10x Every Dollar Spent on Paid Leads with Dan Jones - Part 1

Welcome back to Real Estate Business Builders. This is Lars Hedenberg, founder of Real Estate B school and this is going to knock your socks off. I've got Dan Jones and this is a two part series here, two part podcast. Dan tells us how to 10x plus every dollar spent on paid leads. He started on my real estate team back in the day as an inside sales agent, then outside sales agent. Then he went on his own and I had the honor to consult with him into his business for probably three, four years or so. He's doing 300 plus transactions and he's working I think like three or four days a week. So he's built an amazing business but it's built on systems and this is a core part of the way he does business. It's earning 10 times plus return on paid leads. So this is part one. Make sure you tune in for part two and I hope you enjoy.

So we started 2015 coaching together, working together and really implementing systems. We shed tons of tons of stuff that wasn't working and went down to one lead source. In 2015. Really really simple. Sold 104 houses. 2016 we doubled down on the one lead source, added a second lead source about halfway through the year ended 175 units and then 2017 hit 200 for the first time at 200 and 25. And ever since then we've been floating 250 two hundred and sixty is transactions primarily on two lead sources. We've incorporated a few smaller lead sources that are very profitable but nothing as you know, direct as just the two lead sources and practicing these scripts over and over and over. But that's where we've come, that's where we're at. It runs like a machine. We have people auditing leads. I'll show you what that looks like consistently and we just do a ton of role class. I decided early on we're going to be prospecting based. I love the referral. Don't be wrong. I never focused on as much as Dave. I love the way Dave has done it. We've implemented a lot of the things that you know, Lars, you guys did. Dave's done over the years with that. But between the two asking for the referral client database, our two main lead sources, we can punch out 250 deals like it's clockwork on a yearly basis. So I want to dive in. Let me see, let me go ahead and share my screen. Look at all the beautiful faces. So everybody looks like super serious. This is not the sexiest topic but if everybody can look at the screen and like give me a smile or something. You guys look very like crazy intimidating. So I just think I got my hat here, so I'm gonna liven you guys up a little bit. So I'm putting my hat on so I want to see some smiles. So we're going to get started. I have a lot to go through, but we're going start out with what Lars said. The whole topic today was to how to 10x, right? Every single paid lead source in just knowing your numbers. All right, so highlights of the session. I want to share with you guys our million dollar script, which I did the math yesterday. Since 2020, we've closed 2.6 million GCI from the script and what you need to do to win in this market. Two top objections, you have to own the artist setting the face to face appointment. What does recycling leads look like or should look like in your world? What are you tracking and accountability. Right, so we're going to talk about scripts and how to win in this market. Stay tuned with me, guys. I want to flip around to a few different scripts. Just keep everything moving. But before we do that, everything we talk about today is prefaced with this whole idea. Read this very carefully. 67% of people surveyed through NerdWallet says the market is going to crash the next three years. Read that over and over and really think about what. Like that's wild. I think that's a little bit high personally, at least in our market. I don't know everyone else's market, but that's the reality. And there was a ton of people pulled around that. Alright, so everything we talk about today, please keep that in mind because that's the backbone of everything we want to talk about. All right, so how do we face that? Obviously better scripting, tons of education and the key word on this page is pain. Okay, so timing and motivation. We've always heard that when it comes to buyer, seller, lead gen and just discussing, you know, setting an appointment, whatever the case may be with the buyer or seller. So pain, it's always been there, but nobody really ever talks about it. And in November and December, what I learned really quickly as the market shifted is if we're going to sell 15, 20, 30 houses, like on a monthly basis, in the worst month, 15 to 20, 25 to 30, and stay on pace. What we always do, we have to start understanding, even at a deeper level what people's pains are. What is the pain associated with you not buying this house, not selling, possibly doing X, y or z? What is the pain associated? Right. Because we're up against two thirds of Americans. Poll said the market is imminently going to crash the next three years. That's crazy. So sit back and like, just take this in and there's some key ideas. We'll kind of circle all this back around as we go moving forward. So I want to focus on three scripts. We're not going to spend too much time on the first two, but I want to give you guys a few nuggets around those and we're going to spend some time on the agent request. I'll lead because you can use this on signed calls. You work a little bit with Zillow or get Inbounds or Zillow. If you have somebody raising your hand on your website about wanting to go see a property for us, it's realtor.com and I want to show you step by step that script and just a few nuggets around the order. Buyer lead script. All right, so let me hop over and just. Everyone knows the full script book. I will share with Jessica and Lars to make sure everybody gets the full copy. So don't worry about taking screenshots or anything. There's been a decent amount updated. We have shared this before, but I do want to start just with a simple owner, buyer lead script. We're not going to go through the whole script. I just want to go through the introduction. Every agent on our team, the first four to six weeks, they're dialing four, six, seven hours a day, just scrubbing a database. Let's suppose you're an independent agent in office. There