Posts Tagged ‘Prospecting’

Happy Tax Day!

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Happy Tax Day! Today is a GREAT day to be contacting your center of influence and past client lists on MOJO and reminding them to file their taxes today. If they bought their first home in 2009, remind them of the Tax Credit, and to include their IRS Form 5504. It’s available online for download. How about posting a link in and e-mail and sending it out after you talk to each of your COI with the hyperlink? This would be a great way to reach them by phone, and e-mail!

I haven’t seen the screen shot, but I am really excited for the MoJo-X program that is coming soon. This is going to be a GREAT tool for Real Estate agents, and other sales people, to really follow up with Leads. If there is one downside to the current program, it’s the ease of Lead Follow – Up, and setting up action plans. Guess what, with Mojo-X, that will change!

Mojo is such a powerful tool, and can be used in multiple ways. Feel free to call me on my cell phone, or e-mail me, just to get feedback about the system, I’d be happy to give you my honest opinion about the program, and why you should sign up for it!

~Bryan Washington

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Reduce real estate stress with the Mojo-REDX Dream Team!

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
You'll feel like 500 pounds has been taken off your shoulders with the stress-reduction real estate prospecting tools from Mojo and RedX

You'll feel like 500 pounds has been taken off your shoulders with the stress-reduction real estate prospecting tools from Mojo and REDX

OK, so we all agree that there is no magic formula to improve your real estate sales performance.

It’s a simple equation:

MORE LEADS = MORE SALES CALLS = MORE APPOINTMENTS = MORE DEALS

If you’re on this blog, you likely already know how Mojo’s Triple Line Power Dialer makes your sales team three times more productive by ensuring ALL their time is spent chatting on the phone with no time wasted with hang-ups, wrong numbers or answering machines.

BUT let’s go back to the first part of the success equation. There’s no one to talk to if you don’t have the phone numbers in the first place. Where do all those expired listings and For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listings come from anyhow?

For FSBO listings, it requires checking newspaper and on-line real estate ads daily and then manually cross-referencing if it is a duplicate lead from weeks or months before.  For each expired listing harvested from the MLS, agents have to monotonously repeat the following five steps:

1. Cross check against the MLS Actives and Solds to see if it is relisted or sold.

2. Look up homeowner information on tax records.

3. Go to online people search companies and do a search on homeowner’s name, property address, and mailing address. Some searches require fees for each piece of information.

4. Cross reference phone numbers against the National Do Not Call Registry.

5. Check their own note system to see if they previously connected with the homeowner.

Pretty dizzying, huh?

Real estate agents tell us it can take an average of 5 to 15 minutes to research contact information for each expired listing. That’s a lot of time and energy just to verify if the phone number is worth calling, especially since many of those calls may result in a 15 second conversation or hang-up.

When you are playing the numbers game, it makes sense to reduce the aggravation ratio. The less time you spend vetting numbers, the more time you spend talking to actual people. After all, phone numbers don’t make any purchasing decisions.

Real Estate Data X-Change (The REDX) is the largest expired and FSBO listing research company in the United States. We highly recommend REDX to all our real estate clients because quite frankly, REDX supplies the “bullets” for the Mojo “machine gun.”  They mirror our philosophy that sales people need to be spending their time selling, not pressing buttons or clicking the mouse.

Heck, you can’t get carpal tunnel syndrome from talking!

We recently caught up with Renita Dastrup, REDX’s director of business development. In this brief Q & A, she explains why REDX and Mojo are the best combination since peanut butter and chocolate.

Q: Have you gotten any feedback from real estate agents regarding their stress levels?

A: The most common feedback is how we make life so much easier by doing the menial task of look-up so that they can focus on making connections with people.   Many agents say that after spending hours looking for information, they are drained of the energy needed to make the call.  Many agents have a fear of dialing the phone (call reluctance) and having the REDX system allows them to focus on connecting with the homeowner on the other end.

Q: So how does Mojo fit in as a logical extension of REDX?

A: Mojo is a perfect solution when it comes to agents with call reluctance.  It’s amazing how just the simple task of dialing the phone will cause procrastination. It’s like trying to give yourself a shot — it’s so much easier and quicker to give the nurse your arm and brace for the pain, and when it’s all over, it wasn’t that bad!  For the agents that don’t have a problem with making phone calls, they can make so many more calls then if they were to just dial the phone.

