I try to speak to 25 real estate agents a week on the telephone. It's pretty hard because none of you answer your phone anymore. Before you jump back at me and say "maybe they didn't want to talk to YOU, Brian", you should know that I have called from different numbers so that's not the case. Last week, I called over 150 real estate agents just to speak with 25 of you and that kind of shocked me. I am not alone. The number one problem I hear from real estate agents is that other real estate agents don't answer their phone when THEY call-- clients tell me the same thing.
ANSWER YOUR PHONE when it rings during business hours and I promise you that you will close more business. That call could be a new buyer, an agent with a buyer for your listing, an appraiser who needs to see your listing, a lender updating you on a problem your buyer had, the escrow company wondering where your client's statement of information is.
Why don't REALTORS answer their phones?
Atlantic Magazine published a good article answering this question . Essentially, there are two reasons why you don't answer your phone:
There are many reasons for the slow erosion of this commons. The most important aspect is structural: There are simply more communication options. Text messaging and its associated multimedia variations are rich and wonderful: words mixed with emoji, Bitmoji, reaction gifs, regular old photos, video, links. Texting is fun, lightly asynchronous, and possible to do with many people simultaneously. It’s almost as immediate as a phone call, but not quite. You’ve got your Twitter, your Facebook, your work Slack, your email, FaceTimes incoming from family members. So many little dings have begun to make the rings obsolete.
But in the last couple years, there is a more specific reason for eyeing my phone’s ring warily. Perhaps 80 or even 90 percent of the calls coming into my phone are spam of one kind or another. There are unsolicited telemarketing calls. There are straight-up robocalls that merely deliver recorded messages. There are the cyborg telemarketers, who sit in call centers playing prerecorded bits of audio to simulate a conversation. There are the spam phone calls, whose sole purpose seems to be verifying that your phone number is real and working.
I will stipulate that both are good reasons: lots of less intrusive communication methods are at our disposal and spam calls are annoying. But consider the negative effects of "screening" your calls-- missed business opportunities. Consider this story from Denise Lones:
Like a lot of potential sellers, I got on the internet. And I found about nine agents who claimed to be the area expert in my parents’ neighborhood. So what do most people do next? They call someone. I called the agent whose internet site said he was the expert. He said he had the most sales in my parents’ neighborhood. But when I called him, I got his voice mail.
I wasn’t really ready to leave a message…I’m just at the beginning stage of finding an agent to talk to…I was also at work…and I had lots of other things to do. I thought, “Okay, I’ll just quickly call the next name on my list. Maybe she hasn’t had as many sales, but I’m pretty sure she can at least get me the information I’m looking for.” So I called her. Voice Mail. I called the next person. Voice Mail. The next person? Voice Mail. I did this SIX times. I don’t have time to call six people to just get their voice mail!
Finally, the 7th person answered. In fact, when he actually answered the phone and said “Hello”, I was so surprised that I could hardly even speak! I told him what I needed and what our situation was. He seemed very pleasant on the phone and sounded interested in helping me out. Twenty-four hours later, he’s given me a report of comparable homes that are on the market right now. He’s given me some client testimonials. He’s given me a list of homes that he has sold. In 24 hours, he got me loads of information. That is what he’s supposed to do. He’s a real estate agent.
Spam calls are annoying. Facebook, Twitter, texting, and email all offer alternative communication tools. A voice conversation however, is the second best thing to an in person meeting and, if the call is inbound, you are going to get a chance to sell yourself to a new customer.
Pick up the phone. You are losing money if you don't.