might be somebody who's been in the business a really long time, knock on their door, hey, give me a list of 300 people you haven't spoken to or haven't been able to reach in the last X amount of time. Use this script to start up the conversation. It's a simple, you know. Hey, Lars, this is Dan. How are you? Good. You reached out to us not so long ago about looking at some home ideas. We weren't able to connect. I was calling to see if you're still in the market looking for a good deal. So we could sit here for a full six to eight hour session and dissect every single word and how we say it and articulate. I don't want to do that today, that we don't have the time, obviously. But your database, I would love to go through your databases, your past Zillow, your past yard sign and dig up business. This right here from all of Our old lead sources in 2018, I think I saw Hook still on here. Maybe still on here. Dave Friedman boxed him and myself. And all three of our numbers were down on realtor.com partly because prices had increased, but partly I was like, man, we haven't been following up with the 6 to 12 month old lead as best as we should and didn't have a proper system, which we're going to talk about recycling later. But this is the most simple script or one liner to get the door open, to get somebody to talking. Hey, you reach out to me. We weren't able to connect, so I did try to reach out to you. I was looking to see if you're still in the market. Looking for a good deal, right? Simple order, buyer lead. Now I guess I don't want to spend too much time and go straight to LP Mom. There's only three responses. Yes, no, or maybe. If it's a no, you'll see in the script book tons of things you can ask if it's a maybe in terms of the conditional questions, etc. Boomtown leads. These are simple pay per click leads. One thing over the years we learned is there's probably some of you on here that want to disagree with me and I'm okay because there's, there's a couple ways you can do this. This works for us at a really high level and I want to explain in our next script why it does. But hey Lars. So long story short, I will say the opening one liner in a minute. The concept. Let's think about the concept here. If you're looking for a car, you want to drive the car. If you're looking for a house, you want to see houses. Someone's looking online, why not offer them the opportunity to go see homes immediately up front? Hey, I want to see what questions you had, right? And let's go look at a few homes, right? When is a good time for us to go look at homes? So, hey Lars, is Dan. How are you? Cool. Hey, I know you said some interest in some homes online. I just want to see what questions you had and when's a good time to go take a look at a few homes, right? That simple. Now if they say yes and what we have found on the people we connect with, almost 2 out of 10 would say like, I would love to go see some houses. There's nothing available. Da da. Your motivation, you're starting out at a level 9, 10 versus at an intro LP Mama conversation. And if we don't know LP Mama simple location, prize, motivation, agent, mortgage. Right? But if they are ready, go straight for the kill and ask for the appointment right up front. We can always take it away if they're not qualified. Very simple. And if they do want to go see some houses, there's. These are brilliant appointments. They're excited. They're like, yeah, I've been looking at your website, right? We go to the ar, which we're going to go over next, the agent request. And if they're not, we just simple LP mama conversation and build a report. All right? Nothing too complicated, but the process and the concept is simply. Would you like to go see houses? And. And I'll show you how that applies to our next script. I Wish I had 2019 numbers, but I couldn't log into Microsoft. I forget what it was we were using with the old scorecard Lars or the sales tracker. I couldn't find my login information, but we crushed 2019. That was the last year before their prices with realtor.com got crazy. But this is our agent request Ninja. I forget people called it so many things over the years. Same concept. Let's talk about concept first. Please don't start reading. Just listen to the concept. The concept's more important than the questions. Once again, we're giving them what they want up front. The appointment. We can always take it away if they are not qualified. Hear me out. Some of you guys are going to say, yeah, you know, I prefer to meet people in the office, this and that. That's fine. I would love to dive deep into your numbers. Make it set to met and met to sign. Your MET design is gonna be on the roof. You're set to Met being the 27 guaranteed, right? We like to give people what we want, but we establish at the tail end that, Lars, you and I are going to have a conversation after we see this house. You're not going to run in the house and run out. We are going to have a conversation. So step one, right? This goes for signed calls, a boomtown lead that's raising their hand about seeing a house. Zillow, realtor.com, somebody who's asking a question about a home. So I noticed you had a question about 123 Main Street. I wanted to see what your question was in a good time when we can go preview the house. So. Well, I just had a question. Lars is the house. Does the HOA have a community pool? I'm pretty sure guys want to verify that. Assuming it does, go back to the original question. When's a good Time to see the house. When's a good time for you to see the house? Tomorrow morning or afternoon, assuming it does have a community pool? Yeah, tomorrow afternoon. Perfect. Let's pencil in 2 o'. Clock. Now step two is really key because if you're going to do it this way, you have to do this, which is time. Lars, do you have time to preview additional homes or are there additional homes? So two questions. Are there additional homes you would like to see? Oftentimes there are. They think they have to schedule with three or four different people and then would you have time? Because we're going to use time as leverage later down as we solidify the appointment and all our contact information. Number three, simple. Don't accept anyone's toes. You're not currently working with an agent. Very