This eBook will teach you 5 steps to prospecting better.

1. By Nikitas Kouimanis
Maverick Funding Corp.

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What’s Your Favorite Part
 Sharing the excitement of first time buyer when they find their home.
 Helping expectant parents sell their too small house or condo and find the
perfect place for their growing family.
 Easing the mind of retirees or aging baby boomers that want to downsize
their homes and lifestyles.
 Finding solutions for people that thought they’d never be able to buy a
home.
 Targeting an urban area that offers busy singles or young couples a home
that meets their criteria for work and recreation.
There are lots or rewarding and exciting parts of a job as real estate agent.
Now, if we asked the opposite – what’s your least favorite part of your job – we’ll probably get
one simple answer: Prospecting for new business.
Prospecting is down-right scary to some people. The idea is frightening – putting a plan
together for contacting virtual strangers and trying to sell them on your services.
Actually, prospecting doesn’t have to be a scary proposition at all. Good prospecting is an
extension of you – it’s not a sales job, but an opportunity to share your passion and interest
with others, and as a result, help them sell their homes and/or buy a home.
Why Prospecting Hasn’t Worked Before
Fear or discomfort of prospecting has stopped many agents in their tracks. Either they don’t
attempt to prospect for clients, or they make brief attempts at prospecting only to become
frustrated with efforts that don’t immediately produce. They don’t see a return on their
prospecting dollar so they quit working it. Prospecting correctly is becoming a lost art.
The single most common reasons that prospecting hasn’t worked is because the agent hasn’t
taken the time to develop a prospecting plan. Without a plan, the agent is just running in place
– not getting anywhere.
That’s where this plan is different – we’ll walk you through five steps to put a plan in place.
Once you have your plan ready, you can start prospecting – painlessly. So, if you’re ready to
build your business, turn to the next page where we’ll begin developing a plan.

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Step 1 – The Analysis and Planning Phase
Developing Your Unique Selling Position
An important part of marketing any business is
evaluating what you offer and how it’s different
from your competition. Let’s face it – real estate is
an incredibly competitive industry. There are some
expert agents out there, there are some
inexperienced agents that need to get a few sales
under their belt, and there are some people that
don’t want to expend the time and energy needed to
develop a quality business.
Unfortunately, to the potential client, these real
estate agents all look the same. You need to figure
out how to make it easy for the customer to discern
what that difference is – that difference is your
Unique Selling Position (USP).
Your USP is vital, because it can be used to develop
a niche market – a focus for your prospecting
efforts. So, what is your USP – what is it that sets
you apart from your competition?
Maybe you already know what your USP is, or
maybe you need a little help jump-starting the
process. The following questions will help you
define your USP.
How old are you?
If you are in your twenties or early thirties, you are
positioned to understand the first time buyer market.
You probably have lots of friends that are getting
married. What’s the next step after marriage –
buying a home?
If you are in your thirties and forties, you
understand the segment of the market that’s looking
to “move up” from their starter home to something a
little larger.
If you are in your fifties, sixties or older, you
understand the segment of the market that’s
downsizing from the family home into smaller
homes or condos, or even interested in investment
properties.
What’s your experience?
If you’ve just started working as an agent, you have
an advantage of not being jaded by the business –
you have enthusiasm and excitement on your side.
You aren’t bound by old habits – you accept input
and constantly try to improve your skills.
If you’ve worked as a realtor for years, you know
the ins and outs of the business. You can eye a sale
and find possible problems. You know how to
market a property to get the most attention.
What is your background?
A background in sales and marketing gives you a
unique advantage when it comes to marketing
properties. You have an understanding of how to
attract buyers, how to read clients to better
understand their needs, answer questions and look
for buying cues.
A background in finance or banking gives you a
unique understanding of the mortgage process. You
can foresee potential problems with loans closing.
A background in construction or contract work
gives you unique insight into whether a property is
planned and built well. You can look for potential
problem areas.
How long have you lived in your
intended sales area?
Are you a native of the intended sales area? Then
you probably have a unique perspective of how the
area has grown and changed. You know what
neighborhoods are good, how the school systems
have changed, which neighborhoods have been
revitalized, which are being expanded at record
rates, where problem traffic areas are, etc.
Did you relocate to the area from somewhere else?
Then you know what it’s like to relocate – how you
find the best neighborhoods, schools, stores,
medical services, etc.
What makes you stand out in the community?
Are you part of one of the top selling brokerage
firms?

