1000CallsADay.com - Done-For-You Outbound Teleprospecting: Recent Episodes
1000 Calls a Day
We help salespeople cold call potential clients and identify and convert missed opportunities in their customer and prospect database with DNC and wireless compliant outbound lead generation customer service phone calls.
One of our clients, John Sibley, joined me recently for an interview about his experience with 1000 Calls A Day.Today we’re excited to bring you an interview with our client John Sibley, who is an experienced Realtor and leader of the Sibley Group. Through this interview, our aim was to learn a little about John’s story and what lead him to hiring 1000 Calls A Day.
Cited below for your convenience are timestamps which will direct you to various subjects I go over in the video above. Feel free to watch my full interview or use these timestamps to browse specific topics are your leisure:
0:24 - Why did John hire 1000 Calls A Day?
3:26 - What market does John work in, and how large is it?
4:06 - What is the source of John’s data?
5:23 - How many leads per month does John get?
6:07 - How does John track leads?
7:27 - What kind of return on investment (ROI) does John see with 1000 Calls A Day?
8:26 - What CRM does John use and how does his team operate?
10:10 - How long after hiring 1000 Calls A Day did he begin to see results?
12:45 - What is John’s follow-up strategy?
14:41 - What advice would John give other agents?
If you have any other questions or would more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
What gives our clients the best results? Here are a few of the common denominators.Today we’re going to talk about the two best ways to get better results from your outbound prospecting.
The first thing you need to understand is that the prospect list that you’re putting into the system matters. Not all data is created equally. Certain data is more valuable, and it will absolutely play a role in the results that you get. When you work with us, we use a company called Exact Data, who has done a great job with predictive analytics to help our clients purchase data (prospect lists and contacts). Predictive analytics can actually give us an idea of if a person is right for you. After we go through hundreds of different data points to come up with your perfect client, they can further classify that list with predictive analytics.
"Having great data makes this process easier and more profitable."
Having great data makes this process better and, in turn, makes you more money and gets you more leads.
The second thing you need to know is that a nurture campaign is essential. Once we start bringing you these strong leads, we’re passing them on to you. However, maybe they aren’t ready to do business quite yet. That’s why there needs to be a nurture campaign in place. It could be with a CRM, a text message campaign, or follow-up phone calls. The bottom line is that you need to have something in place. Once you bring a prospect into your funnel, it's important to stay in touch with them so that you are top of mind when it comes time for them to hire someone. Having a solid campaign will help you close business and your ROI will go through the roof in year two. If you’re nurturing your leads properly, your ROI should increase every year.
If you're curious about what a great nurture campaign looks like, we have one that we can send on over to you. If you want a copy or if you have any other questions for us, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Our startup and hiring processes are detailed for a few reasons. Here they are.
Today we wanted to answer a few questions we hear all the time: “What is your startup fee?” “What does the process of hiring a VA look like?” and “How long does it take to get started?”
As a business owner, it can be extremely frustrating and time-consuming to hire somebody. If you’re hiring a regular employee, there is way more money and responsibility involved. That’s why it’s our goal to have you hand this VA work off to us and we’ll handle it completely from start to finish.
We have a staff of recruiters that are out there right now recruiting the top talent in the Philippines. We search for talent here because they generally speak great English, and there are a large number of prospects to choose from.
We see hundreds of resumes each day and sift through them ourselves. You probably don’t have the systems and processes in place to be able to do this yourself. That’s where we come in.
Once we find a candidate that meets our strict criteria, we bring them in for basic testing. If they pass that, we then bring them into an intense, two-week training program. Once they go through this, they have to test out of the program in order to show that they’re fully qualified for this job.
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They will know your business, your team, and your market inside and out.
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Finally, we put them on the phones for a week or two to see how they do on the job. We closely monitor their performance throughout. If they pass all of our training and tests, we invite them to come on board and we hire them for one of our clients.
