Our interview this week is with Ray. He has two listings with our system, despite only getting 10 books to start.
In the interview we go over:
- Ray left his books on his counter during an open house.
- A neighbor picked up a book - wasn’t interested in that home.
- That owner and another ended up listing with Ray.
- He only had 10 books. Turned into two listings.
Highlights:
Full Interview:
Transcript:
Smart Agents: All right, so, when did you become a member with us?
Ray: It's been probably about three months ago.
Smart Agents: Three months, and did you just immediately order books?
Ray: I ordered 10 books just to kinda test things out, so I've got another order in now for a significant volume of 'em for my second order.
Smart Agents: How did those 10 books go?
Ray: Good. I got a few different ones just again to see how it looked and it's very professionally done. When I first got 'em home my teenage daughters I showed 'em and they're like "You gotta be kidding me! You wrote a book?", and I'm like, "Of course I did."
Smart Agents: Did you get any listings from them?
Ray: Actually I, to get some leads, I do open houses and I was sitting in the open house and then I spread out an LS sheet and the sign-in book and then I spread out my books on the kitchen counter, the island, and I have several people come in and it definitely sparks conversations.
I got a gentleman that came in and he was one of the, parentheses, neighbors, that come in to check out the open houses but they all have friends and relatives that buy and sell. So I spent about a, it was quiet time for a little bit and I spent about half an hour talking with him and he was just paging through the book and, and quite impressed with it.
And he left and then a couple days later, you know, [/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"][inaudible 00:01:53] he was just a neighbor. He didn't want to give me any contact information but he had my book and my card. The book was on how to get more value out of your home and I got a call back in a couple of days and he was telling me that he was going through a divorce. And he had a business that went bankrupt, like, about a year and a half ago.
And so, you know, immediately a typical real-estate agent would think, bankruptcy? Forget it. You know, he's going to be a renter for a few years. But I went over to check out his house and be respectful of his request. I thought I can sell the house, at least, he don't have to worry about a bankruptcy with that. And then this was right around Thanksgiving ... about right after Thanksgiving and his parents were in town from back east. And so I got a chance to meet them.
Well, it's a long story but the reader's digest version of it is his dad is a multimillionaire and is going to be buying him a house and he's selling the two story, three thousand square foot home that he no longer needs cause his wife left.
So I got a listing and an upcoming sale out of this book just laying on the kitchen counter.
So um, I am totally a believer in it and it's exactly what you guys say it is. People wanna ... you just need a little bit of an edge over the next guy to create that authority figure about yourself. That you are ... you got your act together and you know what your talking about.
Smart Agents: That's awesome. And you only have the ten so far, you haven't been giving them out in other ways yet have you?
Ray: Um, yes well, there is another story I've got on file, that I've been working with a couple and the internet lead and the, you know how you communicate back and forward with them for a little bit. Well we've got a chance to meet up. They're ready to go look at a few houses and on my first meeting with them, they looked at three houses and I gave them two of my books and he's read 'em. Ha ha.
So, we're actually under contract. We're going through the instruction period right now on a house and they don't need to sell their house, the current house they are in, to buy this one.
They are pretty well established. Yeah, they are going to be listing the home with me in February. So another, another one where I got a sale and a listing coming out of it. So, I'm a believer and I got a stash of them in my car at all times.
Smart Agents: Have you dropped them off at any waiting rooms or sent them in the mail?
Ray: Not yet because I'm waiting on my larger order to come through. So I just kinda have ... they should be ready. I should be getting them in the next week or two.
Smart Agents: Have you used any of our other products? Anything in the membership chart?
Ray: I did the training and the next thing I'm working on is the Facebook ad training. I really like that. I also, in my ... I got like, a template email letter that I use to send out to new prospects. In there I've got a variety of helpful links and I always include the offer link that goes to the webpage. So you guys really ... I was actually quite impressed with all of the tools, the sales tools that you offer. And I've been an agent for a long time.
And I've been mostly in the new home end of it. To where I've been licensed since 1984 and in three different states. But most of my career has been new home sales which you don't need to be marketing, technically because builder drives the leads and you can only sell your community and you can't list anything. So I never really paid much attention to it, other than marketing for my specific community.
And now that I've left that and I've been enjoying the total freedom of being a freelance agent broker. I'm searching for these tools that will make a difference. So just in the last six months, just about six months I've been a resale agent.
And because of these tools I've discovered ... actually in just yesterday's meeting at the Brokerage that hung my license with - it's the Brokerage right around the corner from me. I've done so much with them in the past five to six months with them that they've gave me ... it was the award ceremony at the end for the year and I got rookie of the year award because I've generated over seventy five thousand in commissions and I'm just starting out, you know, five to six month period.
Smart Agents: Yeah, that's awesome. I'm grateful to hear that you've buying into what we're trying to sell and, because we get a lot of agents that don't really go out and host at their house like that and just wanna put the books places without getting them out. Do you have any more ways that you've used the books?
Ray: Not yet but I did plan on utilizing them. I need to get ... I ordered a, you know, a bunch of them so I didn't want to be completely out with for the hot prospects in hand cause it takes several weeks to get your order in and published and shipped. And of course right now with Christmas, I'm sure all shipping is a little bit backed up, a little bit slower then normal. But I plan on actually expanding this and my strategies for my business for 2017 and the books are gonna play a really big part in marketing myself as the authority in the area. I've also went to a couple of the webinars that Chris did and I'm particularly interested in the divorce one too because that's an unfortunate scenario. But its, it happens.
There's a lot of people out there - I mean, I'm case in point having been divorced myself years ago but it happens and I kinda look at those - the few, they actually have an opportunity to actually have a listing and to sell or at least resale at least on one side of it. So, I'm probably going to pursue that niche a bit and see what happens with the marketed for the divorce crowd.
One of the best methods we use at Smart Agents to separate yourself is books. Books have a huge perceived value. They don’t get thrown away.
They can get tucked away somewhere, but most people aren’t going to toss them in the trash. They’re worth something, and they’re worth something to the author’s name.
Do this and you will position yourself as the authority in your market. When you give away your book, it will separate you from your competition. That’s how a smart agent thinks!
Want to get a free sample of the book that will get you more listings? Click the link below.
