How to Stay Motivated, Fill Your Pipeline & Close More Deals | Live Call-Ins

Summary

Stay Paid Podcast: "How to Stay Motivated, Fill Your Pipeline & Close More Deals | Live Call-Ins"

Date: November 10, 2025
Hosts: Luke Acree and Josh Stike (ReminderMedia)
Special Guest Host: Cody Smith (Director of Operations/Sales, Acre Brothers Realty Team)

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Episode Overview

In this interactive, live call-in episode of Stay Paid Podcast, Luke, Josh, and Cody field real-time questions from real estate agents and business professionals. The main themes center around how to stay motivated when deals stall, strategies to fill and manage a robust sales pipeline, and practical tips for closing more deals—especially when facing hesitation from clients. The hosts also tackle how to differentiate yourself as an agent, structure your working day for maximum impact, get more comfortable with prospecting calls, and convert cold leads more efficiently.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Motivating Hesitant Sellers & Overcoming Deal Stalls

Caller: Jude from Michigan (04:44–13:52)

• Focus first on seller motivation:
  • Ask directly what the seller's reason for moving is. The more detailed and emotionally resonant the motivation, the easier it is to move them forward.
  • Cody Smith [01:55]: "My job isn't to make someone sell, but... to find out their goals and help them get there."
• Double down on the reward, not just the process:
  • If prepping the house creates stress, clarify what life looks like after the sale and keep returning to that vision.
  • Luke Acree [05:23]: "You gotta get them thinking about what does life look like on the other side of this sale."
• Problem-solve tangible obstacles:
  • Offer to arrange contractors or landscapers; take items off their to-do list directly.
  • Cody Smith [09:00]: "My job in this is to make it efficient to problem solve and figure out how to get there."
• Avoid ‘commission breath’:
  • If you're overly invested in one deal closing, it's a sign your pipeline is too thin.
  • Luke Acree [07:36]: "You need to have so many deals happening and so much potential... that it doesn't bother you at all if Cody doesn't buy or sell right now."
• Actionable step:
  Spend frustration energy on prospecting for new clients, not on pushing hesitant ones.

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2. Daily Structure for Realtor Success

Write-in from Melody (Florida) [13:52–19:58]

• Honor your calendar and habits:
  • The challenge isn't knowledge—it's consistent execution.
  • Luke Acree [14:36]: "The biggest pain point... is that you're not actually sticking to your calendar commitments."
• Ideal day structure:
  • Early start: body, mind, and spirit (gym, meditation, education).
  • 7:30/8:00am: arrive at the office.
  • Morning: Prospecting (2–4 hours—calls, follow-ups, new leads).
  • Afternoon: meet clients, showings, closings.
  • Late day: wrap up and systematize tasks, possibly return to prospecting.
• Timeless morning habits:
  • Cody Smith [16:31]: "From the start to the finish of your career, your morning should never change... Prospecting, following up should always be."
• Prospecting must be daily, no matter how busy you get:
  • Even top producers see declines if they let this habit slip.
  • Luke Acree [18:52]: "If you want to make sure your business never runs out, you have to prospect every day."
• Quantify your outreach:
  • Shoot for 20 conversations a day with unique people.

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3. Getting Comfortable Making Prospecting Calls

Write-in from Brian [19:58–24:13]

• Repetition is the secret:
  • The more calls you make, the more comfortable you get.
  • Luke Acree [20:14]: "Cold calling is not dead. You just suck at it... Frequency creates greatness."
• Develop and adapt scripts:
  • Memorize, internalize, personalize. Use proven scripts as a starting point, then make them your own.
• Track your numbers:
  • How many calls? How many real conversations? How many times did you ask for the appointment?
• Everyone starts bad:
  • Cody Smith [22:12]: "Every single person that started weren't good... it just takes the time."
• Compress your learning time:
  • Do more in a shorter period to get comfortable faster.
  • Josh Stike [23:21]: "Increase the volume, compress the learning time, and you'll be on the other side."

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4. Differentiate Yourself as a Realtor & Work Cold Leads

Caller: Greg from Indiana [24:13–46:32]

• How to stand out from other agents quickly:
  • Focus all early questions on the client’s motivation, not yourself.
  • Tell them directly: “I might not be the right agent for you—let me hear what you want in a realtor.”
  • Cody Smith [31:31 and recapped 32:01]: “Have you worked with a realtor before? If yes, what did you like about them? If no, what would you look for in a realtor?”
  • Avoid “I”, “me”, “we”; focus on “you”, “your goals”.
• Opening lines for cold leads from Facebook (list of homes):
  • Use a pattern interrupt:
    Luke Acree [35:50]: “Hey, I saw you were looking at homes. Just wanted to see if you found what you were looking for.”
  • Don’t remind them they're in a sales process. Let their own goals direct the conversation.
• Seller lead specifics:
  • Conversion averages: About 3–4% conversion for cold/paid leads.
  • Expect 36 touchpoints (calls/texts/emails) and 10.8 months to close an internet lead.
    Luke Acree [37:12]: “10.8 months to convert and 36 calls on average... 18 before we got them, 36 to the commission check in hand.”
  • “No” means “not now,” not “never.” Keep nurturing via database/email.
• Drip campaigns & follow-up:
  • A simple, high-performing follow-up email:
    Luke Acree (quoting Sahil Bloom) [39:51]:
    “Are you still interested in buying a home in [your market]?”
  • Don’t underestimate the value of nurturing your database—with regular email, direct mail, and property alerts.
  • Utilize technology (CRM, RealScout, MLS drips) to see who is engaging and follow up accordingly.
  • Cody Smith [44:20]: “As soon as you see it open on the email, you call them immediately.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Cody Smith [01:55]: "My job as a salesman is to find out their goals and help them get them to their goals... I don't know that unless I talk to them and figure out what [motivates them]."
• Luke Acree [07:36]: “A lot of times when we feel the pressure to try to get somebody to move, it's because we are so... we want that deal so bad… You’ve got to stack your pipeline.”
• Luke Acree [20:14]: “You just have to do a lot more of it. My philosophy is you need a script and a process: you memorize, you internalize, you personalize.”
• Cody Smith [22:12]: “You can never get to that third stage without the [first two]… You’ve got to do it, suck at it, and get better at it.”
• Luke Acree [39:51]: “Are you still interested in buying a home in [your city]?” [On the most effective nine-word email]
• Cody Smith [44:20]: “As soon as you see it open on the email, you call them immediately.”
• Luke Acree [48:37]: “The difference between top producers and mediocre producers is top producers take action.”