If you were trying to replicate this process on your own, it would be nearly impossible. With our help, we can put candidates through this process, pick out three or four of the best-suited candidates for you, and share their video resumes with you. Then you can determine if any of them would be a good fit for your business.
The recruiting, resume sifting, candidate interviews, and testing are all included in our startup fee. We will also specifically train each VA for your company. They will know your business, your team, and your market inside and out. Additionally, we will get your technology set up.
The reason our process is so detail-oriented is that we want to hire the right talent every time. The startup process can take up to four to six weeks as a result. In the long run, following this process can save you a ton of time and money and ensure we get you the best VA caller who can get you the best leads.
If you have any questions for us or want to learn a little more about what we do, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.
All of the advantages you get from hiring us instead of a VA caller add up to you having more time to call leads and grow your business.
Why use 1000 Calls a Day instead of hiring a VA caller directly? Your decision ultimately depends on your situation and your budget, but there are certain advantages that come with hiring us and letting us handle the process from start to finish.
While we’re certainly not the cheapest, if you go to a site like Upwork.com or another virtual assistant site and hire a caller for $5 to $8 an hour, you’ll have to train that person, put all the technology in place, manage the campaigns, handle all of the troubleshooting, etc. It’s a vigorous, frustrating process, and it can take you away from your core competency and your most important revenue-producing activities. It’s our job to take that off your plate and help you generate leads.
The first advantage is we can go out and get better talent for you. We have full-time recruiters out there looking at 200 to 400 resumes a day. We test our VAs to make sure they’re legitimate, and we bring them up to speed with our testing processes. You don’t have to do any training either. We take care of all the scripts and campaigns ourselves.
Second, we take the risk of losing an employee off your plate. Oftentimes, you can hire an employee, train them, spend a ton of time with them, only to have them leave in a couple months and make you start all over again. We, on the other hand, can replace the VA should they decide to leave.
We take other tasks and processes off your plate so you can focus on calling leads.
Additionally, we manage that VA for you. We have one supervisor for every 10 callers we manage, so our supervision of the caller involves helping them with the analytics and making sure they’re doing the right things. Our supervisors are also listening in on calls and giving the callers feedback and coaching on how to improve.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you get a whole team of people. In addition to the caller and the supervisor, you get access to our executive staff who have a lot of experience managing outbound calling campaigns. It’s important to be able to put the data and/or prospects into the system and write or tweak the scripts, but what happens if the campaigns aren’t performing? We have over 100 callers we’re currently managing, so we can look at the exact same campaigns with other people around the country and compare your results. If your results aren’t meeting our expectations, we know that something needs to change, and we have the expertise to do that.
Our goal is to get you 40 to 50 pre-qualified leads on a monthly basis so you can convert those leads into more business and make more money.
If you have any further questions about how we can put an outbound prospecting campaign in place an help you grow your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to speak with you.
A common question clients ask me is: Where do we get our list to call? There are actually two options I want to talk about.
A common question clients ask me is: Where do we get our list to call?
There are actually two options I want to talk about. Most people are familiar with purchasing access to expired, canceled, or withdrawn listings. But there’s also a way you can purchase premium lists to get better results.
That being said, you are going to pay a premium rate for those lists. Depending on the type of list and the amount you’re purchasing, these can run anywhere from seven cents to 30 cents per record.
Premium lists will help you weed through to find people who are the most likely to sell their home in the next 12 months.
If you give us access to your expired service, we’ll pull from that list every two weeks. That way, your virtual assistant can give them a call.
However, we don’t want to contact any brand-new expired listings. Those homeowners are getting anywhere from 60 to 70 phone calls a day in some markets. We don’t want to compete with that.