Q: Why do you recommend Mojo to your clients versus other competing services?

A: We are already set up to export to Mojo so that makes it easy for the agents, plus Mojo has the ability to recognize when a lead has re-listed and stops the agent from making a call that won’t lead to a listing.

Sometimes we refer to prospecting like panning for gold.  REDX narrows the mountain down to a manageable pile of dirt that has the highest potential for a golden return.  Mojo would be like a sieve that would help you sift through the dirt faster!

Q: How does the bad economy play into the prospecting equation?

A: Many coaches and trainers are saying that in this economy back to basics is essential, and prospecting is the number one activity an agent can do to get business.  REDX and Mojo both are productive tools that help get the agent out there in front of prospective clients and use their time wisely.

(To learn more on how Mojo can dramatically improve your real estate prospecting in this tough economy, click here.)

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Posted in Hot Tips, Prospecting 101, Realtor Prospecting, Realtors | No Comments »

Bringing Mojo to San Jose

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Every day I share with people what Mojo can do for them and ultimately, their business goals.  Altogether it’s not too difficult a job, relying on rudimentary sales principles: identifying needs, offering solutions and if the two jive, we walk away with a great business relationship.
On February 7, I had the opportunity to travel to the West Coast for the first time so I could share the Mojo experience in-person.  I took a plane ride from Manchester, NH to Chicago, IL and then I was off to San Jose, CA to Tom Ferry’s Business by Design 3-day event. Face-to-face, to the thousands passing by our booth, I had the responsibility of conveying  a software-based triple-line power dialing and lead management program capable of emailing, dropping prerecorded messages on answering machines, and CID substitution.
Regardless of how daunting of a task that sounds, I don’t think it could have turned out better.  With the help of everyone at the event, from those on Tom’s team to the staff at the San Jose Convention Center, the experience was certainly one worth writing home to Mom about.

On Facebook.
One fact I learned from Tom Ferry: the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users are women over 55.  Now it makes sense to me why my mom, sister, aunts, and their friends are all getting down on FB like they are.  Their lives are hectic so time is of value.  Social networking appeals to the busy lifestyle; texting ”hi” is easier than taking five minutes out of your day to try to catch a person by phone.  Our lives today require not just instant communications, but convenient and reliable ones.  That’s why Facebook and Twitter are becoming staples of our daily lives. That’s also why Mojo is becoming the experience thousands of people are counting on every day make their day-to-day operations more reliable and convenient.
While I’m not a real estate professional, I took away an enormous amount of insight in just the few moments I was able to catch what Tom had to share.  Not only was he able to keep my ear to the ground in regards to what’s going on in social media, I also gained knowledge from web design and internet practices to how choosing your interactions with those around you helps better enable you to become the master of the market you’re in, not a victim of it.
The highlight of the trip was meeting people who already had their Mojo.  Michaelangelo Guevara was attending the Business by Design event and I had set up a Mojo account with him a week or two prior to the San Jose event. He let me know that within the first two days of using Mojo, he landed a listing appointment for a house valued at $2.2 million.  The look of excitement was clear on his face; he knew what having his Mojo was all about.  His experience made me think, though, if that was the 79th call in a list and he became too frustrated with hand-dialing by call 78 of that day, would he still have had the same look on his face?
Michaelangelo is like most professionals out there - looking for solutions that will stand up in today’s business world and keep them on track to where they want to be in a year, as well as a decade, from now.  So many of the people at Tom Ferry’s Business by Design mega-event were looking for the same solutions.

They all walked away with that, and a little Mojo.

~ Josh

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What I learned at Inman Connect 2010- NYC

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

What I learned at the Inman Connect conference

There is a BUZZ in real estate right now. Everyone I was lucky enough to meet was very optimistic about 2010 and their creative marketing juices were flowing! The exhibitor hall was filled with companies displaying the ‘next best thing’ in real estate marketing and work flow. I was quite impressed with the technology that is available right now for agents to market themselves, their websites and their properties.

Next to our booth was United Lane which easily had one of the most exciting booths at the conference. They sell software that allows agents to show off their properties floor plans in 3D and customize the home to the customers wants/needs. Nothing like painting a picture to help the sales process along! If you’re an agent, you really should check them out.

