Cam Dunlap here with another helpful read on REI cold calling tips.
During a recent coaching call, I received this question:
“My virtual assistant and I have been doing some cold calling. If the call ends up going to voicemail, should we leave a message and phone number about why we’re calling, or should we call back again later?”
My short answer: Absolutely leave a message!
The longer explanation…
If you don’t leave a message, most people are going to immediately categorize you as a spam caller because many folks don’t answer calls that aren’t in their contacts. One of the essential REI cold calling tips is to avoid being seen as spam.
Truthfully, none of us REIers can afford this luxury because we need to answer our phone when it rings.
In fact, Apple has a feature called “Silence unknown callers” on the iPhone. When a number calls that’s not in your contact list or in your recent call/text history, the call doesn’t ring at all and goes straight to voicemail.
So, folks who don’t answer pretty much have the attitude of, “Well, if it’s important, they’ll leave a voicemail, and if it’s spam, they won’t.”
That’s what I’m getting at here, so…
Definitely leave a message!
One of the key REI cold calling tips is crafting a message that encourages a callback. It should be something like:
“Hi, my name is Cam… I’m calling about your property at 123 Main Street — I’m interested in it. If you’d consider entertaining a cash offer on your property, then let’s talk. Here’s my number xxx.xxx.xxxx. Feel free to call or text.”
If your virtual assistant (VA) is the one leaving messages, you want the seller to call you back, not the VA. And there’s a bit more we need the VA to do before I connect with a potential lead…
Your VA should pull comps and help with some of the analysis… and I always take a look too, ahead of my conversation. I want to be as informed as I can be, given that no one from my team has walked through the property yet.
So, if your VA is leaving the message, it’ll be just slightly different:
“Hi, my name is Linda, and I’m on Cam Dunlap’s team. I’m calling today about your house at 123 Main Street. It’s a property that’s of interest to us, and if you would entertain a cash offer on it, then we’d love to talk to you about it. Please call or text Cam at: xxx.xxx.xxxx. Again, we’re interested in your property at 123 Main, and if you’d entertain a cash offer on it, please call or text us back at: xxx.xxx.xxxx.”
Even if the seller doesn’t know your name or forgets it, they’re going to call and say, “Hey, somebody called me about my house at 123 Main Street and said you guys were interested in making a cash offer on it. Let’s talk.”
Boom! You launch right into the conversation.
By the way, if you’re a user of my automated iFlip system, that property is probably already pushed there from my Motivated Seller Data Feed (or whichever buy-side data feed you’re using).
Need more motivated seller leads? Try out our Motivated Seller Data Feed and get access to ultra-motivated sellers in your market today!
So, you could quickly jump into iFlip on your phone, pull up the property, and have information in front of you to have a meaningful conversation, in case you’re not sitting in front of your laptop.
That’s one of the beauties of having a nice repository for all the information about all of your deals and leads right at your fingertips without having to be sitting at your desk. I love that about it. (We actually just released new updates, so now’s the ideal time to check it out if you haven’t yet.)
Bottom line… no matter who’s making the call, always leave a voicemail!
Have a great weekend,
Cam Dunlap
Great article! Yes, I agree. Definitely need to leave a message so there is a much better chance of them calling me back. If I leave no message, then I have to call them again, hoping to connect, but if no answer AGAIN, and I don’t leave a message, then I have to keep calling back!! A vicious circle.
I do plan on using an assistant (either my daughter here or a VA) to make the first contact cause I have a lot of other management type work to do rather than sitting for an hour or two a day making calls.
Cold calling is out dated, It’s not just confusing, but it’s tiring and now, technology has AI, doing the calls for you and in many ways, a lot better. It also frees up your time from calling the sell. It directly, so you can do other things. It is true. I hate it with a passion and we should be coming up with new ways, to Communicate with sellers, sms, text, emails Will soon be obsolete? You need a 10dlc to send text messages, Through the provider.
It keeps you legal and out of trouble from being sued.
When cold calling I ALWAYS leave a message containing my company name. In my opinion, it is one more “touch” point. If I reach out to this lead in the future by direct mail or SMS, they remember I have already contacted them and they realize my persistence.