We want to pick up calling where other agents have stopped. After that point we’re persistent, but aren’t going to be calling the same neighborhood multiple times per day or week.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Here at 1000 Calls A Day, how do we keep our remote employees accountable?Since most of our employees work remotely, I want to explain how we keep our virtual assistants accountable and help them with their time management. First of all, we have a workforce monitor. We just hired our second workforce monitor, and she is amazing. She is in charge of all tech support for our auto dialer and sending performance audits to our clients every month. All of our clients and VAs also have a Google chat thread running. The VA uses the chat to clock in for the day, and we keep track of their breaks from there, depending on which auto dialer we use. If you use some of the professional call center software, then the VA has to insert a reason code if they want to pause the auto dialer for any reason. For example, they can enter codes in for a huddle session, coaching session, or restroom break. Unfortunately, there are times when a virtual assistant goes MIA. When that happens for the first time, we issue a verbal warning. If it happens a second time, the VA will be removed. We do not tolerate employees that aren’t accountable virtually. It’s a very fine line that you have to run. The management staff has their own chat thread where they keep in touch with one another, team leaders, and the operations staff. They let us know if someone has texted or called in because they are going to be late.
In the event of a hurricane or typhoon, I will let you know why your VA isn’t available. Sometimes, a large-scale event like a typhoon or earthquake can make VAs unavailable. If that happens, I will personally go on our Facebook page and email all of our clients to let you know that some of their VAs might be affected by this event. That’s how we keep everyone accountable at 1000 Calls A Day. If you have any other questions or would like to learn more about 1000 Calls A Day, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!
What is the best way to build predictable revenue? According to one of my favorite books, it all boils down to systematizing your sales process.“Predictable Revenue” is a fantastic book by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler. I recommend it to all of my clients. One of the main lessons I’ve learned from this book is how to systematize your sales process. If you want to grow your business exponentially, you need to delegate certain duties and replace yourself in certain roles. For example, if you don’t like prospecting, hire someone to do that for you. Not into lead follow-up? Find someone to take care of that for you. That way, you can dedicate all of your time to meeting with clients and closing deals. Your lead follow-up system should be systematized to the point where it reads like a recipe. A lot of clients have trouble letting go of managing every part of the sales process. However, it’s important that you trust your team members and hire people who will do the things you don’t like to really well. Look for a detail-oriented person who complements you. If you don’t like cold calling and finding new opportunities, or you don’t enjoy following up with leads, find someone who is really good at following instructions and systematizing their day. Again, it can be difficult for you to delegate at the beginning. However, once you see your calendar stacked with appointments and your business starts doubling—or even tripling—it will get easier.
We’ll handle outbound prospecting so you can focus on growing your business. When you work with 1000 Calls A day, we handle the outbound prospecting for you. We call thousands of numbers a week to get those verbal opt-ins to add to your sales pipeline. I always recommend that you hire one person inside your office to take care of the lead follow-up. They will be more focused and able to convert leads at a higher level than you could on your own. Ultimately, systematizing your sales process will give you more time to do what you do best. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about 1000 Calls A Day, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!
What’s the difference between a VA and an ISA? Can’t one person handle both duties?
What is the difference between a virtual assistant, also known as your dedicated outbound prospector, and an inside sales agent?I speak with a number of business owners who think that it’s best to combine the ISA and the VA role. However, there are a few reasons why that’s not the best idea.It’s very common for people to get VAs and ISAs mixed up, but they are actually two very different roles.Some business owners want to do their own lead follow up while producing, and others want the VA to handle lead follow up for them.The problem is, neither of those options are sustainable if you want to systematize your sales process and create predictable revenue. Your VA will identify opportunities to keep your ISA busy. When you do lead follow up on your own or have your VA handle it, there is usually a point of diminished returns about three to six months later. Why? Your prospector isn’t prospecting because they do lead follow up 90% of the time, or you’re not doing your lead follow up because you would rather be out in front of consumers to grow your business.
In order to truly systematize your sales process, you need these two separate roles. VAs will identify the opportunity, add it to your sales pipeline, find the motivating fact, get them to verbally opt-in to be contact by an agent, and market-qualify the lead.
Your ISA is the person who spends the bulk of their time on the phone with your leads, teeing them up so that you can sign a contract with them.
