How To Be an Agent 101: Answer the Phone!!

Good Morning Bigger Pockets,

Maybe I write some of these things for myself, you know, to reinforce a hard lesson learned. I am a new agent and as a new agent I need every lead I can get. My phone rang, "unknown number" it said. My confidence dropped, "what if they want me for real estate? What if I sound stupid? What if I don't WOW them and they use a different agent?" The negativity that flashed through my mind was followed by the age old "If it's important they will leave a message." 

I waited a few seconds and sure enough, a voicemail! I was on my way into my other job and thought, "I'll listen to it after work." The entire shift the memory of that voicemail faded and faded until, by the time 2:00am came around I had almost completely forgotten about it. Finally I get off work and my phone was dead. I had a drink, went home, set my alarm and crawled into bed.

Morning came and I powered up my phone, got dressed and headed to the gym. I went through my workout, got a good sweat going, and then stretched out and went home. Typical morning routine, shave, shower, and into the office but not before I stopped for coffee. I got to the office and worked my floor shift, answering calls for the office, sending faxes, and forwarding e-mails. By the time it was over I finally remembered that voicemail! It was 3:00pm and the voicemail went something like this, "Hi Roger, my name is XXX XXX, and I'm calling to find a realtor looking to take on new clients for a few transfers I am sending you way. Give me a call back if you are interested."

I gave him a call back and he told me that he had already found someone. He even decided to tell me that the person he found, was the agent he called after me, the one that answered the phone.

So don't do like I did. Answer the phone. When every closing is about $3,000 and that phone call could have been 7 clients...you do the math. Not answering the phone turned out to be pretty expensive.

Thanks,

Rod