hi this is Brian Icenhower welcome
today I am here with a good friend a large deacon from Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Dale welcome to the show thanks Brian I appreciate it love being
here hey Dale I mean we're all pros that Dale on the show
Dale's team did 250 million in production and about six hundred units
per year pretty excited about that he they have four is A's the Dale works
with we've been working together for over a year and a half now
Dale himself coaches team leaders inside sales agents directly and and even
agents that just want to convert leads in that right Dale that's right yeah so
this is gonna be awesome trying to pick your brain about about some of the
topics we got today yeah you know it's funny as usually people come to me
they're like hey you're really good at inside sales and my agents aren't
working the leads I'm giving them so we want to hire an inside sales agent and
I'm like wow that's fantastic book I don't know if we're gonna fix your
marriage by having a baby so let's let's well let's do some marriage counseling
first with your agent boy I'll tell you a men on that one that's actually a
great point yeah there's there's something something not in place if
we're having that problem we got to fix what's not in place well you know what
is funny and you I'm sure you've seen this all the time Brian yourself is that
running inside sales requires the highest level of accountability right in
order to make it profitable and make it work
it requires the highest level of Management the highest level of
accountability that you can that you can bring to the table right it's just
another level that you have to go to and if you don't it you need to have the
same level of accountability for your agents to agreed and so if these agents
or these people are calling and say hey I'm you know my people are not following
up with the leads I want to go way back to the to the basics here for a second
okay so a lead comes in right all leads are not quick
equal correct correct so tell me what's the first thing we're trying to do when
a lead comes in do by way of classifying that lead right yeah so first off
everybody should understand the different lead types that we have right
the different lead sources so typically the less you pay for a lead source
unless it's referral or just sphere because you've been in business for 40
years the less you pay for the lead the more of them you're gonna need in order
to get a conversion right correct the typically hopefully the more you pay for
the lead the fewer of them you're gonna get but the better quality they're gonna
be one would think one would hope yes that's what we got to keep an eye on the
budget so typically you know you want your agents and is a is to understand
what lead source is this because you want them to have the right mindset
around it so if you're getting a ton of website registrations or responses to
your facebook ads or whatever it may be you want your agents and isas to have
the right mindset that listen we're going to we're gonna kiss all these
frogs the same and one of them is gonna turn out to be a prince and that's just
the way it's gonna work so let's not get upset and disregard them because if
we're gonna convert three or four or five percent of them we don't know which
one of them the three or four or five percent is going to be yeah and I think
like letting those numbers be known because if you don't let them know that
it's quite it's considerably a losing proposition right I mean people if you
have a favorite baseball player and he gets up to bat every single time you
know that you can make the all-star team if you bat 300 which means you hit the
ball 30% of the time which means 70% of the time you fail yes you can say wow
that guy's terrible because he's only hitting the ball 35% of the time yeah
he's gonna be the MVP of the league if he does that though so we have to set
the right expectations with the people that converting the leads or what's
gonna happen is they're going to follow up and immediately assess all the leads
is terrible and get discouraged right exactly so if you're not will it tell
them basically show them get them to understand if you're not willing to
invest that 70% of strikeouts that's 70% of failure you will not get
the 30% right you know no all-star team that's right it's not gonna happen so
that's the first place to start we want people to be in the right mindset right
we want them to be on the right page then when these things come in when
these leads when the leads when these people human beings right when they give
us their information and when we get in touch with them we really just want to
start out with finding out about them and it's not about these you know what I
kind of break with most of the trainers and coaches and everything that's
standard out there in the industry it's not about having a clever conversation
it's not about tricking somebody into something it's not about fooling them
it's about having a legitimate conversation with another person and I
like to break I like to break down the conversation that you have with somebody
into three critical elements and if you follow these three critical elements and
just remember in my conversation am I am I tracking toward any of these three
you're going to be on course for converting this person and that would be
motivation their motivation do they have motivation right do they have ability
and do they have the willingness to meet with us or work with us those three