simple. Number four, I've heard so many agents ask like, hey, I'm not showing you a property, Jessica, if you don't have a pre approval, I'm just not going to do it. Why? You just lost that client forever. Hey, the seller is not going to allow us to see your house. Do you have a pre approval? Hey, I know the seller's going to ask, do you have a pre approval? Have you had a chance to talk to a professional lender? Right. So yes, no question. If it's a no, we have questions that you'll see as the. As part of the script book that we go into before we continue moving on to really give them appointment, but we don't have unfortunately that much time. Today I want to give you guys the meat and potatoes and you kind of figure out how you want to implement this and in your business and your conversations. What is your current living situation? This home, Lars, is situated down in Pineville. Where do you currently live now? Right now. Current living situation. I want to make sure we're all clear on this. That is huge. What is your current living situation? A lot of people don't ask if you rent, you own, how long have you rented for? But that is associated. Like we have to go deeper in this market around the pain associated with the current living situation. If there's no pain associated with that. Right. Or we don't dig up the pain, you're going to miss opportunities. It wasn't like two, three, four years ago where there's all this opportunity, there's less opportunity. We have to capitalize on that opportunity. And what is your current living situation? Why I need to know. But number two, I'm trying to identify where the pain potentially is with your current living situation. So I can get you over the finish line. Right. Because you might talk yourself out of a lot of buyers. You know, tell them the year they're still renting. I could have potentially talked you over the edge, and you would have done the right thing. All right, so this right here we go into the motivation. Now shift gears, built a lot of rapport. Simple. Hey, this your cell phone number? Yes, it is. Is there anyone else who's going to be joining us to preview their house? Yes, Julie's going to be with me as well tomorrow at 10am Perfect. I want to email you some additional home ideas. Right. Be on the lookout for those. Email me back, Lars, when you get those. Now, this is key right here. People. People do this. Lars, I know. You hit the magic red button on realtor.com you're probably going to get a lot of phone calls. Moving forward, tell people to put you on the do not call list. Right. It'll cut down on the amount of phone calls you get. People love saying that. So let's suppose you're at an open house and you know you're talking to somebody. You have a great conversation. No one else is in the house. Have a great conversation. Why not tell them, hey, let's meet for coffee tomorrow morning. Hey, just moving forward or even with a cup of coffee. I know it sounds like you're getting a lot of calls from a lot of people just moving forward. Tell them you now have an agent. It'll cut down on the amount of phone calls. Who doesn't want that? Right? Our team does it all the time. People love it. They do it, which is awesome. And here, once again, hey, I want to text you my personal cell phone number. Save my number is Dan Realtor. Text me back, let me know you received it. We're open the lines of communication and we'll talk about that here in one moment. Right, so we have email, we have text. Now, this is key here. If you don't do this and you want to use this script and be a professional door opener, I wouldn't recommend that. I would recommend getting people to your office, get them to a coffee shop. But this is where sort of the rubber hits the road. Can I make a recommendation? Lars, if this is not the home, you're ready to make an offer, let's spend a few minutes immediately after talking about exactly what it is you're looking for. So moving forward, you don't miss out or end up overpaying. Does that make sense? Right. We're establishing time. So once we see this house this is what we're going to do because we've all opened the door for somebody that the house smells like cat pee or something horrific. And they're like, oh my God. They associate you with cat pee. They just rent out. You only had one home to show. That's why we have. Are there multiple homes for us to see anything else you would like to see so we can build the rapport, not just open more doors. I'm trying to build rapport here, right? Very, very, very technical. And the very first sentence is Jedi. Jedi Knight stuff. Lars, if this is not the house you're ready to make an offer on, it's telling people it's okay for you to write an offer. I cannot tell you because in 2017, 18, when I was really working on this script here and putting this together, I had personally over 200 buyer transactions. Never had a one and done in. In 2018-19, it wasn't like inventory was lower. But this gave people permission to write an offer on the first home they see. Right. And oftentimes it's the best home they see. And then from here it's just a simple follow up, you know, hey, Lars, you know, anything that we need to, you know, readdress right here. But we have the appointment. This is a 13 to 15 minute conversation. If someone calls in on your yard sign listing, I guarantee the average calls about three to three and a half minutes. Right. Going on a yard sign. And maybe even a minute and a half too, using this, you know, hey, Lars, this is. Or hey, this Dan Carolina real estate experts. How can I help you? Yeah, I was going about 1,23 Main street below yard sign call. Fantastic. In case we get disconnected. What's your name and number? Perfect. When's a good time for you to come by and preview this house? We go straight through all of this. It's framework. Right. But your buyer, I guarantee your time calls. 2 minutes, 3 minutes. This is a 12 to 14 minute conversation. You built the report. You got cell phone, you got an email address. Only thing you don't say is the magic red button. But this is gold for all sort of agent request leads. So structured and it hits. I can't think of another point. I'd love to, you know, for some feedback, but we'll hit pause right there. Is there any questions or anything like.

