Cold Calling

[Jason Utley]

I'm looking for advice on making cold calls to find motivated sellers. What do you say? How do you find the "motivated sellers"?

[Ciera Hutson]

Before I was an Agent, I was an ISA for a year meaning that I was on the phone making cold calls full-time, 8 hours a day looking for motivated sellers. On average I was making about 400-1000 calls a day, circle prospecting in zip codes within 20 miles of our office. We pulled all of our data from Cole Realty. I didn't really use a script but I had one as a guide.

The phone call goes as follows: "Hi, my name is Ciera and I was just reaching out today to see if you have any plans to sell your home anytime soon?" (Note, I didn't mention the address because even if the information is wrong, they could still be a homeowner that might be selling.)

Usually you will get a no at this point. Trust me, even some of my best leads said no at this point, it's a knee jerk reaction to a cold call. Keep going.

Acknowledge the no, by saying something like "oh OK, not a problem" or my favorite "No? OK, well in that case would you happen to know anyone that might be selling?"

The only reason I ask is we just have some families interested in your area...." (I like to use "families" because it attaches an emotion to the question. Also, hopefully by saying "families" instead of "buyer" they won't be confused and think we have someone wanting to make an offer)

This is where you might be surprised that they might say that they have in fact been thinking about selling at some point in the future. Either that or they will actually try to think of someone they know that might be selling.

If they do say yes, ask them to "tell you more" and let them speak.

You should ask them "What is causing you to want to sell your home in....." or "Why are you selling this property" and then chat a bit about why that's important. It's important to determine a time frame for actually selling the home and a time frame for when they want to start the selling process. It is also important to ask them if they are going to be considering any other agents.

Another awesome question is "on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, where would you rate your motivation?" I also like to ask where they are going next and if they would need the proceeds from the sale of the home in order to buy their next one, whether or not they owe any money on the home, and who all is on the title other than the person on the line.

If they said No to both of the first questions 1. Are you selling & 2. Do you know anyone selling? I always, always ask "Just out of curiosity, have you thought about investing in any additional real estate for your self?" Sort of a hail-Mary-pass. I'd rather generate a buyer lead than nothing at all.

Just have fun with it, laugh at yourself, commit to providing the best service possible and make sure and go above and beyond to get the your clients homes sold for the most money in the least amount of time, then you can go into the cold calls with the mindset that you are just trying to save them from finding a bad agent-they are out there!