The ISA’s job is to build rapport. They spend more time with your leads than anyone else in the sales process. I always recommend that our clients have an ISA in the office responsible for nurturing, educating, and converting leads. At 1000 Calls A Day, we take care of adding new opportunities to your pipeline and keeping your ISA busy.
If you have any other questions or would like to learn more about 1000 Calls A Day, just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!
We put our virtual assistants through rigorous screening to ensure that we only provide the best help to our clients. Out of every 60 applicants, only about five will pass our test.How do we at 1000 Calls A Day find the best virtual assistants for our clients? First of all, we hold our applicants to a very high standard of quality. Out of the 60 applications we receive every day, only about five typically make it past this initial screening.From there, we show the remaining applicants what to expect out of a typical day-in-the-life of one of our virtual assistants. By showing them what to expect, giving them basic scripts and roleplay assessments, as well as having them shadow our tenured virtual assistants, we do all we can to ensure that they are fully equipped to do the most for our clients.
We truly only take the best applicants to work for our clients. Once applicants have made it this far, we like to make sure that they have updated software and computer systems as well as a stable Internet connection. They then move on to a more difficult segment of our roleplay assessment. After they pass that, they become one of our virtual assistants. We truly only take the best applicants to work for our clients.To learn more about how to grow your business, or if you have any questions, feel free to give us a call or email. We look forward to hearing from you.
This year, I went to Family Reunion by Keller Williams.When talking to some of the top agents around the country, I discovered that there is a real need to outsource recruiting calls. As a result, 1000 Calls A Day is preparing to implement a recruiting campaign to help agents build their real estate teams. We couldn’t be more excited about this!We are in the very beginning stages of starting this new service. Some of our VAs are being trained to make these extremely important calls.
If you are interested in learning more about our upcoming recruiting campaign, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to chat with you!
How do we measure success at 1000 Calls A Day?
First of all, we want each one of our virtual assistants to pass over 40 to 60 nurturing opportunities a month to their clients. Our goal is to build you a balanced sales pipeline so that you have a ladder portfolio filled with opportunities to create predictable income. To achieve that, we are consistently adding short-term, mid-term, and long-term nurtures to your pipeline.
If you need to add more short-term or long-term nurtures to your sales pipeline, just reach out to us. We are in constant communication with our clients so that we can consistently add the leads you need to keep your income predictable. For example, if you need more short-term nurtures, then we will call more expireds. Our goal is to build you a balanced sales pipeline.
One of the surest ways our clients can see ROI is to add additional VAs to your team to maximize that effort.
We also make sure we keep our VAs extremely happy, but we’ll go into more detail on that later. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!
What happens when your virtual assistant identifies an opportunity or a lead for your sales pipeline? First of all, your VA will send you an email. Depending on the dialing system you choose to work with, that email is either sent out automatically or your VA will pause their dialer and manually send you an email. Either way, you get an immediate, real-time notification that a lead has been identified. We also share a Google Sheet with you to keep track of every lead that you get once you start the program. These sheets start out basic but as the system and the program mature, they can get pretty complicated. You can integrate the Google Sheet with your ISA or inbound lead follow up person, who can then provide feedback to your VA within the spreadsheet. What happens if you don’t have a CRM? You can use the tracker we provide as a rudimentary way to utilize and work the leads like you would in a CRM. However, we definitely recommend that you get a CRM as soon as possible to streamline your follow up process.
We definitely recommend getting a CRM as soon as possible. Our VAs also send you a daily report explaining what they did for you that day and list your leads at the bottom of the email. So, after your VA identifies a lead, you will get an immediate notification, the VA will add the lead to your Google Sheet, and your VA will make a list of all of the leads they identified in their daily report. If you have any other questions about this process or if you would like to learn more about 1000 Calls A Day, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!
Are you investing in quality data? I cannot encourage you to do this enough.
