Thread by @BobKnakal

🧵 Cold Calling / Prospecting: Nothing New

Much of the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn during the past several weeks has been around the topic of cold calling and prospecting.

More photos at the end of the 🧵 #ThrowbackThursday

2/ In the world of prospecting, “cold calling” should be something done only within the first year of your prospecting campaign. After that, the majority of your prospecting calls will be warm calls because prospects will already know you.

3/ As you change your focus, or want to communicate with new entrants into your marketplace, you will continue to have to make those cold calls but if your target audience remains fairly consistent, the majority of your calls will be warm.

4/ Prospecting is the most important thing a salesperson can do. It is the gasoline that drives the engine of your real estate car. After you have been in the business for a while, it is tempting to just react to incoming calls and rely on past relationships for deal flow.

5/ You may be doing well, but if you were on a consistent prospecting plan, chances are very high that you would be significantly more productive. Since my first days in the business, making prospecting calls has been a part of my routine.

6/ For my first 10 to 15 years, the goal was to connect with 8 owners per day or 40 owners per week and, eventually, get around to asking them if there was anything in their portfolio that they wanted to sell.

7/ My business always focused on seller representation, and we also only worked on exclusive listings. This meant that connecting with potential sellers was the most important thing we could do. Over time, that goal increased to 50 connections per week.

8/ Then the pandemic hit. When the constant interruptions around the office were no longer impacting productivity, my contacts increased to 100 per week. Since that time, I have kept up the goal of 100 per week. In 2022, my average was 114 connections per week.

9/9 Further, given my analog approach to the business, I have written down every connection I have made. For the last several years, those notes have been made on a legal pad. Before that they were kept in bound books. Photo evidence of my old-school approach for your amusement!