Probate cold call objections, vendor teams, and content marketing | Real Estate Coaching Episode 79

Struggling with probate cold call objections or how to navigate your probate marketing? Watch or listen to this probate real estate coaching session! In this episode, Bill Gross coaches real estate agents and investors that are members of the Probate Mastery program.  Topics include handling probate objections, approaching the concept of having a vendor team for probate services, and leveraging content marketing not just to get inbound referrals, but to warm up your outbound prospecting efforts.

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Episode #79 [Live Real Estate Coaching]

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Episode Segments for Probate cold call objections, vendor teams, and content marketing

Resources & Additional Links for Probate cold call objections, vendor teams, and content marketing

RESOURCES:

• FREE TRAINING WEBINAR: Probate Fast Track
• Take Chad’s Probate Mastery Course and get Certified in Probate Real Estate
• Sign up for EARN – Earn Attorney Referrals Now
• Facebook Group: Estate Professionals Mastermind Group
• Probate Mastery Alumni Group (For students of the Probate Mastery Course): Probate Mastery Alumni Group 
• Probate and Pre-Probate list providers
• Try Propstream Free
• Book a marketing strategy consultation
• Book a coaching session with Bill Gross
• ISA and voicemail courier service for probate calling
• Try All The Leads automated Probate Leads & Marketing System
• Bill Gross’ Probate Weekly Content: ProbateWeekly.com

RECENT CONTENT:

1. Episode 78 Live Real Estate Coaching: Picking your probate marketing strategy | How to get probate data
2. Probate Cold Calling Tips: Best way to cold call probate leads: 3 lists, 3 offers, 3 scripts https://youtu.be/Wx1hkGHZurg

FOR THIS EPISODE:

1. 7 things to do at probate court besides pull lead lists
2. 7 tips for consistent lead generation in real estate
3. Probate lead companies
   1. Comparison & More on gathering probate data free online or in person
   2. Probate Data Sources: Bill’s List
4. Vendor List resources: Probate Mastery students can find the “Building Your Vendor Team” guide at the end of the Probate Mastery course, or in the Probate Mastery Alumni Facebook group under the “files” tab.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Picking your probate marketing strategy | How to get probate data

Episode 79

Probate objections, vendor teams, and content marketing | Real Estate Coaching Episode 79

1) Business motivation from Bill Gross

Welcome to Probate Mastery, our weekly mastermind call. I’m Bill Gross and I am a real estate broker in Los Angeles, California focused on probate real estate. Graduate of probate mastery and use the program every day. And, and the reason I like to get in here a little early, but I couldn’t today, because I was finishing a listing presentation.

It was basically about a 30-minute phone call. And I took a listing earlier this week, yesterday, listing a property I’ve never seen. Basically, I sent out the contract for signature after about a 20 minute phone call. The power of expertise in this market is more valuable than ever. And so, the reason I participate this program. I do a little coaching kind of for fun as a hobby, but I really more do this because I enjoy it.

Sharpens my skills helps me stay current, challenges me to improve my game as a real estate broker. And this is a market now, we’re entering into a place where the skill is more viable than just merely energy and relationships. Relationships are important, but relationships are built on something.

And if they’re built on trust, respect, then they can really yield great business results. And so, I’m going to challenge everybody to learn how to be a better agent rather than learn how to act like one or look like one, really learn how to be better at our jobs, be better at our business, so we create more value for our customers.

So, we do this every week on Tuesdays at noon Pacific 3:00 PM Eastern time. And really the goal of this is to answer questions, encourage those of you who are working on building your business, maybe you started to probate mastery, you started making phone calls. You started doing mailers. You started building relationships with attorneys or other people.

And along the way, we all have challenges. We all have setbacks. We all have bumps in the road. This place we can get together as a group and encourage each other, push each other, solve problems together. And as I was said by Earl Nightingale, you know, when two or more get together, a third mastermind is created.

And so that’s what we’re hoping to do here on a weekly basis is create a mastermind. So, I don’t have any particular agenda on this call. I separately host probate weekly on Thursdays 4:00 PM, Pacific 7:00 PM Eastern, and there, I make a point of trying to interview top people every week. Attorneys, Realtors vendors to help us be more specific. But this goal, this call is really to work together, work through problems and find out where our issues are and solve them together as a group.

What I’ll tell you is the, like everything in life, the more you participate, the more value you get out of it.

In every relationship, the more you put into it, the more you get out, it seems counterintuitive. And the example I use is my daughter and son-in-law found a little puppy and they were so, you know, in love with it.

Well, what did they do? They saved the puppy. And I point out to my son-in-law. So, you, you love the puppy because you did something for it. It hasn’t done anything for you. And so, I’ll say here is, is you build your real estate business and probate. If you participate, turn your camera on, ask good questions, give people encouragement network in the, in the chat box amongst yourselves as well.

The more you participate, the more money you make, the more value you create the better life and better business you have in the long run.

 If you put a chat box, what state are you doing? Business in? What state are you doing? Business in? Just so we can all kind of network and know where we’re at Florida.

My. State east lives in Florida, Texas. Great. Colorado, Colorado. Got it. Maryland, Texas, Georgia, New York. Okay. So, we have a bit of a mix. Very good. So, you know, oftentimes I talk, I, I only practice in less in California. Our laws are different, but the principles are similar. The more and more I learn about other states, some the more similar I find other states are principles and doing works in Maryland, PA and West Virginia.

