Who is the Direct Mail MASTER?!?!

Question

If you had to name one person who is a MASTER at direct mail who would it be??? I'm talking someone who specializes in only direct mail and kills it! I want to be 1000 percent sure I am not throwing money away on my upcoming direct mail campaign. I want to learn from the absolute best in the biz when it comes to direct mail! Throw out some names guys! Thanks!

Michael R. · Answer

At the onset I was pulling my own list, printing out letters, writing in addresses on the letter/envelope, and sending them out as fast as I could (not nearly fast enough).  Then I would also be the one answering the phones, and going to appointments.

Now that we're running like a business, we work with @Jerry Puckett and could not be happier with his services (a true veteran of the direct mail biz).  He pulls a leads list, populates our CRM, and stuff-stamp-sends a series of yellow letters to the leads.  We also use Call Porter's answering service, and all we do now is show up to appointments.  It feels amazing to have the front-end automation and only having to focus on meeting with sellers.

I have nothing to gain by this review, just a very satisfied and grateful customer.

Michael R. · Answer

@Mike Percy  I did a ton of due diligence on answering services since I was also really sceptical.  I thought, like most people do at the beginning, that I was the most qualified person to take the phone calls from my campaigns, and that nothing was a more important use of my time.    Now that I've made the switch, it turns out that people that call in and speak with "my office assistant" are either motivated to sell or they're not.  If they're motivated they'll answer any questions necessary...plain and simple.

The most important thing I've found is that the answering service simply provides a consistently answered phone call, and follow-up prep tool.  We don't make a pass-fail decision based on the notes in the CRM.  I still call back within 30 minutes of the original call.  The difference is, now I call after reading details about the situation, I've had some time to pull comps, and I have a couple of solutions in mind before I get on the phone.

Call Porter is an answering service, but, unlike PatLive, their people only take Real Estate related phone calls.  The CEO at Call Porter spent weeks with his employees teaching them every RE scenario they can expect and the questions to ask.  What that means is their people are having conversations with only homeowners all day long, and they know ancillary questions to ask as they work through the script to dig a little deeper.  I've heard people having good experiences with PatLive too, it's just my understanding that they take phone calls for all sorts of businesses as well.  The person answering the phone is an admin at a doctors office one minute, and your assistant the next.

I don't know how people do the marketing, AND the phone answering, AND go to all the appointments themselves, for a decent-sized campaign.  My time has been best spent doing follow-up and being face-to-face with people who need my help.

Justin Dossey · Answer

@Mike Percy I would love to answer any questions you have about Call Porter. I can be available for a phone call at your leisure!

@Michael R. Thanks for the kind words!

Michael R. · Answer

@Mike Percy  You're welcome, just take my advice with a grain of salt.  I'm new relatively new to this business, still testing and tuning on a daily basis, but happy to help in any way that I can.  Until this whole thing functions, from beginning to end, without me, I'll consider myself a student, not a sage advice-giver.

We let them use their own scripts since, again, we plan to get back on the phone as soon as we can to fill in any gaps.  Looking at the notes, 25-30% of the people who call in provide some info, but say they would "like to speak to Michael directly".  I have yet to close a deal with any of those people.

As far as the call recordings, I considered asking about that, but then realized that anyone who's going to be recorded has to agree to that beforehand.  I'm worried that small thing might remove some of the personal "hey this is Michael from down the street" aspect.  They work in concert with Jerry, so we all share the same CRM.  Jerry's people manage mailing through there on the front end, and Call Porter changes the lead status/adds comments to the follow-up section.  I also have it set up to send me an email when someone manipulates the CRM in any way so that I can get on there quickly and call the lead if need be.

I pay by mail volume, but they gave me a range.  If I send out another 500 mailers they're not nickel and diming me over it, and, in the grand scheme of things I feel that the call service fee is relatively insignificant if I'm getting in front of sellers and closing the deals.  It's all about perspective.  When I see the CRM being populated with info, and I didn't have to take the call (or historically miss the call 20% of the time since I was in the middle of something), I spend zero time being preoccupied about whether that expense is worth it.

Maybe someday I'll train a person or two to handle this, but for now, I'm focusing on getting in front of people.

Michael R. · Answer

@Adonte Lipsconb the best way to get in touch with him is through his website, marketlikeawholesaler.com.  I filled out a form on there with information about where I'm located, and the size of my campaign, then someone got back to me soon after.

Aaron Rowzee · Answer

Can any of you speak on the pricing for Call Porter? What are they charging for a 500 letter campaign?

Mike Percy · Answer

@Michael R. wow, that is really interesting. Thanks for the info!

I took a look at their web site - www.callporter.com - and it says they use their own scripts and don't want to use yours. Is that consistent with your experience with them? Do they give you access to the call recordings? Also, will they input the lead info into whatever CRM you happen to be using?

I am a little confused that they appear to charge by direct mail volume sent as opposed to number of incoming calls. Different campaigns and media (postcards vs. yellow letters) would get a different callback rate so it seems to be a strange way to charge. Are you paying by mail volume?

Adonte Lipsconb · Answer

Hi Michael thanks for the information I will check his website today.

Mike Percy · Answer

@Michael R. can you give more details about your answering service? Who is Call Porter?

Using an answering service is something I've been considering. I have heard of people trying, and then dumping, PatLive due to the quality of the operators.

Who is the Direct Mail MASTER?!?!

Most Popular Reply