Just so far, what questions do you guys have? Dan, maybe talk just a second while you guys can go to the Q A and type in any questions. You know, this is you, you, you've just like Next leveled and just drilled down and honed. And as the market shifted and pivoted, you worked on it.

You.

You sort of obsess over your numbers and what your agents are. Are saying. Is that just natural for you, or does someone adopt that sort of mindset as they get into these paid lead sources? Right. So paid lead source. I mean, you're spending the money.

You. You.

You want to see the return. So is that what had you sort of, like, dig in and squeeze the lemon on this stuff?

You know, I. I like it in a weird way, but I don't think that's the only way. I really think that it's either do or die. It's either ride or die type atmosphere, right? Either we're going to do this at the highest level, because I am not Dave Hook. I love Dave Hook for what he does, and I would love him to come into my business for a year and implement everything he's implemented to that level and get into his business for a year and implement really, this at a crazy, crazy high level. So I just had to make that decision, like, if I don't do this to this level, plus, I kind of geek out on this sort of stuff. Like, if I don't do this, like, I'm not going to hit my financial goal. I'm not going to be able to provide for my team. Like, my team depends on this, Right? So I think it's multifaceted, but I do kind of geek out on it. But it's either this or, like, we don't do business. We don't do business. You know, we'll do business, but not to the level that I feel is, like, where I want to be, where par is and above.

Awesome. No questions. So keep rolling.

All right. You guys are some serious fun. This miles went away pretty quick.

Yeah, actually, I actually. Let's comment on that a second. So you started out, but you didn't really go deep on it, how this is not the sexiest stuff, right? Who wants to, you know, hear that? You know, to me, it's sexy to spend $1,000 and turn it into $10,000. Right? To me, that's like, is there anything more sexy in business than that? But then you get into this stuff, and it's like, oh, it's a script. You know, it's like, it's a little bit like, you know, you got us to smile, and then we just come down from it. Why?

Why do.