The conference had all kinds of great speakers and workshops. I was fortunate enough to sit in one workshop for us exhibitors by Greg Robertson, Co-Founder of W&R Studios. He outlined how to sell new, innovative products in to the Real Estate industry and I was pleasantly surprised to find out we are doing 75% of what we do right.

I also sat in on the “Duet” between Tom Ferry and Rob Hahn which addressed the up and downside to social marketing…Loved the title of the event, Social Media or Social Snake Oil. They presented their cases and debated the pros and cons of social marketing.  I loved it when Tom started it out by stating he had research his opponent’s blog to get more info for the Duet!  I left thinking that social media can be a very good passive marketing tool. Oh yeah…and both Tom and Rob are absolutely fantastic to watch! For more on Tom Ferry please visit www.yourcoach.com and take time to visit Rob Hahn’s blog at www.notorious-rob.com .

Final thoughts…

We had a great time, met tons of wonderful people and learned a lot about the industry that has helped shape our company in to what it is today. Prospecting by phone is still the single most effective form of marketing today. Fast results, real time ROI and one-on-one relationship building makes prospecting expired listings, FSBO leads and just listed/just sold a must do in 2010! Visit our site today to see just how we can make a dramatic impact on your business www.mojosells.com.

- David

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Posted in Realtor Prospecting, Realtors | 2 Comments »

Telemarketing sales ethics no different than face-to-face business ethics

Friday, December 18th, 2009
One disreputable telemarketer tarnishes us all.

One disreputable telemarketer tarnishes us all.

The Federal Trade Commission is suing three companies that have been making automated recorded phone calls to sell “worthless” credit card interest reduction programs, charging customers an up front fee as high as $1,495 and delivering zilcho.

Here’s a snippet from the official government press release:

“According to the three FTC complaints, Economic Relief Technologies, LLC, Dynamic Financial Group (U.S.A.) Inc., and JPM Accelerated Services (JPM), and related defendants made illegal pre-recorded robocalls to consumers, using names like “card services,” “credit card services” or “account services.” The robocalls allegedly claimed the defendants’ services could lower the interest rate on consumers’ credit cards. In each case, consumers who pressed 1 after hearing the automated call were transferred to live telemarketers who allegedly misrepresented that consumers could dramatically lower the rates on their credit card.

The telemarketers also said consumers would save thousands of dollars in a short period of time by lowering their interest rates and would be able to pay off their debts faster – for an up-front fee ranging from $495 to $1,495. The defendants then falsely stated that if consumers did not save a “guaranteed” amount – typically $2,500 or more – they could get a full refund of the up-front fee. However, after securing the fee, the defendants allegedly did not negotiate lower rates on behalf of consumers and provided few refunds to those who were dissatisfied with the service.”

Here’s the deal.  Every time consumers get ripped off by sleazeballs using telemarketing technology, it makes all of our jobs harder. Getting robbed on the phone is certainly preferable to getting mugged on the street, but that is little consolation to these scam victims.

What’s more astounding is that companies are still choosing to use pre-recorded sales calls at all.  Since Sept. 1, 2009, recorded sales pitches have been illegal with the exception of a few rare instances — such as the customer previously requesting such calls in advance (like that’s gonna happen!)

The reality is that sales calls are about building personal relationships and talking to machines is a total turnoff.

The reality is that targeted leads often welcome telemarketing calls, such as is the experience of stellar Arizona real estate agent Curt Stinson.

With Mojo lead management software and power dialer technology, you project the friendly human interaction as your first impression — even on the first hello.  No robotic recordings.

The Mojo power dialer with lead management will make 250-300 calls an hour, constantly feeding you the live customers as they pick up!

Moreover, with no robot interaction, your sales staff will encounter far fewer hostile responses — making their work shifts less stressful and more productive.

Now if we could just invent a device to weed out the unscrupulous scam artists!

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Posted in Insurance Agents, Power Dialer Technology, Prospecting 101, Realtor Prospecting, Realtors, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Real Estate:Tax Credit Extended and Expanded, Now What?- Bryan Washington

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

So we have the information, now we need to figure out what to do with it…  Yes, there is an $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit and a $6,500 Existing Homeowner Tax Credit, if you’ve been under a rock the last few weeks.  The question is…what do you we do to get the information out to our clients?