Very nice Eric in Michigan. Welcome. And also, you put the chat box. Are you a real estate agent or are you an investor? And if you’re both put the one that you primarily do, I’m an investor. I invest in real estate all the time, but my basic business is I’m a real estate agent. So, you’re an agent or you’re an investor.

I mean, do you represent other people most of your business time? We don’t use the word investor. what, where do you use Eric? You don’t use the word investor when you talk to customers you use property buyer. Okay. So, we talk to sellers, you’re a property buyer. Very nice. We don’t use agent. Oh, okay. We don’t use agent.

I’m a realtor okay. Well, Realtor’s a trademark, that’s only people who are members of the board of realtors. I’m one of those too. Real estate agent. Very good. Okay. So, it looks like a bit of a mix. And so definitely we want to build a business. I think that does both, you know, I, I would like to buy more property as an investor.

But I don’t, I’m not really big on flipping in Los Angeles. Just I’m a little scared by our market. But I do run my business in a way that generates leads for me for investing. So firsthand up is Phillip Unger. Phillip, I didn’t notice where you are located, but you are up. How can we help you today?

2) I need a list of real estate vendors!

Hi, I’m in Florida, the state you love though I probably can’t figure out why. But whoa, what’s it. What, what part of Florida are you in? I, I am in Boynton beach. I’m in the West Palm beach area. Are you still in Boca? Yes. Well, that’s, that’s my goal, you know, you know what I call the holy land. So, that’s, that’s my ultimate migration.

We’ll leave that aside. Sell more houses let’s get, let’s get some more saleable listings then we’ll get you into Boca, how’s that?

My, my question is I’m, I’m new to this. I, I, you know, I’ve gone through the course and I’m trying to, I haven’t gotten out there yet, because unfortunately I, I got sick with COVID.

I’ve been down for a few weeks, but I want to get out there. The paradigm I have is, is I don’t have any kind of good list yet of, of vendors. And I really want to try to walk into attorney’s offices with, with, you know, something showing that, that I have something and I posted in, in the Facebook page, I haven’t got much response if there’s any kind of.

Just even template or a list that, you know, new people like me could follow like that, like that maybe somebody’s willing to share of the different types of vendors that they have that we can say, okay, now, you know, I can go search for these people, you know, because I can only think of what I think of. Right.

So, this is a common, this is a common question that, that agents get or, or aggressively start the process. And you know, I don’t have a list, but I need the list in order to talk to attorneys. And so, I’ll never forget. I, I went through a change in my career. I started in the mortgage industry and at one point.

Um, Because I was, you know, financially involved in the company, I was a part owner company and we lost everything. And so, I went from having, you know, team and assistants and fancy marketing packages and everything to, I got wiped out. And I remember as a salesperson saying, you know, I need to go back to the basics and realized that at the end of the day, I get paid by selling me.

And I would, I restructured my whole sales approach where I walk in with a customer with nothing, but a pen and notepad take notes and plain business cards. And, and I say that to you just to, just to emphasize that at the end of the day, you need to accept your selling you the product or the service is you, the everything else is the accoutrement or the tools in your toolbox.

When you talk about building your, and, and I’ve heard Chad say this as well, individually to people. And I, it might, might say a little differently, but I know we’re on the same page on this. When people say, well, I can’t sell because I don’t have the toolbox. You walk in with a toolbox. You don’t have to have all the tools in there because if you get a job that needs a certain tool, you can always run to Home Depot and buy it, right?

If you want to use an analogy. And so, the thing you have to sell yourself on is: you are the service. Think of a service you don’t have; you think you need. Like, you might think, well, I need a painter. No, you’re the service that will solve the customer’s painting problem. You just have to commit to, if a customer calls you and needs a painter, you’re going to find the right painting solution for them.

So, it’s either you have a guy or gal or, you know, a guy or gal, or you’re going to find a guy or gal. Those are the three possibilities, but all that falls under its you once you accept the person. And that’s true. I don’t care how good the vendor is. I’ve been around in this business since 1986. I don’t care how good the vendor is.

People come and go. It’s not the vendor list, it’s you. It’s you, how do you connect them to the vendor? How do you follow up with the vendor and then how do you make sure the customer’s happy at the end of the day? So, I don’t care. Yes. I’ve, I’ve had customers need things and I would go on spend two hours going through Yelp reviews and phone calls and and interviewing them and then hustling out meeting ’em.

But the good news was I found a great vendor. I shot a little video, put that, put that on my social media. And I followed up, I introduced him to the customer. They were both happy, followed up afterwards. And so now you’re adding to your business. If you’re a full-time agent, I noticed there you have the eXp logo.

So, I assume you’re an agent. Your business is meeting people. So, the fact that you don’t have a particular venue get requested is just an opportunity for some focused prospecting in that area. It’s not a problem. It shouldn’t stop you from meeting with the attorney.

 It seems to be a very common request and, and I think, well, but here’s the thing, here’s the thing with that. It is a common request, but from where I sit, it’s really just another way to put off.

Now, if you said to me, bill, I’m going to take your list. I’m going to take your list and I’m going to; you know, my prospecting day is three hours a day and I’m going to every day set out to fill in that list… That’s not going to stop me from talking to attorneys for referrals, but I’m going to work on that list every day.

And by the way, as I meet vendors on that list, I’m going to use that to generate some social media content to post on my Facebook, my LinkedIn, my YouTube, whatever. Great. Then go ahead and do it. But what I don’t want you to do is take that list and say, okay, well, as soon I’m done with this, I’ll start going for referrals because you’ll never get out.

