Mastering Follow Ups:How to Keep Your Leads Engaged Without Sounding Salesy

Have you ever struggled with keeping your follow-ups fresh and engaging? Tired of sounding like a broken record? Or maybe you've hit a wall with price negotiations and need a new approach? In this exclusive behind-the-scenes episode, real estate coach Dan Toback shares invaluable insights that will revolutionize the way you handle follow-ups and negotiations.

 About Dan Toback
Dan Toback is a seasoned real estate coach known for his expertise in effective communication and negotiation tactics. With years of experience in the industry, Dan helps professionals build stronger connections with clients and close deals while maintaining the highest level of professionalism.

Key Takeaways
- Follow-Up Strategies: 
Life Situations: Avoid sounding monotonous or salesy by referencing personal events or changes in the seller's life. This approach builds rapport and keeps the conversation genuine.
-Specific Targets: Always have a clear goal for your follow-up calls. Use past interactions to create a more personalized and engaging conversation.
  - Pattern Interrupts: Use unique and memorable conversation starters to set yourself apart and maintain the seller's interest.
 
- Handling Negotiations:
  - Price Commitments: When facing price disagreements, set clear follow-up commitments to leave the door open for future negotiations. This approach safeguards you from missing out on deals if the seller reconsiders their price.
  - Assuming Disinterest: Be sensitive to the seller's current situation and avoid pushing the topic of the house if they are going through a tough time. Focus on connecting on a deeper level first.
  - Clear Understanding: Ensure both parties have a clear understanding without burning bridges. This tactic helps maintain a positive relationship and opens the possibility for future negotiations.

Connect with Dan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-toback-6a9a8728/

If you found this coaching session helpful, please subscribe and share it with anyone who might benefit. Remember, real estate is all about building relationships, so keep it real, and we'll catch you in the next episode!

Transcript

Shelly Beland:  Special behind the scenes episode. In this session, we're taking you through two valuable coaching insights with Dan Toback. First, Dan will dive into how to follow up with leads without sounding monotonous or salesy. He'll share practical strategies on how to stay fresh and engaging during follow ups, especially after a few calls, and why using life situations can help build a stronger connection with the seller.

You'll hear about how to avoid sounding like a robot and how to genuinely check in with leads to maintain rapport. Then we'll move on to handling negotiations when price is a sticking point with sellers. Dan shares how to address situations where a seller's asking price is higher than what you can pay.

His approach focuses on creating a clear understanding without burning bridges, ensuring the door remains open for future negotiations. He emphasizes asking the seller if price is the only factor and how to set up a follow up commitment. If the price drops below a certain threshold, this tactic helps safeguard you from missing out on deals down the line.

All right, let's jump right into it. Here's Dan sharing his insights on how to handle follow ups and price negotiations.

Dan Toback : What monthly follow up sounds like without sounding monotonous and salesy. There's only so much report type stuff we can reference after a few calls. What's your opening line on these calls where you already touched base two to three. Or more times. Good question. Uh, that's one that I don't, I don't get a lot.

So essentially your commitment and your homework, and I'll explain what those are here in a minute, will help you overcome sounding monotonous. What I mean by that is that you're in a position to where you don't want to like be a robot, but you also don't want to say, Hey, I'm just following up and sound weak.

Because when I tell you that that's like the weakest line to use when you're doing this business, any type of sales related role, you always want to have a specific follow-up or a specific target when you call somebody. So yeah, the first one, like I always like is to use a life situation. And what I mean by a life situation is.

You want to know, obviously, on that first follow up, like, you know, from an appointment, why the seller wasn't doing business with you and then you follow up on that and you get feedback on, Hey, listen, since we met last week, what have you done? Like, what's been your journey like and have the seller kind of open up to you that way that you can do that.

If you meet with them, if you haven't met with them. I always like to use a life situation. Like, Hey, I know last week you talked about your divorce coming up. How did everything go in court? How are the kids doing? How are you doing? How are you feeling about things? Tell me a little bit about that. So if they had a big life situation, I just lost my mom.

I just lost my dog. Tell me about that. How are you doing? Like, what have you been doing? How have you been, how have you been navigating that situation? That's a major life situation. How are you holding up? How could I help? So you always want to immediately go to the life situation. If that's that, because that's what a real, that you're being a real person.

You'd never go to the house after that. You can transition the conversation slowly and organically and say, Hey, listen, I know that the least thing on your mind right now is this house, but I committed to you that I want to spare of you any way I can. If you ever need anything on here, I know right now you're probably not looking for that.

So if they have a life situation guys and gals about that's going on currently, you always want to assume disinterest in talking about the house. That's a very, very important thing. Always assume disinterest when talking about the house, if they're the life situation. Never start the conversation about the house though.

Never. Just don't be that person. Thirdly though, you never again want to use just following up. You never want to use that type of terminology. You're going to sound like a robot, like very redundant. So that's a key point to stay away from that. You always want to use a pattern interrupt at the beginning of the call.