I have a great partner, Cole Resource Realty, that provides lists for circle prospecting. These lists of landlines are only about $400 for the year. You can use these lists for your circle prospecting, just listed or just sold calls, or any of your basic prospecting campaigns that you need to run in order to build long-term nurtures for your sales pipeline.
Keep in mind that those are long-term nurtures, most of which will take six to 18 months before they come to fruition.
Think of circle prospecting as your post-workout shake or protein bar: it’s good, but it’s not dinner. If you want to build more immediate business, then you need to invest in quality data. “
You need to invest in quality data.”
I have great relationships with a company that provides predictive analytics, which tells you who is most likely to sell their home in the next 12 months.
On the call, you would still use your script for circle prospecting. The difference is that we have mathematical proof that these prospects are more likely to sell their home than the people you call in random neighborhoods.
You do have to buy these numbers in blocks of 25,000 to get the best price. These lists run about $2,000 to $2,500, depending on the type of list your are building. Still, this is a great way to add short-term leads to your sales pipeline.
Ultimately, circle prospecting and cold calling are great techniques to build your business. However, if you want to fast-track your ROI, you need to invest in quality data.
If you have any questions about where to get quality data, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!
Friends and clients,
| | | Jessica Sanders1,000 Calls a Day |
What does time management look like at 1000 Calls A Day? How do we keep our employees accountable?
Since most of our employees work remotely, we have a workforce monitor on our team. Wanie uploads and scrubs lists into autodialers, pulls recordings, and assists our VAs if they have technical issues with their dialers. She also pulls productivity reports to make sure that our VAs are online when they are supposed to be.
We also use daily huddles, coaching calls, and weekly client check-ins to keep track of our VAs. Not only that, our VAs are in constant communication via a chat thread. Each team and each client has their own chat thread in Google Hangouts.
There is a management chat thread that keeps track of whether or not people have logged in. For example, one of our VAs recently changed shifts; if he forgets and logs in according to his previous shift, his manager will let the other managers know in the chat thread. If VAs need to log out of their dialer, there are certain codes they can enter so the managers know why the VA is offline.
Of course, sometimes VAs are simply MIA. If we cannot get ahold of them once, they get a verbal warning; if it happens again, they are fired. Time management is especially important when you have remote employees, and we have honed our system to keep our VAs accountable.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about 1000CAD, register here or reach out to me with any questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you!
Friends and clients,
| | | Jessica Sanders1000 Calls A Day |
Working remotely can be difficult. You can’t go out for the game after work with your coworkers because you’re 6,000 miles away. It can be difficult for some companies to create a positive work environment for their VAs.
Here at 1000 Calls A Day, we would not be successful if our VAs were unhappy. How do we create a positive company culture when so many of our employees work remotely?
First of all, we work hard to create an inclusive environment for our VAs. We have Christmas parties and have daily huddles twice a day so that everyone gets a chance to get together. We also send out surveys to our VAs to see how they are enjoying their jobs.
We also award two VA's a month with $100. One VA will receive $30. In the Philippines, that comes out to 1500 PHP, which is good for taking you and three of your friends out to dinner. The other VA will receive $70 which is equlivant to 3397 PHP, which is good for 2-3 weeks of groceries. We also increase our VAs’ salaries fairly quickly; they each start at $3.50 an hour and can get up to $4.50 within their first year.
Next spring, I am heading out to the Philippines to host a Family Fun Day at an amusement park. All of our VAs and their families will be there. This will be a huge bonding opportunity for our team, and I’m extremely excited about it!
A lot of the techniques we use are inspired by the book First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. This book is all about how to keep people motivated and satisfied. All of our management and staff have read this book.
In an industry that usually has a high turnover rate, we are proud to hire trustworthy VAs who can work in an inclusive environment. If you have any other questions about our work culture or about 1000CAD in general, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
If you are interested in learning more about 1000CAD and how we can help you grow your business, register here or reach out with any questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you!
Friends and clients,
| | | Jessica Sanders1000 Calls A Day |
At 1000 Calls A Day, we want to make sure that you work with a top-notch Virtual Assistant. All of our VAs go through two weeks of vigorous training before being assigned to an agent.
