Stewart (02:37): Think about how life might be different if you had a strategy that allowed you to connect with people in such a way that they were instantly providing you business opportunities. That would be a good thing. And you have the power to create that. My goal today is to show you exactly how to do that. So, top level down, right? We have to be clear about what that opportunity is. And my goal is not just to allow you to find a listing someday, right? But to find listings, plural, literally this month in May, right? So, to get you to do that, we're going to have to give up some things, right? We have to let go. This myth exists that is, it's really hard right now, that inventory is so, so low. Everybody's approaching everybody else. We have to say none of that matters. We're still going to focus on our goals so that we can achieve it.
Dan Stewart (03:35): So, that's step one of what we need to talk about is having the right mindset. And so, let's establish that now. Today, in your market, wherever you might be viewing this around the world, there are people who have to live somewhere. Hmm. And that means there are people who know people who have to live somewhere. Right now, there are people who know people who are thinking of buying, selling, or investing in real estate that you would like to know. So, the mindset that you should have is that every person you meet, every lead you generate, every past client, every member of your sphere, they know people who need to live somewhere. And therefore, you need them to know you'd like to help those people, right? So, let's adopt that mindset. No matter how hard the market might be, no matter what's going on, no matter what change you'll experience in your career, people always have to live somewhere.
Dan Stewart (04:38): So, there's always opportunity for you, provided that you're open to it. So, the work I've done for the past decade here at Happy Grasshopper has really been about creating conversations that lead to desired outcomes. So, when we're talking about your sphere of influence and your past clients, that's almost always referrals or direct renewal business, someone who bought or sold with you before this, now ready to buy or sell again. When we're talking about leads, it's all about conversion. We have to start a conversation so that you have an opportunity to work with and serve that person. And of course, recruitment is a large part of what we do and is growing larger. We've had tremendous success helping people start conversations that lead to people deciding to become part of what you're building. So, all of these three goals have something in common. No matter which of those is important to you right now, nothing happens until we have a conversation.
Dan Stewart (05:45): We have to get that relationship started. We have to build a connection that does not exist in order to create the result. So, if we're going to leverage this methodology, if we're going to put all these pieces together to create results for you in May, what you really need is a framework. And that framework has four parts. So, we're going to write these down together. The first is source. The second is strategy. The third is system. And then, the fourth is subject, right? So, four simple pieces to the framework: source, strategy, system, and subject.
Dan Stewart (06:24): Source, we've talked about a little bit. In your database, whatever it is, a Rolodex, or the best technology on the planet, you have people and you have their contact information assembled in one place. Well, everybody should not be getting the same message from you, right? So, we're going to start by talking about the source of the relationship. People who know you, your past clients and sphere, need different messaging than your leads. Okay? And within that leads category, there's this dormant category, these old leads from a long time ago that never really turned into anything. And then, there's another category of leads. This is other agents' leads. Think about that. Many of you are in an office with agents who generated leads for a long time, and they haven't successfully converted those leads.
Dan Stewart (07:19): It's possible many of them would just give them to you if you asked, right? And others might say, "Well, if you generate something from them, let's work out a little exchange here." So, you do not have to have all of the leads. They exist. It's out there. You just need to get access to them so that you can send the right messaging strategy, build the right conversations, to lead to you getting these listings. Okay? So, let's be really, really clear about these sources. Past clients and sphere of influence, they know you. That's one source. Leads, really old leads, and other agents' leads are kind of all in one category. And yet, they need slightly different messaging for you to be effective there. So now, we'll shift from source to the second piece of the framework, which is your strategy and how you're reaching out to them. There's all sorts of ways you can reach out to people.
Dan Stewart (08:16): And to some extent, it's going to be limited by the information that you have. You may have some leads where you only have an email address. You don't even have a name. You may have other leads where you've got a first name. You don't have a last name. You got a phone number, but you don't have an email address, right? So, you want to prepare your strategy here based on the information type that you have. And ideally, you're going to have name, phone number, and email address, and then maybe even some more information about perhaps the type of search that they performed on your website. You're going to want to leverage that information to put together some tight messaging strategies that can produce these conversations for you.
Dan Stewart (08:58): So, within that strategy, three things we found consistent success with... This won't be a shock to anyone. Email, yes. It still kills it in 2021 when you're using it the right way. Second, ringless voicemail drops. Also amazing if you do it the right way. And then, the third one is going to be text messaging. And I have to tell you guys, you can't send tons of texts at the same time. The response rate is too high. When we do this internally for Happy Grasshopper, we never send to a group of larger than 30 people at one time, because we get too many responses. It's too much to respond to. We can't keep up with it. So, we have to break it up into smaller groups. So, we've talked about sources. We've talked about strategy. Obviously,, you need a system. Now I'm kind of biased to the one on my t-shirt. So, if you don't have a system, if you feel you have a system, but you don't love the content in it, please take a look at what we do.