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Key Timestamps

• Motivating hesitant sellers: 00:44–13:52
• Pipeline & mindset: 07:36, 08:56, 13:52
• Realtor daily routine structure: 13:52–19:58
• Beating call reluctance: 19:58–24:13
• Differentiate yourself, cold leads, and scripts: 24:13–32:50, 32:50–46:32
• Lead conversion stats, follow-up, tech tips: 37:12, 39:51, 44:20

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Actionable Takeaways

• Relentlessly focus on client motivation, returning to their “why” in each conversation.
• Remove obstacles for your clients; show value by action, not persuasion.
• Build a big, healthy pipeline to remove pressure from individual deals.
• Stick to a daily structure with dedicated prospecting time—never skip it.
• Embrace the discomfort of cold calling—do more, track, and adapt.
• Use pattern interrupts and lead with curiosity/questions, not pitches.
• Nurture every lead for the long game; automate where you can, but add personal follow-up based on engagement.
• Always follow up when someone opens your email or takes action.

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Closing Thought

If something from the episode “prompted you to go, ‘yeah, I should be doing that,’ the difference between top producers and mediocre producers is top producers take action.”
—Luke Acree [48:37]

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For further details, show notes, and episode video, visit: staypaidpodcast.com
To submit live questions: remindermedia.com/ask

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to Stay Paid. Today we are answering your burning questions in real estate, business, marketing and more. On these episodes, we take live calls from Stay Paid listeners. If you want to have your question answered live here on the show, go to remindermedia.com ask. That's remindermedia.com ask. Submit your question there. Of course, you can also follow us on Instagram and send us a dm. We'll make sure to reach out to you to schedule a time. We are at Stay Paid podcast. My name is Josh Dyke, chief marketing officer here at Reminder Media, joined as always by Luke Acrey, president of Reminder Media and director of operations, sales and everything at the Acre Brothers Realty Team. Cody Smith. Welcome, gentlemen.

[C]

Howdy. Howdy.

[B]

All right, our first caller we have calling from Michigan, Jude. Jude, welcome to Stay Paid.

[A]

Thank you. Good to be here.

[D]

Yeah, it's good to be. It's good to be here too, Jude. It's good to have you on the show. We love being here. We think. I don't know. So, Jude, what can we help you with? What is your question to help you grow your business?

[A]

So a question is kind of just a moment of frustration. I put the question out there. How do I get a sellers? And this could be applicable to any seller that, you know, they want to sell, but they're just kind of sitting on the fence, they're hemming and ha. And how can I help somebody to push them to move forward in the right way?

[D]

Yeah, this is a great question. I'm curious, Cody, your take, obviously, you know, you're in it every day with not only your agents, but you're doing it yourself too. What. What's your natural gut on this?

[C]

Yeah, I actually just coached an agent on this yesterday, so this is perfect. So the first thing I'll ask you, which I asked him, is like, what is their motivation? So it. Because it depends on the person. So I need to know what's their motivation on why they're selling.

[D]

Do you know, June? Like, what is the motivation for this person?

[C]

So that would be. I don't know if you have a scenario, dude, but that would be my first question to you would be like, all right, the seller, what's their motivation? And in it, because my job isn't to make someone sell, but my job as a salesman is to find out their goals and help them get them to their goals. And that might be sooner than they think, but I don't know that unless I talk to them and figure out what. Because, like, for his, for instance, they live in a two Story apartment, they're older, they want a one level and they're tired of the two story. They're not in a super rush. But at the same time that is a big deal for them. And like the husband recently fell and had a surgery. So like it is a pressure thing that need to do but it's not necessarily a timetable on it. So for them it's all right. Our motivation was this. When would ideally you would like to be moved in the house by specifically that question. So we know exactly when they're thinking but then it's going okay. You know, you just had this fall, you know, it seems like this would be an important decision for you because financially they have a 2% interest rate, right. So financially it doesn't make sense to do this. They're going to pay the same and probably downsize. So financially we're not there. So there's two things we do is I help you in the financial side but there's a personal side you have to decide. And what we've talked through on your motivation wise was the personal side of living on the one level is big for you. So because of that, that's why we need to find a house. So it all comes back to the motivational piece because my job isn't to make someone sell their house, but my job is to help someone get to their goal on why they wanted to and remind them of that. So that would be my encouragement to you is come back to the one thing that matters most in any phone call, any prospecting is their motivation on why they're doing it. Because that's my job is to remind them and help them get there.

[D]

What is the motivation, Jude, of the person you're frustrated at? Do you, do you know.

[A]

This particular person? They happen to inherit a home that's bigger, more than they want. So there is that motivation for them specifically is they are elderly and not capable of caring for a larger home. So they're in the home but they, they want out. And my connection with them is, is through the daughter whom I'm giving. I've already walked through the home, met with mom and daughter and said okay, these are the things like if we want to maximize our, our money on the sale, right? My job getting you the most amount of money in the time that you're, you're, you know, willing and, and able to, to make the move the is what we should do. Maybe that's where their hangup is because I think that they're feeling like, oh, we got to do these Things.

[C]

Sure.

[A]

But anyway, I thought I'd throw the question out there to get other people's take on it.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

So my next question to that is like, all right, then, what's their next move once they do that? They sell the house.

[A]

Yep. So she actually has a. Another. A property lined up so that she can move into.

[C]

Awesome.

[B]

It's.

[A]

I wouldn't be involved in that end of it.

[C]

Okay. So they have another house they can move into. And then what happens with the money once they sell? Like, what can they. What's the reward of doing such thing? Like, how does that move their life forward in selling this property? Taking away a pain and adding a benefit? What does that look like? And I would connect those dots if you haven't.