What have you experienced? You know, how do you keep agents excited about doing, like, the expression is you know, it's really boring to get to rich and be financially and time free.

Right.

Because it's the same thing over and over again. What, what have you done to wire yourself or to. To build this muscle around consistency and, and just getting after this stuff and, and like a, you know, dog on a bone.

Yeah. Goals. Just goals. And knowing everyone's goals and holding everyone accountable. Most of the team members now, this is really cool. Hold themselves and each other accountable. We share our goals twice a quarter, you know, at least our, you know, one financial goal where we're at, because it's not the funnest thing, but it's about culture as well. And we had to let somebody go who was with us seven years actually this month, last month, because his productivity, you know, from a culture fit of being a good person, was there. But you went from selling 16 million two years ago to or three years ago to ten and a half, 11 million to 6 million last year. Like, we've had a couple tough conversations. So it's that culture as well. Like everyone on the team was like, love this dude to death, but he had to go. So between the culture and just like talking about our goals, I mean, I've told you before as well, Lars, in 2016, when we did that exercise, like I had that number, like that keeps me driving. And, you know, it's not only that number, but when you say you want to do something, you do it, you know, and the same thing with the team, the same sort of, you know, culture. And we tell you what it's going to be like before you walk through the door and how difficult it is and how many reps it's going to take and how it's going to move you as a person both on a personal level and a financial level. And we just, you know, focus on the personal growth and financial growth, but it's all kind of, you know, combined there. Yeah.

Awesome. We've got a couple questions. So Patricia asked a question. Daily contact goals for website leads separate from other sources. And then do you still make calls with the team?

So I will hop on some role plays. Most of my dials, most of our role plays. I like to work with some of our top agents around the role plays. But I have periodically made some dials. There's a tough seller, like a high price point, you know, that needs converted or the final nail driven down. I'm kind of the last minute closer. That's my role. What was the first part, Lars?

Daily contact goals or meaningful conversation goals?

Yeah. As a New agent. It's different than like kind of an older agent. Everyone who's been around for six 12 months, who's doing three, four transactions or at least two to three on a monthly basis, we're looking at five mcs. Meaningful conversations on a weekly basis for a new agent on the team. For the first three months, we're pushing like hell for three to five on a daily basis. You better be at least at 10 by the end of the week.

So when you say that seems low to me. Maybe we're talking about something different. A two way conversation with the decision making adult.

That we're going for the appointment that is not 12 months. That's pretty close to being qualified, if not already qualified. So they're talking anywhere from 40, 50 people to get to the 5ish.

Okay, so they're talking to 40, 50 people a day.

Yes, got it. Yeah, yeah. Those three to five like deep level mcs, it's just not like, oh, we're gonna be looking for a house. We might be relocating our job. Was talking about doing this. That's, I mean that's a mini mc, but that doesn't count as a mc. Like you're doing six, seven, eight hours of dials your first couple of months to get to these MCs.

All right, awesome. And then Chris asked a question. What's the expected turnover rate on your sales team? How many agents are naturally just not going to be able to perform on the phones like this?

It's a good question. Because what you call it, if we take Covid. Take Covid out, we don't have much turnover. And in general, it's not because we of the dials for that transparent about the amount of dials and how hard it is and for how long. You have to do it up front and encourage and celebrate high five on, you know, wins. Our probably biggest weakness with a few key players that we've also over the years is number one lack of growth opportunity where you just get that leader on the team and there's just no true real more growth or a personality conflict. We've had two of those over the last four years where I would love to have both those team members and still stay in touch with them. But it's not for dials. It's definitely not for dials. Those are, those are Achilles hills. If we had to put our, you.

Know, so, so you vet, you vet pretty hard to make sure you're gonna bring the, bring the right people into your world. Anything, two or three things you look for, you Know that, you know, lessons learned about what kind of people you look for to bring onto the team.