You’ll never get out from behind your desk. So that hopefully helps Phillip and the rest of you. Okay. So let me see. I have some other questions here. Think of what you would need if you were in the position.

Yes. So, Debbie had makes a point, make a list based on your needs. And again, I, I think some of this is always a, just a way to put off actually calling people. But.

The biggest fear is referring a vendor that’s shady. Well, great, great concern, Vince, but don’t do that. I wouldn’t refer somebody unless I know them, unless I tell the customer, you know, I have a couple prospects.

I don’t really have one I know, but here’s somebody that I’ve seen. I’ve read the reviews. I’ve never used them myself, but I think you have to be… it’s really funny when I go into a I, I run a Facebook group called probate experts and we have about 1100 people. Love to have you guys join it… and sometimes I’ll ask for, do we have any attorneys in Dallas, for example, and people refer me names of people.

I’m not going to refer an attorney I haven’t talked to, I’m looking for, is there an attorney in the group that I can then reach out and interview personally. And so I think it’s important that when we make referrals, we appreciate how important it is, both in terms of important to the client and important for us as a chance to build the business and put the extra work in, and I would let them and make sure I don’t send them maybe that’s shady.

SharePoint said the course had a list of vendors. Yes. I, I took that list and added to my own. And basically, the list is kind of the list of was that list from Probate Mastery and then I basically filled out what I thought I needed to add to that.

And then yes, again, Vince, don’t send anybody that you think is shady. We want somebody to, to be that we can trust and that we feel comfortable sending our customers or prospective customers.

3) Calling past probate clients for SOI marketing

Okay. Who else has a question? Raise your hand, put a chat box.

I think I caught up with everything. How are you keeping in contact with past clients? Particularly when the reason people would’ve come in contact with us was because of death. Belinda. I’m not sure. I understand your question. Would you have I mute maybe and explain a little more what, what you were asking?

Okay. So, for example, may I have a coach that I’m working with now. She’s like, okay, make your list so you can contact all your past sphere, which of course. Since both of my um, deals had been through probate, but quite often, those people have been contacted through because you know, it’s a death of family, Therefore there’s a property that’s now become available for that needs to be sold. Okay. Some cases, you know, it’s not that big of a deal. There’s no like raw pain, raw emotion there. But other cases, you know, it’s just, it’s just such a painful thing. Somebody died early, soon, whatever. So., I don’t know, maybe I’m being a little bit, little bit too much too dramatic, but it just feels to me, like if, for me to associate with them, they associated me with the death and that pain experience and that challenge portion in their life.

So, it, so doesn’t feel that comfortable, like to stay in contact. I’m just wondering how do you do that? Or you probably view it a different way.

Well, again, so when I hear that question, what I really hear is I’m not really making the phone calls. I’m not the most sensitive guy in the world if you can’t tell.

I work at it. You know, I’m a human being. I, I, I, I’m sensitive that I’m talking to humans, but I, you know, I have people I talk to who, you know, it’s a probate lead and I call them back in 90 days. I don’t find them emotionally are tying me to the death of the person. Oh no, no. I meant, okay. This is like way later.

These are people I’ve done deals with through probate. It’s been like four or five years. Okay.

I get right. Well, I get that. I get that. Yes. So, so here’s the thing I’ve…. it’s you, it’s not them because frankly, okay. They’re going to remember you as the realtor that sold their house five years ago, not the realtor who sold their dead mother’s house. They just, okay. It’s just not, they don’t think of you that way. I don’t, at least that’s not my experience. Okay. Okay. And if it makes more calls, maybe just, just me reading too much into it. Yes, it is reading too much into it. Okay. It is all right. All the fear about people treating…

look, if you call, if you talk to a hundred people will one or two be offended. Think that way. Yes, of course. There are always people like that. There are always people who project on you, their mistakes or their problems. Don’t let that get in the way of the others. And here’s the other. If you really believe you’re helping the families you’re reaching out to, then you feel obligated to make those phone calls.

You won’t let it stop you. So sometimes the reason you’re not the calls is because you don’t think you’re really creating value for them. You think you’re just another agent. Find value to have for them when you call, information that they want to know, do they have their property in an estate plan?

Are they watching the real estate market? Are they nervous about the real estate market? Whatever it is when you call, you should have the attitude that I’m of value to you. And therefore, we should talk about, you know, and take the call. And if you don’t feel that way, then you probably shouldn’t be making the phone call.

But the source of problem is your insecurity. It’s not about them. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. Thanks Belinda. Belinda where do you do business? I think in Maryland, you said last time, right? Yes. So, it it’s in Maryland. I mean, I’m in Laurel, Maryland. So, I did a lot of my business in Prince Georges county, Maryland, not getting a lot of leads from the source that I had been getting from us probates.

So, I was going to go down to the courthouse. I took the EARN course. I’m not quite finished with it yet, but I just got through with the portion that you did about networking when we’re down there and then the attorney afterwards, you know how to talk to an attorney, stuff like that. So, my approach really was going to be too I’m going down to the courthouse to get leads, to be seen, that kind of thing, and just, you know, they’ll see me as a regular.

But I’m going to do it twice a week. I’m not going to go every day and it won’t be all day, maybe say from nine to 12 on Mondays and Wednesdays, collect leads, hopefully be able to attend the office court and just see how things work and get me really familiar with the whole process. And my thought on how to get interactions with attorneys would be more so as I acquire clients that actually have attorneys contact those attorneys.

