I was listening to some ho-hum non-real estate-specific sales training seminar a few weeks ago – don’t know why I was listening to it, considering it was as ho-hum as they come; maybe I was subconsciously looking for material to blog about!
And voila! I found something!
During the seminar, the speaker was spouting traditional numbers game fluff. Basically, the same old “The more people you touch with your sales pitch, the more you’ll sell of whatever it is you’re pitching.”
One of the examples he used was actually from the world of real estate. He was talking about real estate agents procuring listings and made the statement that: “If you could go on 10 listing appointments this month, that would be good, wouldn’t it? But what if you could go on 100 listing appointments, wouldn’t that be even better?”
Hmmmmmmmm.
Really? 100 listing appointments this month?
Oh, I get his point and since he’s not a real estate agent, perhaps he doesn’t realize that going on 100 listing appointments in one month would be nearly impossible for a normal human being. But he seemed to know enough about the real estate industry to understand what a listing appointment entails and the reason for doing them, so I’m going to assume that, practical considerations aside, he believes that MORE is always BETTER when it comes to prospecting for business.
I disagree.
Here’s the thing. Regardless of the number of appointments you shoot for, if your primary goal is one of QUANTITY over QUALITY, I personally think you’re wasting an awful lot of time and energy. I mean, think about it. Let’s say that it’s possible to do 50 listing appointments a month – that’s about 2.5 appointments every week day. Now, I’m assuming that if you’re going on 2.5 appointments a day, you’re doing very little preparation for each appointment and basically going in with your well-rehearsed presentation followed by an expedient pitch for signature.
Hold that thought.
The speaker who was espousing the quantity over quality approach proclaimed that one of the great things about his approach was that when (not if) you get turned down, you won’t really care that much because you have plenty more fish in the kettle – that is – another listing appointment or two later that day, and 2.5 more tomorrow.
Hmmmmmmmm.
That sounds exhausting.
But how about the other approach – the one the speaker implied was “just okay?” Where you “only” have ten listing appointments a month; therefore every one of those appointments is going to be far more important to you and much more disappointing to you if you don’t get the listing?
BINGO!!!
D’ya see where I’m going with this?
If you are selling hot dogs you need to make your pitch to a lot more people. Working with sellers (and buyers) requires a lot of behind the scenes effort as well.
JAH, You are right on the money. I want do do as many as I can, but not one more than I can do well. I think that 15 to 20 is the max.
I think you make an excellent point... Years ago I did a Floyd Wickman training... His advice... get into the office, pick up the phone, stay on it till you get a bonifide listing appointment... GO!!!!
I'd much rather have ten quality listing appointments that called me to come and list the property than 1000 that I cold called and cajoled into coming out.
When moving products out the door, you want to touch the masses. Products tend to speak for themselves. Providing a service that requires quality people skills will take time to nuture that relationship in order to build a business base.
Agree with the need for quality BUT think I would somehow find a way to make 100 listing appointments work!
It seems an agent's quality of life would improve with fewer, high quality listing appointments.
I cannot imagine what the 100 listing appointment a month agent spends on coffee :)
The only way to do 100 listing appointments a month is if you have an entire team to handle 99% of the work for you. I would rather have 2/3 appointments a week. A couple of years ago I was working on my business plan for the next year. I wanted to make $100,000 and after breaking it down I only needed to go on 1 listing appointment a week and get 1 listing a month to do it. I can do that!
I definitely see your perspective of the quality of appointment being much higher when going on 10 vs 100. I'd also think that the type of agent you'd be if you were going on a 100 listings a month would be much different. The type of team you'd have built around yourself to be able to service those many listings, you'd probably have people doing the analysis for you, but I'd also think you'd have a pretty encyclopedic idea of pricing and market analysis as you are going on so many pitches.
I feel the same way about buyer leads. Do I really want hundreds of people that I need to follow up with who will never buy or do a need a consistent supply of good quality leads.
