This is part 2 of a special report on Lead Generation that I am writing. I'd love to hear what you think of it.

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If you've ever held a job where you had to mail in your resume and cover letter, then you know that the resume wasn't meant to get you the job, it was meant to get you an interview. The interview was meant to get you the job. It's no different with prospecting, your main goal is to get the presentation. Then, hopefully, your presentation will get the listing. For me, changing my wording helped me change my thinking. I stopped saying I was prospecting for listings and started saying I was prospecting for an appointment to do a presentation.

This is a much different strategy than finding buyers because you have no real presentation stage with buyers, plus buyers can jump ship at any time.

Buyers and sellers also don't hang out together. That's one reason they need you to bring them together. Buyers hang out on the internet. Sellers don't. Or at least most of them don't. You're going to find sellers in their neighborhood, at their local diners and stores. At local parties and neighborhood meetings.

So let's talk about your farm. There are several methods of connecting with your farm such as door knocking and direct mailers.

Door Knocking.Works best if you are just out introducing yourself as the agent in the neighborhood. (Also works best if your farm only has about 100-200 houses.) Think of yourself as the local politician and you are out door knocking and hand shaking to meet the neighbors and let them put a face to the riders they have been seeing (or will be seeing). Do not ask them if they want to sell their home. Do tell them where you can be found should a real estate need arise. Things you can offer to get a second meeting is a free CMA or let them know you can find out what their neighbor sold their home for. And for Pete's sake, bring gifts. They'll remember you if you brought them something.

Another non-threatening way to door knock is when you are holding an open house in the neighborhood. Knock on the door, introduce yourself, and invite them to the open house.

Direct Mailers. Just like door knocking, direct mailers work best if you want to introduce yourself or make an announcement or if you want to send out information that your farm may be interested in.

There is a rule of thumb that a person needs to see your message 5 times to remember you and 7 times to take action, so plan your 7 mailers in advance.

Some ideas are:

• Introduce yourself, nice to meet you, letter
• Here's something you may be interested in, letter
• How I can help you, letter
• Invitations to open houses
• Reminders about local events
• Your newsletter
• Neighborhood statistics

Another reason to send a direct mailer is when you are highly targeting a small segment of your farm. An example is when know the length of time that the average home sells in that neighborhood. If it's every 7 years, send a letter to everyone that purchased their home 7 years ago. Try to make the letter personal and highly targeted so they won't feel like you've sent it to everyone.

Cold Calls. Only cold call if you already know the person may need your business. You hear they are building a strip mall in the neighborhood so you call the affected homeowners and ask them if they might be thinking of selling.  

Yard signs, name riders, and open houses. Pretty self explanatory. It's advertising. Neighbors who see your name often start to subconsciously believe that you are the best agent. The more they see your name, the more it will come to the surface when they think of real estate.

SOI. If you want your sphere of influence referring you, you need to be in the forefront of their minds. Keep in touch, at least every 90 days. Send cards. People love getting cards.

Expireds/Withdrawns and FSBO. You've heard this several times before, targetting properties that have expired just makes sense. They've already proven they want to sell.

Your Website.The NAR doesn't have numbers on how many sellers are finding their agents by signing up for the free CMA on most agent's websites, but that has to be listed here as a method of finding a seller because I'm sure some people are doing it. Remember the goal is to get an appointment to make a presentation. If someone contacts you asking for a CMA via your website, send them the CMA, then follow up with a phone call to see if they had any questions. Then, if you don't get an appointment, you can add them to a drip email campaign.

You can read part 1, buyers, here.