COLD CALLING IN REAL ESTATE

Cold calling is an important element in the overall outbound marketing strategy, but again, only one element. Realtors or telesales agents shouldn’t rely on cold calling alone as a complete marketing strategy for lead generation and conversion. Some other examples of outbound marketing that should be considered include, but are not limited to, are Search Ads, Trade Shows, Direct Mail, and Content Marketing. Now for cold calling to be an ideal form of lead generation that guarantees an appointment with prospects, it is important for you as a telesales agent with a niche to arm yourself with:

1. Effective communication and leads management platform
2. A well-conducted research
3. A great cold calling script

Having effective communication and leads management platform helps with managing the outbound calls, inbound marketing, data management, and the re-engagement strategy. NeoDove is one end-to-end tech-enabled sales automation platform, which helps to maximize the calling output, it provides real-time insights (monitoring and analysis), and offers more transparency and control over the communication process. The platform also features a customizable and editable questionnaire forming template. Utilizing such technology guarantees that you effectively manage, monitor and develop your relationship with prospects and existing customers.

To successfully sell, it is important to understand the current landscape of your product’s industry, as it varies with time and administration. And to successfully sell a product to a target audience, you must understand the audience’s demographics, sociographic, firmographic, and attitudinal behaviour. Well-conducted research makes you better perceive how cold calling might be more successful with which type of niche.

Example 1: The house price to annual income ratio should be considered.

Example 2: Cultural and behavioral norms affect how we communicate with targeted audiences. With eastern countries, we should tend to be more friendly, this helps to ease out the communication process, and the prospect will be more eager to connect with you. You can ask about how the prospect’s family is doing or about how work is going. But with western countries, it is a bit different. We should be more straightforward and professional, or else we will be perceived as to be invading personal privacy.

Now, let’s talk about cold calling in the real estate industry. The key to a winning cold calling is not what you say, it’s rather how you say it. How you position yourself during a cold call should reflect your core traits and positive attitude that buyers want in a real estate agent. A behaviour like:

• Strong confidence in your abilities
• Preparations that connotes to your prospect how good you are for the job
• Enthusiasm and patience to get the property sold

If there is one special sauce that enhances the quality of your cold call, it is a script. A script or pre-planned phone conversation helps you establish a connection with your prospects. It asks questions about buying interest, it clears out concerns and confirms availability for follow-ups. A personalized script acts as a guide to your conversation, although it can sometimes be tough because people are short on time and patience. But with the right preparations and a handful of qualified leads, you can have fun conducting them every day!

Before jumping on how to design a cold calling script, here are few things things to remember:

• Define the outcome you would like. For example: An appointment.
• Set a daily target, to ensure that you connect to enough prospects each week.
• Maintain a positive attitude regardless of the prospect’s mood.
• Show empathy to your prospects.
• Understand the prospect’s needs or goals.
• Be prepared to answer their objections and provide solutions.
• Your script should show knowledge of the prospect’s interests.

How can I write a script to amplify your cold calling strategy?

1. THE GREETING

Start your script with polite communication. Use your prospect’s first name, keep it short and to the point. Professional respect and a good reputation set you up for long term success.

“Hello. Good morning, is this Atul?

PAUSE

It’s great to finally reach you! Is this a good time to talk?”

2. THE INTRODUCTION

Give some time for the client to respond because they might be busy with something. And showing this courtesy sets a good direction for the conversation. Now, the prospect will either give their permission or raise an objection. Regardless of what they say, your answer should be:.

“My name is Aakash and I’m a real estate expert for Project X”

And in case you face an objection, always lead with empathy:

“If you are busy, I completely understand and I can call back later”

“Yes, I can totally feel your frustration but if you are low on time, I’ll just get to the point, John”

But if they have no objection, proceed with the elevator pitch!

3. THE PITCH

Your elevator pitch needs to be convincing and it should generate curiosity. It should be transparent, revealing your motive for the call and it should provide a solution.

I have noticed that you are interested in buying a property in Project X. And I happened to have helped more than X people find a home in that area. The project offers an exquisite residential and commercial gated community. It is the best for both urban and suburban living. The project has utilized the land space intelligently to deliver a high-end living experience and a diverse range of facilities and services.

Would you be interested in visiting the site, or perhaps meeting up to discuss your buying needs?

PAUSE

Would you be open to meeting up tomorrow?”

4. HANDLING THE OBJECTIONS

After the elevator pitch if the prospect starts asking questions, then he is interested. But if you start receiving objections and the prospect starts making excuses for an exit, you should still respond to the objection, and to do that properly:

- Show empathy for their experience

- Provide solutions

It is important to focus on helping them reach their goals instead of focusing on how to persuade them to set an appointment.

5. THE CLOSURE

When ending the call, make sure you provide your prospect with clear instructions on what is supposed to happen next. A good advice is to be decisive, have an appointment time in mind before you even make the call. And once you have the confirmation from the prospect, give them your positive reaffirmation!

“That’s great, Atul! If it’s possible, we can meet tomorrow morning at 10am. I’ll send you a confirmation SMS, if that works for you?”

Finally, you have done the work on how the discussion would have gone with prospects, by writing and memorizing your scripts. Like this, you will find it easier to drive the conversation and positively affect the outcomes of your calls. And keep in mind that you shouldn’t rely on cold calling scripts alone to have a productive conversation with prospects, you are only using it to make the prospect aware of what you have got to sell and to make a good first impression.