[D]

So it really is. It's like, it's essentially you have said to them how you can financially help them make the most money from their home, which it seems like you've done a good job there. That has added another pain point, if I'm reading you correctly, which is you have to do some things in order to set your house up to get the most bang for your buck. So you're almost creating a barrier there. So the only way to overcome that is you've got to double down on the reward. What is the reward? And so it's like anything in sales. You have to spend enough time to generate emotion and get people. It's like, why the. The classic is the car salesman always wants to get you into the car and wants you to drive the car. And the reason they want you to do that is because they want you to spend time with it and they want you to start seeing yourself in it and they want you to start thinking, who would that person be that's driving it? All this emotional stuff they're trying to trigger for you, and, you know, it doesn't go one for one to, you know, selling a home, but ultimately you got to get them thinking about what does life look like on the other side of this sale?

[C]

Right.

[D]

And how valuable is that? And then I'll come back because these are things that, you know, I feel that you probably know, Jude, you probably do in your business, but it's like really pressing on, you know, what would this mean to you and your family? Why. Why are you, you know, wanting to sell and what time frame you know, is driving it? Is there any other pressure points that are driving this job is I want to help you sell this home for the most money you possibly can, and I want to make sure it's at the right time to help you. So ultimately, if you don't need to sell your home, I don't want to make you sell your home if it's not the best time to sell. I don't want you to sell because I want to be there for you, whether it's today or three years from now. I want to be your trusted real estate advisor. But tell me about what this sale means to you. Why would you want to sell? And get them to. Get them to express, get them to storytell to you. What does it mean to them? Because you got to get them envisioning it. So you can maybe tap on that emotion now. I'll come back, Cody. I think that's spot on what you're saying, but go ahead, Jude. You have a question on that before I move on?

[A]

Oh, no, I don't. I think. No, you're. You're spot on. I love it.

[D]

Okay. Okay. And so here's the thing that I would come back to for everybody listening, myself included. When you want to get someone to move and you're frustrated that they're not moving, I don't mean literally moving. I just mean, like, the deal getting closed or the deal getting done, it usually is an indicator your pipeline's not full. You need to have so many deals happening and so much potential, Jude, in your pipeline that it doesn't bother you at all if Cody doesn't buy or sell right now. You. You want to give Cody the best service. You want to tell him what the. The pros and cons are. You want to be there, but you want to treat it just like a relationship. If it's your mom, your dad, your brother or sister, it's like, you know, you just want to present the value. Say, I'm here to help you. You need to stack your pipeline. So I'd also plant that seed for you. I don't know what your pipeline's looking like and how many deals you have, but a lot of times when we feel the pressure to try to get somebody to move, it's because we are so. We want that deal so bad. And I'm not saying this is you, but this is what I tend to see in the industry. You got to stack your pipeline, go spend that energy, that frustration to go get your next client. Because that person, if you treat them right and you do what's right by him, like Cody's saying, and like you probably will do, Jude, then you'll be solid, whether it's today or a year from now. But let's go Spend that energy and put it into our pipeline.

[C]

Yeah, I love that.

[A]

Agree.

[C]

And I'll add something to that, too, because you said there's some things they have to do to the house to get it ready. And my thing is, what problems can I solve to help that get quicker? Like, what can I take off their plate? We had another coaching with Tim that's been on the podcast yesterday, and the same. They need to do landscaping bad, and same kind of thing happened where the husband got injured and, you know, but they need to sell. They actually bought a house recently, and so they have two mortgages, so they have to sell this one, but it's been delayed. And we're talking with Tim on, like, all right, what can we do to help move that forward? Can we just send landscapers over there, pay for it, take it out of closing on to get paid back on that side? Can we do that? You know, what ways can we efficiently help this client get to where they need to get to? Because we know they need to sell, but they're having some pain. My job in this is to make it efficient to problem solve and figure out how to get there. So my question for you too would be like, all right, what can we do to help them problem solve and some of the issues that need to be done with the house? Because I can get that. I know the people that can get it done. How can I finagle that to make it work?

[D]

Yeah, it's a great point. These are the contractors you can use. This is the landscaping company. In fact, I'll set them up for you. Would you want me to call them and get them out to your house? How has this year been for you, Jude? How is your transaction count or your volume been this year?

[A]

A little bit lower. I'm just under 2 million 11 transactions.

[D]

Nice.

[A]

So this year, yeah, I've got. I've got almost the same amount pending. So I'm just.

[D]

Do you really?

[A]

Wow.

[E]

Okay. Yeah.

[D]

Congrats. So, yeah, I mean, it's. You're in the. You know, I think Tom Ferry put out a stat recently. It's like a million agents. Million. 65,000 have not done a deal in the first six months of the year. There's like 340,000 have done like 2.1 deals. 70,000, I think it was 68 to 70,000 have done 7.1 deals. And then there's like 1400 that have done 40 plus, and then another 1400 have done 126 plus. So you're actually doing really well. You're in the 68,000, that's done. Done, you know, more than seven deals, which is congrats to you. So feel good about that because you're doing a lot of things right. So I would just stay. I would just tell you that it feels like you're probably not digging enough into getting them to share their motivation. So I'd spend more time there, and you're probably not. Or I would encourage you to rethink. How can you take care of the problems that you've put in front of them to sell that home? Like Cody's saying, can you solve that for them and at least present that? Because at the very least, even if they don't choose to do it, guess what? You showed. You showed the amount of value that Jude brings to the transaction. Whether they sell today or in six months or three years, you will be there for them. And then you go take that energy and you put it into the 11 that are pending for you right now. And, you know, you make those come to fruition.

[A]

Right? Right. Absolutely. No, I love that. I had shared with them contractors, but that's what I was thinking, short of going and painting their basement myself, you know, it's like, ok, I'll tell them, I'll set stuff up, I'll be there. You know, if you can't be there, you're out of town. I'll take care of these people.

[D]

Let's get them in.

[A]

Let's finish this work so that you don't have to feel that weight.

[E]

Right.

[A]

Of or burden of having to do it.

[C]

Yeah. And the reason we're gonna do this is because blank the reward. Right. Like, we want to do these things because. Because I always remind them, hey, this is about your decision. So what I can do to do this, this and this to solve this problem. So you can get blank so you can go do this, because that's such a huge piece, is when I present the problem, I present the fix. I remind them of the reason we're doing it. So they're constantly reminded that all this pain, all the things I'm solving is so they get the reward at the end of whatever that is. So I love that.

