Telephone Marketing For The Real Estate Entrepreneur

[Omar Johnson]

In the world of real estate marketing the closer the contact you make with your prospects the greater the likelihood that you will be able to influence them to do business with you. Marketing by email or direct mail can cause you to seem distant to many potential customers, but meeting people face to face can take a lot of energy as well as be very time consuming.

Marketing by telephone can provide an acceptable balance between these two modes of communication. It allows the prospect to get to know you and get a sense of who you are by hearing your voice, while allowing you to work from a centralized location and maximize the use of your time and other resources, including money and energy.

So how does telephone marketing work? It starts with a list of phone numbers of your prospects, who may be either potential buyers or sellers. These may be landlords, phone numbers from the classified section of the newspaper, for-sale-by-owner listings, captured incoming calls to your business that you are returning, or any one of a multitude of other possible target demographics (see how many you can come up with if you use your imagination).

In addition to a list of prospects to call on you also need a list of pre-specified data that you intend to collect from each prospect and a pre-written script to keep the conversation smooth, timely, and outcome focused.

No matter who you are calling on, it is almost always a good idea when marketing by telephone to introduce yourself first. If the prospect is someone known to you then this is a polite way to start any conversation, and if the prospect is someone who is not known to you then you need to remedy that situation as quickly as possible.

Remember that if given a choice between doing business with someone they know and someone they don't know, most people will choose to do business with someone they know. And if given the choice between doing business with somebody who is a friend and somebody who isn't, most people will choose a friend.

You would do well to keep this in mind and not only make your identity known to the prospect first thing, but strive to form a true personal connection each time you are on the phone with someone new. You want to be not only remembered but thought well of.

The more information you gather in your initial contact over the phone the better, at least if the person you're speaking with is a genuine qualified prospect. However, it is important to keep your manner conversational and friendly and not give the impression that you are attempting to dominate the conversation. On the other hand, you should be prepared to get off the phone as soon as possible if you discover you are not talking with a valid prospect; this conserves your valuable time.

Marketing by telephone takes more guts and endurance than many people realize. It can even be one of the main barriers to new entrepreneurs just trying to get started in business. If you can generate the energy, though, it is a technique that can pay off handsomely.

And if you would rather spend the money and conserve your energy it is an easy function to hire out. Simply supply your help with a calling list, a script to use on the phone, and a way to conveniently and accurately record the results of each phone call.