Before the VA can get into the training program, however, they have to pass a role play assessment with no preparation. We look for VAs who can think on their feet; if a candidate does reasonably well without any coaching, they are allowed into the training program.
Our training program consists of shadow sessions and one-on-one role plays with our four different team leaders, or operations manager, and my assistant. The VA must pass a final role play assessment with their team leader before they can actually get on the phone.
We also recommend that clients send us their pre-listing packages and branding information so that the VA knows exactly how your business works. For instance, if a prospective client asks where your business is located, your VA will be able to give such detailed instructions that it will seem like they live there.
After the initial training program, your VA will continue to receive ongoing training. They will have daily sales huddles with their team leader as well as weekly, large-scale training seminars.
One of the biggest things we look for when hiring a VA is accountability. After all, your VA will be working remotely. We want to hire people who will start work on time, report their hours honestly, and are committed to doing their best for you.
That’s why if a VA misses a training session or is late to training more than once, they are removed from the program with prejudice, meaning they cannot reapply. We hire VAs who are honest, trustworthy, and have a good online presence.
If you have any other questions about our VA hiring and training process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. If you are interested in learning more about 1000CAD and how we can help you grow your business, register here or reach out with any questions you may have. I would be happy to help you!
What is the predictable revenue model and how does 1000 Calls a Day fit into it? I will answer both of those questions today.
What is the predictable revenue model? How does 1000 Calls A Day fit into it? The predictable revenue model is essentially a sales funnel. Here at 1000 Calls A Day, we are experts at prospecting. We are out there market-qualifying large numbers of leads in order to find prospects that are interested in being added to your sales pipeline.
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We are prospecting experts.”We then pass those prospects over to your ISA or lead pipeline manager so they can nurture and follow up with those leads. Once your leads have been educated, then they are ready to go over to the sales person so you can eventually close the sale. That is how the predictable revenue model works. If you have any other questions about predictable revenue or if you would like to learn more about 1000 Calls A Day, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!
Friends and clients,
| | | Jessica Sanders1000 Calls A Day |
I cannot encourage you enough to purchase phone numbers or lists for your VAs to call.
Circle Prospecting is an important part of creating predictable revenue. One of my partners, Cole Resource Realty, offers lists that you can purchase for less than $400 a year. These lists have landline phone numbers and, when you work with 1000 Calls A Day, purchasing those lists is a great way to start.
Keep in mind that when your VA cold calls prospective clients, most of those prospects may not be ready to buy or sell a home for another 12 to 18 months. You need those long term nurtures in order to build a successful business. However, what if you need to see a quicker return on investment?
It’s simple: you need to invest in quality data. We partner with a company that does targeted marketing. They have an algorithm and run analytics to find people who are most likely to sell within the next year.
This algorithm pulls information on absentee homeowners and other people who need to move soon. We can help you purchase a targeted marketing calling list for as low as $0.07 a lead.
If you want to fast track your ROI, you need to invest in better call lists. Circle prospecting and cold calling are still crucial elements in creating a successful real estate business; it will just take a bit more time to see that ROI.
If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about 1000CAD and how we can help you grow your business, register here, or reach out with any questions. I would be happy to help you!
Clients,
| | | Jessica Sanders1000 Calls A Day |
When I was at Mega Camp, I learned about the importance of targeted marketing and geo-farming. Instead of casting a wide net and getting lost in a sea of competition, you should use targeted marketing to focus on smaller neighborhoods and position yourself as a local expert.
First of all, you need to research the area that you plan to farm. Make sure there is a large number of homes in that geographic area, and then target businesses within that same zip code or neighborhood.
You should also pay attention to the area’s turnover rate. For example, if you are looking at a neighborhood with homes in a first-time buyer’s price range, there will probably be a higher turnover rate than in neighborhoods with larger homes and higher price points.