[D]

Awesome. Jude. Jude, thank you for coming on the show. Really appreciate your question. I think it's very helpful to everybody because we all have those buyers and those sellers that just won't get off the couch. They won't move. And it's frustrating. And, you know, at the end of the day, all we can do is how can we provide more value? Because sales 101 is people have a pain point they're trying to solve or desired outcome they're trying to achieve and oftentimes desired outcome, there's pain points in between and our job as the professionals to come in and share with them how our service, product and what we do can alleviate pain points to help them achieve the desired result. And so that's, you know what you're trying to do but ultimately you're not going to be able to make everybody do that. So you just got to have a massive pipeline so you never have to feel commission breath. You never have to feel like you have to pressure anybody. It's like, hey, if it's not you today, don't worry, it can be you tomorrow because I have plenty of people that I can go serve. So Jude, thank you for coming on. Let's connect on social but really appreciate the question. Hope you have a great one.

[B]

Thanks, Jude. Appreciate it.

[A]

Thank you. You too.

[B]

Bye. All right, make sure to get your questions submitted here to be answered live on Stay paid. Go to remindermedia.com/ask and we'll get you scheduled here on the show. We have a write in question. This one comes from Melody out of Florida. I don't think we've answered this one before but I think it's a good one to give people an idea of what a typical working day for a successful realtor might look like. She asked, can you give a typical working day routine for a realtor? I try to work in the business in the mornings, so actually work in the business in the mornings like paperwork, computer, database and then on the business in the afternoon, meeting with clients, meeting with customers, showing properties if I can. What are your thoughts?

[D]

I actually don't think that's too bad. One, one of the things that I see is that and I can give you kind of my typical day and I'd love to hear your take. Cody too is the problem that people have is not that they don't know how to structure their day, it's that they don't honor their commitments in their calendar. Like the biggest pain point that I would share with you, Melody, that I, I bet you have is that you're not actually sticking to your calendar commitments and doing it consistently. But I want to affirm you if you are. Yeah, you're thinking about it the right way. The way I like to think about it is get up early, your body, mind and spirit. So feed your mind, feed your body correctly by getting to the gym, doing some meditation, prayer, gratitude. In the morning when you get to the office. You have a chance to invest in yourself before people wake up. And so I would, I would tell you man, get to the office. 7:30, get to the office 8 o'. Clock. Most people in corporate America work from 8 to 5 for somebody else. You've now gone into business for yourself. Are you not at least worth 8 to 5? And most agents aren't doing that right? So at least get to the office at 8. I would encourage you 7:30, that's before you usually are starting to call people. And then invest in your mind and in your skills from an education standpoint, look at the market, what's happened on the market. Educate yourself of what's going on in your community industry wise. Take some time right there. Invest in yourself from a self development standpoint. Listen to stay paid like you are. Thank you for that.

[C]

Right.

[D]

And invest in yourself there. And then if you're on a team, you might have a team meeting, you might have a huddle, you might have stuff like that. But you should go straight into prospecting and you should do two to four hours of prospecting in the morning where you are, you know, let's say you're starting at 9 o' clock prospecting or something like that and you run it, you know, till 11 or till 12 and then in the afternoon you run your appointments and then come back. And what I would say is you come back and you do your follow up, make sure all the tasks are done that you need to do so you have no overdue task in your system and, and then get back into prospecting if you're really grinding. That to me would be a perfect day in real estate. I'll throw it to you, Cody, to give your thoughts.

[C]

No. So true. And I think the biggest thing I would encourage you is like what is your main goal for that day? So I think the very first thing in the morning is like what are you trying to accomplish? So what Luke's saying is before your plan on prospecting, you're doing anything, you should sit down and track like what are my goal for the day, what's my task on the day and who are my targets. And that's in the forefront of your mind. So whatever that prospecting hours because depending on what stage you're on, if you're, you're needing to add new leads, if you have leads in your pipeline that you're trying to follow up with, let's be really targeted in that prospecting time to get done what we need to get done, whether that's set Appointments, follow up with people, whatever that is, that's what your mornings are for. And when I tell agents, from the start to the finish of your career, your morning should never change. It should be the same thing every day. It never changes. Now who. What you're doing could. Because your goals, your targets can change. But your mornings of what you're doing, of prospecting, following up should always be. Because you can control that so well. Because as we know, in the afternoons, anything can happen. Appointments, closings. So like that's kind of like that's where that 100% agree with you. But the biggest thing I would say is like, what is our focus targeted? Time is the morning. What is the most important thing to move my business forward should be done in the mornings. And you should plan that first thing in the morning.

[D]

I love that because it's, it's very intentional and so few people have intention and how they're going about their day. I think a real like kind of life scenario. Tim on the team who's like top producer on Acre Brothers, you know, he's been, he's top 1% of managing his time and calendar and stuff like that. But it's been interesting because he'll probably close. What do you think, Cody? 100 deals this year.

[C]

Close to that close. He's on target for about 90 right now.

[D]

Yeah. So I mean, very. He's crushing it. But it's so interesting because Tim was religious about prospecting in the morning and he would share this with you because what's happened to him is he got so busy. I mean, eight deals a month, ten deals a month. You know, he got so busy that he started to lax on the prospecting and he got the concept that, well, I'm just going to really just focus on, you know, what I have currently in my database, my referrals. And what's happened to Tim, his pipeline in his production has gone down significantly. Like, significantly. Like he still closed what, four deals last month or something like that.

[C]

Right, right. This month. But still he was doing 8, 12, 14.

[B]

Yep.

[D]

So, and, and the thing that changed was the, the like commitment to the, you know, two hours, let's just say a day or the 120, 150 dials. It was that commitment. So if there's anything I would tell agents listening to this, if you want to make sure your business never runs out, you have to prospect every day. And you should be asking yourself bold and KW does it great from this perspective. And they say like 20 combos a day. That's a Way you can think about it, if you hate cold calling, it doesn't matter. If you hate door knocking, doesn't matter. If you don't like social media, it doesn't matter. You should be thinking, did I reach 20 contacts today, 20 unique people, and have some type of interaction and conversation with them and hopefully conversation about real estate. But even if it's not just a straight up conversation because you're meeting people and if you do that, I mean, it will change the game for you.

