These top 5 prospecting mistakes could seriously cost you listings

Coronis Strathpine director, Jack Harvey, said agents were wasting their time when prospecting, becoming too caught up in research, giving up easily, failing to engage clients, or being overly dependent on the phone.

Ultimately, he said agents needed a disciplined, goal-oriented approach to prospecting, ensuring not to overthink it or lose motivation.

Here are the top five mistakes:

1. Calling without a purpose

According to Harvey, the biggest mistake agents could make was calling prospective clients without a purpose or only to “check in” with the person.

He said many people nowadays preferred not to talk on the phone if they didn’t have to, which meant it was essential for agents to quickly catch their attention.

“If you’re not calling with a purpose and you’re just checking in or you’re following up, that’s the first thing that will cause people to want to get off the phone with you,” he told REB.

Harvey said providing information was often effective, including telling the person about a recent sale the agency had achieved, or a property that had just been listed for sale.

“Just calling and going, ‘Hey, look, we just sold 123 Smith Street around the corner. Had multiple offers on that property. Ended up selling for $970,000. We’re just keeping you up to date with what’s going on. Are you looking at selling?”

“It’s just giving valuable information that a potential seller wouldn’t know and keeping them up to date with the market – ‘just listed’ and ‘just solds’ have worked really well for me in the past.”

2. Being fake busy

Harvey said many newer agents tended to believe they were too busy for prospecting and became caught up with less-important tasks.

“What I say a lot to my guys is, agents think they’re really busy, but they’re really not … I think they just get in their own head,” he said.

“It’s really easy to go and grab a coffee and wait half an hour or get stuck on the phone to a buyer or something like that where you’re sort of not focusing on what you need to be doing.

Harvey said it was a matter of adjusting their mindset and not making a “mountain out of a molehill” with their other duties.

“A lot of new agents make 20, 30 connections a day – I think you need to be making in excess of 80 to 100 calls a day.

“It’s important just to lock in on those prospecting calls because that’s what’s going to get you to your goals.”

3. Spraying and praying

Despite urging agents to set high goals for their daily calls, Harvey said some made the mistake of relying solely on the phone instead of physically getting out into their neighbourhood.

“For example, I tell my guys to take a new trip to work every day – don’t go the same direction to work every day and actually have a drive around your area,” he said.

“Get out in your marketplace, go do some door knocks, go sit down with people, get belly to belly with your community.”

Harvey said agents should also keep a lookout for skip bins, painters and home improvements that indicated home owners were intending to sell.

“Rather than trying to spray and pray and speaking to 150 people, try to sniper a few people that are [around].”

“You look like a true professional, and you look like you know that area really well, especially like I said, if you’re driving around there all the time.”

4. Seeking instant results

According to Harvey, some agents approached prospecting thinking they would receive instant gratification, becoming discouraged when they didn’t see the results of their work right away.

“The work that you do today is going to pay off in three to six months, but one mistake that I see is agents quitting too early,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a mental game. It’s about building that pipeline and making sure that, six, 12 months down the track, you’re going to be absolutely braining it.”

Harvey said setting clear goals was vital to keeping agents motivated and on-track so they remembered why they had to prospect.

He said agents should break down the numbers and work backwards from their listing target, knowing how many conversations and appointments they need to generate each week.

“It’s about being clear on the numbers and going, ‘if I do X amount, that’s going to give me this’, and just having somebody in your corner that can sit down with you and go, "Okay, this is what you need to do to be successful."

5. Over-researching

While it’s important to be informed about the market, Harvey said some agents spent too much time researching a property before making a call to the home owner, which may not pay off.

He said agents should save their time and energy, only becoming an expert on the property once they knew the home owner was selling.

“Agents will look at the block size, etc, and they’ll be all over it when they’re having the conversation, but that client might not be selling.”

“So don’t get too fancy with it. Just make the call. You don’t need to sit there and be an absolute expert on their home or anything along those lines – it’s the volume that’s going to count.”

However, he said it was still essential to keep updated on their local market, being aware of recent sales, how many homes were in the suburb, and where the local parks and cafes were.

“That’s a separate thing. You need to be an expert on your market if you’re going to be any good at this.”