From Cold to Sold in a Year
A 12 month follow up plan
Welcome to Romans Leasing Letters, you may also find a few of our premium articles helpful that provide further training on this topic.
Here are a few to check out:
Cold Call Objection: “I’m Not Interested”
It takes 5-12 touches before any traction is made with a prospect. Because of this, follow up is the single most important skill you can learn.
In this article I will lay out a follow up plan that takes your from your initial conversation with a cold prospect all the way through to a closed deal.
WARNING: THIS TAKES WORK, PATIENCE, PLANNING AND SYSTEMS TO ACCOMPLISH
First, let’s set the stage…..
You have done a great job of building a solid list of “warm” prospects.
These are people that you have identified as being in a situation where they have a problem that your product or service can solve.
You have also identified important data points that would trigger when it’s time for this prospect to buy from or hire you.
Next, I trust that you have spent adequate time working on your phone skills and understand how to:
Interrupt well
Find an objection
Agree with them
Use the objection
Solve the problem
Close for a meeting
If not, then here is more on how to improve your cold call skills
So, now that we have the ground work laid, here we go.
You are making cold calls just like any normal day. You are getting qualified leads delivered to your from your CRM, making the call and either leaving a voicemail or having a live conversation.
In our world, these are really the only two options you have by the way. Not leaving a voicemail means you spoke with someone.
On one particular call, you reach your prospect and they actually are kind of interested in what you are saying.
However, at the end of the call you were not able to close them for a face to face meeting for a number of reasons.
Don’t worry, this is what will happen to you most of the time. It’s quite infrequent that your very first cold call to someone will result in a face to face meeting.
As a matter of fact, most all of my high dollar deals came not from the first call but from the subsequent follow up cadence that came after.
Here is what I would recommend you do with the prospect we just discussed.
Day 0
Send a text message right away and thank them for taking the time to talk with you.
Day 2
Call or email them “I had an idea that I thought you might be interested in hearing and giving me some feedback on the approach. Would you have 20 minutes next week”
Day 4
Send a handwritten card in the mail and include your business card in the note.
Day 5
Depending on the type of building the prospect is interested in, drive to a current listing and shoot a video of yourself walking the space/property. Make the video specific to the prospect, using their name, etc.
Email and text the video to the prospect and include your cell phone number in the video
Day 7
Offer to make a personal visit because you will be in the area. Would it be too much trouble if I stop by?
Day 10
Email a piece of market data to the prospect
Day 14
Email info links specific to company, not a sales call but rather a “I was thinking about your” piece.
Day 21
Email a video of your specific real estate process along with another handwritten note
Day 30
Call for coffee or lunch invite
PREMIUM RELATED ARTICLE
Day 40
Email “Was thinking about you as a potential client and was wondering if these properties would be of interest”
Day 50
Email special offer - lunch for their group/staff
Day 60
Call and make another offer for personal visit.
“I will be visiting another client, can I come by and see you?”
Day 75
Photo mockup of prospect, business or building
Customer of the month, Time Magazine (Use Canva to design the image)
Mail with a note “You’re the best”
Day 90
Have somebody else on your team call the prospect
Why haven’t you done business with us up to this point.. Listen to what they say.
Day 100
Special gift, call confirm address before sending
Gift card, lottery ticket, food, gimmick
Day 120
Offer for a personal visit again
“Going to be in the area, would like to stop by and buy you a coffee”
Day 150
Drop off of special offer, market report, stats
Day 180
Compelling information link via email or text (market, economy)
“Thought of you when I saw this”
Until They Buy Or Die
Day 210
Text, email, call “Just got this in” about something that would solve problem and thought of you. Doesn’t need to be specific to real estate.
Day 240
Apology contact
Call and say
“I want to apologize that I have not been able to serve you yet”..
LISTEN and receive the information from them.. has something changed?
Day 270
Send gift in mail
Day 300
Call offer personal visit or coffee
Day 330
Testimonial request from the prospect.
Ask if they would be willing to give a video testimonial about how persistent, professional and knowledgeable you are on the market
Day 365
Clearly I’m persistent, can we do business on the 1 year anniversary of our meeting?
Conclusion
At the end of this 12 month period of follow up you will no longer be able to call this prospect “COLD”.
If they haven’t done business with you after this first 12 months then start over and do this again for another 12 months.
Deals take time and most of your competitors will give up after 45 days anyway.
The secret is having a process and technology in place that systematically schedules each of these tasks and prompts you when it’s time to do the next task.
You can literally have several of these types of prospect follow up plans going at any given time based on the prospect’s timing, needs and motivations.
I hope this has been helpful.