How do expert listing agents handle the “F-BOMB” and other challenges when prospecting expired listings? Here are 10 expired prospecting tips pulled from an interview with the salty-tongued Blair Ballin. He is a master of turning expired leads into listings, selling over 54 homes in the last 12 months. So if you want your expired prospecting to improve, keep reading because this is for you.
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With that said, here are the tips you’re about to learn:
Tip 1: Tell Yourself, “Someone Today Is Waiting For My Call”
Tip 2: Know The Difference Between Marketing And Prospecting
Tip 3: When Someone Drops An F-bomb, Tap Into Humor
Tip 4: Create A Vision Video To Stay Motivated
Tip 5: Focus On Your Effort, Not Your Results
Tip 6: Set Weekly Goals
Tip 7: Block Distractions By Focusing On Goals
Tip 8: Discover How To “Snap” Yourself Into A Higher State Of Mind
Tip 9: Don’t Jump To Blame The Data Or Bad Numbers
Tip 10: Compare REDX Expired Leads To The Rest
Tip 1: Tell Yourself, “Someone Today Is Waiting For My Call”
REDX: We get a lot of questions from customers asking how to get over their fear of prospecting expired leads. What tips do you have for handling it?
Blair: Initially I didn’t like the thought of calling, but I started thinking back to jobs I had. I was a telemarketer and had some door knocking jobs and had dealt with rejection of all kinds. I realized it’s not a big deal.
Yes, I’ll get yelled at. Yes, people won’t wanna talk to me. But some people will.
I had no options when I began my prospecting journey, to the degree that made a difference in my career, I had to do it. There was no other way to get business. So either I live on the street or I make calls. It was that simple.
If you’re not in the same situation, then you just need the mindset of, “This is what they need to do to increase my business and accomplish my goals.”
Until you reach the point where you’re thinking, “Oh my God, I have to do something, what do I need to do?” you won’t push yourself over the fear.
Tip 2: Know The Difference Between Marketing And Prospecting
REDX: Prospecting can be hard. But what other options do agents, especially new and recently relocated ones, have?
Blair: You either prospect or you market. Prospecting is when you reach out to people. Marketing is when you do something to get people to reach out to you. But if you don’t have the money to market, prospecting is your only choice.
The results are out there. Prospecting works. If you consistently do it, you’ll discover it’s not as difficult as you make it out to be. Rejection is not really a big deal.
Tip 3: When Someone Drops An F-bomb, Tap Into Humor
REDX: Prospectors are people too, and when an angry expired lead curses at them, it stings. Are there ways you handle this? If so, how do you recover from calls like these?
Blair: Turn F-bombs and negative calls into something humorous. If someone yells at you or drops the F-bomb, make a Facebook post out of it. Do something to dissipate the negative experience.
As an example, I was calling Expireds a few days ago. Before I could start my script, the homeowner told me they were getting a ton of calls.
They said, “If you are a ‘Realitor’ then I don’t wanna talk to you.” And I responded immediately and sarcastically by saying, “No, I’m a Real-tor, not a Real-lat-tor.”
The conversation didn’t go anywhere; he hung up on me. But it was humorous to me and helped me not internalize it.
The lesson here: don’t expect to please everyone. If you call 100 people, you’re not going to reach 100 people. You’re certainly not going to get 100 people to say yes. So accept prospecting is a numbers game and focus on improving your numbers.
Tip 4: Create A Vision Video To Stay Motivated
REDX: Every real estate coach out there talks about casting a vision so big it pulls you through the tough times. What have you done to stay connected to your vision?
Blair: A couple years ago I created a vision video. It is a video with pictures of my short and long term goals to my favorite song, “Eye of the Tiger.”
It’s important you have a vision of the life you want. A vision video will help your daily motivation. It will allow you to start your day off with clarity and gives you something to recover from a negative call experiences.
If you’re interested in creating one for yourself, here are the links to three different approaches.
Create your own digital vision board with step by step instructions
Create a vision board using PicMonkey
Find inspiration for your own vision board as an entrepreneur
Tip 5: Focus On Your Effort, Not Your Results
REDX: It’s common for agents to give up on expired prospecting before they see the results they want. What advice do you have for agents who are new to expired prospecting?
Blair: Here’s why you shouldn’t judge your success solely on the results of your activities. On a given day you might not be reaching people for reasons beyond your control. It might be the wrong time, maybe it’s a holiday, or graduation day for high school and all the parents are out so you can’t reach anyone.
