Investors struggle to find great properties and agents struggle to generate listings leads. In our latest episode, investor Peter Vekselman shares how his investing-first approach appears to have solved both of those issues. He also shares what he’s doing and the results they’re seeing with one of his referral partners, Pete Kuc in Jacksonville, FL.
3 Takeaways:
1. Take a consultative approach in your listing appointments. Be the trusted advisor, not a salesman.
2. Work with an investor or investment group to give yourself a powerful option in your listing appointments to create a win-win deal for everyone
3. Set your timelines, money and execution plan first - long term commitment and testing are the keys to marketing success
There’s no secrets in marketing. We all do the same thing, except 99% of people don’t know how to do it the right way, and the other 1% make all the money. -Peter Vekselman
First, Peter explained that his strength is marketing - in the Atlanta market alone he’s generating around 1000 inbound calls a day - so he set up a call center that negotiated investment purchase deals with those seller leads. All the leads he couldn’t work with, - so called “dead leads” - were being wasted because he had no way to turn them into good referrals to local agents.
The key was flipping the process. By using the call center to “scrub” the leads first and turn them over to an agent, he was able to build a system that still accomplished his goal of finding investment properties but also created so much goodwill with sellers that he was able to turn those “dead leads” into real listings for his partner agents.
That unlocked the door for nationwide expansion. Years of marketing experience and testing allows Peter to generate a 20% response on postcards versus a typical 3%, which means he can go into markets around the country and immediately generate hundreds or thousands of seller leads. The leads are scrubbed by his call center and turned over to partner agents (like Pete Kuc) who follow up, set listing appts and take listings. Pete Kuc then shared his experience with this type of seller lead - which include running 40 CMA requests per day - and how this process creates a very consultative approach.
Here’s the key for agents that don’t have the team structure in place to partner with Peter. You can partner with an investor (or investment group) who are prepared to fund purchases, and you can go into listing appointments with that same consultative approach, with multiple options in hand for helping that seller. Imagine having the ability to give the seller options even if they desperately need to sell and can’t afford to fix their home properly.
Toward the end, Peter shares his approach to marketing, using direct mail as an example. If you want to master direct mail, you make a long-term commitment, in terms of timelines, money and execution, and then you test and evaluate over that time period till you have it dialed in. You don’t send 50 postcards and then abandon the idea or draw a lot of conclusions from that. We hear this from agents a lot, they tried something once, or they tried sending postcards for a few months and it “didn’t work.”
If you want more power in your listing appointment, having an investment group behind you as an option to listing the home is a powerful card to play, and helps you take a consultative approach in the listing appointment. By truly putting the client’s best interests first and looking for alternative solutions to their challenge, you earn their trust and become a trusted advisor and not a salesman. If there’s one thing you take away from this episode, it’s that. Be the trusted advisor, not a salesman.
Guest Bio:
Peter Vekselman is a real estate investor and entrepreneur based in Atlanta, GA, having bought and sold over 3,000 properties and managing 100+ construction projects. Peter is expanding his seller lead generation system nationwide and looking for top agents with strong listing partners in place to handle the leads Peter is able to generate. In Peter's home market he's currently generating over 1,000 inbound calls a day from prospective sellers. Connect with Peter by calling 404-915-9685 or email him at peterv@pvretraining.com.
Pete Kuc is a real estate investor, team leader and entrepreneur based in St. Augustine, FL. After years on the development side, Pete transitioned into locating and putting together investment deals, which led to meeting Peter. Since then he has developed a team of agents to work the seller leads generated by Peter Vekselman's system. Connect with Pete on his video blog: http://mayrealestategroup.blogspot.com/ or email p.kuc@mayregroup.com.