Dan Stewart (10:03): Just go to happygrasshopper.com. We have an amazing array of solutions that can help you achieve your goals. So, you definitely need to select the right system. And now, the fourth piece of the framework. And without the right number four here, none of these others really make a difference. You can have tons of leads. That doesn't matter if you don't have number four, right? You can have tons of strategy. You can have all sorts of different methods of sending. It doesn't matter if you don't have number four. You can have a great system. Well, wonderful. If you don't have number four, you've got nothing. And number four is the right message at the right time to the right people.
Dan Stewart (10:52): And so, I said, messaging in May that generates listings in May. Today is May 4th. Right? How many of you have sent a message today about star wars. May the fourth be with you, right? That's the subject you can talk about. You can share that on social. It's a good thing to chat about. Tomorrow, Cinco de Mayo, right? How many of you have been invited to a Cinco de Mayo party, or planning on tipping back a Corona and some tacos? Like Cinco de Mayo, it's a thing. You can talk about it. It's fine. Right? We've got Mother's Day coming up around the corner. We've got Memorial day. All of these are great excuses for you to reach out to people you haven't touched or had conversations with in a while, and reengage and reinvigorate that relationship. Okay? So, let's imagine you have a list of really old cold leads that you haven't engaged in quite a while.
Dan Stewart (11:47): Well, break that down into chunks of about 30 people, and send this text message. Is this first name, question mark? That's it, right? So, is this Dan? Is this Paul? Is this Judy? Is this Brian? Is this Maya? Name them. Right? They're going to get that text from you. What do you think they're going to do? Immediately, they're going to reply, "Who's this?" So, in our testing, we see open rates, excuse me, reply rates of an average of 80% conducting this type of approach. So, this is why you can't send to thousands of people. If 80% of those 30 people reply to you in just the first few minutes, ah, you're getting a whole lot of responses, a whole lot of conversations started. And that's where the third strategy, having your right system in place, makes such a big difference.
Dan Stewart (12:41): Inside Happy Grasshopper, we've structured it easily, where you can manage all these text message conversations simultaneously. This is a strategy that we run every single Workday. And we just absolutely kill with it. So, it can work for you too. There's no question. We're going to shift to a different group here. Right? I just talked about these old leads you can reinvigorate with that text. They're immediately going to reply to you and say, "Who's this?" So, you've got to be prepared with a little answer for that. What I like to say is, "It's me, Dan Stewart, over at Happy Grasshopper. Just wanted to reach out and let you know I'm here when you need help." Break that up into two texts, send it. And then, send a third text right after that, that says something along the lines of, "Is there anything I can do for you today?" Right?
Dan Stewart (13:31): Usually, the response to that is going to be, "No. That's okay." Because your response to that no is "Awesome. Thank you. By the way, do you know anyone who's thinking of moving?" Right? Give them the opportunity to ask themselves, "Who do I know that might be moving?" So that they can reply to you in that text message. You can continue that conversation. So, just one simple strategy to use with leads there. Now, if I'm your past client, if I'm a member of your sphere, if I know you, it would be weird if I got a, "Is this Dan" text message from you, right? So, you need a different approach for that kind of text outreach. And one that I'm really fond of is the "it's been awhile" approach. So, imagine you're sending me a text and it says, "Hey Dan, it's been a little while since we've chatted. How have you been?" Well, I know who you are.
Dan Stewart (14:31): I'm going to immediately reply and engage there. So, I've started that conversation cycle. And then, we need to lead it towards our goal, which is discovering if this person knows anyone who's thinking of buying, selling, or investing in real estate. Okay. So tomorrow, I'm doing a webinar with lab code agents. One of our members, Barry Jenkins, used these same strategies that I'm sharing with you to generate three listings in something like 11 days. It is pretty amazing when you think of it. And what he did was he recorded a ringless voicemail drop where the message was kind, it was calm. It wasn't salesy. It was him saying, "Hey, it's me, Barry Jenkins." And I'm not going to get the whole message right the way Barry does. But what you need to know is that he expressed to them they've got a special program for their past clients and sphere that has been... that he's really excited about.
Dan Stewart (15:31): He wants to share with them. So, if you know anyone who's thinking of selling their home, please refer them to me. Right? And then, people are like, "Well, what was the special program? What was that?" So, he offered a slight reduction in commission. He offered a home warranty to protect the seller when they sell the home. And he offered a digital smart device to the buyer, just kind of a nice little package covering all sides there. So, what you do in your own program of course is entirely up to you. It's the strategy of starting the conversations that actually worked.
Dan Stewart (16:07): So tomorrow, with lab code agents, you're definitely going to want to check that out. We're going to go into detail about the strategies that have worked for him. And finally, just to reiterate subjects here, May 4th today, Cinco de Mayo tomorrow, mother's day, Memorial day, May is chock full of opportunities for you to reach out and touch the people that are in your database. So, if you need help with that, please know that I'm here to support you, so is my entire staff at Happy Grasshopper. So, happy May the fourth, may the fourth be with you. And I'll look forward to talking again soon. Bye now.