How to Dominate Expired Listings | Real Success Episode 3

morning good afternoon powerful agents welcome back to another session of our real success with tom ferry your coach I'm bill pipes and wow we have got such a great program for you today and really one of my favorite guests that and individuals that's involved with our company mr. tom tool I'm going to introduce to you here in just a second as always take a lot of notes listen to this time and time again because there's going to be some jewels in here that you don't want to miss out on you know as we're sort of looking at how what's happening in the local real estate the national real estate market obviously we're noticing something we're noticing that inventory is beginning to creep up a little bit I'm hearing from multiple clients at seminars around the nation that hey my listings are sitting a little bit longer I my inventory is growing my buyers a little bit more skittish what can I do or what do I need to be prepared to do to be able to stay ahead of the market you know to wait great Wayne Gretzky said that the thing that made him such an incredible hockey player made him the great one right was the fact that he skated to where the puck was going not to where it was are you gonna find today in the conversation dialogue that we have with Tom that there's some really valuable tools that Tom is an expert at that if you implement are going to it's going to keep you ahead of your local market and really while everyone else may be experiencing some challenges you're going to be one of those that's really gaining market share and being able to move your business forward and at the same time earn a lot more money and help a lot more people which I know is what the game is so let's get started without any further ado I'd like to introduce you to my good friend mr. Tom tool Tom um tell them a little bit about who you are where you sell and how they can get ahold of you because I'm sure you know I mean if I'm given referrals to someone in Philadelphia I know exactly where I want them to go right so turn it over to you man go for it awesome appreciate it bill super excited to be here my name is tom tool i've been a tom ferry coaching client for a little over three years my business is based out of the Greater Philadelphia area you can reach me at 610 six nine two six nine seven six check out my website it's a tom tool with an e.com and we're we're ready to rock it for you if you have any one might be moving into Philadelphia good excellent man hey so how a couple things how long in the business how many years we've been selling up 13 years 13 years awesome now this last year you had a pretty big like sizeable increase with your coach Carl Rizzuto what's your production sort of been like leading up to this this previous year and and then what was the big breakthrough what was that what was your what was the increase in numbers sure that that's it's a really good question I got into coaching because I saw my business plateauing a bit I I did well beforehand and it was you know earning a living all that was great but I wanted something more I wanted to really grow more so my first full year in coaching was a 2012 I did 40 40 transactions a little over 300,000 and GCI 2000 excuse me that was 2011 2012 we went to 55 deals and 350 GCI right and in 2013 this was the real breakthrough we went to 80 transactions and 668 thousand and GCI I almost doubled my business or at least the money part which is what really counts that is yeah how much your keep it man and I know with your model you're keeping a good portion of that which is fantastic so I mean obviously I'm sitting around listening and I'm looking at the the the increase I mean to go from 40 to 55 I mean let's be very clear that's almost a 50% increase in terms of your production that's great from 11 to 12 and then obviously 12 to 13 so um tell us about your your business model tell us about like the top 3 sources because we're going to circle back around here and look at what facilitated those huge leaps in production but first I want to want to understand exactly how your business is structured what the key sources are sure well before I got into coaching it was a lot of database leads my sphere of influence people I know and that that's always going to be a great source for any agent but I really wasn't diversified when I got into coaching we started working expired a lot more aggressively I trained myself with the scripts with with Karl's help and he knows exactly what to say and when to say it and really taught me how to do that really strong with objection handling and along with expires I work for sale by owners very diligently and those are those are the clear top three sources in my business no doubt about it so let's just repeat we got for sale by owners right you hit those bones okay you hit expires and what was the third I'm at my data base sphere of influence people you know excellent man good you know it's it's so funny I was leading a similar down in San Diego Tom I think you know were talking about this and I asked in a room of 200 people in Del Mar I said how many of you will you know would love to work expired okay or work expires uh in a room of 200 guests how many people raise their hand maybe five or six I had to and so I had to I I look at this and I I'm reminded of something that that tom ferry says he says if we're willing to do what others aren't willing to do right now then we'll be willing to do in the future what they never can right so um how do you how do you work the expires because I know there's a lot of people who are sitting out there they're listening right now they're saying there aren't that many expires in my marketplace although we know tom you know we talked about this will there be more expires in the future based upon what we're seeing in the market you think no doubt about it and you know 2013 was it was a great year for a lot of people but the markets kind of return to normal a bit at least here in in Philadelphia and homes aren't selling in three days with five offers anymore it's it's become a little more of a challenging market and some some sellers aren't going to get it right the first time around and that's okay I mean the thing about expired that I really like is you know they're motivated because they already put their home on the market once and they hired an agent they didn't try the buyer on the route the system I I have in place is I get on the phone very early in the morning start making calls at 8:00 a.m. and