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Do you have a web-site that gets more hits per
month than any other? Are you actively involved in
any community groups or charities?
These are important considerations when defining
your USP, and as you can imagine, they tie in quite
well with creating a niche market.
What is Your Niche Market?
One of the biggest mistakes in prospecting is
attempting to cast too large of a net. Of course, you
want to contact as many prospective clients as
possible, but when you make your prospecting
efforts universal to appeal to a broad base of clients,
you lose that ability to communicate your USP.
That’s why niche marketing becomes so effective. It
allows you to narrow your marketing efforts to a
single defined group, to get their attention by
demonstrating how you can stand out from the rest
of the competition.
Some of the niche markets to pursue are:
Geographic area – Choosing a specific geographic
area is a great way to focus on prospecting efforts,
but you need more than just merely working a
neighborhood. What is it that ties the area to your
USP? How can you make that a value-added focus
to your prospecting materials? Have you lived there
and been a part of the community, or hav you
recently moved and spent a lot of time investigating,
etc?
If you are going to target a geographic area, find out
everything you can about the neighborhood. Know
where the parks are, the schools ranking, and the
best places to shop. If you truly are a specialist in
this area, you need to prove it.
Personal interests – Are you extremely involved in
some activity that may have established a presence
or name credibility? For instance, if you belong to a
private golf course or country club, you know other
members. A logical niche would be pursuing
listings in the area around the club.
Charitable endeavors – If you are involved in a
charity, or even a church, you already have some
level of name recognition among other participants.
You can use this group as a base to build your
efforts, especially if your business will in some way
help the charity to grow.
For instance, you can offer a service to church
visitors to tour the area, or you can dedicate a
percentage of your sales commission back to the
charity. Many people are more than willing to work
with someone who shares the interests and
generosity of spirit.
How Can You Target Your Niche?
Once you’ve identified your niche, what are some
methods of reaching that niche and presenting your
USP?
When you prospect a neighborhood or group, there
are three primary ways of prospecting:
 Telephone calls
 Knocking on doors
 Mailings
Even though these methods of prospecting are fairly
standard, your approach to them, and your targeting
of a specific group, is what makes the difference
between a scattered effort and a highly focused
prospecting plan.
For instance, many apartment complexes have a
community center. How about contacting the
apartment complex to see if you could host a first-
time buyer seminar? A hands-on question and
answer period is far more likely to capture the
interest of a prospective buyer than merely a
mailing.
Spend some time making notes about your USP and
how it could possibly translate into a niche market.

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USP NOTES
1. Define your Unique Selling Position. What makes you stand out from the
competition?
2. How can you use your USP to create a niche market?
3. What are three specific methods you can use to reach this niche?
4. How many hours will you commit to prospecting each week?
Step 2 Your Mind Set
Perhaps the single most consistent factor affecting
your ability to prospect effectively is your
attitude.
As mentioned earlier, many people approach
prospecting with fear or frustration. Who wants to
do something they hate? It’s inevitable that you
will eventually stop doing that which makes you
uncomfortable or unhappy.
But is prospecting all that terrible?
Prospecting Isn’t Selling
Many people approach prospecting as if it makes
them hard pressure sales people. In reality,
prospecting is just the beginning of the sales cycle –
the beginning of a relationship. Prospecting isn’t
trying to sell, but merely the first step in the
relationship, especially in real estate where the sales
cycle is lengthy and requires a great deal of hands-
on work.
Your attitude is crucial to your success in
prospecting. If you are positive and upbeat, you are
far more likely to connect with people.