I am a fervent believer in the "Quality Over Quantity" motto. Or, to put it more lucratively, "All Killer, No Filler"
I certainly agree with your premise but would bet that there are teams out there with buyers' agents who may do that many presentations every month. And probably excell at it !
Jennifer,
I'm with you. I am much more for 10 solid listing appointments verses 100! The other factor is that it is just me, for 100 you would definately need a team and/or an assistant.
Also, we have pretty high price point averages. With that, we need to do solid work for each listing, so 100 would make me go nuts.
All the best, Michelle
Different strokes for different folks. Scalable team structure can enable 100 listings per month.
100 Listing Appointments???? Kill me now...
What those hucksters don't understand is that not all selling tactics can be applied to real estate. I firmly believe that the less I sound like a 'salesperson' the better I do.
100 listng appointments. Let's assume that 25% were readily recongnizable jerks who only wanted your advice so they could list it themselves, with their brother in law two towns over, or the FSBO company who will put it on the MLS for $695. OK, down to 75-25% of which want you to cut your commisison by half, wnat you to take out 1/2 page ads in the big city newspapers and do 14 open houses per month. Number is 50. Of those, 25 want you to list their home at 2006 prices despite the fact that nothing in the neighborhood has sold anywhere near that price since, well, 2006. OK, 25 bottles of beer (no listings) on the wall. Of those 25, 5 have been spotted at one point and time on Hoarders, 5 have four or more Rotweilers living in the house (along with 2 snakes, an alligator and a stinky cat box). Down to 15-5 have decided that weekends are their family time and they will only allow showings between 2-4 on alternate Tuesday. And the majic number is 10!!!! My time is too short on this planet for all that drama.
I couldn't imagine an individual could possibly achieve or attempt that many listing appointments in one month. Who would be foolish enough to hire someone like that? They wouldn't have any time to market your property!
Thank you so much for all the great comments! Am digging out after a day away from the computer - will be back soon!
And what kind of a staff would you need to hire to handle that sort of volume? Not only would the presentation suffer, but how about all the time spent advertising, monitoring and closing the listings. Sounds like the speaker should have been giving a presentation on how to hire an entire office to handle 100 appointments a month. I hope you didn't buy his cds :)
Jennifer -- NOW we know what the 'ho-hum' training sessions are for, to get fodder for AR blogging. I agree that 100 would be overly ambitious for one person to try to do. Even 22 - one each weekday, would probably be unsustainable. As others pointed out, you wouldn't have time to fully investigate, nor properly market them.
100 listings? well if our company has that many, we would be thrilled. Of course you need a team to pull that off!
I also remember the Floyd Wickman days in the 80's. He said make as many calls as you need, but stop when you made an appointment.
But 100 listing appointments = spinning your wheels. There is the "Law of diminishing returns"!
I have been spending time - doing less appointments - I prequalify my sellers before I go and rather than show up and find that the past 1.5 hours have been wasted, I find out before I go if it's worth my time - then if it is, they get a lot of attention and effort. I don't think I'd like to do 100 a month - 10 is good. :)
That might be a good plan in the $50-100,000 price range??? But in the market we work, i don't think so!!
Sharon
I'll always go for quality over quantity.. I think it is difficult to be genuine otherwise.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing.
I would rather 10 good shot that 100 hit and miss appointments.
Your point is well taken and I strongly agree with you, good blog.
I have always agreed with the philosphy of quality over quantity. Well done!
Jennifer, If I wanted to ramp up and have a team, then that would make sense, but as a single agent, it would be too much. I'd rather have ten appointments a month and get nine (really good) listings that are priced right and sell.
Jennifer:
When I first started out in real estate one of my trainers said that real estate is a numbers game. You need to meet so many people to get so many appointment to get so many listing and so many of the listing actually sell. I actually think the trainer you listened to had the right idea. He was just using hyperbole to indicate that you have to keep searching(prospecting) for listings. Of course 100 listing appointment is ridiculous.
Hi Jennifer, I always believe in the motto "quality over quantity". I don't think 100 listing appointments a month will work out, you will need a team for that.
