Jennifer Allan's Selling to Your Sphere of Influence - No Sales Pitch Required!

If you hang out here much, you know how I feel about the traditional numbers game of prospecting, specifically cold-calling.

Blech.

A business model based on being rejected far more often than you're welcomed and calling it a game?

Blech.

I don't think anyone who cold-calls imagines that his or her calls are welcomed by the majority of the voices on the other end of those telephone lines. When you commit to a cold-calling business-building strategy, you have to acknowledge that you will annoy a lot of people. But that's okay, they say, because the end justifies the means. It's okay to annoy a lot of people as long as you end up with a little business for yourself when the day is done.

So, I'm thinking.

What if, instead of striving to annoy cold-call 100 people a day, you strive to impress one person a day?

At the end of the year, the cold-caller will have annoyed more than 30,000 people... but you will have impressed more than 300.

Who do you think is a better source of future business for you? Thousands of annoyed people? Or hundreds of impressed people?

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I just went through my mailing list of several thousand. Well, I didn't go through all several thousand; just the names of the people who aren't getting my emails because I'm being blocked by their email server.

Because I just kicked off my Prospecting with Soul Workshop, and it's a paid program, I wanted to make sure that everyone who signed up is actually GETTING what they're paying for, which includes daily emails from me.

Well. Guess what I found?

I discovered that one particular email server was blocking my emails far more than any other. Was it @aol? @hotmail? @yahoo?

Nope, although those were certainly well-represented.

By far, the most-blocked email server was... drum roll... @kw.com.

Hey, no disrespect to KW; I'm just passing on information. And it's not news to me; when a subscriber tells me they aren't getting my emails, it's very often an @kw.com email address.

Now, whether or not you hear from me (outside of a program you paid for) may not be of utmost importance to you - I doubt my emails are the highlight of your day.

But I have to wonder who else is being blocked from contacting you? Aren't you?

And while we're at it, there's another category of "undeliverable" emails in my mailing program - email addresses that are "non-existent." Hundreds of them. And again, most of them are brokerage-specific email addresses (@kw.com, @remax.net, @abcrealty.com, etc.). Yes, I know you hope you'll stay at your current brokerage firm forever and ever, but what if you don't? Do you really want your sphere of influence NOT to be able to contact you with an invitation to their next party... or, egads, if they want to hire or refer you?

Please add it to your to-do list to get your very own email address. Like, today. It's very easy to do, but even if it's beyond your technical capabilities, it's well-worth it to pay someone to do it for you. Seriously, you could be losing commission checks this very moment. Or at the very least, not hearing from me anymore! ;-]

If you thought you were on my mailing list, but haven't heard much from me lately, just ask me if you're being blocked. I'd be happy to look it up for you and correct that problem when you give me a NEW email address of your very own!

The Prospecting with Soul (PWS) Workshop kicks off Monday, September 13th. In case you haven't heard of it, it's a six-week group workshop where agents who want to Sell with Soul will gather together online and venture out into the world to Prospect with, um, Soul. The goal? To fill up those pipelines for 2011 and beyond using techniques and strategies that don't cost a fortune, embarrass you or make you feel icky.

I've been getting some good questions about the Workshop from already-registered participants as well as from folks who haven't-yet-registered. Figured it made sense to answer them.

Sooo...

"What if I can't make all the live tele-meetings? Can I listen to them later?" Yes. All tele-meetings will be recorded and made available to participants within 24 hours. I really don't expect anyone to attend all the sessions live - after all - you have real estate to sell and clients to care for!

"I'll be on vacation for a week during the program. Will I get too far behind?" Nope. The Prospecting with Soul Workshop is not a bootcamp-style program. Your daily assignments, for the most part, aren't labor-intensive and only a few build on earlier ones. So, if you're gone a week, you'll miss five assignments (Monday - Friday). You can do the assignments the following week, or wait til the end of the Workshop and do them then. Or even ignore them if you want to. You'll be fine.

"What if I get too busy to keep up?" If you get really busy during the Workshop (which is what always seems to happen, right?), well, then GREAT! It was well-worth the cost to stimulate all that activity, even if you can't actually DO all the assignments until later!