critical things that's really what you're looking for agreed and what we're
looking to do with those three elements motivation ability and willingness which
I love we're not to do that we have to ask questions right we can't just be
telling them we're not trying to manipulate them and close them in the
traditional sense we're coming from curiosity here and asking questions to
find out those three things absolutely yeah and so I'll demonstrate for you
right so if we're work so we first want to see do you have motivation right sure
do you have motivation if you do great let's move on and ask lots of questions
about what you're motivated to do and whether you're going to be able to do it
okay that's ability if the answer is no to motivation or not yet why write a kit
make sense to me let me understand your situation the way
you understand your situation right which is often inaccurate right a lot of
times yeah they don't quite know the whole situation that's why we are the
ones with the licenses we are the ones that have some experience in this
business right so we got and that's how we're seeking to help exactly and we
understand that through questions right sure we don't we don't understand that
by trying to change your mind or negate what you have going on we first seek to
understand let me understand you like you understand you and then when I
really understand what it is that you want maybe we can find a faster cheaper
easier better way for you to get it right even more of whatever you're
looking for I think that's the key to just every about every step in sales is
we have to dig into their motivation I mean it always starts there right and
that motivation starts to determine their ability and then their willingness
to move forward if they have the ability it does tie in because I think the whole
purpose here when we talk about assessing the the quality of a lead or
the classification of a lead or person as they come in we're typically always
trying to determine how best we can help them which means how best we can follow
up with them right so don't we rate these guys based upon that sense of
urgency on how quick they're going to be moving based on our best guess on that
first phone call yes absolutely we definitely want to do that so talk about
how you rate and categorize those inbound leads when they come in
okay so typically you're gonna have you know that the standard qualifications
like a zero to thirty a thirty to say 90 and a 90 plus or something like that
right okay these are the big buckets that you're gonna put people into just
so that I understand and I can sort of forecast and I can look at mine my
spread of nurtures right and I can see like a leaderboard right I want to see
how these people stack up and who I'm gonna be following up with when that's
how you really organize your follow up right so we're talking lie and these get
these get talked about as all different types of names right you're a
leads are often called your zero to 30 people your 30 to 90 people will called
your B leads let's say your C leads could be your 90 plus or ninety to a
year or 90 to a year-and-a-half hot leads warm leads cool leads however you
want to name those it's all based upon that initial call or that initial
contact where we start to determine their motivation ability ability and
willingness so we're using that like a thermometer to kind of take the
temperature to see how fast we think this person is going to be able and
willing to move yes and we'll ask some questions about that and not just when
do you think you'll be moving right because oftentimes you're gonna get I'm
not sure or sometime next spring or some vague answer so other than the I
have absolutely no idea answer you know you may get some kind of inkling of when
things are going to happen what we like to do with everybody is ask them process
questions just like you would if you were
interviewing somebody right I'm gonna ask you process questions about okay
let's work backwards so if you were gonna be in your home by X date when
would you go out and start looking at homes if you were gonna be moving in in
the spring do you think it'd be more like March or April or May maybe work we
work backwards down that timeline yeah so if there's longer with when it's
gonna be and then we actually start backing with okay so when would you be
ready to that and then we can start getting an idea of really pinpointing
which bucket we're gonna throw them into yes gently okay and then okay I like
that I like that a lot yes place them in so then and then what
let me give you one more point about that another reason that we do that we
get them to think down the path we can also uncover where do I insert myself
right into the process and then get you to agree that I should be inserted into
the process at that point and now you and I have a tentative agreement for a
future conversation yeah I like that it's almost like we're getting a
partnership to at least help them out along the way because what happens in
those different buckets right you got the a the B's in the C's let's just call
them that okay so that actually determines the amount of frequency of
your follow up with them correct yes right so if we've got a let's say we've
got an a lead we're gonna be staying in contact a lot more frequent because we
know that they're planning on moving and some time between now the next 30 days
as opposed to a see lead that it's really a little too premature to be
blowing them up through every you know phone and email and text message right