I think you want to go on quality appointments. I dont think its possible have more then 20 or so quality appts a month.
Jennifer, I am very particular about the homes I list. I only list homes I believe I can sell. My goal is to sell them in 60 days or less. There aren't enough of these types of homes to even schedule 100 appointments. I go after the listings I want. If they respond to my appointment request, 3 out of 4 times, I'll get the listing. Most of the time, I'm turning them down, not the other way around. But I prepare a very thorough listing presentation which includes previewing at least 5 homes that may be their competition. How could I do that if I have 100 appointments a month?
Hi Jennifer,
So, wouldn't one a month be better yet?'
You would have all month to prepare!
Phil
Jennifer - I mainly agree with you, but I do think it depends on where you are on the spectrum. If you don't have many, more is certainly better, and then there is some optimal point where you close a lot and close enough to make enough and then beyond that, your effective really starts to go down and then you get to the point where you are much less effective and much less efficient.
It would be nice to have the option of doing 100 listing presentations, however you do need to limit yourself to what you can accomplish while maintaining quality service.
Let me see, 100 listings appointments in a month, divided by 20 work days, equates to 5 presentations a day. I would suspect maintaining quality to those presentations, as well as providing great service to listings already obtained would be quite difficult. Even for the most energetic, professional agent, I'm betting lifestyle would suffer. Life should be about balance!
Such great comments...
Maybe ten isn't the magic number - in fact, it probably isn't, but the point of the blog (as many of you have pointed out as well!) is that MORE isn't necessarily BETTER if by chasing MORE, you're compromising the quality of each encounter... thus reducing the likelihood that you'll have a quality result. I'd much rather spend my time doing a bang-up job for each seller prospect to give myself the best shot at the listing (if I want it) than just blanketing the town with my listing presentation hoping enough bite. Kinda like the difference between working at Denny's or working at Ruth's Chris... a server may be able to make the same amount of money, but the server at Denny's has to serve 100 customers to do it, while the one at Ruth's Chris only has to serve 10!
Here's a blog I wrote a while back on the same subject, but using a dating analogy... http://activerain.com/blogsview/2019275/looking-for-love-or-clients-here-s-one-approach-not-
This is taking the numbers game to the extreme and would totally diminish the quality and brand that the majority of us work toward achieving.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is some good info for all in the business, keep up the good work, E
I can't even imagine doing 100 listing appointments in one month..seems that the quality of a massive number of listing appointments would be counter productive.. they could never be quality .. just not enough hours in the day!Quality will get the listings and sales.. too many is not a good thing.. Our society is a more... bigger ... better mindset.. and it does not make for a better way of life..
A listing appointment is supposed to be an opportunity to demonstrate how we can help a homeowner solve the problems they have, not an opportunity to do a drive by drag and brag. I think more listing appointments are great if they are with qualified homeowners who have a need and we take the time to demonstrate how we do that. I would be willing to bet that "speaker" has never gone on 100 appointments in one month.
I agree Jennifer. I rather put energy and effort acquiring quality leads and appointments. It seems exhausting try to grab anyone breathing.
Interesting post but I am just not interested in working that hard anymore or carrying that many listings. Other than with team approach I was never interested in having more than a dozen listings at one time. Sell one, replace one was always my approach and it was a number I could handle and service without a problem. After 31 years up north I am now enjoying my second career in Puerto Vallarta & Bucerias Mexico selling homes and condos to retiring babyboomers. You gotta love this business
Great Post Jennifer!! I agree with #1 and #48.
100 appointment seems alot great post I think I might try it see what happens
I am going to respectfully disagree. I think if you go on 100 appointments I think you are going to get more than 10 quality listings. Probably closer to 25 quality listings. Of course, you need to have systems that can handly that type of work load.
Jennifer, you are spot on! When you can focus your energies on realistic goals, prospecting for more business, doing a better presentation, and getting those listings sold and closed are not overwhelming, they are do-able tasks.
Thanks for the post!
The key is to prequalify your prospects over the phone before making the appointment. I would love to have 100 quality listing appointments a month.