the first calls I make are the newly expired listings I want to be the first person to reach them because I know that with the scripts I've I've been able to train myself with thanks to my coach Carl and all the resources at Tom's company I'll be able ask the right questions to get an appointment and that's all you're looking for on that call it's not about getting the listing over the phone that's that's impossible but if you could you get it would you say that again did not interrupt you but that is so critical right there okay what what you just said because we're gonna tear this whole expired thing like step by step because I want everyone walking away from this ahead of the market so to speak you know so when you make that first initial call are you always getting an appointment with them or are you generating a lead like what percentage of the time does it become an appointment from that initial call and and how what percentage do you have to follow up on do you think 5% of the time I'll get the appointment on the first call 95% of the time I'm following up with them I try to get their email address I ask them when's a good time to call back they also get direct mail from me detailing how I've helped other people in their exact situation reviews from clients whose homes expired hey I helped this person I can do the same for you it's a continuous process it's not just making the call and getting the appointment right away but if you put the right information in front of them and you know what to say and you keep following up you're going to get the appointment and that's all you're looking for on the call just so I get to the appointment so I'm looking at this man number one I've got to call the expiry one of the first people to call them right I got 8 a.m. because if you're later what happens like if you're calling later are you reaching people are like you're the 20th person to call me or the 15th person to call me is there resistance I mean what happens if you're calling later you might get hung up one which is okay I'll call back if that happens but some agents don't they get sick of hearing from agents I mean it you brought up the objections right there hey you're the 15th or 20th agents it's called me the home's off the market they're not as open to engaging with you over the phone later in the day as if you were the first or second person to reach out to brilliant okay so number one I'm going to be I'm going to call them at 8:00 a.m. um now I know Carl you and you said something to hear Tom you said scripts that the scripts that you and Carl practice the scripts so do you follow pretty much the same script every single time like I'm sure there's variants but is it the same script it's the same questions that there's no doubt about it what one of the first things Carl taught me was to internalize the script so you know here's the first question I'm going to ask here's the second question certainly you have to be able to adjust when you're in the conversation but if you don't know the scripts you're not going to get the right answers to get the appointment and again that's the only goal here it's getting the appointment you can't even really listen to them if you f you don't have the script down right because you're busy thinking about well my gosh what do I say next right I mean that yeah it seems like it makes it more difficult there's there's there's no no doubt knowing the script and knowing what to ask them it's good will enable any agent to determine if the prospects even motivated or not awesome but why they're moving now if one of the second questions you ask is where were you planning on moving to if the home sold when I hear an answer like I'm going to Florida or my kids live across the state that's when I go even harder for the appointment because there's some serious motivation there and that tells me they're probably going to sell the home no matter what love it so how did you get I mean because I mean let's be very clear there's probably some people listening that may never call expireds right and this whole conversation and dialogue about scripts I think still it applies to any portion of the business whether it's your listing presentation or whether it's your prospecting early follow-up so what was the process that you went through to become sort of master because I'm sure right now I could say give me your script and you be able to go you know like I'm sure if your genome came up on our computer whatever the the dialogue is you be able to rattle it off how did you get to that point what was the process to be able to to to be so masterful with the scripts and the dialogues that you're using the question that you're asking one of the the big things Carl really pushed me to do and I was definitely resisting when I started coaching was to roleplay with with other agents if you're not practicing with other agents and Tom said this a lot I'm sure you've heard it you're practicing on your clients and that's not who you want to be practicing with that's where the the revenue comes from so he very big on getting me to roleplay with other other agents that are that are in the coaching group and that was a real big game-changer for me I never wanted to do it I didn't like doing it but it helped improve my skills so much that I could as you said I can give you the script right now no hesitation and I'll know exactly what questions they ask to schedule the appointment really and that was huge brilliant so um do you market to the expires do you send marketing pieces to them as well too because I mean obviously we're talking about more of the the sweat equity piece right now which is picking up the phone making calls do you support that or you know and enhance your prospecting with marketing to the expired absolutely uh you know when you send up a piece of mail it's almost like a billboard because they're getting called by you and the mail is supplementing what what you're doing with the sweat equity end of the prospecting so the system I have in place it's it's a nine touch system over a two-month period where as soon as the home gets comes off the market final connect with them they'll have a very form letter the coral and I worked on the details how I've helped other people whose homes expired and didn't sell with another agent I attached three reviews from past clients whose homes didn't sell with another agent and I put a little handwritten note on there my assistant does all that but it says something that this home was marketed by another