Cause we have a common interest, you know, and then just do a slam dunk job and then, you know, follow up. That’s going to be my approach, you know, rather than. Yeah, but I am going to dress appropriately going down to the courts. Now, since you mentioned that, you know, not so casual, I wouldn’t have done shorts anyway, but you know, maybe slacks and top instead of, you know, very casual. Well, I, I, it’s funny.

I’m, I’m the same spot in the class. You where I just finished my own section in EARN. I’m finishing up. Okay. But I do emphasize if you’re going to go to court, you should dress like an attorney because you want, if you’re looking to meet attorneys and get their respect and approval yeah, everybody. Naturally is more connected to somebody who’s like them and whatever that means.

And, and so you want to dress like them. And, and there’s an equivalent like them for men and women, but you should dress like female attorneys do in court. So, and your court’s a little different. Santa Clara court’s totally different than LA court, but you want to look like an attorney, whatever that means to you, so good.

And are you an agent or investor? Well, I’m a realtor but I want to acquire a few you know, buy and hold properties. You know, there there’s been some opportunities as I’ve gone through with probates, and I just wasn’t in a position to do that. So hopefully, you know, I’ll get in a position to do that, but that’s the goal.

Very good.

Realtor. And then buy and hold investor. Very good. Belinda Reese in Prince Georges County, Maryland. Thank you for, for the update. Come back and let us know how you are doing in court. Okay.

Yes. And the EARN program for those who don’t know. So, so Chad’s basic program is Probate Mastery, which is kind of the overview of probate, getting a start in the business, kind of the come from how you deal with customers and such, building a business plan and all that.

And then he built a specific niche product to add on to that called EARN, which is Earn Attorney Referrals Now. And it turns out I’m one of the guest lecturers on that. And one of the chapters, I actually do it on how to go to court and earn business there. So, there’s a package price if you’re really interested in that detail.

Okay. Other questions. Do you have a question? Raise your hand or put it the chat box

4) Is cold calling worth it?

Vince says, has anyone bought a product service over the phone? My point is, that making phone calls to leads wouldn’t be worth the time to a large portion of the population. The purpose is different because of COVID. The purpose of the phone call is to try to get an appointment. And so oftentimes you find somebody who has a problem. And if you can give ’em something that will solve that problem, it moves you forward in working with ’em.

So, in the EARN program, Chad talks about the no trespassing signs and personalizing them, of being of value. I’ve offered to go to properties, to walk ’em, to take pictures, to see what’s going on for remote or you know, out of state administrators or, or executors. And sometimes it’s just simply helping them with a problem that you can find what the problem is.

You can help ’em on the phone, then you can move forward in the relationship. So I, I can’t say too often that I get people to buy my service just in a phone call… that said when people come to me already having seen me as an expert based on my social media, Website, video and such and referral from an attorney or from another agent, that usually is just a 30-minute phone call.

I don’t really have to go see them. I don’t have to go through a lot of discussions. I don’t talk about my commission and, you know, literally Monday morning I sent out a proposed contract to a seller and called left a message, and said I’d like to talk to you about it. And it came back signed.

So, I will say that the phone can be a portion of the process, but it’s not the whole thing, I don’t think. I would agree with you. Over-the-phone offers, it actually triggers me. There are too many auto dialer marketers out there that are shady. Okay. Fine. Then don’t use auto-dialers. I, I don’t use one either, so.

5) Probate real estate websites and content marketing

Okay, good. Are there good examples of websites? Does anyone use to add credibility? That’s asked by Brad. So, I use all the leads.com has a website and I pay for that. And then with the agreement, I, I got them to agree and if I pay for it, I want to be able to use the content on my own personal website.

I’m not selling it to anybody, but I have a company-issued website that’s a little stronger than using somebody else’s website that’s hosted.

I don’t know necessarily if the website is the end. I think the website is the beginning. And then you need to put in your own content customized because I think when people see, not just my website, But the videos and the YouTubes and such, and I would encourage all agents in probate to pick the area that you’re specializing in and go into detail. Do a video at your court, do a video with local training that you work with, do videos with happy customers, and do videos of probate properties for sale.

We all have opportunities to do that. And I think that when customers see you engage in the process… I was at a listing appointment at 1130 referred by someone. And that the petitioner was saying to me how he had talked to somebody else who said they’re probate expert, but they didn’t have any certifications.

He said I have one. Well, the truth is I have four. I don’t put ’em all in my email, whatever. And I said to, to him, it’s not the certification. Now I actually teach a class. You all could say. I’m part of a national mastermind group that meets every Tuesday at noon or whatever time it is for you.

And that we literally have a group that we’re part of that has over a thousand members. That expertise is not a destination, it’s a process. And so, when you talk to customers, it’s not just the website, but it’s what are you doing with it? And so, sharing that you’re here on this, participating, maybe getting the video clip or sharing the video on your YouTube channel… Always a way! Take a picture of it, and putting in your channel that you participated in it.

All those are ways that you can add credibility to yourself to take your website to another level. So, I would say websites are great. But you want to, it’s really about what you do with it. The tools are great. It’s what you do with the tools that are going to make a difference with people.

Okay. Chris says called not only for leads.

I spoke with an attorney on Friday who doesn’t typically take on probate’s involving underwater real estate, which he specializes in, not a deal today, but potential future relationship to add value. Okay. I think, you know, the phone is, is a tool and it’s usually used to either start or further relationships, you know, I call key attorneys every 30 days and just touch base with them. I talked to one yesterday, he’s on vacation, but he took my call just because he likes talking to me. So, definitely, phone’s an important tool. But I would definitely say you need to talk to people regularly and talk to more people if you want to make more money.