The beautiful part is that neither one is "Wrong" it' just depends on the type of system you have in place to manage the opportunities you create. I like your perspective and feel the same about my business today... however, in a few years I would not mind the 100!
Even if you got 50 out of that 100, you are not going to be able to service them properly. I like the personal approach and I'm busting my back to get 2 listings a month but I am doing it. And I provide personal service so my clients feel like they are my only client.
You can take the old addage "a jack of all trades but a master of none" to the same numbers game. You can have 100 listings but then how do you effectively service and sell all of them? It is impossble for one agent to properly service that many clients. Maybe if they spent more time giving quality service then they wouldn't have to play the 'numbers' game making phone calls....instead the phone would be ringing with tons of REFERRAL BUSINESS from clients who were out singing the praises of their QUALITY and Caring agent.
Jennifer,
Unquestionably 100 is worse than 10. Not even close. Thanks for posing the question. :)
Steve
Jennifer,
You are right all round on this. If it is only about quantity, why stop at just 100? Why not 500? After all, number dont lie ;)
It is vital that each agent understands hie/her personal threshold of numbers that will allow them to competently attend to those appointments. Because, as you've stated, one must include the preparation time. Not to mention the time and activities involved in getting those listings sold while still maintaining a WORK LIFE BALANCE. If the balance is missing, really, what is motivating you?
Cheers.
I'm on board with everyone here. If I had 100 listing appointments to go on, there is no way I'd ever eat, sleep or spend any time with family and friends. It takes me at least one hour to put together enough information to at least be able to present something tangible for the seller to understand. The drive there a half hour on the outside, a hour there minimum and if lucky right to the next appt. So just on the inside we are looking at 200 hours. That does not include other appointments and calls. I'm not sure about anyone here, I don't want to work that many hours unless I know when I go on each one of those appointments and I'm walking away with the listing. Then in one month I have all the listings I would need for the year and I could relax for a month or two....NOT.
I have never met an agent that is buried in listing appointments, but maybe that agent does not want a large inventory. Having a large volume of suspects is good but converting them into prospects is the challenge. Always think large and at the end of the year look at your numbers etc. and re evalutate.
Jennifer, I agree. We're in the people business and in order to do our clients justice each appointment should be important.
No more wasting my time, no more wasting my time, no more wasting my time.....Like Dorothy I guess I need to say it three times to myself...
I wish most of the agents in my market would pay attention! Not only are they getting quantity, but mostly low quality as well!! Listings that are overpriced, unstaged and underexposed, as we all know, are effectively locked "off the market" for the duration of the listing agreement.
wanted to read through the comments to see if anyone said, "Hey I DO 100 listing appointments a month. NO PROBLEM!!" But there are too many comments . . . no wasting time! LOL
This is why you have teams in place. 1 person cannot do 100 appointments in a month very well at all. But a team of 5 agents could do it with you being the leader and getting a piece of their pie. This is exactly what Gary Keller advocates in his book Millionaire Real Estate Agent. Certainly quality is better than quantity but it truly is a numbers game. Better to have a smaller piece of 5 people's pie, then you being the only one with a pie and doing all the work.
There isn't a hundred properties that come on the market here. I think it is all about quality priced right listings. PS I don't want to work that hard to go on 100 listing appointments. Team concept is great but that brings on another set of issues.
It is a total numbers game. Maybe talk to Ben Kinney who follows that same line of thought & is very successful? There are plenty of others also doing the same thing. They are successful following this approach.
100 is just unmanageable period, 10 well done are ten paychecks! ;)
This quantity vs. quality topic reminds me of a class I recently attended with fellow agents. In talking about expanding our SOI an agent in the room boasted that she had 6,500 contacts in her database. Made me wonder how many of them knew and trusted her enough to buy or sell a house from her. Sometimes less leads to more.
If you do 100 listing appointments monthly, you better have a good team to handle the listings, because you won't have the time.
I would never want 100 listing appts in one month. I totally agree with you regarding quality or quantity.