And what I mean by that is find something that's going to set you apart. They're going to remember you by. Find you to use that either by something you've talked about in the last meeting or if you remember they have a kid. How sweet. How is school going through your kid? By the way, before we jump into the call, like, how's everything going through your little girl or, you know, your little boy.

Be able to use conversation pieces to start the conversation, to maintain that rapport. And then. You can change that up every time. You don't have to always use that same line every time. One time you could talk about, ask how their kids are doing. You could ask about how they're doing at work. Man, last week was so busy.

I'm really behind at work. How are you doing? And again, you can change that up every call. You don't have to use the same line. That's a really good question though. But you certainly don't want to be a robot. Don't use the same exact life question. Change it up. Change up and make it a pattern interrupt, meaning you're just not going to use that same canned response or canned opener every call.

So certainly don't do that, but keep it on life. Don't keep it on the house. And remember to make a follow up commitment every call. What do you say to a seller when you both come to an agreement? That they're asked is higher than what you can pay. How do you leave that conversation? The door is still open, but the understanding must come up when you are in a position to where price is truly the only thing remember.

That we very rarely win if the issue is price. I'll say that again. We very rarely win, or we very rarely are the best fit for the seller. When the only issue is price. When the only motivation is price. When you have that as a obstacle, you must ask the question of. Mr. and Mrs. Seller, is price the only thing important to you?

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, is there anything besides price that is important for you to accomplish in this transaction? Is there anything besides price that's important for you to achieve in this relationship? Or in a relationship with a potential buyer? You want to use that approach versus assuming you're the buyer.

Always assume you're not going to be the buyer. So I like to utilize that. And then if they truly don't want to make the decision today. Again, I'm going to hammer this at home because this is truly my strategy. When I do this is set up that second commitment, Mr. And Mrs. Seller, couldn't we agree that if you go below two 50 at all, that you'll call me first, can we have a call again?

If you have to go below two 50 at all first, before you make a decision, is that fair, be able to tell a seller, Hey, listen, listen, if you get an offer for two 50, take it and run. That's a really good offer. That's a really good offer, Mr. Seller. Take that and know you got a great deal. But could I ask you another question?

Sure. If you, for any reason, have to go below 250 or go below 240, do you think it would be fair for us to have just one more conversation to see what we can possibly work out? Is that fair? Both sellers will love that because they know that you're gladly being the fallback option with no pressure. But the key there is to create a, uh, a number, an anchor number of what's okay to call you back on and what's not okay, what's a waste of time and what's not.

And when you do that, you're going to create a secondary, you're almost going to create a backstop, right? You talk about baseball and softball, they, the backstop, you're going to create a backstop to kind of protect yourself a little bit, right? And you create another anchor there. So anything below 250, they're going to call you again.

They're going to call you again, right? Or you're going to call them on a specified date, time. And when you do that, you truly [00:08:00] put yourself in a position to where you safeguard yourself a bit, safeguard yourself a bit, um, not saying that you still don't, you can't lose the deal or they won't sign, but you safeguard yourself from them accepting some crazy low offer without hearing from you again.

And that's a really powerful place to be. So that's how I would safeguard myself when you are in a position where you leave just on price. Of course, let me give you a disclaimer that if that's truly the only reason, there might be something hidden there, just kind of throwing you a hint, they may not be telling you.

So just keep that in mind that you don't leave anything on the table. For assumptions, just a warning there.

Jeremy Beland: Wow. That was an awesome coaching session with Dan. Let's talk about some of the key takeaways. One thing that really stood out to me was Dan's approach to follow ups. He emphasized that using a generic line, like [00:09:00] I'm just following up. can make you sound robotic and disengaged. Instead, he encourages using a life situation approach.

Whether it's asking about a personal life event, like a divorce, loss, or any big change, it creates a more human conversation and allows the seller to open up, which is so important when building rapport. He also stressed the importance of assuming the seller is disinterested in talking about the house.

Especially if they're going through a tough time and pushing the topic too soon. It's all about being sensitive and connecting on a deeper level. Now on to the second part. Handling price disagreements. Dan's strategy for leaving the door open is price based negotiations is really powerful. Instead of just walking away when the price is too high, he suggests setting a commitment.

If you drop below 250k, can we have one more conversation? This ensures you're not left out of the deal if they reconsider their price down the line. It's a smart way to safeguard yourself from losing out on opportunities while still respecting the seller's position. For me, these strategies are crucial.

Whether you're new to the game or experience, Dan's methods, help you stay professional, build rapport and keep the door open for future business. Now, I'd love to hear from you. How do you handle tough follow-up or price negotiations in your business? Do you have any strategies that have worked for you?

Drop your thoughts in the comments or shoot me a message on social media. I would love to keep this conversation going. And thanks again for tuning into today's episode, guys. We really, really appreciate it. If you're following this behind the scenes coaching session helpful, please subscribe and share it with anyone who might benefit.

Guys, there's people out there who would benefit from listening to Dan today. And remember, real estate is all about building relationships. So keep it real and I'll catch you on the next one. See you guys next week.