agent for over three hundred days once I was hired it sold in two weeks let's talk after they get that initial letter they get nine jumbo postcards from me with a picture of a home that I sold that was a wasn't expired listening how many days it was on the market with another agent or a review or a testimonial from that client and they'll get four of those in a row so the first five days they get five pieces of mail Wow then they'll get another jumbo postcard once a week for another five weeks so they really get hit hard with the mailing on top of me calling so I know that I'm working it as hard as I can to get the appointment again that that's all I'm looking for here is just to get in the door nice so so awesome so there so by the time that you call and or the time you talk to them and let's say it's two three four days and they already been pinged a couple of times in the mail and do you get them saying oh I've seen your stuff in the mail or I know who you are or is it just mainly uh you know sort of them going back to what do you notice from that from the marketing it sometimes you'll definitely get hey I've been getting your mail we've been meaning to call you or I've been getting your mail stop mailing to me which happens but what it really does if you're making the calls and supplementing with mail it's the whole process it's it's another way to follow up with somebody and it keeps me top of mind so when I call back again and maybe they wanted a week or two break from the market when I call back again and keep going after the appointment a lot of other agents give up after that you may get one or two nice pieces of mail from an agent most one don't send nine you may get one or two or three calls most of them don't call five or six or seven times so it the follow-up is so key here and I know Tom and you and Carl have said many times the money's really in the follow-up now it's easy to make the first contact but it's the continued contact that really helps me get in the door when other agents don't so question for you here um we've talked about sweat equity we got the check equity piece here for the for the expires right um I look at one of the other key components and you talked about follow-up right and let's dig into follow-up here for a second um how many days will you continue to call unexpired if you're not getting a hold of them before you pull back a little bit and and how do you determine you know the point at which you pull back if they're not answering that that's a good question and that is something I I struggled with because I don't believe in giving up on a lead until they go list with somebody else or you know that it's not going to happen so after that initial system hits and we've been calling and following up that that's going to span about two to three months sometimes then we'll put them on a 90 day follow-up so every 90 days I'll be checking back in with these people and they get put into an automated system in my CRM or database where I get the reminder it has the notes home expired on September 1st mailing system complete calls made on these dates and that's another effective way to continue to follow up because a lot of agents they just don't do that the old expires especially in the past year year and a half have been a really strong source of business because now the markets better and maybe these people's homes didn't sell in 2008 2009 2010 now the market is better and they're in a position where they can sell so it's there's a point where you definitely have to turn it all off but I'll pull back and just really make it a strictly a 90 day follow up call after after the mailing system has been complete excellent man so the piece that I see is is so critical and I love I love listening to just your tenacity you know in like I can tell you're not gonna let go you're gonna push I mean this is I mean you're built for expires and I I know also that anyone could actually have that success if they develop the right mindset because I you know as tom has always said or I'll say 90 percent of success is mindset before you even open up your mouth or say anything it's it's what you're thinking so what is the mindset or what do you do to strengthen develop us the right attitude for for success with the expired listings step one is the affirmations in the morning and that's that's such a key thing for me something I didn't really do too I got into coach ping and even I stepped it up over the past year where I so really that that break out in my business so some examples are people are waiting by their phones to hear from me so that I can help them if I die up four dollars every day I'll help 130 families this year and make over 1 million dollars though those are things that that Carl's helped me develop and I've internalized them and they become part of my routine in the morning before I even get on the phone and with the expired certainly is it you get a lot of negative feedback from these people sometimes they're ticked off their home didn't sell I can't really blame them but if you come from a position of help and service and knowing that you're going to correct the situation for them if you can get into the door and that that's the message you're sending and that almost becomes part of your brand I'm cleric and it really comes through over the phone with when you when you talk to these people and in the marketing pieces we develop brilliant man I love what you just then uh there's a little saying I'm sure you've heard it before uh give up making the cell and focus on making a difference and I could hear that like if it's all about you and getting the appointment getting the cell people can feel that can thing and they can feel that on the other end of the line they can feel sort of the selfishness but you in your dialogue I think language tells a lot about a person you said how can I help this person you know I mean they're waiting there and I I have you know service that I can provide for them that's going to assist them and guide them so do you come I mean honest to goodness man do you come from that space of contribution with on every single one of your calls on how can I help this person absolutely I mean in this business I mean if you're not coming from that position people can sense it right away I mean there's a reason why 20% of all the agents do 80% of the business and if you don't come from that position of service or that that's part of your brand or your mission statement or however you're going to develop your business I don't