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Prospecting Is On-Going
To have a successful real estate career, your
prospect efforts won’t just be a one-time event.
You will need to devote time each week to
prospecting, even if it is just sending out
mailings.
Of course you’ll try to get potential prospects
from referrals, but you’ll still continually need to
prospect to bring in a steady stream of clientele.
Prospect Wherever You Are
Even though you’ve identified a niche market,
you should have your antenna up for prospecting.
It should be a natural part of your life: when you
meet people introduce yourself and discuss your
real estate business. Even if people you meet
aren’t inclined to buy or sell a home chances are
they know someone who is. You should always
ask new acquaintances if they know someone that
wants to buy or sell a home. What’s the worst that
can happen? They may say “no” and you move
on. Big deal.
Make prospecting part of your daily routine --
when you are shopping, banking, traveling,
running errands, stopping for coffee, etc. Always
have business cards available to hand-out, get the
names and numbers of the people you talk with to
follow up later.
Prospecting Doesn’t Always
Follow Your Plans
No matter how carefully you plan, how intensely
you research your niche market, there’s always a
chance you may not get the results you’d hoped.
What most people do is get frustrated. They give
themselves all kinds of messages like “I can’t
prospect, I’m no good at this.”
A plan is just that – a plan. It doesn’t mean that
you won’t occasionally need to step back and
review it, analyze the results, and then make some
adjustments.
That’s the beauty of the plan; it can change and be
revised at any point. If you plan to have a
successful career in real estate, you’ll need to
build your prospecting skills because you won’t
always be targeting the same neighborhood, and
the same niche.
You’ll make changes as necessary and keep working.
You will definitely get frustrated if you keep trying to
do something that doesn’t work – but the answer isn’t
that you need to give up the effort, instead you need to
revise the approach.
Step 3 Getting Started
You’ve made a good start by identifying what you
have to offer clients and finding your niche market.
Where do go from here? There are a number of steps
you need to develop as you begin prospecting.
Develop a Budget
Before you begin, how will you connect with your
niche market?
 Are you sending out a mailing?
 Are you buying leads?
 Do you have a personal brochure for
prospects?
 Are you advertising in the local newspaper?
 Do you plan to send a follow-up gift to
prospects?
Almost all marketing efforts have some kind of cost
associated. Once you have a plan, you can determine
how much money you need to carry out your plan.
When you first start out, money may be tight. You
best approach is to start knocking on doors –
theoretically, all it should cost you is gas money and
shoe leather; but in reality, you want to leave
something with prospects reinforcing your USP.
There are a number of options for easily putting
together a brochure – it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
There are a number of Internet print companies that
offer templates for real estate agent brochures. You
can simply go to these sites, input your personal
information, and then print. The company will ship the
printed, color brochures to you – usually within the
space of a few days.
If you are planning on sending a gift or leaving behind
some kind of novelty item (pens, refrigerator magnets,
calendars, notepads, etc.) you can usually get these
same items through the Internet print companies, or
you may be able to find a local supplier. Usually, you