[B]

Yeah. No, I love that you brought that up because I noticed the one thing that was missing from her list. And I don't know if this was intentional, if she was just phrasing it differently, but was prospecting. So she mentions the paperwork, computer database.

[D]

Clients, and it's like, nobody. Yeah, nobody wants to do the prospecting.

[B]

Through the prospecting. All right, we have one more right in here from Brian. So Brian asks, this is a good one. How can I get more comfortable making calls? And speaking of prospecting.

[D]

Yeah, prospecting.

[B]

How does one get more comfortable doing?

[D]

I'll give you that. It's easy. Exactly. Dude, you went exactly where my brain goes to do more of it. Do more. What is it called? Cold calling is not dead. You just suck at it. Right. It's like you just. Frequency creates greatness. It is very hard to theorize yourself into success of cold calling. And you have to just do it over and over and over again. And then, you know, it's like you can't improve what you don't measure, so you got to track and measure your results. Like, how many engagements did you have? How many times did you ask for the appointments? And you challenge yourself. If you're only engaging 10 out of 20 people, you challenge yourself. Can I get to 12 out of 20 people, you know, or 100 people that I call to engage? And then you go, man, I'm only asking for five appointments a day. Can you ask for. Like, we used to have our callers here at Reminder Media write down and show us at the end of the day how many credit cards they asked for, not how many they got, how many they asked for. Because we know if we can get them to ask for more cards, they will get more credit cards. And so you just have to do a lot more of it. I would tell you, like, my philosophy is you need a script and a process and you memorize, you internalize, and you personalize so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can go to AI, you can go to the web, you can Find a bunch of people out there, like the Tom Ferries, the Mike Ferries, the, you know, Ricky Carouse. They have scripts out there for you. You can use their scripts to do cold calling, to do the calls that you're making. And then take the script, memorize it, and do it over and over and over again. Then take the script and internalize it. What does internalization mean? It means you understand the why behind the what. Here's what I'm saying, but why am I saying it? And then you personalize it. Personalization comes down to, you might not phrase this, you might not phrase it yet. Exactly. So you make it your own. And then from there, now you have a cadence you can work off of that's measured, and you can slowly tweak it and improve it. But frequency creates greatness. That's how you get good at cold calling.

[C]

100. And that goes. I mean, Luke, they run a huge call center there. I was a director for a call center, over 60 people for four years. And every single person that started weren't good. Even if they were talented. It took them months to get it. And I. We had two months of training. So any new agent that joins our team, that you're gonna go through these emotions, and this is the part of consistency. And while real estate is so hard because it takes time to be good, and you don't have the money for the time, typically, but it just takes the time. I always put it. You're in three stages. The first stage is you don't know what you're doing, and you're really bad at what you're doing, and that's a stage you got to get through. The second one is, I know somewhat what I'm doing, but I'm still pretty bad at doing it. And then the third stage is like, all right, I know what I'm doing. I'm pretty good at doing it. You can never get to that third stage without the one of bad and bad. Like, you just can't. You can't jump. There's no jumping of the. The scale. There's. You've got to do it. You have to suck at it, and you have to get better at it. You got no money coming in. So what am I supposed to do? You keep doing it because you know you can do it and you know you can get there, but it just takes time.

[B]

Yeah. And compress that time. Like, I can't remember who was on the podcast. They were in insurance. But one of the things that stuck with me, it's like, compress the learning time. Yes, yes. So, you know, and I can relate. I don't do cold calls all the. But I, you know, in the podcast, I can relate back to, like, I was not comfortable doing the podcast. We were doing it maybe once a week or every other week or something very inconsistently. As soon as we started doing like two or three recordings back to back. Two, three, four recordings a week. Like, just the amount of time that you spend doing that, you're going to get more comfortable. So increase the volume, compress the learning time, and you'll be on the other side. That way you'll feel comfortable.

[D]

Yeah, Right.

[B]

Awesome. You can get your questions answered live here on Stay Paid. If we can't get you scheduled on, we'll make sure to answer them as well.

[D]

For send in your questions. If you're too scared to come on and talk to us, we'll still read your questions.

[B]

Reminder, media.com/. All right, we have now joining us, let's see, out of Indiana, I believe, Greg. Greg in real estate. Greg, welcome to Stay Paid.

[E]

Thank you.

[B]

Thanks for being here.

[D]

Yeah, Greg, it's awesome to have you on the show. Greg, what is your question that we can help you with? How can we help you with your business?

[E]

Well, how many questions am I allowed?

[D]

I'll say as many as you want, but I'm a little nervous now, so, you know. Well, we'll at least give you a couple of questions here.

[E]

All right, fair enough. The first one, I would say it. Well, just to give you a little background. A lot of my business has been built on cold leads or leads that I've paid for, per se. So the questions are related to that. The first one is how do you very quickly impart that you're. And I'm sure everyone feels like this, but that you're not the typical realtor out there. So that would be one and then the other one is. And I have tried, I feel like every which way and I have not cracked the code. But getting someone on the phone and just give me three minutes, that is all I need.

[B]

And then try 10 seconds.

[E]

If you don't like how I interact with people, I'm good. You go on your way. But I have a feeling you're going to enjoy.

[D]

But yeah, I know that's how you ask. That's how I asked my wife out. Just give me three minutes. No, no. Oh, man, that's too good.

[E]

40 seconds.

[D]

40 seconds. Okay, so give us a little bit more background on you. How long have you been a real estate agent and Tell us a little bit about your year this year. How has it gone?

[E]

Coming up on seven completing years.

[D]

Okay, congrats.

[E]

I used to own a business with my wife and it started to go down.

[D]

Okay?