know that you're going to have the long-term success that a lot of agents look for and probably a lot of people who are watching this right now are trying to trying to model so it it's definitely a mindset and that you have to have just just like in any other service industry if you're coming to help the client or help the consumer people will see that and that's really the approach that I take how many contacts does it take you to get an appointment right now I make 17 contacts per one closed transaction whoa 17 per one closed transaction holy cow man that's amazing that's fantastic it wasn't always that low that that's for sure I mean a lot of that has to do with you know practicing and role playing and really building my skill set so I'm and even trying to improve now I mean it's I'd like to get down to seven or eight I mean that would certainly be a much more efficient number so certainly I go on more I'm converting about 70% of my listing appointments right now good so that that's around where the numbers are so are you still role playing now are you still doing I mean here you made six hundred sixty-eight thousand dollars last year are you still doing role play I mean cuz people think that oh if I get to this point I'll no longer need to role play or practice mice I'll have it down yours are you still doing this absolutely it's like any other craft that you're going to work at the daily disciplines are what keep you sharp and I've had to be part of myself and Carl's been hard on me to continue with the roleplay and again it's not something I enjoy doing a lot but I know that it's going to make me better and the better I get the more efficient I'll be and the more my business is going to grow so it's something that's again part of the part of the makeup here and part of my business plan so they're there there is no finish line for you you just keep going remember that Nike commercial from years ago the guy just keeps running and running I love it and I think it's important for all of us to understand too is that you know there isn't some magic place that we're going to get to where all of a sudden we're not having to practice we're not having to build our skills or build our mindset because if we stop then we start shifting backwards again we start going the other direction um you got a beautiful family man you've got your wife two kids brand-new baby um you know you and I were jokingly talking about like what is sleep you know how old is your daughter how old's your daughter he's at she's eight weeks eight weeks now and so um how do you balance it all together I mean here you are 80 transactions last year this year is even better isn't it this year you're you're looking at blowing that out of the water right year-to-date we're at a 71 transaction settled impending GC is a little over 600 right now so it's only beginning August here so I'm really trying to zoom past that and have the same sort of percentage growth that I did last year balance hasn't been easy uh there were there were times when it was it was rough especially in a lot the growth phases I had not only last year but previous years I've scheduled time with my wife to spend time with her especially when we were dating and getting married now I don't work as much but a lot of that's because I've been able to grow my team where I have buyer agents now that was something I didn't even have last year I mean and that that's not that long ago and it was hard for me to let go I felt like I needed that business and then once I with with Karl's help he showed me that I really just need to focus on listings the buyers will come and you can farm that out and focus even more on listings that's going to exponentially grow your business and that's why I had such a big breakthrough last year but we schedule time together I mean I put it right in my calendar it's on my on my iPhone at the iPad my office has it that that's really how you have to do it I mean this business can eat you alive if you don't if you don't manage your time I mean that's if they get you so do you do you run your day from your schedule from your calendar like is that is that how you go about it absolutely we have prospecting time blacked out in there my my staff knows not to not really bother me when that's happening unless there's an emergency and when I say emergency like a house is burning down emergency they know not to bother me then we have a quick meeting each day to go over what needs to happen and I meet with the the main the main team assistant and then I'm on appointments in the afternoon and if something's in there it doesn't get moved there there's no question about it it's a tough discipline to have but it's something that really really makes a difference nice so um we're sitting down I'm a newer agent or I'm an agent that isn't doing the volume that you're doing and I want to get to 20 or 30 transactions I think that as an industry if we as an industry read 30 transactions per agent oh my gosh could you imagine just like the level of professionalism but here I am maybe I'm doing like eight to ten sales a year and I want to go to 20 or 30 what are the key things that I've got to do to be able to make that leap well that that's a big jump number one and it's you're looking at you know potentially doubling or tripling your business so step one is come up with a business plan and put it in writing and tell people about it if what you can plan in that is not the results but the actions you will take to get to those results so for example one thing that Karl has been very structured with me on is I need to talk to 15 people a day and I need to schedule one listing appointment that that's my daily goal so if I hit that I know I'm going to be in good shape that's the same sort of measurables that I would recommend a newer agent or someone is looking to grow their business has what do I need to do to a to make this work so and then you can kind of back out the plan so in order to make 15 contacts you spend two hours on the phones in the morning you're gonna that's going to lead you to X amount of transactions but but really having a plan in writing that's such a fundamental thing in this business and if you have the plan in writing and you stick to it and keep yourself accountable that's going to get you where you need to be no question about it so number one is have the plan good so I've created the plan am I going to follow up the entire time or do I fall off and like do you follow your plan 100% because I know a lot of people