Where to begin? Chris, you remind me of myself 35 years ago. You know, before I learned what couth meant. 🙂 If you haven’t read Chris’s latest effort, it’s not long. It’s all about him payin’ the bills kickin’ booty via 1.0.
Payin’ the bills? Here’s some perspective. Chris made more money in the hell hole known as ‘any city in Ohio’ than the sophisticated, whining posers in San Diego who’re still pullin’ down over $10,000 a deal. ‘Course they’ll never know that. It’s so hard to read through teary eyes or hear through the din of constant whining and complaining.
I remember, mostly fondly, agents smiling condescendingly at the 18 year old calling all the FSBO’s every weekend from breakfast ’till dinner. “Why’s his daddy forcin’ him to waste so much time gettin’ his head bashed in?” For the record, I listed a FSBO six hours into my career. I had just over zero talent, and the bulk of my ‘knowledge’ of the business was embodied in the state licensing test I’d just taken. I just did what I was told would produce results. And what’a’ya know? They were right.
Six years later folks told me knockin’ on the same doors every month was a waste of time. They’re still tellin’ me that. ‘Course they never had their car nearly run off the road twice by homeowners who couldn’t wait another week to see you so they could list his homes now. Most agents will do anything under the sun to avoid going one on one with a stranger who might tell them to go to hell — or provide them a skinned cat for their wall.
Then from the late 80’s thru the early 21st century, they harangued me about all the time I spent sending out direct mail.
Chris makes the best points of the young new year when it comes to creating new business.
1. 1.0 still rules the real estate world. Period. There might be an exception here and there, but they simply prove the rule. Will 2, 3, 4….27.0 take over? Some day, but not real soon. I can already hear the geeks crankin’ up their whine machines on that one. 🙂
2. Skinned cats? Though Chris merely implies this, it’s still there, between the lines. Nobody gives yesterday’s cat crap about how you skinned your cats, until they ascertain you actually skinned the damned fur ball. Only then do they begin to care how you did it, and only then if your wall appears to have been made with fur.
3. “…and then you wear out from always ‘working,’ but never trying.” I nominate that gem as the quote of the month so far. It’s been my contention that passive methods of acquiring business, i.e. ‘floor time’, newspaper ads, open houses, and the rest of the ‘I’m too lame to get in the trenches myself’ crappola, have been transitioning folks from real estate to Von’s training program for decades.
4. I defy you to show me a 2.0 approach, that works universally for thousands, requiring less than 500 hours a year while producing 40+ closed deals. Uh, that sound you’re hearing is crickets.
And no, I don’t mean cold calling exclusively. I’m referring to any proactive prospecting method that was available for productive use when Nixon first took office. They all still outperform 2.0 magic regardless of how it’s analyzed, as long as the analyst has a grain of integrity. Again, don’t come harpin’ with a comment showing how you’re such an online superstar. My blog produces six figures yearly, though the first year’s production all came in the last half of the year. Took eight months to see results. Still, in ’08 as much as my blog, website, and new sites will produce big time, our (my son and I) 1.0 efforts will dwarf those numbers. It won’t be close.
For those of you who’re offended by Chris’s way of getting his point across, here’s some advice. Dad was the same way. What a total jerk he used to be at office meetings. But what he preached worked every time out. One day he sensed the Kumbuya crowd was near tears so he segued a bit with his tone.
He grew very quiet, sounding like the most empathetic grandpa ever. It literally took me back to early childhood when he was a pastor, making a quiet point from the pulpit. He said, “If my growling tone makes some here wet their pants, I’m profoundly sorry — sorry you haven’t been shown the door before today. This business is custom made for doers, not pretenders; for those who find a way, not hope for a way. Understand this: If you’re not prospecting with enthusiasm you can count on being fired with enthusiasm.”
By the next week’s meeting almost 25% of his full time sales force was gone. His business the next 12 months grew over 30%. His agents consistently made hamburger out of the competition. Because he only hired ‘assassins’, he never, ever had more than 30 full time agents at any one time, never more than a dozen part timers. Yet in one four year period, his firm closed over 4,100 sides. No wonder his company generated more new brokerages per agent than any other back then.
Wanna know what his secret was?
He hired an army of Chris’s and laughed his way to the bank every year.
J Boyer Harding NJ says:
It just goes to show you that hard work and methods not designed to keep you from having to be told no 9 out of 10 times produce good results buyers market, sellers market, whatever. Knock on those doors, there is business to be had.
January 12, 2009 — 2:44 pm
Rene' Fabre says:
Jeff… Right on and great post… 1.0 does still rules for those realtors that work! I have a bunch out here that are rockin’, and some of them aren’t even at 1.0, but they understand networking, marketing, and getting in front of people face to face… RF
January 12, 2009 — 5:35 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Rene’ — “…and some of them aren’t even at 1.0…”. Crackin’ up, ‘cuz when I started I must of been no better than .1. I knew how to recite what I was taught, dial the phone, and drive my car to the appointment. At that point the rest was up to Divine Intervention. 🙂
January 12, 2009 — 6:28 pm
Matthew Hardy says:
> before I learned what couth meant
Chris should be glad for the advice of a real “gray-hair” (euphemistically and respectfully speaking).
> Will 2, 3, 4….27.0 take over?
Perhaps the best thing to do is to stop thinking of the entire internet as one piece of software with version numbers. It’s just absurdly simplistic – to the point of detriment.
> skinned cats
When people don’t want to work, they focus on process alone. Internet consultants want you to think that the world changes with every new wizbangthang, but human behavior takes a little more time. You either bring home dinner or you don’t, and for a while now, dinner has meant customers.
> “…and then you wear out from always ‘working,’ but never trying.” I nominate that gem as the quote of the month so far.
I second that.
> I defy you to show me a 2.0 approach, that works universally for thousands
But doood, I can buy an automatic button for only $49.95 a month!
The constant sell to practitioners is “here’s an easier way” and, like an infomercial phone number, there are always callers looking for a shortcut. You can charge triple the standard commission or own the brokerage, but you still need customers.
Keep showin’ people the way Jeff – I’m sensing an increase in receptive ears.
January 12, 2009 — 8:59 pm
Thomas Johnson says:
“I’m sensing an increase in receptive ears.”
Matthew: Only because Bloodhounds have incredible hearing.
January 12, 2009 — 10:13 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Only because Bloodhounds have incredible hearing.
Not true, FWIW. Those huge ears are there to focus scent molecules on the Bloodhound’s immense olfactory nerve. Same for the ripples in the skin. Everything in the Saint Hubert’s hound’s lineage was sacrificed for the sake of the nose. Bloodhounds don’t hear especially well, and they can’t see their way out of a Mister Magoo cartoon. Good companions, loyal, frisky and fun. Incredibly hard workers. But if it doesn’t have a smell, it doesn’t exist for a Blood. OTOH, Odysseus has more than 50 times the olfactory nerve area of an adult human, and he can inventory your fridge from three rooms away.
January 12, 2009 — 10:36 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Matthew — “When people don’t want to work, they focus on process alone.”
Wish I’d said that. Simple, unadorned truth. Denial is an art form in the real estate biz.
January 12, 2009 — 11:03 pm