"Will the PWS Workshop talk about... (open houses, floor time, web leads, websites, expired listings, FSBO's... )?" Officially, no. While we'll touch on some of these topics, we'll focus on the six categories described in the promotional material (see here). However, since there are over 100 participants (so far), conversations about other prospecting avenues will be welcomed and encouraged on the Prospecting with Soul private board!

"I hate social media! Do I HAVE to do those assignments?" Nope. You can pick and choose among the assignments and disregard any that don't suit your personality or business model. And I promise, you don't have to Facebook, Twitter or Link-In to be a successful real estate agent.

"I did the Savvy Prospector program - is there any reason to do PWS?" Did you enjoy Savvy? (Okay, I know some of it is downright tedious, but overall, did you get something from it?). If so, you'll love PWS. It's sort of a Savvy-Lite, with new material and different assignments. PWS does NOT get into big projects the way Savvy does; it's a day-to-day activity-based program to help you get out there in the world confidently generating business for yourself.

"I'm brand new, should I do PWS?" Probably not. If you're fresh off the turnip truck (I say that with love), you have other things to do right now besides prospect for business. You need to focus on Learning Your Stuff before you go out into the world professing to Know Your Stuff. If you want to do "Something" with Soul - take a look at the SWS School for Rookies which takes you day-by-day through the first 30 days of your new career.

"Is it Too Late to Sign up for PWS?" Almost, but not quite. You have until Sunday, September 12^th to get in the door. I'd rather you not put it off til the last minute because there is some behind-the-scenes processing that needs to be done before you're totally "processed," but I'm up to the task!

Any other questions I can answer? Just ask. If you haven't yet joined the PWS Workshop, you can do that here. Would love to have you with us!

Yesterday I promised to follow up on my blog "You Gotta Ask for What You Want, Right? Eh, not always."

I ended the blog with the assignment to read thru some of the more popular Referral-Begging scripts, and then say them out loud. To refresh your memory, here they are:

• "Do you know anyone who needs to buy or sell real estate?"
• "Do you know anyone moving to my area who could use my services?"
• "I build my business by referral; will you please keep me in mind if you hear of anyone buying or selling?"
• "I'm never too busy for your referrals."
• "I'm always looking for referrals, so would you mind taking a few of my business cards?"

When you say these words out loud, what message are you sending to your audience?

Several commenters nailed it. When you beg for business you sound desperate, hungry and unsuccessful. Definitely not emotions you want to inspire in your audience. People don't hire and refer out of pity; they hire and refer out of respect.

But it goes deeper than that.

Did you notice how all these scripts are all about YOU (as in, the person saying the scripts)? All about what YOU need and want?

There's nothing in these scripts that leads your audience to believe you have anything of value for them; you aren't assuring them of your competence, of your expertise, of your work ethic. You aren't telling them with your words or tone or even your body language that you are capable of Taking Great Care of Them and Their Referrals. No, you're simply telling them with your words, your tone and your body language that you Need Their Business and Referrals.

So, how could you let the people you know and the people you meet know that you'll "take great care of their business" as opposed to you just "need their business?"

And, no, the answer probably isn't telling them "I'll take great care of your business, I promise!"

Thoughts?

Wanna GET referrals without ASKING for them?
Join us starting on September 13th (that's Monday!) for the six week
Prospecting with Soul Workshop!

Details and Registration Here

On one of my recent (featured - thank you!) blogs about referral-begging, the comment was made "If you don't ask, you don't get" in relation to calling up your sphere of influence (or even strangers) and asking if they know anyone to refer to you. In case you don't already know my opinion on the matter, I think that's a really stupid way to prospect.

As Dave Ramsey sez, "Hope I wasn't unclear."

Of course it's true that in many situations, you must ask for what you want to have any chance of getting what you want. If you would like a discount on a computer at Best Buy, you'll have to ask for one. If you'd like fries with your Big Mac, you'll have to ask for them. If you'd like a nicer office, you'll probably have to ask for it.