Uh, Chris, I may have a deal for you actually, by the way. So, we need to, after the call, maybe exchange emails.

Claire Monique says she completed the mastery program and in the process of the EARN course. You, you and me, honey, together on that one, I’m on the EARN… I’m on chapter 11 and I actually I’m the instructor in chapter 10.

So, it’s a lot of material there. You know, it’s a lot, it’s a lot there for the value. So. Good luck with that. How’s it working for you, Claire, Monique, you, you feel you’re learning. Are you able to put some of this into practice right away?

I know when I took coaching with Chad the first time, literally when that week I, I got some nice listings I made, I made a lot of money on. Because he got me into action and thinking the right way about people.

Debbie says I’m through the Probate Mastery course and then going to go to EARN. Good. Good for you. Good luck with that. Let’s know how you do with that.

DY asks: what is underwater real estate? So, I, what he was saying is that there’s a property where more is owed on it than it’s worth, or maybe more is owed on it when you add in the cost to sell the property than it’s worth. And so, there’s a whole process, how do you take that over? Sometimes you negotiate with the lender and reduce the mortgage. Sometimes you take it subject to. There are different ways to work with underwater real estate. And Chris happens to specialize in that.

Claire says unable to put things into action. Yes. Well, Claire Monique, let’s get on it. Let’s get into action. And iPhone says you’re on module six of EARN. So, I, I don’t know the module I’m on, I think there’s like modules and then within modules, there’s chapters or something. So, as I said, I’m on 11, so good.

Let’s all, let’s all commit to working on that. I’m working on that every day. I, I, I’m tired of Chad embarrassing me that I haven’t finished it all. So, definitely, I paid for it and I’m going to get the most out of it.

Okay. Other questions, challenges, problems. Who’s having a challenge with the program we’re putting in action?

This is all about action. The only reason I’m on here, I believe you guys need a swift kick in the, we all do me including a swift kick in the rear end, and do more action and less, less talk, less preparation.

Okay. Valerie just finished mastery last night. I’m hungry. Capital H so, she’s hungry to do a good job. Good. Valerie. Let’s get into action. Let’s talk to people today. How about we commit to calling some people today so we can be successful?

6) Beat the competition as a real estate investor

There’s Eric. Let’s see if this will get him. Hey, Eric bill, can you hear me any better? Yes. Okay.

Sorry about that. I was driving. So, yes, regarding, you know, going back to the action thing I’ve been buying property full time for 17 years. Probates used to be a main source of how I used to buy properties. And then 10 years ago I moved down to Boca, kind of was done buy-in. And now that I’ve been doing probate real estate again for the last four years, probates have been really, really tough for me to crack the code again. It seems like the only probate deals that I buy are the ones that we identify while we’re driving for dollars. And it just happens to be a probate situation. Got a natural vendor list. I’ve got a website for it, but man, these, these objections people hit us with over and over, just can’t seem to overcome. The one thing that I have plastered above my desk that I tell my team every single week we talk about our probate business is nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

Nobody wants to give us the time because they shut us down so quickly.

 So, here’s the thing about whether it be phone calling or prospecting in general. I would say two things to the conversation. This applies to everybody.

Number one: business has gotten more challenging every day. That’s just the nature of business. Competition every day.

Those people who improve work harder, and learn more. New people in, new blood, new energy. Every business. Every business, you ever talk to anybody if you think about it, it’s gotten more challenging. I remember when I was young, there was an amazing book in 1980 in search of excellence, where they interviewed the top companies in America.

One of ’em was McDonald’s. They attributed McDonald’s success at that time to only focusing on a few products where McDonald’s only made hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes, maybe filet-o fish, or something. Today McDonald’s makes everything. Breakfast and coffee and salads and fruit business got more competitive.

And so, when I talk to investors that have been in the business a while, and I hear this a lot, the margins are slimmer and you have to talk to more people to find a deal. So as an investor, I think there was a time when maybe you would talk to a hundred people to find a deal. And now maybe it’s 200 people to find a deal.

That’s the business we’re in. and you’re either in the business or you’re not, and it’s, and we don’t have to like it. We don’t have to like that. It’s harder. I’m 63 years old. I work pretty hard. I don’t really have to work, but I have to work for the lifestyle I want to have.

So, I, I would just say to you, you know, it’s a mindset part. I, it sounds to me like you’re frustrated. Yes, you can. You probably have to talk to twice many contacts than in the past to find a deal. And yes, the deals that are there are probably lower margins than you are used to. My suspicion is that’s true for all the properties you buy that, that’s all I ever hear from investors is how tight the margins are compared to where they were a year or two ago or five years ago. So, but that’s the business we’re in at the same time, you can make more money in this business than anything I’m aware of. And so, I would just, you know, maybe what you’re doing isn’t working and, and you need to talk to more people or get better at talking to the people you talk to. Those are our two choices.

I also always feel like we have to come from owning it. It’s never them. It’s not that they don’t give you enough time to develop the relationship. It’s you’re not good enough or your caller’s not good enough to develop the relationship and the time they have or using the tactics they’re using.

And so, we, we can blame the prospect and be right about it.

Or we can take responsibility and say, well, what do I have to do to be better so that next time they’ll choose to connect with me?

And I would urge you to consider the second: take responsibility for that and or have your phone call or take responsibility for that. And that’s where the solution lies.

You can then start working on well, was I empathetic enough? Am I speaking the way they speak, you know, record the phone calls and listen to ’em?