are like well I create this plan I created this schedule and then it went out the window right so I mean does that ever happen to you like when you create the plan and and if so how do you get yourself back on track because I know that they may be concerned about that I'd love to tell you I follow it 100% of the time but it doesn't happen and I'll be I'll be the first one to admit it when I get off track that's where the affirmations are really helpful because that keeps me focused on what I need to be doing every day hit my goals and have the life that I want to have for myself and my family and my kids now and so when I get off track sometimes you catch yourself and say geez what am I doing here and you realize okay I got off track here it happens I can correct this right now as long as I do what I need to do tomorrow and make it happen today and adjust accordingly in business you always have to adjust but it's the mindset is staying focused on what you need to do and that that's that's just so key it's having those those those daily disciplines and the plan pulls you back to it doesn't it and when you think about it like at least you have something to come back to versus going way off out into into no-man's land um what else would you recommend so I've got the plan I want to go to 20 transactions I'm at ten right now what other what other things do I need to work on so I was a pretty young agent when I got started right out of college I was selling real estate so it wasn't like I was doing something else I mean I was pretty pretty raw one of the big things I did was look the part and put on a shirt and tie everyday wear a jacket to the appointments looking the part you could get you in the door people aren't going to throw you right out and that was a big issue I had to overcome being so much younger a lot of the other agents that are out there and I still am it's not much different in our marketplace but coming in looking like a professional it's such a key thing now having the plan looking like you should be there and you should be in the room those are two steps that got me pretty far even before I got into coaching got it really the third thing is hire coach as soon as you can I wish I would have done this five six seven years ago because it's really giving me the guidance that I needed - like you said Bill when you kind of veer off a little bit you don't necessarily know what to do your coach is there for you and they can help you because they've been through this awesome and you know it's it's it's interesting just a couple of weeks ago eyes watching all of the as much in the 49ers at their you know their their practice as they're coming back and on ESPN the Seattle Seahawks and you know I just I think about what would those practices be like if there was no coaching around like it's as and these are professionals are getting paid millions and millions of dollars but still even those guys have someone that's guiding them everyone has a mentor um so fast fast forward five years from now worse tom tool where do we see you in five years what does your business look like it's in let's see the inspiration brother five years from now this is something I've talked about with Carl want to have a larger team right now we're at it's myself we have three admin and in two buyers agents so I'd like to see somewhere in the neighborhood of seven to ten agents looking to do over 250 units a year good and I'm at a point where I'm going on listing appointments getting the listings and letting my team handle the rest that's where I'd like to be because that's what I'm best at is bringing in the business and that's what keeps the whole thing running I love it man yeah leaning on your own strengths and letting your team do the same thing well brother first of all thank you on many different levels because of you know like the you know taking your time multiple times and and us get this and I really appreciate it I you know I love this is going to be an interview that I go back and listen to myself again and again and again because there's some tips I want to share with the people that I coach that I gained from you from the expired perspective and I think that if everyone does go back and listens to this as their market shifts and it changes and expires come back up we'll be more prepared will be more excited you know and also have the skills in place to be able to do that if you need scripts dialogues things along those lines please go to Tom Ferry dot-com there's free downloads for all the scripts that that Tom was talking about as well as if you got some type of an interest in terms of you know finding out what coaching is all about if it's a good fit for you we'd love to be able to actually make that available for you as well to otherwise take this information go do something with it information isn't power information is potential power action is what creates the power so um again tom thank you brother anything you want to say to them closing off well if I can help anyone personally I gave you my contact information again again it's my website tom tool comm with Annie I'd love to help anyone out there because that you know paying it paying it back is really something that coaching is all about and you don't use the resources they're not only with the coaches but also the other clients you're really missing out a lot of them well thank you again for that and thank all of you for taking time out to actually spend time with us here for real success where you getting real agents like Tom you get real strategies finding out the real success that they're doing so until we talk to you again keep your mind focused on the future where you're going keep your actions right here the president keep on moving forward keep on being powerful this is Bill pipes signing off thanks again for another real success we'll see you soon bye-bye

Channel: Tom Ferry

Views: 69,509

Rating: 4.8073092 out of 5

Keywords: listing, realestate, Tom ferry, tom ferry coaching, real estate, real estate training, real estate coaching, sales training, sales coaching, marketing, marketing tips, marketing coaching, marketing training, strategy, motivation, sales skills, coaching, Business, Success, Training, Coach, mindset, tomferry.com, tom ferry real estate, expireds, expired listings, expired listing calls, door knocking, real estate agent, cold calling, expired listing scripts, expired listing script

Id: kQcjMwH17hA

Length: 30min 38sec (1838 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 18 2014