So don’t focus on the results. Instead, focus on the activities that produce results. For instance, if your goal for the week is eight hours of prospecting calls, focus on accomplishing it. Then reward yourself for your accomplishment.
For many weeks I was calling and not having the best luck. But I was still getting business because of the efforts I was putting forth.
Tip 6: Set Weekly Goals
REDX: Even though you said to focus on efforts, not results, how and why is it important to set weekly and annual goals?
Blair: Prior to the beginning of the year, set an annual goal. Then break it down into quarterly goals, then monthly goals, and then weekly goals. Then reaching your goals can be as simple as just saying “I’m going to have four appointments this week, get one contract, and one listing”.
Think of annual goals like a road map. If you don’t have them, you don’t know where you’re going or how you’re doing. If you’d like to learn how to set annual goals, here are some recommended videos.
How To Set Real Estate Goals with Mike Ferry
How To Create Your Own Goal Setting Worksheet
How To Achieve and Exceed Your Real Estate Financial Goals
Tip 7: Block Distractions By Focusing On Goals
REDX: Maintaining focus and concentration is a big issue for many agents who prospect expired listings. How do you stayed focused when prospecting expired leads?
Blair: The best way to handle distraction is to focus on your daily goals. If the goal is making two hours of calls, then that’s the goal. I’m not a subscriber to the belief you need to put your phone away or put all distractions away. If you’re working with a buyer or an offer comes, or you get a showing request, I think it’s fine to stop and help that client.
So if something comes up where you have to stop during a prospecting session to handle something for 20 minutes, when that’s done get right back on the phone.
There’s nothing wrong with writing thank you cards while you’re on your REDX Storm Dialer or whatever dialer you’re using. And if you’re not using a dialer, I would strongly suggest using one. It speeds up prospecting and keeps you focused.
So I don’t see how it hurts you to do these other things while you’re doing your calls. As long as you know when someone picks up the phone, they are what you need to be focused on. That’s your number one thing. Other than that, I think multitasking is fine.
Tip 8: Discover How To “Snap” Yourself Into A Higher State Of Mind
REDX: To become an expert at expired prospecting, what is one skill you think every agent ought to learn, and where can they go to get it?
Blair: A couple of years ago, I attended a Tony Robbins conference, “Unleash your Power Within.” I suggest every Realtor go. The theme of the conference is how to change your state. And in that conference, there’s the event where you walk across the hot coals.
Of the 10,000 people who did it, maybe four got a little bit of a burn. My guess is they didn’t learn how to change their state. They opened up their body and mind to getting hurt and they got hurt.
If Oprah can do Tony’s Firewalk, so can you. Watch it:
Tip 9: Don’t Jump To Blame The Data Or Bad Numbers
REDX: A lot of agents who are new to expired prospecting don’t yet know what to expect and get frustrated after only a few tries. How did you move past this and improve your expired prospecting?
Blair: Improving your prospecting means inspecting your skills and data. Here’s a simple example. So let’s say you make 100 calls and they reach no one. If you think the data is bad, replace the data. Did that improve the results at this point in the process? Once you reach people, if you’re not getting listing appointments, look at what you are saying.
One of the toughest things I did to improve my skills was record my own calls. I gave the recordings to my coach at the time. He was able to tell me what I could have said to get better results. The data was okay, but there were things I could have said a little bit differently or added that would have extended questions, dialogues.
So we just have to take it step by step figuring out: A) is the data good, B) if it’s good is what we’re saying good, and C) did we call at a good time. Trying different times and methods to figure out what works what doesn’t work, and then kind of analyzing that and going from there.
Tip 10: Compare REDX Expired Leads To The Rest
REDX: What is the biggest advantage you’ve gained over other agents in your area prospecting expired leads?
Blair: No one asked me to say this, but in my opinion REDX’s data for Expireds is the best in the industry. Not only is it the data the best, but they give you five numbers for each homeowner. Many times the first or second number will be the person associated with the home.
That means I have to work one fifth or fourth less to reach the homeowner. That means I’m going to reach more people associated with the home, which gives me a greater chance of getting more contacts, more appointments, more contracts, and more closings.
About REDX
REDX offers real estate professionals a complete all-in-one prospecting platform for generating listing appointments. The platform includes seller leads, a dialer with up to three lines, and a lead management tool for simple follow-up. REDX maintains the position that all agents should be compliant with state and federal telecom laws – learn more here. Call (800) 731-7339 option 1 to learn more about prospecting FSBOs, Expireds, FRBOs, Pre Foreclosures, GeoLeads, and our Power Dialer – or visit www.redx.com