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can get these items in a huge range of prices,
starting at mere pennies and going up to hundreds
of dollars. Select an item that reflects your target
market -- new, first time buyers might be looking
for a household budget kit, a calculator, shopping
lists, etc.
Ask other Realtors what they’ve used that works
or if they have resources for printing and
purchasing that are reasonable in price. You may
also be able to order together to get a break on
pricing.
Networking
Your initial efforts focus on two things – building
a database of potential clients and active clients.
It’s easy to overlook the most obvious source of
referrals – your family, friends and acquaintances.
Before you even begin prospecting to total
strangers, take some time to let everyone know
that you are in business and you want to help
people sell or buy their home.
Don’t assume this group of people couldn’t
possibly contribute to your business. They may
know someone interested in buying or selling,
and chances are they won’t think about it on their
own, but your gentle nudging will help them
bring it into focus.
Just ask the simple question – “Do you know
anyone who wants to sell or buy a home?”
Start by asking:
 Relatives
 Friends
 Members of church
 Member of other activities – like PTA,
sports teams, golf buddies
 Neighbors
 Former school mates
 Trades people
 Former coworkers
 Acquaintances you meet at dinner parties
 Professionals you associate with
(doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers)
 Former clients
Even if people in this circle don’t currently know
someone, just your reminder that you’re looking
for business will help if they do meet someone in
the near future.
Finding Complementary
Businesses
Another way to build your database is to work with
other businesses that support your service.
Mortgage, title & escrow, inspectors, interior
decorators, home improvement are a short list of in
industries you can network.
The contacts you develop with these sources go into
your database. Some may choose to work with you
right away and others at a later time.
Planning Your Presentation
Before you get started with your prospecting, take
time to work out your presentation. This may mean
developing a script to follow. You don’t want to seem
stiff and unnatural, but you also don’t want to appear
unprepared.
Developing a script helps you think of all the points
you want to discuss with the prospect, and possible
response to questions.
Once you have your presentation rehearsed, you can
deviate from it in a more natural way. You won’t
seem scripted, just well prepared.
Getting Out of the Office
Sometimes the biggest obstacle is just doing it. It’s
easy to procrastinate prospecting. The best approach is
work a plan – either you are going to devote Monday
and Tuesday to prospecting, or you’ll plan to work
certain hours of the day for prospecting – whatever
works with you and your clients schedule, but as we
said it must be an ongoing activity.
Calling people on the phone to prospect used to be an
option. The advent of the “Do Not Call” list has made
that approach difficult. Here are two ways you can
approach prospecting:
1. Mailings, with follow-ups; or
2. Face to Face conversations
Mailings can be an effective tool for introducing your
USP, at least when used appropriately. About 99
percent of mailings end up in the garbage and is why
you have to make your marketed mailings stand out to
the customer. Many marketing experts recommend
including a small gift or item – something a little bit
bulkier than the average envelope. Of course, the
premise is that people are less likely to throw away
something when it has a gift in it.

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Perhaps the most underrated method of prospecting is
doorbell ringing, but it’s certainly a method destined
to bring about results.
If you’ve targeted a specific neighborhood, start
walking through the neighborhood and approaching
people in conversation. You’ll be amazed at the
number of people that are either thinking about
selling, or perhaps know someone interested in buying
in the neighborhood.
This is especially true for neighborhoods that are
“hot”; sometimes the homes sell before they are ever
listed. You can’t count on walk-in business, you need
to get out there and aggressively market how you can
help these clients.
For Sale By Owner (FSBO)
Another prospecting tool is the For Sale By Owner
properties. The great thing about these properties is
that you know the owners want to sell. And chances
are -- their homes are not getting the kind of exposure
or interest that they would want.
Many agents start prospecting by driving through their
target neighborhoods and looking for FSBO signs,
writing down the phone numbers, and contacting the
owners. It can quickly become a great tool in your
prospecting efforts.
Take In Orphans
Do you ever kick yourself when you see a prospect
listing with another agent? Chances are, you’d let that
prospect slip through the cracks – when they wanted
to buy or sell, they turned to someone else.
While you can’t get the prospect back, you can find
additional prospects that other agents let drop.
That doesn’t in anyway mean we suggest that you
pirate clients from other agents – but you can certainly
follow up with the prospects that are being worked.
Some of the leads you can follow-up on are:
Leads from agents that are no longer with your
brokerage – your broker owns the leads and the files,
but you don’t need to let those leads molder. Ask your
manager for permission to work these files – even
contact them with an introductory letter for you – then
follow up.
Retiring, quitting or moving agents – ask these
agents if you can work any of their open prospects,
they may want a referral fee on any business that
closes, but it’s better than just letting the prospect
drop.
The next step is to take the information you’ve been
gathering and put it to use.
Step 4 Organization
Let’s say you start to get a great listing of names.
Maybe you have twenty or thirty names – now what
do you do?
You first need to organize your database. You’ll
find some great contact manager software to help
you maintain your listing. Many are geared
specifically for real estate professionals. You want a
contact manager that gives you a mechanism for
tracking the number of times you’ve contacted the
prospect, their response, mailings sent, etc.
Following Up with Prospects
Few people are going to make a decision about
listing or buying a home with a particular agent on
the first contact. You will need to contact your
prospects repeatedly. When you drop the ball, that
prospect will find someone else to help them.
If you aren’t able to continually call prospects, settle
for the next best thing – mailings. You should be
sending material to your prospects on a regular
basis, at the very least on a monthly basis.
Don’t send out the same materials each time. Mix
things up – send out postcards detailing other
listings in the neighborhood, announcing sales,
monthly newsletters, holiday cards, calendars,
recipes – think creatively, but make sure your name
is in front of the prospect on a regular basis.
Prospecting from Prospects
An essential step is to increase your sphere of
influence. As you talk with prospects, ask them if
they know of anyone that might be interested in
buying or selling.

