According to an August Straw Poll in a Real Estate Business Bulletin, 47.5 percent of agents believe that door knocking is not effective.
Trainer, Peter Gilchrist, was quoted as saying that the last type of person a home owner wanted knocking uninvited at their front door was an agent. “I’d rather have Mormons knock on my door“, he was reported to say.
Now let me tell you about Adam Horth, who in August 2012 listed 35 properties in the Ipswich QLD area, 14 of which came from door knocking.
People that say door knocking is dead either haven’t knocked on many, or they have a terrible door knocking presentation. Either they did not speak to enough people, or they did so incompetently. For such people door knocking is dead. For the rest, it’s alive and well.
Adam developed the prospecting HABIT early in his career. He commenced his career as a HomeFINDER – a fulltime prospector. All he did was prospect, and then hand his leads over to winning team members, who turned them into listings and then into sales.
In his first year as a HomeFINDER, the fees from sales that came off Adam’s leads were approximately $450,000 (gross average fee around $9,000). In his second year Adam’s fees grew to $720,000 – this is not a misprint. Average listings per month: 15. Highest number of listings in a single month: 26. Adam told me that 60 percent of his prospecting was at doors.
A salesperson with the prospecting habit is rare. Adam carried this habit over into his Sales career. In his first year as a salesperson, he produced just over $475,000. From there Adam grew to be one of the best salespeople in the industry.
Today Adam is the principal of his own agency. And just so you don’t say, “There you go – all the good ones leave!“, Adam’s partners are the two leaders that gave him his start in real estate. They still all work together.
So here’s Adam, in an area where nobody knows him. What does an accomplished prospector who wants to build business do? Goes out and knocks on doors. Lots of doors. And he gets lots of listings.
The ratios haven’t changed. Speak to around 100 potential sellers and you will get listings. Meet as many as possible face-to-face and you will create a great impression.
These days everybody is raving about Social Media, but you should know that it has its limitations.
I see agents spending huge amounts of time playing with facebook and Twitter, when instead they should be out door knocking.
What’s the point spending hours on Twitter when you only have ten followers? A huge amount of agents spend huge amounts of time trying to get their ‘message’ to bugger-all followers! This is dumb.
Try this: go out and knock on 1,000 doors. Ask the Bill Nasby question: “Thanks for your time. I’m a real estate agent looking for work. When are you planning on moving?”
Do that, and then tell me if door knocking isn’t effective.
Hi I just got a job door knocking I’m very excited. I want to do awesome and get many listings got any tips for me?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Danielle, Congratulations on your new position. The best tip I can give you is to set yourself a mission every day. A good thing to do is to make it a game: find somebody who is selling now by 1PM and then door knock with determination until you find someone. It’s amazing how often you find a listing when you set yourself a clear mission to do so and put a deadline on it. Good luck and please do stay in touch. Best wishes, Gary.
Hey there, I have just gained a role as a home finder in my office and want to progress into a sales role! I seem to get nervous every time I set out to do doorknocking.. What tips do you have to get over these nerves?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Dylan, the advice I give here is the same I would give to any presenter: study the script so you are fluent and natural in delivering it. Then go out and talk to 80 people a day. You have to get good at something you do regularly. Also, keep studying the prospecting programs on iTrain, and call The Winners Circle Hotline regularly so that you fine tune your presentation. Best wishes, Gary.
Hi I am going to start new Job in Real Estate as Home Finder here in Melbourne.I did this a bit in the Past but had to leave for some reasons but I m going to start again.Any tips for me please.
Thanks.
Hi Pinder, is your agency giving you any training? If not, I advise you to buy Jeb Blount’s book, Fanatical Prospecting. There is also a program called Doors To Success by Bill Nasby (it’s a CD program). You can get this from the Pittard office. We carry a few copies and send the money on to Bill’s family. Another thing to consider is a script. In the absence of all else, if you knock on a door and ask this question, “Hi, I’m a real estate agent looking for work. When are you planning on moving?”, you will get information about sellers’ plans for moving. It’s the first of Bill Nasby’s questions. Ask that 1,000 times and you WILL get listing appointments! Best wishes, Gary. PS, I am sorry it’s taken me a while to reply, but I only now became aware of your question.