In other words, first-time buyers may stay in a smaller home for just three to five years before moving up to that second tier of homeownership; families in larger homes probably won’t move again for another 13 to 15 years.
Once you have selected the area you want to market to, you need to become a part of the community. One way to get involved is to reach out to local business owners and build relationships with them. For example, you can ask the local ice cream shop if you can post your newsletter there and offer to hand out coupons for a free cone to increase their business.
Ultimately, targeted marketing is all about making community connections to position yourself as the real estate expert in that area. If geofarming is not currently part of your marketing strategy, you need to change that now.
If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about 1000CAD and how we can help you grow your business, register here, or reach out with any questions. I would be happy to help you!
| | | Jessica Sanders1000 Calls A Day |
I just got back from Mega Camp by Keller Williams and it was amazing! Gary Keller is an amazing, fun person, and I learned a lot during my trip.
Technology Camp really focused on marketing strategies, especially targeted marketing strategies. Rather than casting a wide net and getting lost in a sea of competition, focus on smaller neighborhoods. Combine direct mailers with a calling campaign for an effective, compact marketing plan.
Gary Keller also talked a lot about instantaneous response time. Today, 49% of emails and text messages go unanswered by real estate agents. Following up with your leads should be your top priority.
I also learned that many agents aren’t taking advantage of building relationships with local businesses. Putting your newsletter up in an ice cream shop with a coupon for a free cone will get you a lot more traction than just sending out another newsletter not many people will read.
Besides all of those amazing lessons, I learned a new script for circle prospecting and met with a few of my wonderful clients. All in all, it was a great trip!
I plan to delve more deeply into these lessons in the future, but for now, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions, especially if we missed each other at Mega Camp. I look forward to talking to you soon!
| | | Jessica Sanders1000 Calls A Day |
As you know very well, we can hire an assistant for you located almost anywhere in the world. Most of our virtual assistants are based out of the Philippines. For clients that choose an internationally located assistant, each one of our candidates is highly qualified, and they’re all very good at their jobs despite working in conditions that we would probably find difficult to operate under.
If you scroll through our Facebook page, you’ll see us mentioning our VA’s dealing with monsoons, earthquakes, and unforeseen power outages. This is what comes along with living and working in a country that is less developed than our own, but it’s also part of the reason why our service is so affordable.
We do our best to overcome these issues, but occasionally these problems are simply out of our hands. However, back in January 2015, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 on the Richter scale, and while our VA’s could feel it, they kept making calls! Although their working conditions aren’t optimal, our VA’s are as resilient and as resourceful as anyone we’ve ever met.
One common problem we encounter that is unrelated to weather or acts of nature is poor internet connection. While we do allow some of our VA’s to start working with us when they have LTE internet connection, we have it written in our contract that they must get a DSL connection after a few weeks of working with us. This results in fewer dropped calls and more leads getting safely into your funnel.
To avoid any problems with Internet connectivity, we have our VA’s conduct a daily speed test, which they then report to our quality control officer.
Last but not least, there is an Internet service provider based out of Australia called Telstra. They provide great internet access, and they’re branching out of Australia and into southeast Asia and the Philippines very soon. Once they get their service up and running in the Philippines, many of our problems will be resolved.
Until then, we can only rely on the resourcefulness and resilience of our virtual assistants, who consistently work through earthquakes, floods, and typhoons.
If you have any questions about working with VA’s, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!
How do we help you track your ROI? We created two lead trackers. They’re sophisticated spreadsheets we share through Google Docs to track everything, including the call date, the campaign it came from, and details from the call.
Our basic lead tracker tracks all the essential information. It tracks whether or not the lead scheduled a phone or listing appointment with you, how many attempts you made, what the eventual sales price of the home was, and what your actual ROI is based off that. Each one of these spreadsheets has all the formulas built into the spreadsheet so you can just plug in the data and have the math calculated for you. "Each one of these spreadsheets has all the formulas built in."