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When to Quit Prospecting
Once you get a steady flow of clients, should you drop
the people from your database that you haven’t had
success? Should you just stop prospecting entirely
when you get too busy?
Absolutely not – your business will inevitably hit
peaks and valleys. It’s a lot harder to start up from a
complete stand still then it is to step up what was a
slow pace. Even if you are busy, commit to working
your prospects, even if on a smaller scale, or devoting
less time to it.
Step 5 Revisions
Let’s say you’ve been working your niche area for
some time (at least several months) and don’t feel like
anything is going to happen. Rather than stopping
your prospecting efforts, it may be time to revise your
approach.
First, take a look at your materials – do you clearly
show the difference between you and every other
agent? Are you doing a good job with routinely
contacting prospects? Have you had any feedback
from prospects about changes you need to make?
Next, evaluate your niche market. Is this a potentially
strong market? Is it the market you want to work long-
term? Are there circumstances that have brought about
a change in the market – for instance, rising interest
rates may be affecting new buyers, if your niche is
first time buyers, you may need to re-evaluate, or
certainly revise your marketing efforts.
Do you need to revise your advertising process?
Maybe you need to invest more money, maybe you
need to pursue other advertising venues. Advertising
and name recognition is an important part of real
estate. While you will certainly rely on referrals, you
need to establish a presence in the market.
Web Site
Do you have a web site? It’s a powerful tool and it’s
certainly one of the most beneficial prospecting tools.
Unlike most prospecting efforts, your web site allows
customers to contact you.
However, your website has to be effective. Not only
does it need to show new listings, but it has to relay a
strong impression about you and your skills, and of
course, clearly states your USP.
You also need to make it attractive for the client to
contact you – what are you offering them that could be
intriguing? If there isn’t anything on the site that
compels them to contact you, they won’t.
Prospecting is an on-going effort that can result in a
solid client base, referrals and repeat business. It’s not
something to avoid, but something to be embraced.
How can you creatively talk with clients (either
verbally or through the mail)? How can you help these
people?
Before long, with a little prospecting, you’ll be doing
the very parts of the job that you love, and you’ll have
conquered your fears as well.
About Nikitas Kouimanis
Nikitas Kouimanis service focuses on providing
clients with a stress-free lending experience and
helping real estate agents build loyal clients.
If you are searching for ways to increase your
referrals and improve client loyalty, contact him
to learn how his strategies can help make a
difference.
Maverick Funding
Office: 646.801.2228
Mobile: 516.206.0000
Email: nkouimanis@maverickfunding.com
Website: www.mylendernikitas.com

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