so we said that's true and so Brian the way that we've designed and the way that
we run lead follow-up is that we have we automate as much as we can and then we
have and then we figure out what you're talking about as we figure out what the
personal touches are the actual activities that I'm gonna do to take out
to follow up with you right the the live follow-ups on top of my automated
follow-up so you so in our systems everybody with the
exception of that person who I have an appointment with is gonna have the same
consistent automated follow-up from me right through emails and sometimes text
messages that are planned out in a sequence that everybody goes on right
and it just looks like personal touches that were sending to you coming directly
from me as a person looks like I sat down at my computer and wrote you an
email and just to clarify that everybody in the same bucket right so the aide
leads are all gonna be on the exact same plan they're all on the same plan as B's
C's everybody just different frequencies that they're sent out nope everybody
gets the same consistent automated drips to make our keep us sane got it okay
changes is our active outreach to those people okay tell me about that tell me
what the active outreach is for each a B or C if we call them yeah so what we do
is depending on their time frame we use the standard where you cut it in half
right so we'll take whatever their time is cut it in half actually first what we
do so you you're talking to somebody and they turn out to be a nurturer right yep
you're gonna go into one of these buckets we don't set an appointment with
them right now and we don't think that we're gonna be setting an appointment
with them in the next two weeks okay okay that's the qualification sure so
now you're gonna go into our follow-up system right so you're set onto the same
automated follow-up through with emails and texts on top of that I'm going to
tag you in my system so that I know that I'm gonna take whatever the time frame
is I'm going to cut it in half I'm gonna reach out to you at the halfway point oh
I skipped over something the reason I went backwards I just spoke to you
you're going into my system the first touch is going to be a couple days after
you get put into my system okay because I want to make sure you're getting the
emails that are coming for your home search and that my communications are
coming through to you it's just another check-in to me
it gives you a reason to call gives you a reason yeah and make sure you don't
get lost in cold storage somewhere right right and you aren't getting this stuff
from us the emails and things you should be fat bucket right right then half way
to whatever your time frame is we're gonna follow up again right personal
touch see where you're at check in with you and I what I think is the best thing
to do it's not just hey it's Dale I want to make sure you're still buying a house
I want to make sure you're still selling a house are you ready to buy or sell a
house right instead it's hey I'm checking in with you and you're gonna
look at your notes and you're gonna read what it is that they told you and you're
going to revisit what it is that they told you right you're just gonna
basically paraphrase back then hey last time we talked we talked about this is
that still the case we talked about this is that still the case I want to see if
things have changed and you're showing that you're listening and you're showing
yeah so you're giving a lot of validation there too which builds
tremendous rapport yeah so that's great okay so in a nutshell take me from an a
a B or C buyer what is the degree of your phone calls the automated point to
an a versus a B versus a C like for example are you calling the A's every
week twice a week bees how frequent C's how freaking what's the norm you think
it should be okay I want to talk about I need to talk about this concept first
sure cuz the vast majority of agents and the things that I hear out there go
something like hey when are you looking to buy a home when you want to be in
your new home oh I have no idea we're just looking right now and you know I'll
let you know we're getting the emails we're getting the houses you're sending
okay great can I follow up with you in a couple of months oh yeah sure yeah that
is not a nurture okay yeah that is where these questions come from where it's
like I don't know when to follow up with this person I'm just gonna keep calling
them until something happens right yeah we need to do something there has to be
some sort of action plan here right yeah like there's a there's a check point
like here's where we were we also have to say here's what's coming now
right so here's what I want to do I want to dial back to that conversation that
conversation should dictate when you follow up with those people right okay
it shouldn't just be I'm throwing darts of the board hoping that you're ready to
move forward you need to get the pieces you need to get their pieces of their
puzzle right whatever they are because that's going to determine how often
you're following up with this people with these people
so back to your question if you're in my a bucket for instance and you're a zero
to 30 when I'm first speaking with you and I'm qualifying what's going on with
you I need to understand when you're going to take your next action or what
your next action is going to be I need to ask those questions right and to me
in the 0 to 30 day a bucket you're hot lead bucket we should be
