If You’re Not Doing THIS, You’re Not Making Money, Part One, by Tony Pearl

I was just a new, wannabe real estate investor the first time I heard the expression that would change everything for me.

It was at a real estate education event (aka a “Boot Camp”) many years ago in Florida when the teacher uttered those prophetic words that still ring in my head to this very day…

“If You Ain’t Making Enough OFFERS, You Ain’t Making Any MONEY!”

At first, I was taken aback. What did he mean, “make enough offers?”
I also distinctly remember wondering: “What exactly IS an offer, and HOW do you make one?”  God, I was SO new, and obviously didn’t have a clue!

I remember thinking that an offer was basically a contract, which you wrote up when you went out to the seller’s house, sat down with them, and negotiated a deal together…which is what I started doing as soon as I could. That led to me buying many, many houses, and doing a lot of deals. But there was always something bothering me in the back of my mind…

One day, I realized something important while I was working HARD going out to these sellers’ houses and making these offers. I realized that there were still a LOT of people that I talked to who indicated that they might be interested in selling their house to me in the way I was trying to describe to them, but why don’t I just “send them some information” so they can fully understand what I was able to do for them. In other words, they were curious but not motivated enough to meet.

And that’s when it hit me like a slap on the face on a cold day in January!

What I was doing with those sellers was the same thing that I believe most investors do with them: NOTHING! There was very little follow up done, because I often believed that it just wasn’t worth it to follow up. But boy, was I wrong!

I figured that if these people wanted something to read, why don’t I just give it to them? Since I had nothing to lose, I just started… MAKING OFFERS to these seemingly unmotivated people, just to see what would happen.

I love marketing. And one of the BIGGEST, time-tested concepts in marketing is the TEST. So, I decided to do a little test. I hypothesized that if I just made a couple offers to the next 10 sellers, I talked to who weren’t ready at the time that I’d be able to at least talk with them at a higher level when I followed up later.

What Happened as a Result Shocked Me…

I couldn’t believe it! Several of the sellers who initially told me that they weren’t interested, couldn’t understand, or weren’t flexible – started calling me back! And the ones that didn’t call me back were a LOT easier to talk to when I called them back to follow up.

I found that many of these people were more curious and open to talking about HOW this worked and which offer might be best for them. In other words, it was like getting another turn at bat, to use a baseball analogy. It gave me another chance to talk to them about how we could do business together!

This strategy also raised my conversion rate considerably, which allowed me to do more deals and make more money. Do you think it would work for you, too?

As creative real estate investors, it’s important to recognize that what we DO for people is quite ‘different’ than the normal way things are usually done. If someone that we’re talking to is confused or just doesn’t understand the benefits of our various programs (which is more often the case than not), we can either dismiss them as not being “Low-Hanging Fruit,” or find a way to inform and educate them a little bit about how we work and what we can do for them. Only then can they truly make an informed decision.

So part of making offers is educating the sellers/prospects. And when a seller has a legitimate offer in hand, it gives them something “tangible” to read and evaluate.  You see, we all have 3 prime ways that we learn: Seeing, hearing, and feeling. If all we do is talk to someone on the phone, they’re essentially only hearing what we’re saying, while at the same time getting a ‘feeling’ of everything. But when we put an offer in their hand, it also gives them something to see & read. This solidifies their learning and comprehension, because it incorporates all 3 learning modalities. It also gives them more reason to talk with us.

Not only that, but VERY few people are using this strategy. Most people are scared and lazy. They feel like if the person to whom they’re talking isn’t ready that very first time they talk to them, they’ll never do business together…and that’s just ridiculous.

Make sure you come back to this space in the next publication, because you won’t want to miss the exciting Part 2 of this article…

“The Fortune is in The Follow-Up”