[E]

So she was very astute. She's like, hey, we got to figure something else out. So after literally two years of research, came to that real estate with something I could do on the side. It had potential for, you know, being able to replace my income. And, you know, once I started in it, there were, there were two things that really stood out to me. And I was like, okay, I have found my place. The first one was somebody said, you know, the people that you come in with, after five years, 85% of the people are gone. I was like, what? And then their follow up, just to make their, their brokerage more appealing, they said, well, at our brokerage it's only 70%. And I was like, still, seven out of ten is insane, right? Like, why is that? Well, I figured out pretty quickly it's because of the people. You know, if you are not someone who does not mind making a call to a quote unquote stranger, this is not your business. Even if that stranger is the listing agent or, you know, if you're the listing agent and you're calling the buyer's lender to confirm, hey, is this person a good, you know, buyer to, to potentially buy this house? And then the other one that really struck me, at the time, our manager was on our local MLS press. She was the president of our local mls. She said, do you guys realize that out of the 8, 000 agents that half of them do two or less transactions a year? And I was like, oh yeah, like.

[C]

70, you know, 70 of realtors haven't done one deal this year, which is crazy. So getting back to your question, the first part was like, how do I lets them know I'm different realtor than the rest? Right, Right. What's your question? So I would love to ask you, like, what. So what would you say puts you different than the rest?

[E]

That I'm not after the quick buck. I am in it for the long haul. And of course I say that once, you know, right. I talk to them and they, if they're, if they've got any kind of sense of smarts, they can see by the questions I asked that I'm not trying to get them out if they're a buyer to look at homes tomorrow.

[D]

Okay.

[E]

You know, I'm like, hey, let's sit down. Let's kind of see where you're at. Let's see what makes sense. Because it may make sense that we need to wait six months, a year or two years, you know. Yeah, that kind of.

[C]

So my biggest encouragement to you on that is when I. Especially when I sit down and meet with someone at a buyer's consultation is I tell them, hey, I might not be the realtor for you. The reason being is I don't know what you're after. And who knows? I might not be that person. So I need to hear from you. What's. What's your motivation? And have you worked with a realtor before? And they go, no, I haven't worked with a realtor. Okay, well, what would you seek after a realtor that would make you want to work with them? Well, it's someone that, you know, communicates a lot.

[E]

Okay, perfect.

[C]

Yeah. No, I love that. Yeah. One thing I look to do and communication so huge and then, you know, just going off on that tangent of like how I can meet that expectation. Because you have no clue if you are the person for them. And some people you might not want to work with. But the biggest thing I need to know is what they want in that realtor. And if we're doing over the phone call, the whole phone call is based on one thing and one thing alone. What is their motivation in buying or selling a home? Because nothing else matters. If you're not keying in on what their motivation is, the rest of the call, you know, because they don't. They're not going to show up to a meeting to meet, you know, you. They're going to show up to a meeting because they want their goals and their motivation fulfilled and what they want. So if any part. And I coach on this on our agents all the time. If I'm listening to a call and I hear me, I. This. We, you know, all this stuff, we just lost the call. Because it's not about me. I any of that. It's about, what do you want? What are you looking for? Why are we buying? Why are we selling? Getting to the true motivation. Because then I can go, I'm the person to solve that problem because I've done this and I can help you in this area. But until you get to the motivation part, you can't really help them move forward in that.

[D]

We made it back, gentlemen.

[C]

Made it back. When we just went through.

[E]

Yeah, I was, I was wondering.

[D]

I figured. I. I figured you solved his problems. Take it away. Literally. Just.

[C]

I'm used to it.

[E]

Pretty darn good, I gotta say.

[D]

Yeah, the Guy knows his stuff.

[B]

Now say it all over again. So we were going through.

[C]

Just a recap real quick for those that are late. Yeah, we were going through.

[B]

We told you it was live.

[C]

His question was, why, you know, how would I get someone to know that they should choose me over another realtor? And what I said is twofolds. One, in a buyer's consultation, I say, hey, I might not be the person you want to work with or need to work with, but what I need to know from you is, have you, have you worked with a realtor before? And they go, yes. I go, okay, what did you like about that realtor? And then if they say no, I go, okay, well, what's the one thing you would look for in a realtor? And then I'm gonna.

[D]

Yeah, get them to tell them.

[C]

It's like, who knows? Like, whatever I'm about to say, I could be missing their whole point of what they're actually looking for. And then in a conversation in the call, you obviously can't get there. So instead I'm going, what's their motivation? Because I can only key off of their motivation of buying or selling to getting them to know that I'm not just about me. Like everything you said, Greg, that, hey, it's not a quick close. It's. It's not about, you know, seeing the house immediately. It's about you. I love that. But if you tell that instead of ask that, it's completely different because they don't believe you. But instead, if they. If you find out their motivation and you show them how you can help them get their goal, then they'll go, yeah, of course I'll meet with you. Because it's about me. I. I told them on a call if I'm coaching, and I hear, I me, we in that call, it's like, all right, we're going the wrong path because it should be about them and about you and about what we can do to help your goal. That's where we're at.

[D]

Yeah. So good, man. See, guys, you don't even need Josh and I. You got Cody, the master of all there in the trench, doing it. Love it. Greg, what other questions? Cody, he knocked that out of the park. But what other questions can we help you with in your business?

[E]

What was the other one? Yeah, how do I impart? I mean, those are. Those are really the two.

[D]

Yep.

[E]

As silly as. As it sounds, you know, it's not.

[C]

Not silly logistical.

[E]

It's not, you know, scaling. It's.

[D]

What leads are you calling just So I. I know. I don't know if you mentioned that or not.

[E]

Some of them are from Facebook ads.

[D]

Okay.

[E]

That I have. And then other ones are, you know, I pay for the leads, and they. They send me the leads. And, you know, part of that is certainly.

[D]

Is that like Zillow or, like.

[E]

No, it's other. Other companies.

[D]

Okay. And they'll send you the lead. So you're engaging these people off of different reasons. Because a lot of times, like, I remember, like, the start of your question was about. Or one of your questions was about how you engage with someone in the first, you know, 30 seconds, 40 seconds. And a lot of that is dependent upon the campaign of, like, well, how did the lead come in? Because based upon how they came in, kind of determines how you want to approach. I know for the Facebook leads that we run, like with Acre Brothers, you know, we're running a list of homes ad where we're basically offering to Cody, the person on Facebook, hey, would you want an exclusive list of homes in the $500,000 range type idea? Cody's, you know, getting that.

[E]

That's what Facebook ads are. Yeah.