But when it comes to inspiring people to send business your way - it's a whole 'nother thing. You're "asking" people to think highly enough of you to entrust their precious referral business to you - and as we all know, referrals can backfire on the referrer if they don't go well. Therefore, it's important that you exude an air of success and confidence, which does NOT involve asking / begging / bribing or obligating for business.

Blah Blah Blah - if you've been around here any time at all, you already know how I feel about asking for business. Don't.

But here's the thing. You absolutely CAN inspire the people you know and the people you meet to send business your way without ever asking / begging / bribing or obligating them.

How?

Well, let's go back to Referral-Begging 101. We're taught a variety of scripts to Beg for Referrals from our spheres of influence. How about these gems?

• "Do you know anyone who needs to buy or sell real estate?"
• "Do you know anyone moving to my area who could use my services?"
• "I build my business by referral; will you please keep me in mind if you hear of anyone buying or selling?"
• "I'm never too busy for your referrals."
• "I'm always looking for referrals, so would you mind taking a few of my business cards?"

So, Jennifer, um, I don't get it. What's wrong with these scripts?

Say each of them out loud. What message are your words sending to your audience?

More tomorrow!

Quoted with permission from Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann:

"You may have been taught that to be successful in sales, you need to "step outside of your comfort zone." Let's reexamine that idea. If you push yourself to a place that makes you uncomfortable, chances are pretty good you'll end up making the other person uncomfortable, too. Consciously or not, they'll sense your discomfort - and attitudes are contageous.

We human beings tend to resist discomfort; in fact, we'll typically do anything to avoid putting outselves in uncomfortable situations. Why base your entire career on something your strongest instincts tell you to avoid?"

One fine day last spring, I got a phone call from a real estate agent whose name didn't ring a bell.

This agent whose name didn't ring a bell small-talked with me for a few minutes, while I racked my brain to figure out if he was someone I should remember.

Well, when the small-talking was done, he asked me if I knew anyone moving to his town that I could refer to him. Ahhhhhh, sez Jennifer, Now I get it. He's prospecting. Well, I know it's hard to believe, but I didn't happen to know anyone moving to his area, so I told him he could send me an email with his contact information and I'd be glad to let him know if that situation changes. He bade me farewell and hung up. And I never heard from him.

I thought it was pretty funny, not to mention an abysmal waste of his time - cold-calling someone and asking for referrals - and then not even following up?? Interesting strategy.

But over the next month, I got more such calls from agents around the country. Agents whose names I DID recognize; agents who were followers of my philosophy which specifically advises against any form of referral-begging. All asking me if I knew anyone moving to their area.

Now I was confused. What was inspiring this flurry of referral-begging activity?

I gently tried to dissuade the callers from making more such calls to their spheres of influence, but they all seemed determined and even enthusiastic about it.

Well, okay. To each his or her own. Far be it from me to talk someone out of a prospecting technique they're excited about.

It finally dawned on me that these calls must be part of a corporate training program. My assumption was correct - there was a program making the rounds where participants were instructed to call 100 people per day (or maybe it was per week) and ask for referrals.

Whatever. I think it's a ridiculous strategy to abuse friendships with any sort of referral-begging, but apparently I'm in the minority there, at least in the world of real estate training. I'll just say that I don't like it when it's done to me, so it's a given that I will never do it to anyone else.

But the epilogue to this story is that I heard from one of the agents again the other day. Was she calling to hit me up again for referrals to her area? Nope. She was calling to apologize for doing it the first time. That she'd felt sick to her stomach doing it, not only to me, but to the other dozens of friends and acquaintances she subjected her pitch to. She is concerned that she'd actually damaged her friendships and was asking for advice on how to repair that damage.

My friends, if it feels wrong DON'T DO IT. IGNORE the well-intentioned (?) coaches and trainers and brokers who say you have to venture out of your comfort zone in order to succeed. Because there's a difference between overcoming a fear of something new, and doing something you feel is wrong. A BIG difference.

And you know what? You can tell the difference if you'll only pay attention to that little voice inside of you. It knows what it's talking about!

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