Now’s the time to make those calls! Up your lead gen by 10x, Use your scripts!

I have spent much of my newfound extra time on quite a few webinars toting lead generation tactics, offering “free” coaching, working to inspire salespeople in this time of uncertainty. 

While most (if not all of these webinars) are trying to be sensitive, the gist of all of these calls is the same:

The deals are there to be had,
you just have to work harder.
Call, call, call! 

“People always need to buy or sell,” they say. “Talk to them, pull out their motivation… unless they are very sad or have lost a loved one, then turn the script off and check them off your list… don’t forget, for the majority of our leads out there, there is an angle and a motivation. Find it and sell them… 

Yes, this forced pause in our economy has us all on edge, leaving us with at least one of the following thoughts swimming around in our overactive salesperson mind:

Will my buyers/sellers under contract bail because they are afraid to move?

Will the lender call me with new guidelines that cause me to lose this deal?

My spring listing pipeline is drying up, my raving fans aren’t sending me referrals.

Do I even qualify for the PPP? Will there be any funds left?

As independent contractors, this adds more stress to our already overstimulated fear-filled brains. So, we dust off our CRM, we work to build up the courage to pick up the phone, to chat with that buyer from 2016 that you have sent one postcard in the last four years. Call, call, call… and up ticks our anxiety, making our cortisol levels begin to rise…

Let’s change gears for a moment...

Remember way, way, back to the early days of February, 2020? Seems like ages ago, right? 

Our daily actions were still based in the old normal. We took meetings in the office with new clients. We’ve all had the client (or we are this person) that says, “Great to meet you! Oh, no honey, I’m a hugger,” and we embraced. We showed them numerous homes and even drove around in the same car.

Think back to that last networking coffee, you shook hands without thinking twice about touching, instead your focus was on exerting your grip as a measure of success. Is my squeeze firmer than theirs, did I lock eyes long enough, did I gain their respect?

Everything has changed so quickly, so many new rules.

I never would have thought seeing people on a TV show touching each other would make me want to yell at them, “Don’t stand so close! Why did you hug her, don’t you know you can’t do that?” and push my cortisol levels to new heights.

Have you gotten a call in the last few weeks, not recognized the number and still considered answering it? I have.

Humans are a social species,
even the introverts
among us need some connection. 
We feed off of the energy 
exchanged during our 
interactions with others.

I understand the need to use the term social distancing versus referring to it as physical distancing. We are so used to unrestricted movement and interaction with many different people, on average we have up to 24 person-to-person contacts in any given day, so referring to the social portion of our interactions helps get the message through. This message is crucial and yes this physical distancing is saving lives, but it is essentially denying us a part of our senses…cortisol levels reach their highest heights…

This need for connection is ingrained in our collective consciousness. We need to exercise other senses to reinvent our need to connect in a safe fashion. We have to lower our stress, regardless of the unknown. So what do we do? 

We exercise more, get out of the house, reach out to an old college roommate or high school friend we haven’t spoken to in years. Wait?
Hmmm…Here’s a thought, why not add past clients, colleagues and other referral sources to the long lost friends you are calling, not because we are in a pandemic and worried where our next sale will come from, but because we are in a pandemic and could all use a little extra human connection.

While nothing compares to our old normal interactions, in this time, we need to pivot more than just our business model. Yes, you can offer advice as their “trusted advisor,” you can give them the latest data from MarketStats, or tell them you aren’t sure what will happen with real estate next. There’s not really a need to dig too deep or feel stressed in making those calls, instead, pivot your human interactions. Call because you are being genuine and need to exercise your other senses. Who knows, you may benefit as much, if not more, than the person you are calling.

* If you are “lucky enough” to be quarantined with your family, take a break from bickering and hiding out in the different corners of your house. Here’s a way to increase your oxytocin levels and beat out that cortisol. Give each other a hug, not a short little “one armed heater” as my landlord used to say when he stopped in the city to bring me his prized Hanover tomatoes. No, I mean a real deal, wrap your arms around ‘em, squeeze tight and find the grace in the fact that we have been given this time to slow down.