[D]

Love it. So, meaning we're, you know, introing the call, not going, hey, we saw you requested a list of homes, and I wanted to see if you got the list of homes I sent you. Or I saw on Facebook that you request a list of homes. We're not entering that way because the immediate response is, I didn't request a list of homes because it's the. The comparison we always give. It's walking into a retail store, and the person at the retail store says, can I help you find something? And you're like, no, I'm just looking. Because your immediate reaction as a human is to say no. So if you're calling someone and saying, hey, I got your request and want to get you that list, they're going to say, no, I didn't request. They're going to immediately be like in a no. So we just call with a pattern interrupt to go, hey, I saw you were looking at homes. Just want to see if you found what you were looking for. So it's like, hey, this is Luke, you know, with Acre Brothers. Hey, reason why I call in. I saw you were looking at homes. Just want to see if you found what you were looking for. It's a pattern interrupt. And they're naturally wanting to go, no. And then it's like, well, if they said no, what do I know? I know they were looking for homes. Yeah, right. So it's It's a pattern interrupt to get them to admit that they were looking for homes. It's right out of the gate after you intro your name, just go, I saw you were looking at homes, just wanted to call, see if you found what you were looking for. And so now they have to tell you they were either looking for homes or they weren't looking for homes. Once they tell you and then when they say no, I haven't found, then the follow up question is, well, what exactly were you looking for? Now I'm into the discovery phase of.

[C]

The call and what I love.

[D]

So that's how we do it. On the list of homes is the.

[C]

Yes, then tells me they have a home. I just met a seller, you know, win, win, win. Either way, you know, I'm looking for a house. Yes means I'm going to sell your house in the future because I'm going to build a relationship from there. So win, win.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[E]

The, and then the, the leads I'm currently paying for are all seller leads. And so those are, that is a whole different ball, ball of wax because. And the way the company gets these is they in essence text out, hey, are you looking, I'm paraphrasing. Are you looking to sell, to sell your home? And as long as they give some kind of positive, they'll say, okay, we're gonna have our local expert Greg Geller reach out to you. And then you know, some people I reach out to and you know, there is some engagement but they're not quite ready. It's wait a few months. Other people, I mean I've got Some, I've called 15 to 20 times over the course of 30 to 45 days and nothing back. It's like, are you alive? Are you out there? Like, how do you, you know, it's just like, you know, I, well, I.

[D]

Mean lead conversion is, is going to be, you know, 3 to 4% right on a good, I mean, you know the game. But so I wouldn't feel too bad. I'm glad you're calling. You know, 18, 20 times 20, 25 we found. Now we haven't looked at the data, probably we need to look at it now, Cody, again. But the last time we looked at it it was taking 10.8 months for acre Brothers to close an Internet paid lead. So it took us 10.8 months. It took us two months. 10. Yeah, it took us 10, 10.8, 10.8 months. Oh, okay, yeah, 10.8 months to convert. Yeah, exactly. And then it took 36 calls on average 36 calls. Got someone 18 before we got them. 36 to the commission, check in hand.

[E]

Wow.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. That was the last time you ran it for last year, six months ago. Yeah.

[E]

That's good to know. That gives me some comfort.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. I just try to encourage you if you're doing the right thing. A lot of it is a numbers game. Just don't make the mistake that we've made and kind of still make. It's like everybody has the instant gratification mistake where all these leads. A no is not a never. And so it's very cost effective to nurture them through email. Get them into your system and nurture them through email. Because you never know three years from now, if you do your due diligence and then make sure, like all the leads you paid for that you have sitting in a database somewhere, make sure that you are like, do the Sharon email. I literally sent Steven, my brother, this is the email we're about to send. Let me see if I can read it to you because I thought it was really good. I hope this opens up to. Let's see. Sharon basically put out a post on his Instagram where, let's see. He said, I've sent him 1 million emails per month averaging 50% open rates for the last five years. He goes, I analyzed a thousand real estate emails recently and found the three worst performing. One was the just listed email. The second was the market update email. Third was a neighborhood guide email. Those were the three worst performing emails. Here was the email to send instead. And this is an email you should send and everybody should send to their leads. The highest performing email in my analysis contained exactly nine words and generated a 23% response rate. And here was. Here was the email, basically, are you still interested in buying a home in Lynchburg, Virginia, or whatever location you're at? It's like, are you still interested in buying a home in specific city? That was. That was the email.

[E]

But you can't keep sending that email every.

[D]

No, but I'm just saying, go hit your people. All your old leads, right? Set a cadence. This is what we're about to do. For all our old leads that, like last year we generated 1800 leads from Facebook and closed 26 deals, right? So we have literally a 'Thousand, you know, 700 and whatever the math is of leads that we should hit right now and going, are you still interested in buying a home in Forest, Virginia? Are you still interested in buying a home in the Lynchburg area? Like, you should do the same. I'm Just saying, don't underestimate the power of that database that you have that you can nurture for the rest of time. Because I know you're. You're focused on the new leads coming in and calling them, which is fantastic. But also make sure you drip well.

[E]

And I've just. I just set up my first lead drip campaign within my CRM. So I'm in. That's what I've been spending the last eight months is kind of getting an understanding of how. Because I. I use. Just to show you, I use a card system.

[D]

It's amazing. You guys can watch the YouTube video.

[E]

These are the months, these are the days, you know, Etc. And then I have a spreadsheet that I keep track of what day and month I put them in. But I realize I keep adding to this and I'm not reducing it. So I finally.

[D]

You need a CRM, brother.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[E]

After a certain amount of time. Because me calling is definitely valuable. Oh, yeah. I finally realized, yeah, maybe the call takes you 30 seconds to call and leave a voicemail and then send a text right after. But that's my time is valuable. So after, you know, I've got to decide. But after a certain amount of time, maybe it's six months or a year, then I move them into my drip campaign and then they're out of that. Out of that.

[C]

Love that.

[E]

And then in the drip campaign, I have that. I reach out to them every eight months.

[C]

Nice.

[D]

What? What do you mean every eight months? With a phone call.

[E]

I actually call or text like me every.

[D]

Every eight months to a cold. Okay. Yeah. Nice.

[B]

Awesome.

[D]

But your email, you should be sending an email at least once a month. You should be probably getting every two weeks.