Raymond Kennedy: I like your thinking! Think Big, build your team and List List List !
100 listing appointments --- for a big team that sounds ok -- for a single agent -- by month #3 they might be in the hospital recovering from exhaustion. All the best.
Just another "buy my program" guy talking big numbers.
I suppose he has a point, but I really like quality over quantity, and the customer connection that comes with it - otherwise I would have a listing assistant to go on those appointments for me - and I would be... Hmm... We'll moving my grass I suppose - now what fun is that?
Without a substantial team backing you, I'll take quality over quantity any day. I agree with Dave with the "buy my program" concept as well in some incidences.
Wow.....100 a month. He doesn't plan on having a life, does he? 100 a year is 2 a week which is much more reasonable.
I like quality better than quantity. I rather have 10 clients that are really happy with my service (because I had the time to give them service) than 20 clients who thought I was just ok......I like to try to give everyone 100%, can't do that with 100 listings.......so that motivational speaker really DOESN'T know real estate........
I have resisted the team approach in real estate as I think quality goes out the window and numbers become the focus. Who could do 100? and do it right?
Very thought provoking post Jennifer. I would say, it fluctuates in our career. When you are just starting out, it's better to have as many as possible listing appointments 9or any appointments), your conversion rate is different, you are learning, and the more people you meet with, the better you can learn to listen to them and address their need later. As your career progresses, you have the luxury to pick and choose, and you can also qualify better. As your career progresses even further, you can have a team that works with you so that you can provide great service to all these sellers.
I wouldn't take out quality for quantity, even if real estate is a numbers game. But the speaker had a point, imho...
That speaker obviously doesn't know the preparation that goes into a quality listing appointment. He's getting real estate sales mixed up with selling his training program.
I was just wondering......when do you would have time to prospect for all those appointments???
That speaker's use of real estate as an example for sales points out how real estate is so much more than just sales, at least not selling a ready made product. Our business involves so much more, and that's the part that's time consuming.
Jennifer - I vote for your approach. It is far better! Thanks for sharing...
Yes, your play on numbers and other variables regarding the statement made for a good discussion but the guys basic premise is solid and that is the message that should be received and used. The numbers the guy used off the top of his head was a concept and that was it.
When I was a young agent my goal was one sale-able listing a week. In my market area that produced a very very nice income. And then one day my broker sat down at the desk next to me and asked have you ever considered trying for 2 listings a week and I said how can I do that and he said I don't see why you can't double your seller prospecting efforts and pass off your B and C buyers to one of the desk sitting agents here. But the message was received and logged in that to get more, do more,and I had time to do more with some adjusting. What surprised me was that doubling my listing efforts didn't just double the results, there was a bonus increase in results that went along with my increased effort. Now maybe that is something to blog about.
Obviously, that is a ridiculous number. Who would even want to attempt that? In no way would one be doing their clients or themselves any justice. Sounds like the old fashioned door to door type of salesman.
I once made an appointment with a window salesman who saw me as the "little" lady and upon his arrival immediately dispatched me to go boil some water in the kitchen, while he spoke to the "man of the house" explaining the virtues of his product line. Two fatal flaws here:
#1-- I knew it was highly unlikely that boiling rain would ever be drizzling on the house. If it did happen, the windows would be the least of my worries.
#2-- I was the appointment maker, the homeowner, the check signer and decision maker. The man was merely a friend who was visiting he also had no knowledge of home repair or of building science. The salesman was pitching the wrong person.
Needless to say, I didn't ever revisit purchasing his windows. I believe this is what happens when one assumes a cookie cutter presentation. It takes time to learn the potential clients need and wants.
Quality Listings make for happy buyers and sellers
I agree fully!!! Quality over Quanity! In our smaller Real Estate market, if I was going out to 2.5 listing appointments a day, my repetition would be highly noticed! People talk to their neighbors, family, sphere, etc....and in their eyes you become the Used Car Salesman! I know there are agents out there like this. They have a great system, but it is auto generated for each listing appointment, each buyer, and each closing opportunity. I would rather do the 2-3 days of solid research on one listing appoinment, knowing that if they don't list with me, they see the high quality of PERSONALIZED work that went into it!