I used to do one-on-one coaching and I would charge a thousand dollars a month. Years ago, now I, you know, I charge a high rate than that. The number one tool to improve your phone calling is just to record yourself and then listen to it.

If it is legal, where you’re at, just listen to yourself prospecting. It’s shocking… it’s the most difficult thing to do.

It’s heartbreaking. It’s embarrassing. I, I, I hate it. I want to vomit. I want to shoot myself, but it helps me improve!

And so, for anybody, if you’re asking questions of how to be better on the phone calling to get better results, I would start with recording your calls.

And I think you’ll, there’ll be some clues there as to what you can do better.

7) Probate Scripts: The three-step process for overcoming objections

Okay. Steven Hughes hand up, let me get you UN muted. If you can turn your camera. I’d love to have you join in as well. You’re yeah, definitely. Yes. Salt Lake City, Utah. I’ve asked a couple questions in the past. I’ve been making more and more calls.

This is probably fairly common phone. Objection. Just wanted to get insight on it. You know, I go through kind of the pitch of, Hey, we’re a social networking group. And even at the risk of possibly offending you, we reach out to families because there’s things at the court and attorneys don’t always cover.

Is there anything we could help you when it comes to real property, personal property, or just any other questions? And you know, they’ll sit there a lot of times, and this is what I get, and I’ll tell you how I’m moving past it, but I’m hoping for some other ideas, they’ll say, oh, we’re taking care of, we’ve got everything figured out.

And then I say, okay, I think that’s great. I’d still like to ask a couple questions. I’ve seen a couple of bad cases. Do you have a vacant home associated with the estate? You know, and, and a lot of times they say no, like, oh, thank goodness. And then I go into stuff about insurance and squatters, because I’ve actually come across a couple of people.

He would here in Utah that have squats in there. And that seems to help a little bit with rapport. I want to understand them a little bit more, that, that deflection, like where they’re just like, oh, we’ve got it covered. We, we have everything handled. I back with my FSBO and expired days. It’s like just trying to get you off the phone, but I feel like there could be something deeper on their end and I’d like to understand them a bit more.

I don’t know. Do you have any insight on, well, so a couple of things I would say first thing, record yourself, elicit yourself? Okay. We can role play it here. In fact, let’s this one, let me share a couple ideas, then we can role play really quick. But I would say that just that we discussed it up front. The scripting.

I wouldn’t talk about what’s going to offend them or social media. I wouldn’t put that thought in their mind. I would get more to the point. Okay. I would only talk about things are important to them. If they don’t have a vacant house, I wouldn’t talk about vacant houses. I’d ask the question. Yeah, I would. I wouldn’t talk about it.

So, the other thing I want to leave everybody with is the three step process. Anything somebody says is not a condition. So, a condition is, well, we sold the property a year ago. Mm-hmm a condition is we’re not going to sell the property though, in reality, like any seller, they’re not selling it now, but they might sell it in two years or eight years.

So, you still want to develop the relationship, but that’s a condition not selling right now. Condition could be, you know, my mother’s a realtor or that could be an objection, but anything else is an objection. Right? And we handle all objections with the same three step process and, and you skip the number one.

Number one is repeat what they say. The number one complaint people have with realtors and salespeople is they don’t listen true or false. It’s true. How do I let them know that I’m listening by repeating what they say? Second make them okay. The next mistake realtors make, because we argue with people too much.

We didn’t, we never argue with the prospect ever, ever, ever. We affirm whatever their, whatever they say is as wrong as we might think. It’d be. We affirm it. We don’t agree with it. We affirm that’s their position and we’re okay. That’s her position.

So, if I called you and we’ll role play and I’d say, Hey Stephen Bill Gross calling.

I see you filed a probate. I have a team that helps families like yours with probate. So, I’m calling to see if we can be of assistance. And you’re going to say to me we’ve got everything covered. We’ve got everything covered. Fantastic. Let me ask you this is the property vacant or occupied? My, my nephew staying in it now.

Notice. What I did, I repeated, I affirmed and then went to the next question. And so, we can go deeper and deeper on that scenario. My, my, you know, my nephew could be good news or bad news. The nephew could be, I’m glad to have him in a house or the, or the nephew could be he’s a squatter. And if you could shoot him and drag him out, we’d be happy.

But the key point is on any objection. That’s the three-step process. Repeat. Affirm. Not agree, but we’re affirming, okay, great. You have everything handled. Well, let me ask you this, and then you throw out a question that you hope to dig a little deeper and find an opportunity to be of service. You’re looking for a chance to help them.

Mm-hmm and then what, what I always would say, this kind of goes back to the last question as well. Anytime the customer treats you like a telemarketer that’s because you sound like a telemarketer. Mm-hmm. Before they picked the phone. They weren’t talking to a telemarketer.

They are only talking to a telemarketer after you called them. Yes. So, we need to look at our own selves and say what I do, that, that person, like, I can’t speak for you, Stephen, but I know me. I’m an expert in this.

I’m calling, giving them advice with thousands of dollars for free. What did I do that they didn’t appreciate that?

And how can I get them to appreciate that? That’s the key mm-hmm. So, we have to start with that and I’d say the best way is, listen, you record yourself, listen to your calls and see if you are being as open and sensitive and friendly as opposed to being a telemarketer. Just check yourself and and come back next week.

Let me know what you think. Okay. Okay. Yes. Sounds good. Does that help a bit? Yes, I, I did have a follow up question really quick if sure. Do you think it’s okay to ask about their intentions on a first call with the property? Like, do you, you guys keep plan on renting it out, keeping in the family. Are you looking to sell it?