Well, you could mail a postcard, you could send an e-mail, better yet…why not MOJO it over to them.  On the Mojo dialer screen there is an option called AM-Email.  This is where you can set a default e-mail template and send it when you get an answering machine.  How about recording a brief greeting for your COI/Past Clients that talks about the tax credit, and asking them to check their e-mail  for complete details.

Then, close for the referral within the e-mail.  It’s an easy way to add value to your prospecting time without taking up money while Mojo dialing!

business card pic 2

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Posted in Realtor Prospecting, Realtors | 2 Comments »

The Mojo Sales Engine Thrives in Tough Real Estate Markets

Friday, November 6th, 2009
Tucson realtor Curt Stinson credits Mojo auto dialer and lead management software for QUADRUPLING his business

Tucson Realtor Curt Stinson credits Mojo lead management software for QUADRUPLING his business contacts

Take a look at the gorgeous landscape above. It’s Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona.

But there’s also something intensely ugly going on in Tucson. Property values have recently plummeted by 45 percent, making the area one of the worst hit cities in America alongside Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Despite it all, real estate broker Curt Stinson, a 15-year industry veteran, is smoking with leads from cold calls. For the past four months, he’s operated a call center with five telemarketers using the Mojo auto dialer and Mojo lead management tracking program, which automatically qualifies prospects after a phone call and moves the data to the next stage of the deal flow.

“As more and more agents drop out of the business, we’re picking up their customers,” says Curt. “And all my business is coming from prospecting. I don’t pursue bank referrals because those will eventually dry up when the market comes back.”

Curt’s call team dials more than 2,000 numbers a night and goes with this basic script: “We recently just sold a home in your area and we’re checking if you might be interested in selling your home.”

“It’s amazing how many people say yes,” he notes. “It’s hard for me to follow up on all the leads I generate and that’s a great problem to have.”

The Tucson broker credits Mojo’s Triple Line Power Dialer, which minimizes downtime by never stopping its dialing and only giving you live calls, for boosting his results from generating 8-9 contacts per hour to 30-40 contacts per hour.

Real estate is a pure numbers game. Making more contacts = more appointments = more listings = more sales.

“Over the past year, our overall business has increased by 20 percent and a good portion of it is because of Mojo,” says Curt. “Next year should be even better!”

He adds that he is looking forward to exploring Mojo’s Live Lead Feed, our system of automatically tracking Internet leads without having to manually enter data, when he ramps up his Website side of the business.

For now, though Curt is too busy handling the business generated by phone and offers this advice for any industry peers considering adopting Mojo: “Be prepared for a huge boost and be prepared to follow-up!”

Perhaps Curt’s Mojo experience can be duplicated in your market. Find out more about how our lead management auto dialer software can dramatically impact YOUR real estate business!

(If coincidentally you happen to be hunkering for a piece of Southern Arizona real estate, you can contact Curt at www.homesbycurt.com)

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Posted in Realtor Prospecting, Realtors | 6 Comments »

Mojo software builds sales confidence — even if you aren’t a shagadelic superhero

Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Although Mojo software was not named for the infamous "mojo" life source from the Austin Powers movie, our Mojo will energize your sales staff in the same way!

Although Mojo software was not named for the infamous "mojo" life source from the Austin Powers movie, our Mojo will energize your sales staff in the same way!

One of the most frequent questions we get here at Mojo Selling Solutions is “Did you guys take your name from the Austin Powers movie?”

No, we did not.

Here’s what the word means to sales manager David K. England: “When you’re at your best, thing just fall into place. When customers can’t tell you no… when everything is going as planned… when you are living in a ‘Yes World,’ you have Mojo!”

And here’s what Mojo means to Dr. Evil, the archnemesis of shagadelic spy Austin Powers… Click here or on the picture of Dr. Evil below to link to the video:

Dr. Evil had to steal his Mojo. You can get yours legally at Mojosells.com

Dr. Evil had to steal his Mojo. You can get yours legally at Mojosells.com

As Dr. Evil points out, Mojo is the “Right Stuff,” the “Life Force,” the “Essence” of who we are when we are at our best.