trying to think about meeting to me that's that that's that's
person-to-person we're moving them into either with a lender a buyer consult a
listing appointment or meeting or we're showing something we're trying to get in
person there so that's a lot of contact really trying to look for reasons to
help them to go if they want to move that quick there's work to be done right
yeah and if you exit a call if you exit that first call with what you think is a
0 to 30 and you don't understand when they're gonna talk to a lender when
they're gonna look at homes when they're gonna figure out the finances when
they're gonna talk to the spouse when they're gonna look at their lease as to
whether they can break it yeah we haul them back and find those things out
right that's your next call yeah because they're not going to get
what they want 30 days if we don't know that so we're not helping them okay so
now go to our B's our bees are so give me an example of what that process
moving a B that which is a 30 to 90 day buyer let's say what type of process
what type of moving forward to the next step are we talking about there okay so
the same with A's do not get off that call with what you think is a B unless
you understand what their process is going to look like or without getting an
agreement from them that together you're going
to start some piece of the process at a certain time in the future hey if you
can can you give me some examples of what that might look like like what
would what would that conversation look like where you're trying to secure some
sort of commitment or agreement to the future yeah so I'm not getting them to
agree to work with me over the phone okay I've never met with this person I'm
not getting them to agree to anything like that right what I'm getting them to
agree to is when will you start to look at the finances if I can't get them to
talk to the lender yet right when do you think you'd go out and start looking at
homes when do you think you'd be able to decide whether to stay in the house or
to move forward when do you think you'd be able to decide – when do you think
you'll start making the repairs on your home when would you like to speak with
an agent in order to find out what repairs are the best investment for you
to make in your home see I think that is crucial Dale you ate every one of those
as a question every every one of those questions started with a when very
time-sensitive everything is trying to find out when and we're probing to look
for because if we can find something that's in range then we can actually
help them we can start moving them towards that objective so I really like
that you're not trying to overcome objections you're you're really not
trying to manipulate anything you're not trying to win an argument here that they
really need to do this now instead of later you're just asking with that faith
that they are going to give us something that's in range where we can start
helping them towards that goal yeah they can put you to work basically between
now oh yeah and if what you keep getting is I don't know I don't know I don't
know that's a legitimate answer that you're getting from this person they
don't know they haven't thought about it yet right which is good do you ever get
them to finally think about how to do something in 30 to 90 days exactly
you're gonna have to at some point so you can help them work backwards in it
right then you can say okay well great can I can I tell you how the typical
timeline works from when you do decide great now
have permission to educate you yeah another question right right is amazing
let's talk about the long-term right so the C ones let's say 90 days plus yeah
we don't call them cold we call them cool cool they're eggs right or positive
yeah so those people you're gonna hear a lot of I don't know there's gonna be a
lot of I don't know right it's just that's okay
so what you're gonna do with them is the same thing you're gonna try and what we
like to do is we want to get them talking about their ideal future right
talk about the ideal scenario and seeing themselves in it and then if you can try
working it backwards and saying when would you like to get started on that
right right give me an example give me one hypothetical so let's say somebody's
saying we're you know we're recording this in the fall right now okay winter
actually I guess and if somebody says you know what I'm just I think we're
thinking we're probably gonna move like next summer we're not really sure where
we're gonna go or you know how much or even what our budget is we just know
that maybe we would like to get a bigger home something like that right just put
it off right they got a they have a vague idea of what's gonna happen okay
does it makes let me ask you this from the perspective of lead does it make
sense for us to get together right now no does it make sense for you to drive
to my office and sit across the table from me a strange salesperson no okay
that doesn't make sense so let's have more of a conversation to help make it
make sense if we can and if not that's okay what we're gonna find out is where
along the line could could a real estate agent help you and when would you like
to to start that process find out from them yeah yeah I love that
I love the confidence in doing that too because you'll be surprised so let's say
so say you asked me that question and I say I don't know probably you know I
guess sometime in the spring sometime in the spring great and so when you started