We’ve been building this track over the last two years. It has multiple pages and each type of lead has their own section. Each quarter has its own area, so we don’t lose anybody in the shuffle. There’s also a section in there with the “two best leads.” These are leads that we didn’t convert for an appointment, but we feel if they had someone with a higher sales skill level, they could be converted easily. There’s a lot of information, so we usually start people off with the basic tracker and add as we go.
It’s important each client enters their notes in the tracker and follows through with due diligence by following up. Once we pass a lead over, it’s out of our hands as to whether the lead converts. These lead trackers will keep track of all the attempts and the formulas are already in there for you.
If you have any questions for me, or want to learn more about our system, give me a call or send me an email. You can also visit our website. I look forward to hearing from you!
It’s important to do both Just Listed and Just Sold prospecting. I’ll tackle why that is, how you should approach it, and what you can expect from it.
Essentially, this is a form of circle prospecting. We use Just Listed and Just Sold to bring in value when calling into a neighborhood. However, with these sellers, they don’t necessarily have any motivation. You want to educate them about what’s going on in the area, such as new listings. It’ll click that your agency is on top of the market and actively marketing listings.
"It’ll click that your agency is actively marketing listings."
It does have to be the lowest ROI prospecting method out there with a low contact rate, which can be frustrating. It has between a 1% and 2% conversion rate as far as highlighted leads. Those leads will then need to be nurtured for at least 6 months before seeing any business.
However, there is an advantage. No one else is calling these people. There’s extremely low competition. Once you’ve built up a relationship with that person, they’ll convert into a client with time. The process isn’t so much about low motivation, but adding them to your database and building a rapport through drip campaigns.
That way, when they’re ready to move, they know you’ll actively market their home, since you originally called about their neighbor's listing. The database alone helps you grow and expand your business. Cool, right?
If this is of interest to you, be sure to check out our webinar.
If you have any questions about this topic or more, I’d be happy to help. Give me a call or send me an email!
| | | Jessica Sanders |
We occasionally have clients who don’t get great results from our system. Most of the time we can attribute these shortcomings to three different problems.
- The first is a failure to implement a solid lead follow-up system. If you don't have one in place before you hire us, you won't be successful. A good lead follow-up system is essential for our system to work properly within your business. It’s the backbone of our program, and we can help set up a basic system in your office.
- The second reason comes down to unrealistic expectations. This isn't a get rich quick scheme, it's a long play. This is something that you will need to implement over 3, 6, or even 12 months before you see ROI. We want you to be successful at this, so when you hire us, we want you to think of us as hiring someone in your office to handle all of your prospecting needs for $32,000 a year. Be patient, follow the system, and you will see results from your investment.
- The final and most important reason clients have failed is a lack of communication between us and your calling assistant. We need to be in constant communication and be able to reach out and transfer data if we have something that needs to be taken care of quickly.
If you have any questions for us, or would like to schedule a 1-on-1 consultation, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We’ll talk soon!
| | | Jessica Sanders1000 Calls A Day |
We don’t ever hire part-time virtual assistants for our clients, and that’s because we want them completely dedicated to you and your business. It’s similar to when Realtors urge their clients not to hire part-time real estate agents. Part-time workers aren’t fully committed to their jobs, and we only hire people who are fully committed to helping you grow your business.
Each VA we hire is dedicated to one single client, and this vastly improves their effectiveness on the phones. When we train our assistants, they get to know your marketing plans and your branding very closely. We even like them to know your geographic location so when a client asks them where your office is, they can give that person an answer!
When each VA is dedicated to a single client, they don’t ever mix up scripts or mess up names, and it allows them to get comfortable within their position in your business. This also causes them to get to know your team on a more personal level. We encourage fostering an inclusive culture with your assistant, which usually results in the VA working even harder for you.
We have some clients with multiple VA’s working for them, but each VA is designated to a certain part of their sales or marketing strategies. Please ask us about this if you need more than one VA for your specific marketing or sales needs.
We look forward to hearing from you!Jessica Sanders
1000 Calls A Day