Today some colleagues and I volunteered our morning for a session of "cold calling". There were about 6 of us in this room that is designated solely for this purpose. We wore headsets -- sort of like the people you see on a telethon accepting donations--and had brought with us a list of contact names (after carefully making sure they were not on the Do Not Call list) and numbers.
Anyone who knows me at all will know that this is about as far from my comfort zone as can be. I think I had a revelation with the New Year to try a few things outside of the comfort zone to capture some additional business for the year. Today was the day to do it.
As much as I can talk until I'm blue in the face about real estate with friends, clients and anyone I run in to at an open house, on the soccer field or wherever...for some reason when it comes to picking up the phone and calling someone from a list, it is completely terrifying. I was glad to see some that some of my colleagues felt exactly the same way I did.
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I started off with a friend or two -- just to break the ice a bit. Then I moved on to the radius of a few great new listings I have just to announce that they were on the market. Luckily, I caught a lot of voice mails! From there I moved to a neighborhood radius where I am working with a buyer and not having luck finding them the perfect home. Although I suspect some of the homeowner's that answered didn't believe me, I really do have a buyer looking in their neighborhood and that made those calls a bit easier. When I ran out of "cold" contacts to call, I went back to calling a few friends and past clients to talk real estate. Piece of cake! They already know me and trust my professional opinion and want to talk about all matters of real estate with me. They are happy to hear what I have to say and to ask me questions about market conditions, pricing and what's going on in their own neighborhood.
When the day was over, I felt great accomplishment for working through the fear. I have NOT conquered the fear. I will have the same knot in my stomach next time. If you end up on the receiving end of one of my calls or voicemails, I hope you remember this blog and do take the time to say "hi" and ask me about the market. It will probably help me conquer the fear of the "cold call".
