A few months ago, I saw a post on a real estate forum that made me LOL. ROTLMAO actually. And ask myself - seriously? Seriously?
The thread was extolling the virtues of high-octane cold-calling. Serious cold-calling. Cold-calling to the tune of several hundred (yes, hundred) calls a day (yes, a day). Proponents of the method regaled the rest of us with their stories of successes; of listing appointments won and offers accepted and deals closed.
A few brave souls (myself included) tried to introduce alternatives to high-octane cold-calling for those who might not be as comfortable disrupting hundreds of unwilling phone-answers every day, but we were routinely shot down with attacks on our courage, our commitment and our work ethic.
Ah well.
Here was the gist of the thread and that had me rolling my eyes, slapping my head and wondering if our industry has lost its mind.
The post-er presented the following analogy as a way of illustrating the beauty of the cold-calling method as a way to build a real estate business.
He asked:
"If you were a single guy, which of the following two methods do you think would be more effective in finding a girlfriend?
Option 1: Sit at home watching football and drinking beer, or
Option 2: Line up 100 women and ask each of them out for coffee?"
Um. Well.
I'm thinking that these 100 lined-up women might....
- Think the guy is a total idiot, and/or
- Think the guy must be awfully desperate, and/or
- Think the guy is really annoying, and/or
- Think the guy is utterly pathetic, and/or
- Feel uncomfortably like a number in this guy's game.
So, I guess the analogy continues like this:
"If you were a hungry real estate agent, which of the following two methods do you think would be more effective for finding good business?"
Option 1: Sit at your office waiting for the phone to ring, or
Option 2: Call 100 random strangers and ask them if they need a real estate agent?"
Y'think there might be a third option? Maybe even a fourth? One that doesn't make you look desperate, annoying or pathetic?
Yeah, I think there just might be.
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