What do you guys think? Do you think it’s too soon during our first call to ask that? No, I think you can ask the question. You know, I noticed as a, a property attached to the probate, it looks like 1, 2, 3 main street, and I’m a real estate agent. I’m just going to see if I can help you. You plan to sell the property or what are your plans with it?

I think you can ask the question. Okay. Don’t argue with them. And you know, oftentimes they’ll say, well, we’re still evaluating. Oh, great. So again, you’re still evaluating. Great. So, I’m curious. What are you thinking about you think of renting it, you think of improving it? What do you think of doing with the property?

Yes. And can you help them if they say we’re thinking of renting it, could you help them get them rental comps? Show them the process, give them a, a link to what’s involved in renting property in your neighborhood? If they think of fixing it up, could you help ’em with that? Could you give them some resources on that?

So again, our, our goal is to get the conversation and then ultimately relationship with them. And the phone’s way we do that. Okay. Okay, great. Fantastic. Thanks.

Okay. So, Chris says, spoke to an administrator who was interested in selling without a realtor when negotiate back and forth with another cash buyer offer.

I days. Okay. Yes. So that’s the process as Chris has more calls, equals more opportunities. So, I would say to real estate agents, I coach on my team. If you want to make more money, talk to more people. And get better at the people. You talk to those only two things you can do talk to more people and get better.

And one way to get better is to talk to more people. So, the number’s important

8) What CRM should I use? KvCore?

Dwayne asks any thoughts about using KV core for this? So, Dwayne, are you using KvCore right now? No. What are you using currently? Not much. Well, just at the beginning, anything’s better than nothing. So, the question really is what CRM should I use? and you know, the, the, I actually did a, a video years ago on your database as your business, and some steps to kind of consolidate everybody, you know, into one spot.

It doesn’t really matter to me what that one spot is. But from that one spot, you need to be able to take action. Whether it be email, people, call people. Categorize take notes and such, you can use Google contacts or outlook. You can use a spreadsheet. I’m with the XP as is Dwayne. And we get as a result, KV core as a, as a CRM, a customer relationship management software program is part of that package.

I don’t think it matters which one you use. It’s important that you use a place. You put everybody in one place. It’s important that you communicate with everybody regularly. I recommend to my team, we email every. We post on social media several times during the week. And we call everybody a minimum of every 90 days you pass client center influence and such, and of course leads, we call more often than.

Any particular questions about KV core or is that just a general question? I’ve heard that there are ways to adapt it more specifically for doing this business and that’s that’s, that’s what I’m asking. So, I would say that, you know, most software program think of it as a tool, and it is all about how you use the.

I know in our company we have a ton of in-house training on how to use it. And that’s what makes it effective. It’s not that necessarily KV core is better than any other software having used a lot. And it’s an area I think I’m an expert in, but it’s not the software. It’s how you use the software.

it’s not the man in the fight, but the fight in the man. And so, it really gets down to how you use it. And how you implement it for your business particularly. And everybody’s business is a little different, you know, personally I’m focused on attorney referrals and investor agent referrals.

If you’re focused on calling petitioners, then you can use it differently than I am, but it’s a powerful tool. I think it would cover everything you’re trying to do. Just depends on how you’re trying to implement it. Okay. I’m glad go into details. You want to discuss your business in detail. The only way to give you a more detailed answer is to go into your business in particular.

9) Building relationships through prospecting

Okay. So, Vince asked question, are you looking to close the prospect, or would you be asking if you could follow up with an email or letter, would suffice? So, Vince, so the, the purpose of prospecting is to generate relationship that may or may not end up in doing business together.

And so, I think you always have to have in mind, what’s the next step in a relationship, whatever that is. Sometimes next step is meeting a person, but if they’re out of state, the next step might be a video presentation and then a preparation that you might send things ahead of time.

So, it depends. I, I don’t know how to answer. That’s always going to work for you, but I would say in general, when we make phone calls, you know, for me, it’s about talking to them in a way that gets them to consider me as their resource for their probate. And then the next step, if they’re interested is to present what that would mean and what they might, why they would need me.

And oftentimes that includes a contract and a made net sheet to walk through. This is how I do it, and this is what I would do and in my marketing system or recommendations for them. So generally, the next step is to meet them. And then the next step after that is to make a presentation as to why they should choose you and then to get a contract signed.

So, I don’t know how much more I could explain than that, but it’s a pro relationships are a process. They’re a marathon, not a sprint. If phone calls feel like a sprint, then that’s probably part of your mindset and you have to understand what the purpose of it is. You know, I’m in the business of talking to. And I have people call me, you know, in, in enter my calendar all day long and I, I do marketing. So, I have more inbound people looking for me and setting appointments on my calendar that I talk to.

But when I have holes in my calendar, I make outbound phone calls. And I’m looking for people that appreciate me and have a problem I can help ’em solve. And so, I think you need to come from a mindset of where you can be of assistance to people. Sherry yes. Is a private group for people that enrolled in their earn class?

What a great idea, Sherry? I don’t know of one, but I’d like to be in it if there is one. Let me send that out to KA and McKinnon. See if we can’t create one, that’d become a fun thing for people in the EARN program both in process and completed. Unfortunately, there’s too many that are process like me.