Mojo software is a telemarketing godsend, helping your phone sales staff be at their best.

Our auto-dialing and lead management software — ideal for professionals in the real estate, insurance and mortgage/debt services industries — boosts confidence by cutting through all the answering machines, wrong numbers and hang-ups and transferring only the live leads to you. Nothing sucks the life out of a sales pitch than being stuck in the muck of phone calls without live prospects.

Here are some core features of Mojo lead management software and why it will put an extra zing in your phone sales attitude. We’ll fully explore each feature in-depth in upcoming blog posts:

Triple Line Power Dialer: Dials at a blazing speed of 250 calls per hour. When a call is answered, our power dialer is so fast you hear the “first hello,” not the third or fourth.

Dynamic Deal Flow: Mojo has built-in business and sales intelligence; it tracks every call and qualifies the lead to dynamically move it to the next stage in your deal flow. You can easily track your leads through your sales pipeline, without any effort on your part.

Multiple Caller ID Broadcast: Don’t let your caller ID keep your customers from answering. People remember your caller ID from previous attempts and will not pick up because they know why you are calling. We have the solution… Simply change your caller ID inside of Mojo throughout the day and increase your chances of a live lead!

Live Lead Feed: Allows users to have their Internet leads either emailed in to Mojo or XML-posted in to the campaign of their choice by their lead vendor. This dramatically increases efficiency of prospecting versus having to manually enter data and spending less time honing your sales pitch on the phone.

Best news of all, unlike Dr. Evil, you don’t have to STEAL your Mojo. It’s available for sale right here.

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Real Estate- As the year winds down by Bryan Washington

Monday, October 26th, 2009

4th Quarter is upon is in Real Estate, which means one of two things for real estate agents.  You either work your hardest this time, to get inventory built up for next year, and generate a few sales in between…or…you take off from Halloween to Martin Luther King Day.   Unfortunately, I made the mistake of the latter last year, by not working harder than ever, and my production this year has suffered because of it.

Well, this year, I refuse to let that happen.  Now is the time to contact every For Sale By Owner, Expired Listing, and Past Client/Center of Influence in your marketplace.  Mojo has made that easier, at least for me.  One of the things that I’ve done is import my entire Database into the dialing system.  So…rather than leaving 200+ people messages, I can record one message and leave several at a time if no one answers.

Set your clients up on an action plan, and schedule SEVERAL calls throughout the year ahead of time.  Touch base with them every quarter.  If you’re using the MoJo system to its full potential, you can add notes about previous conversations, to get the rapport generating part of the call out of the way, and get back to business!

Oh…and be sure always include that call to action when you’re speaking with them, ask for the business, keep track of the notes in the dialer, and work hard every day!

-Bryan Washingtonbryansphoto

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Finding Your ‘Mojo’

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

We all know that prospecting doesn’t rate too high on the ‘fun’ list. It probably rates in the ballpark of public speaking or getting poked in the face with a sharp stick. Sometimes, it feels more like a chore than a positive action for your business. You need to approach prospecting with MOJO. MOJO means getting in your groove, getting into a flow where you are alert, enthusiastic, and on top of your game. Nothing is worse than calling 20 numbers in a row and getting an answering machine or no answer for every single one. It puts a damper on your MOJO. When this happens, it zaps the energy right out of you. Calling number after number and not getting results changes your attitude rather quickly. Now, what if there was a way to turn the tables on prospecting and make it fun again? I am not joking about putting fun and prospecting in the same sentence. It can happen. MOJO gives you that edge. It cuts through all of your junk dialing and gets to the ‘good stuff’. When you are dialing 3 lines at the same time, you are tripling your speed and contacting three times the live leads. It is like hiring three telemarketers and having them transfer all the good calls to you. And, in these hard economic times, we know that hiring three people to do your calling is just not viable. For a fraction of the cost, you can have MOJO fill that position in your company. MOJO is a power dialer, not to be confused with a predictive dialer. With MOJO, you will not drop calls like you would with a predictive dialer. Save money, stay on your game, and triple your production. When you’ve got MOJO, sales happen.

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Posted in Insurance Agents, Prospecting 101, Prospecting Tips and Tricks, Realtor Prospecting, Realtors | No Comments »