EPISODE 293: Doors Open When You Knock. Real Estate Lead Generation The Old Fashioned Way

In Mail-Right Show’s 293rd episode, Robert and John featured Steven Ross, a successful agent who’s been in the industry for many years. In this episode, Steven shared various ways to build a relationship with people and a little about his newly written book, which highlights how he does what he does without being an atypical real estate agent.

Going Door-to-door in 2021

When you knock on people’s doors, you are either trespassing or interrupting something. The first thing you can do when someone opens the door is to step back, turn a little sideways and make sure that you are dressed professionally, and then introduce yourself, “Hi, I’m Steven, the realtor,” no last name, no company name, just Steven, the realtor.

You must manage your time and figure out the ‘perfect timing’ and your best strategy when knocking. Steven has a fixed time going out to knock on doors. He strikes between 11 AM to 2 PM during people’s lunch. You can try asking like, “I caught you right in the middle of lunch, is now a bad time?” proceed on talking regardless of their reply. Follow it up by saying either “You probably haven’t been following the market very closely,” or “You probably don’t have any questions about the real estate market,” basically try to build a conversation with the person on the door.

Note that not everyone will be interested in what you’ll say. You must know your purpose before you knock on doors. As for Steven, he doesn’t knock on people’s doors to sell their house but rather to drop off a market update. According to him, if the person wants to talk to you, continue the conversation, but if not, you can say “thank you so much. Have a great day. See you next time.”

When hopping to the next door, it is important that you will look only for people who want to talk to you. Do not convince people. Your goal is to find people open to talk to you and build a relationship with you. This will save a lot of your time, energy, and effort.

Establishing Boundaries with Leads

Robert asked Steven if he knows Brian Tracy (to which he answered yes). Robert liked how Brian coined the five touch system. It is where you have a prospect, and you touch them five times. Door knocking is a decisive first move to get in touch with your prospect. But upon knocking, you need to read the atmosphere of the conversation, and if it is bad, you let them go. You move on, just like what Steven does, you are not there to convince them about real estate, you’re there to build a relationship.

Be Prepared Before Knocking

You cannot just pop on people’s doors with the intention of building a relationship if you look messy. Setting a schedule and preparing yourself before knocking on doors is important if you want to win the interest of your prospects. Also, you don’t knock where you live, you need to go to different neighborhoods. There are various ways that you can try to prepare yourself before knocking on doors, some of them include meditating, and listening to comedy like what Steven does because you can’t knock on people’s doors with a crumpled face and an ill mood. Always remember your goal and purpose.

Steven is not a sociable person, but he is highly capable and trustworthy. It is important that you make people trust you. You need to do your best if you want to stay in the business.

Establish a dialogue with your possible clients. You need to get the person’s contact information naturally. What Steven does is he asks them questions like if there is something he can help them with, or something like “Do you know someone good at repairing things?” follows it up by asking “what’s your email and number? So I can contact you regarding this repairing matter,” another is, you can give them your contact details and wait for them to call or message you. Eventually, someone will say “hey, I was curious about some other piece of property or some other question or something about the market.” You need to think of tricks and strategies that will make them give you their contact without forcing them to do so.

Keys to Success

Steven believes that experience is one of the keys to success and that it takes time, perseverance, and patience to achieve it not just in real estate but even in other fields. A lot of realtors will most likely be wary of knocking on doors but it’s a good way to network in your area and if you’re a new realtor it’s a cheap and effective way to get in front of potential clients fast.