I haven’t finished it yet, but there’s a lot there to, to Chad’s credit. He really wants to give there’s a, there’s an ancient Jewish saying, which is more than the. Calf wants the milk. The mother wants to give the milk to the calf. And I think a great coach, a sign of it is they want to give more to us than we, as students are ready to, to take on.

So that’s a, that’s Sherry, that’s the idea of the week. I’m going to give you two brownie points for that one. I’d like that a lot. And so, I’ll do my best to make that happen. Just do it on my own. If Chad doesn’t like it. No, I’m just kidding. Okay. Good. Any other questions? Any other suggestions?

How can we make that program better? I liked it. It’s still a lot there. I’m not even finished with it. I thought the no trespassing idea was great though. I just use regular signs but the idea of, of offering to do that, I think is a fantastic idea in the EARN program.

10) How to visit the probate court for the first time

Okay. Valerie, I want to start going to probate court to learn the process.

What are some tips once I get there, how I navigate the information? On recent probate files. Val, what, what county? What state and what county are you in? Cause it varies by state the, the process. Let me mute you if you’re available. Yes, I’m available. Could you hear me? Yep. How are you doing? I’m doing well.

I’m in Atlanta. I’m actually in Hotlanta, yes., it’s very hot here. I’m in Roswell. So north of Atlanta – bougie area of Atlanta. Yes. Kind of bougie, but you know, Yeah.

Is that what county is that? Is that Fulton north Fulton, Fulton County. So, Fulton, I think is the largest or second largest county in America for probate. LA, and I think Fulton go back and forth. So, it’s very, you know, very active court. Have you taken probate mastery? I finished it last night. Good for you.

And are you the one who said you’re taking, EARN as well? I have not taken EARN, I just learned about it.

So, in the I program chapter about it, chapter 10 is probate court network can actually do a kind a half hour and it was a group call on tips. So, I can’t do a whole half hour now I got about two minutes left, but what I will say, just in general, be clear on what your purpose for going is.

Right. If you’re going there to learn probate court so that you can be a service to your clients, go there with that mindset. If you’re going there with the idea of meeting attorneys and, and, and prospecting there, then go there without mindset. So, we get clear on why you’re going. I would go the first time or two just to learn, to lay the land and, and explore and say, what opportunities are there for me.

That’s what I did. Chad challenged us on Probate Mastery to go once. So, I went once I spent a whole day walking around and just figuring out where the rooms were and where the computers were and sitting in the court was fascinating. And I decided to go back the rest of the week. And then from there I stayed there for a month and then I wrote a business plan and went there every day for three hours to start my day of prospecting.

That was pre COVID. I don’t think you could do that today the same way that I did then, not in Los Angeles, maybe in other counties, you can maybe you will be able to someday, but with so much now online, there’s less people in the court. So, I don’t know it is as effective. But I would definitely urge you to go and just go there, blot out a whole day.

If you can just walk around and learn, take notes, just get a feel. Where’s the postings? Where’s other computers? Who are the staff, because when you talk to people on the phone, you now become a resource? Generally, you can’t take pictures or video in the courthouse. Most courthouses don’t allow it, but you can outside.

So, it’d be a nice piece for social media to be at the courthouse. Maybe share one or two things you learned at the courthouse; I think would be a really. Effective message for your clients as well. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Hope that helps my pleasure.

MCK. Can I see your hand up? Let’s get you unmuted. And how can we get you to jump in here?

Hi. Yes, there was just a question earlier about whether or not earn has a community. And I just wanted to respond to that. So as of right now, we are using estate professional’s mastermind as the primary community. But keep in mind, probate mastery is kind of our, our core introductory course.

And then, you know, Chad teaches this two-prong approach as far as collecting leads. One of which is, you know, using a software such as all the leads and then another one is to build your vendor network. And so, EARN is kind of a deep dive into that second prong approach. And so instead of creating an entirely new community around what we’re kind of envisioning is the fact that EARN is a little bit more of an additional teaching on top of probate mastery. And we actually recommend that probate mastery is a prerequisite for EARN. Yes. So, a lot of our, you know, probate mastery students who are in this call or, you know, alumni who are in this call will also be taking EARN or are still interested in EARN but you can use this group maybe as an opportunity to talk about both courses.

And then as far as the. Facebook group, you know, we have the Probate Mastery Alumni group, but Estate Professionals Mastermind is what we’re trying to grow right now, because eventually we’d like to add more and more courses that kind of correlate with what it is that Chad’s already teaching on.

There you go. It was official word McKenna who runs everything. I’m just, just the hired help. I’m just glad to be here. Thank you for the detail explanation, appreciate it.. Yes, absolutely. She’s also a lot nicer than I am. So, if you haven’t noticed, so good. Thanks. Thanks McKenna! okay. So, I think we have to wrap it up.

Though I would say continue the conversation in the Facebook group, probate mastery alumni group, or this state group as well in Facebook group are great places to go. I I’m on there every day. So, if you have more questions we can get to you or you have. You know, deeper dives on those questions, go there, post them, and I’ll try to get to them and, or Katt or McKenna or Chad we’ll jump in and answer some of those questions.

So, this part call, we do every Tuesday, noon Pacific 3:00 PM. Eastern is well designed for people who are in probate mastery, learning to build their business and wealth through. I’m building a business on probate real estate. I’m bill gross. I’m I host this. I’m glad to do that. I look forward to seeing you guys down the road and hopefully see you next week.

If you put questions in the chat on the YouTube or the Facebook group, I’ll catch up with you there until then have a great week. Thanks everybody.

Learn more about probate real estate certification and how to find probate real estate opportunities through Probate Mastery



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