Got it pretty dialed in. Confidence obviously is a disc, you know, previous high level job energy on the phone. It's. We talked to a few people they've worked with for or working with in the past or it's pretty dialed in. We don't make too many mistakes. We have one that I have to take care of today. But we brought four people or five people into our world and one is we thought she was going to get it a little bit quicker. Quicker. But unfortunately she's not. We've given her plenty of opportunities and just doesn't like the efforts there. But in general we, you know, but taking everything in consideration, to answer Chris's question, it's about 50% and that is, you know, the two that I told you. And then if you figure in Covid when, you know, a handful of our team members that should have never left, did leave and got sold on something that wasn't true and all of them are not selling real estate anymore besides that, it's, it's, it's definitely not 50%, but if I include it in the real numbers, then it's 50%. We lost five agents within three weeks.

Awesome. What would you say to someone that's on a limited budget? You know, they think they can't pay for leads, they don't have the budget. What, what other lead sources have you guys worked successfully or would you say just grind and save up and put some money into these lead sources? What would you give advice on that?

If I had to do it over again and didn't have the money, I would be bartending late in the evenings, circle prospecting. I would be in a firm that would allow me to do. I don't, I want to say go do this. I'm saying if I was like bottom of the like ready to roll over and give up, I would do open houses every single day. Possible one in the morning, one in the evening or later afternoon on higher price range listings. Ever since COVID like I see a lot more success like our agents will do. We don't require them to do open houses, but more and more people have pursuant up to open houses, right. That are unrepresented. So I would bartender night to pay my bills to be able to supplement something where, you know, I knew worked. Like for example, pay per click. It's a numbers game. But if you get really good at the script, have good follow ups and a few other things that we can implement they're the cheapest, you know, really come. You have to be careful with. We've scaled back a ton because of price, but I had to do it all over again. 100%, make as much money as I can in the evening and just double down. And every single minute, I had to try to get face to face with, you know, just somebody new.

Awesome. And Kim, I don't know if you were on it. We did a production mastermind where Jessica Buchanan gave her open house system away step by step. She regularly turns an open house into, you know, three plus transactions if you do it the right way. All right, Dan, continue on, brother.

All right, let's do this. So two directions you have to handle. All right, so let's start with the second. This has always been number one. I have an agent. This is not going away. However, I want to give you guys, if you do this, if you follow this, I know a few people that I worked with and coached with through rebs, implemented this. They never bought me my beer I asked for. But so I used to personally, before really dialing this in and letting that doubt in. But it works, it works. So I used to start here with number seven and number eight, tell me, I have an agent. What's the benefit? What's the benefit? And you could convert people by saying, like, what's the benefit? You're reaching out through whatever. You're obviously not getting.40 access to better deals. Like, what's the benefit? Right. Not good. So. Oops. So we came up with an eight step process that is a much, much more effective. And the first step is just simply, how long have you been working with that agent? Right. Essentially, we're trying to establish what is the relationship? Right. And by asking some of these softball sort of questions, oftentimes people will give you a hint that they're truly not working with an agent. Right. How long have you been working? Have you written any offers? Simple. How many homes have you seen? We're just looking for something where we can sneak in there and say, okay, they truly don't have an agent. And then I'll show you where we go from there. Relationship. How did you get paired up with that agent? And just because they say it's the sisters, you know, best friend from college, you know, doesn't mean we roll over and turn away. And the mindset. I should have started with this. Hit pause on what I just said. The mindset around, I have an agent. I can guarantee you 70% plus I'd almost be able to go 80%. But since I'm guaranteed, I'll say 70, 70 to 80% plus. People who say they have an agent do not. I've taken more people my time and send them to the team, send myself back in the day. I guarantee you do not have an agent. I'm telling you now, the way I used to do it is like clobbering Lars over the head like, oh dude, I have an agent. What's the benefit of that, man? Like I might converting. But this right here, it's a nice pleasant way to have a conversation about having an agent, right?

I hope you enjoyed part one of a two part series with Dan Jones who spent probably about four years with us in real estate B school. And hopefully you are intrigued enough to come back and join us for part two. If you're at the point in your business growth journey where you know you need someone to come and show you the way, just book in for a business growth assessment. It's been too long. If you've been on the podcast and this is not your first episode, that's the only thing we have to offer you. It's not a sales call, it's to see if you're a fit for what we offer. So go to our rebsgrowthassessment.com that's rebsgrowthassessment.com and we'll see you on part 2 of 10x every dollar spent on paid leads. Stay tuned for that.