Know one of the investing tasks I really dislike?
Talking to sellers on the phone.
I’m just not that good at it. And I don’t really like it.
If that happens to be one of your strengths—awesome. Good for you!
Not so much for me. :-/
So, how did I handle this?
Well being the creative problem solver that I am, I hired someone to do that for me—a salesperson.
If you know anything about me, you know that I like to outsource and automate as much of my business as I can… so deals are happening without a lot of involvement on my end.
I like to call my salesperson The Closer.
That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? 🙂
Want your own Closer? Sooner or later, you will. (And you can’t have mine!)
Here’s what to look for…
You want a superstar who can talk to people on the phone with ease. Someone who won’t give up easily in finding out:
- What’re the seller’s issues?
- What problem(s) are they having?
- What’s their pain button?
- The obvious: Why they want to sell their house?
- The not-so-obvious: Besides money, what core benefit are they hoping to gain by selling?
- Why do they need help from a real estate investor?
But… the Closer has to ask these questions and guide the conversation in an appropriate way… and that means having a mindset and attitude that they’re actually helping these people—the sellers.
Another way I like to think of them is as an ethical used car salesperson—someone who’s persistent but NOT an aggressive, pushy jerk.
Which means this person still has to be determined, yet patient. A beast, yet kind and listens well. A sales guy or gal who can solidly close, and do so ethically and by my standards.
What don’t you want?
Well, you don’t want phone calls to go like this:
Seller: Eh, I want to think about it…
Closer: Oh, okay, sorry to bother you. Call me back when you’re interested or if you change your mind. Bye.
Nope. That person isn’t going to close any deals for you. Not a single one.
Here’s what I did to find my rockstar Closer…
I posted an online application for a full-time phone salesperson… I was looking for someone who already had some sales experience.
Obviously this person can work from anywhere since they’re closing over the phone.
In addition to my online application, I asked applicants to shoot a short video on their phone of themselves—nothing too high tech—explaining why they are a superstar and how they can make a lot of money together with me.
If they don’t understand what being a beast of a closer means… they are not the person for your team.
What about pay?
There are couple ways I might arrange this:
- Commission only
- Small base pay salary with commission
Either way, I think it’s important to include a sliding scale… meaning, the more deals they close, the more money they’ll make.
In my view, there’s no reason a solid Closer who’s a frickin’ champ couldn’t easily make $100,000-$150,000 a year doing this.
Now, you may not have the same size business I do (or be in as many markets as I am) so your closer might not make quite this much, especially at first… but if you’re playing this game right, your business is definitely scalable to that level.
You need to remember that this is a real, legit, critical position that you need—if not today, then probably sooner than you think.
Someone who can close, ethically, but who’s also a solid Closer with a capital C. If the person’s good, you’ll both make great money.