working with an agent what do you think the first thing is that you would do
what would you the agent two together where would you
be at in the process a lot you know I'm gonna disagree with what they're gonna
say but I'm gonna say we'd be looking at houses look at houses great so how will
you do you have you figured out how you'll determine which agent is gonna
provide the most benefit to you in your home search know I mean we got a few
friends we do have a few friends that are agents my nephew just got his
license oh that's great congratulations thanks yeah it's good he's a great kid
six will you be using one of them oh I don't know I mean he's our nephew but I
don't know I you know I don't know my wife you know she may have her friends
or I don't we I don't think we're at that stage yet got it got it so what I
would do is I would progress with asking you more questions about what's most
important to you about your home purchase right I want to try to push the
conversation and what I would love to find out from you is that you don't know
everything about the home purchase process you'd love to find out how you
can save more or avoid risk or get a great benefit from your real estate
agent order that you would want to feel really comfortable and confident with
the person that you worked with right right I want to find out if these I want
to elicit those as outcomes from you things that you want and then I would
ask you when you'd like to start that process so if I can't get a face-to-face
meeting soon sooner with you then what we'll do is we'll set a tentative
meeting for you said starting in the spring right right you already said that
so now we've dialed that back from summer to spring sure so I can shoot for
that I'm gonna keep asking you questions to see if I can even bring that back a
little bit farther as close as I can get it so that I can get a face-to-face with
you yeah you're really trying to get me into the B category you're trying to
take that C and make me a beer or at least make give me close enough so when
I know you can that's kind of what we're trying to do here is move C's to B's and
bees to A's throughout the whole process if we're trying to move up a timeline so
that's why we're always I love how everything you're saying has a win
attached to it everything you're doing is according to time sensitivity here
and I think that's where we need to and you do that just by asking questions
about it and asking them questions about the process they don't realize I mean
clients never do they never realize all that goes into you know if they want to
move in the summer they got to get on it that they want to list in the summer
they need to get on it much earlier than that so we're just kind of playing that
out to them by asking questions all the way through about the process exactly
now let's presume because this happens all the time right let's assume that you
aren't gonna buy until the summer you're definitely not gonna start looking or
even working on this until late spring okay so we understand that so we've
established that now I can't move you any farther up I can't get a
face-to-face with you can't get you to commit to it so what I'm gonna do is
instead I'm gonna commit to sort of our online relationship right so the the
information I'm gonna be providing to you or questions I'm gonna be asking you
or questions I'm gonna be answering for you we're gonna agree I'm gonna get us
to agree that we're gonna have another conversation at a certain time in the
future even if it's just over the phone or what it would have you right could
you tell me how that looks could you sure
so hey Brian you know I hear that you and your wife really aren't going to be
working on moving forward until you know sometime in the future you know next
spring I totally get that would it be beneficial to you if we had another
conversation say you know like late February where we just get on the phone
answer any questions that you have because at that point you're gonna be
much farther down in the in your process and you're probably gonna have some
questions you want to answer would that work for you yeah and I think anybody's
gonna say yes you just put me out a few months yeah yeah that's pretty much it
right yeah and it's that isn't it that is it as an agreement between the two of
us versus oh I don't know oh okay well can I follow up with you in a few months
randomly right right yeah you can I call you out of the blue randomly when you're
and catch you off-guard which you absolutely hate and you know in
don't want like that's just that doesn't feel good for anybody yeah I agree I
agree you do secure a commitment that we're gonna have future conversations
and that you're gonna help them out I like that a lot some of the best
salespeople do it to me and I hate it right yeah yeah they're like okay great
so Dell can we talk again two weeks from today on November 17th and like fine exactly because now we've agreed to it I
said I would do wise you're going into we're breaking up script which is
exactly no I really like this Dale and thank you for really outlining how we
how we look at leads and how we categorize them and the right
expectations how we talk to him you know I think that's important how we do treat
them like people they find out their needs all the way through excellent
stuff there today Thanks you bet all right Dale everybody thanks
for being with us today Dale I'll be talking to you soon my man sounds good
thanks again Brett you bet
