 President's
Corner
To be successful in the note
business you MUST follow up with
note holders on a regular basis,
it is critical! While operating your
note
business a lot of effort is put into marketing for new leads and generating new
business. I would say that marketing takes up at a minimum 50% of your
time, probably more. After you get that first response or contact, whether it
is a first call or first meeting, your job is not done. Maybe you were able to
get enough information to fill out a worksheet. Maybe you were even able to get
some quotes form your favorite Master Buyer and an Investor or two and
present the adjusted offer to the potential seller. What do you do next? Do
you just wait for the seller to get back to you and hope you get the deal? Or,
do you follow up and keep in touch with the seller? If you want to increase
your deal flow, I hope the latter.
Many times a seller will not
need cash when they first contact you. More often the potential seller will
just be curious, not have a reason to sell or not have any real need for cash
when they first contact you. When this is the case I have a carefully
regimented and organized method for following up with potential sellers. A
series of weekly, monthly, semi-annual, biannual and annual tickler files. I
find that if I simply follow up with them on a regular basis, by being friendly
and building that trust and rapport with them, I have a much better chance at
getting the deal when they do need cash. I can not tell you how many times I
have gotten deals just because of my persistence and follow up.
Depending upon the information I
am able to get from the seller I make my own determination of when to follow up
with them. If I do give them some options for their note and they seem fairly
interested I will call them back weekly to see if they have any questions or if
one of the options I gave them might interest them further at this time. I do
not call to pressure, to try convincing them to sell or to hurry them into
making a decision. Rather, I call merely to check in with them and make sure
that they know I am very interested in purchasing their note or other
income steam whenever they are ready or can use some cash.
If they don’t seem too interested
in selling all or part of their note or income stream at the time they first
contact me, I will usually ask them if it is alright if I give them a call back
in a month or two just to check in and say hello. I get one of several
responses from them. With a response of, “No need to call me back, I’ll keep
this information in my file.” I will put them in my annual call back file. The
potential seller may or may not need cash today but who knows what the future
holds. With a response of, “Check back with me in a few months.” I will put
them in the appropriate monthly call back file. And with a response of, “I may
be looking at doing something on or around (such and such a date).” I will also
put them back in the appropriate call back file.
My monthly call back files are
placed in my file cabinet separated by 12 dividers with the names of the months
on them. During the second or third week of the month, depending upon how busy
I am, I will pull out all of the files behind the current month and follow up
with every single one of them. When I follow up I will take notes on their
current level of interest, when to get back to them again or if I just left a
message. Then they will go right back in their next appropriate follow up
weekly, monthly or annual file folder. Should they contact me before it is
time for me to follow up with them I do have every note holder listed on an
excel spreadsheet listed, searchable and under the month of the file their
worksheet is in so I don't have to look through hundreds of worksheets to find
theirs.
It may seem like a lot of extra
work, a hassle, too much trouble or not worth the effort to some note brokers.
However, I can honestly tell you that without follow up I definitely would not
be able to maintain my current level of transactions year in and year out.
After twenty years in the Note Business I have refined my follow up technique to its
present level and don’t plan on stopping it any time soon. Follow up is very
critical in the note business because you must be readily available when
they need to sell their note or income stream. By following up with a potential
seller regularly, he or she will remember you when their need for cash arises.
If you want to make your cash flow business grow and be successful you should
get in the habit of following up with any and all of your prospects.
Remember, Success Demands
Action! Keep on marketing, it’s going to
work! TWITA!
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