[B]

Chat.

[C]

Chat.

[E]

GBT was amazing.

[D]

Yeah. It's a godsend. It's going to replace us all. One thing also is don't underestimate an MLS drip. Right? Because sellers who are interested in selling their home, they have to move somewhere, right. So they're also interested to know what's on the market. And a lot of these, I don't know what CRM you use, but a lot of these platforms will allow you to have an IDX page where you can send the IDX page and you can see what they've viewed. Right. So. So I send you an IDX page of all the listings in the area. It's like my own little Zillow page.

[E]

Yeah. Real Scout is who we have for that.

[D]

Okay, beautiful. So I'm sure Real Scout. Yeah, they have that. So now you can. Or check this with Real Scout. You should be able to view if the person has clicked what they viewed.

[E]

Yes.

[D]

Right. And so that's a way for you to. Yeah, that's a way for you to tell.

[E]

I set that up. Anyone who is a seller or I've. They've closed with me, and I have the address. I put that address in the. It's called a home listing alert. And then quarterly, they're getting an email that has all the homes within that. That zip code.

[D]

Beautiful. I'm just saying you should make sure all these leads you're buying are getting that drip from you, because all these leads you're buying that are interested in selling their home, they're also interested because if they're interested in selling their home, they're interested on knowing what's on the market for one, what their home is worth, but more importantly, for where they would move and where they would go to next. Right. And so, like Sharon's other famous email is the deal of the week email, where it's like, here's the deal of the week. You know, that came on and it's a popular social media thing that a lot of agents do, but the whole premise is you just are finding ways to stack 18 calls. You, I haven't heard from you. Are you alive? Okay, if I send you the MLS type drip email, IDX email, can I see that you're viewing it, that you're opening it. That's a way we tell, okay, this lead is actually real. They open my email, they're actually real versus not. So just some stuff to think about. As soon as I love the effort you're putting in, call.

[C]

As soon as you see it open on the email, you call them immediately. That's one. We got one guy, our team, Adam, crushing it with efficiency because he knows who to call based on the actions they're taking. So the reason you send the drip is to see the open, and then you give them a call and then boom.

[D]

Yep. Because nobody closes over.

[E]

You call and say, hey, I saw you open that email.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. What? I know you.

[D]

You go into.

[C]

They haven't got you up in a while.

[E]

Hey, I saw that you are alive and you're an actual person.

[D]

Yes. Yeah. Stop ignoring me. I saw you open my email. You could probably deliver it with sincerity. But no, it's like, hey, wanted to check in, you know, and follow up.

[E]

Right, Right.

[D]

I had sent you an email. Not sure if you got it.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

But I want to make sure that you saw it. You know, dude, it's getting scary. I mean, at the latest Tom Ferry conference, they were talking about with and the way data works, they basically can associate almost everything now with your email. It's almost like a Social Security number where it's like they know because your email is associated to what's happening at Home Depot or Lowe's or wherever you go. It's associated to so much of your purchasing that they. If they have your email, they can attach your email to your address, your address to your equity and your mortgage position and all that stuff. They can attach your email to your purchasing habits. And all of a sudden now it's like that data is being revealed. And that's one of the reasons why you need a good system and you need to be collecting emails from people because, you know, eventually these systems will show that to you. I know with our likely to move algorithm, you know, we're already starting. If we have an email, we can do a reverse lookup to find the address and then find out if they're likely to move, if, you know, based upon the score and stuff like that.

[E]

So.

[C]

Incredible.

[D]

Gregory, man, really appreciate you coming on. Sorry about the tech difficulties, but you didn't need us. You have the master, Cody, to answer the questions, but really appreciate you listening to the show, my man.

[E]

It's funny, almost said something, but he didn't say anything, so I didn't say anything, and we just kept.

[D]

Kept going. Yeah, Love it. Yeah, the Internet didn't. The Internet gods or whatever did not want Josh and I to be off the 101. Gregory, appreciate you though, man. And please connect with us on social.

[E]

Thanks for listening the insights.

[B]

Yes, sir.

[D]

Awesome.

[B]

All right, good luck.

[D]

See you.

[B]

Thanks.

[D]

Bye.

[E]

Bye.

[D]

He was great. Great job. Cody. I mean, it sounded like your answer was great. I mean, I don't really know because.

[B]

I couldn't hear it.

[D]

I mean, the recap was awesome. Yeah.

[C]

Yep.

[D]

So you guys know, if you're doubting, these are live calls, these are live. We are like. We've never really talked. I mean, we've never talked to these people. Maybe people on my team have set it up, but they join. Riverside is the platform we use, and Josh literally brings them in. Probably the hardest part about the show is we schedule, you know, three to four people, and some people don't show and so show earlier than or they show early.

[B]

So it's kind of tough.

[D]

We haven't figured out because we don't really have a producer, like, sitting anywhere. It's just us bringing people in and out. So Maybe if we. Maybe if you guys blow this up enough and we can get.

[B]

We can afford software that'll have a green room. Yeah, we'll invite you in.

[D]

We could get a producer on staff. Can you imagine that?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, if you do want to come on the show and have your question answered live, you can go to remindermedia.com ask and of course, you can follow us on State Page. Shoot us a DM there as well. Thank you for listening. You can get this show, all of the notes and the video for this episode. Make sure to check out the video because you want to see Greg's Rolodex, his CRM, paper CRM in the box there.

[D]

I haven't seen that.

[B]

You can go.

[D]

I mean, that was awesome.

[B]

You can go to staypaidpodcast.com for that as well as YouTube.com reminder media. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and give this video a thumbs up. And if you enjoyed this episode, the best way to show your support is simply to share this with somebody that you know. For this episode of Stay Paid, I'm Joshua Stike.

[D]

Guys, I'm Luke Acre and I should give a shout out to Chris. She's my executive assistant and she is basically the producer. She schedules everybody on the show. So we do have her, but she's not in the studio with us. Maybe we should get her to actually manage it in the studio. It might go well. Guys, remember, right, all the stuff you heard today, you heard something that prompted you to go, yeah, I should be doing that. The difference between top producers and mediocre producers is top producers take action. So prompted you go take action on that.

[A]

Sam.