4 Powerful Prospecting Tips That Will Get You More Listings

When I think of prospecting, I can’t help but think of The Karate Kid movie.

“Wax on. Wax off. Wax on. Wax off.”

Bear with me for a second.

It’s repetitive.

It’s pretty boring.

It takes an incredible amount of discipline.

In the end, you achieve results that will guide you to a monumental win.

That’s exactly the mindset that agent Monique Walker has had for the past 18 years. She is beating the competition and taking home approximately 15 “trophies” a month in the form of new listings. More specifically, Walker has been prospecting for three hours a day, four to five days a week, and tracking every single person she speaks to since 2005. So far this year alone, Walker has spoken to 2,549 people.

Initially, she began prospecting because the only cost was her time. Now, she does it because the rewards for “just talking to people” are too great to pass up.

“I’ve been averaging this year about eight [listings] myself. And I’m really, really excited because I now have five agents under me, and they will be taking 10 listings a month. And then, coupled with my 10 listings, we should be taking 20 listings. On average, combined with myself and the agents, we’re probably more [like] 14 or 15 listings a month [right now]. And that’s just gonna keep increasing,” says Walker.

This week on The Walkthrough™, Monique breaks down her tried-and-true method of prospecting and offers four tips on how to get a listing every day-and-a-half by simply making 30 calls a day.

Tip #1: Start early

Walker adheres to a strict schedule and always begins her day by prospecting at 8:00 am. She calls this her “golden hour” because she says she gets the most listing appointments between 8:00 am and 8:30 am.

“Don’t show properties, don’t go on listing appointments, don’t run CMAs. You’re just talking to people. It’s outbound calls, outbound conversations, and then in the afternoon, you see the people. So, whether you’re previewing property, whether you’re going on listing appointments, whether you’re showing property, that’s for the afternoon.”

Tip #2: Stick to a specific schedule

Using Mojo Dialer and an app called Landvoice, Walker always begins by dividing the first hour between calling expired and canceled listings. She says most of the time, people with expired listings aren’t even aware that their home’s listing has expired, and she wants to be one of the first calls they receive. In her second hour, she calls probate listings and does lead follow-ups. Then her third hour consists of calls to her database – past clients and her sphere of influence.

“70% of my business and anybody’s business is typically gonna come from lead follow-up,” says Walker. “You might not set that appointment on the first call or the second, but typically, the more touches you have with them on that lead follow-up, you’re gonna increase the conversion rate. And then, after I call all of those people that I don’t know, then I call people that I do know. So, it’s usually about from 10:00 to 11:00, I’ll focus on my database, my past clients, and my sphere of influence. And that three hours goes by like this. It goes by so fast.”

Tip #3: Track every call you make

Walker recommends tracking the number of calls you make to monitor your own success. Tracking also provides a benchmark for setting new goals.

“I’m as far from a numbers person as I could be,” says Walker, “but I love it. I love it so much because it works. And I know that there’s a direct correlation between the number of people I’m talking to and the number of transactions we close.”

Tip #4: Stand up while you prospect

Walker says that she always stands up while making calls and encourages her team to do so, too. She says it not only makes a huge difference in your tone and enthusiasm, but it also elicits energy, which the person on the other end of the line can sense.

“If you stand up and if you smile, that person can hear you. And people wanna work with people that are enthusiastic, positive, and have energy to their voice. A lot of the agents I see sit down, and it makes a really big difference. So, you wanna keep your energy up, and a good way to do that is A, standing up, and B, smile,” says Walker.

If you’re still not convinced, and perhaps saying to yourself, “30 calls? 8:00 am? Who’s picking up the phone at that hour?”

Walker says you’d be surprised.

“I’m flabbergasted myself because I’m not gonna pick up my phone, either. But what I found is that people that are motivated, especially if it’s an expired or canceled listing, they pick up the phone. It is the craziest thing. And they will talk to you. And if you find people that genuinely have to do something, and you make that connection right away, they’re gonna stay on the phone with you.”

Of course, knowing what to say is a huge part of prospecting, and Walker has relied on scripts created by her coach, Mike Ferry, over the years, which she says she has now internalized. And with her “Karate Kid” mentality, even when she gets a “no thank you,” Walker sees rejection as an opportunity to make another call because eventually, she knows that someone is going to say “yes.”

Header Image Source: (Slava Keyzman / Unsplash)