I am wondering what kind of success rate the trainer is hoping for? In my office we have a 90% success rate of listing. Also, I wonder if he realises the amount of effort that goes into listing a property and actually having a closing... which is the ultimate goal!
Definitely quality over quantity. This is how we have always done business and after a few years of doing a great job for people, we no longer had to go on "listing presentations" we just went to list them after they called us asking us to list! Reputation goes a long way!
I've been on Listing Appointments with the Top Lister in the area. Almost her whole presentation is showing a few comps, the per square foot price, and that's it. As short and sweet as that is, she still doesn't do 100 a month! As you said, the writer probably hasn't done that many either!!
Jennifer, 10 high-quality listing appointments per month with a high signed contract ratio would be great for the agent that isn't part of one of those huge teams. Definitely quality over quantity!
100, SURE... Phone appointments perhaps, but I dont think you could physically drive to 100 appointments in a month let alone present and be prepared???
I believe in Quality vs. Quantity. I'd rather have 10 great listings that will actually sell than 100 listings that just sit on the market costing $$$.
I believe quality is key to this business. If I have someone call in to have me market their home, much of the work is already completed. I show them how I work and our results. But with a cold call, I have to convince them I'm as good as I say I am..........they don't want me as much as I want them.
In this market, if you're going on anywhere NEAR 100 listing appointments then you are probably wasting a lot of time on unqualified sellers.
I'll take the 10 quality listing appointments behind door # 2. Thank you.
Are you kidding me? In my book taking a listing is a HUGE responsibility. I would never over book on what I can professionally deliver.
Jennifer - 100 listings appointments in a month! I'd need to have a serious staff to do that, and even then, I'd probably go crazy.
100 suspects, 20 prospects, 4 listings and 3 sales. All good stuff, isn't it?
Put me in the quality camp ... one has to know their limitations whether functioning as a single agent or a team. If quality is sacrificed for quantity, quantity will inevitably suffer in the long run.
Being in the business for only a couple years has taught me one thing - that is quality is sooooo much better than quantity. Just listening to all the coaching sessions and what not is exhausting all by itself... it is getting savvy enough to recognize quality when you see it. ;o)
Hi Jennifer, we must have heard the same ho-hum webinar! And I came away with the same thought. I don't want to go on a list appointment unless I have at least a 50% chance of taking it.
I cannot imagine how boring that pitch is going to be after, oh say, the 20th time you have given it in one week! You get what you sell. I want to be a quality agent who works with quality clients to sell quality homes for a quality commisson so I can have some quality time off.
David -now THAT's a great point! What a boring way to make a living - just doing the same pitch over and over and over and over....
One thing I'd like to point out that may have gotten kind of lost in the numbers here is that... if you do 100 ho-hum, rush-rush, cheesy, pitchy listing presentations, you may end up with the exact same number of listings that the person who only does 10 high quality ones gets... So, would you rather do 100 presentations... or ten... if at the end of the day you end up with the same number of new clients?
No matter what I've ever done I've always been about quality vs quantity.
It is all in the numbers, the more shots the more hits I think
Jennifer, what ever the Speaker espoused, "NO ONE" in our industry is going on 3.33 listing appointments a day, 7 days a week, for 30 straight days. Or, 5 appoinments a day, 5 days a week for four weeks. There isn't the time to prepare, travel, and present or the mental/physical capability for a single person to maintain that pace (Ok, maybe someone on Meth)!
I am exhausted thinking about that! I think you are absolutely correct, as usual. -Kasey
There is no way you could do that many in a month. Ten would be great.
I think I'll keep doing it my way. I receive the listing from at least 9 out of 10 "QUALITY" listing appointments. I'd rather be a "Quality" agent vs. a "Quantity" agent. It must work since I am #1 in the State of Idaho adjusted gross income..... just saying :-)