Making That First Seller Call – Here’s What to Say » Claude Diamond

Joe: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Real Estate Investing Mastery podcast. Really glad you’re here. I’m with my good buddy, Claude Diamond.Claude: Hi, guys.

Joe: Claude and I are doing an event in Hawaii December 11th through the 13th. I’ve never been to Hawaii before. I’m super excited about it.

Claude: You’re kidding. I’m going to put you on a surfboard, dude.

Joe: I’m so excited about this. I love the beach. We just got back, Claude, from a 10-week trip around the northwestern part of the United States, went to a bunch of big national parks, and my favorite, one of my favorites in the top 5% of all the places we went to was the coast right along Oregon. I love the beach. I love going out there, but we’re going to be in Hawaii and we’re going to be doing a really awesome, incredible, three-day workshop with just me and Claude and some friends of ours about sales, about real estate, how to do this business virtually from anywhere in the world, from your house in Winter Park, Colorado or in San Diego with just an iPhone and an iPad. Pretty much, that is it.

Claude: Tell them the dates, Joe.

Joe: December 11 through the 13th. December 11th through the 13th. If you want more information, in the show notes here will be a link to the website, but you can also, if you want to write this down, go to GutsRules.com/ … How do you pronounce this, Claude? Cowee? Kauai.

Claude: Kauai.

Joe: Kauai. All right. GutsRules.com/Kauai2014, 2014. It’s G-U-T-S-R-U-L-E-S dot com, GutsRules.com/K-A-U-A-I-2-0-1-4. You may need to put a backslash at the end. No, you don’t. All right, so anyway that website and that link will be in the show notes and also we’ll have it in the email we’re sending out about this, but I wanted to talk with you, Claude.

We’ve interviewed you before on the podcast, and we talked about sales before, but this is so, so important. Let me give some context of what I want to ask you about this for, Claude. The other day I had some students do a bunch of marketing. They were at a workshop in Phoenix, Arizona, and they sent out several thousands of postcards and got a bunch of leads in that went to voicemail. During this workshop, a lot of the students, God bless them. I love the fact that they were taking massive action. Going to a workshop like that where they were, they were forced to sit down, pick up the phone, and call sellers, which is awesome.

Claude: I’m taking notes.

Joe: You’re taking notes. They had about 140 leads in St. Louis, so my friend who was hosting the seminar there sent out a bunch of postcards. They had about 100, 140 leads, and these students sat down and got on the phone and started calling them back.

Claude: That’s the best part I just heard. How long between the voicemail to the phone call is to me the essential question.

Joe: Yeah, unfortunately, it was probably a couple days.

Claude: Oh. You see where this breaks my heart because the money that is spent for marketing … You and I both love marketing. We market every day and things. How important is it to give good phone?

Joe: Really important.

Claude: Did you ever get in the mood, Joe, where you had this heightened awareness, you were ready to buy something, a new computer? I want it now. When someone wants to do a deal, whether they’re a buyer, a seller, investor, whatever, when do they want … Do they want to wait two, three days?

Joe: No.

Claude: Yeah. When you took your beautiful wife out on that first date and you took her to the doorstep, did you say, “Gee, it’s a nice … I’ll come back in three, four days and give you that kiss, okay?” No, you did it hopefully then. You got five kids, so you must have done something, but …

Joe: Four. We have four kids, but my first date with my wife was to the truck and tractor pull at the Iowa State Fair.

Claude: Where else would you go in Missouri?

Joe: Anyway, that was our first date, but your point is well taken because money loves speed. Money loves speed, and so if you’re not on the phone calling these sellers right away, then every second that lead gets cold, you’re going to lose money, but to give them credit, the workshop was on a Friday and a Saturday, and so they did the marketing in advance so the students could have some practice calling these leads, so we understand the importance of calling leads right away.

Claude: There is no tomorrow in business. It’s only today. It’s only now. You get one shot, if you’re lucky. Don’t blow it.

Joe: We’re in business to make money today.

Claude: Today. Claude’s rule number one: Why are we in business? To make money today. What do we sell? We sell solutions to other people’s problems, needs, greeds, and issues, and that problem sometime only has a short shelf life. It’s not a Twinkie, okay? It’s a raw egg. You got to hop on it fast because that window closes very quickly sometimes.

Joe: They asked some basic preliminary questions: What’s the address of the house? Why are you selling? They asked some basic preliminary questions of the seller and then sent the lead to me, and all of a sudden, I’m completely overwhelmed with about 50 leads and they asked the basic questions and I have to go and dig some more. I sent them responses: Go ask them this or is the house rented or is it vacant? What does it rent for? Etc., etc.

Claude: Good question.

Joe: What I wanted to ask you, Claude, was what are some tips and advice that you could give to that person who’s maybe a beginner and they’re nervous about doing any marketing, getting the phone to ring? All of a sudden the phone does ring and it’s a seller on the line. What are some things that they need to say to the seller? What are some good questions to ask? What’s the most important thing to figure out or to find out when you’re on the phone? The first phone call with the seller? You’re the master at this and I’m really looking forward to what you have to say.

Claude: Thank you. You’re good for my ego. First thing is don’t do what your competition is doing. Be different on the phone. Everybody sounds the same on the phone. You get a phone call from someone soliciting you for business, don’t you know in about five nanoseconds that they’re trying to sell you something? They’re an uninvited guest, a solicitor? “Hi, Mr. McCall. I’m calling you today about aluminum siding on your house.” What’s going through your mind in that first five seconds?

Joe: I’m not interested. How’d you get my phone number?

Claude: Boom. Click. Rejection. We hate making phone calls where people don’t like us or reject us, so the first thing is to take an approach where we’re getting back to the person. “Hi, Mr. McCall. I’ve got your name and number here. I’m sorry it took me a while to get back to you. How can I help you, sir? Is this about real estate? I’m sorry. I’m a little confused. It’s been a crazy month. Did you call me last week about a house? You don’t have a house for sale, do you, Mr. McCall?”

Joe: I do.

Claude: It’s probably sold already, right?

Joe: No, I still have it.

Claude: Oh, wow. My name’s Claude Diamond. I buy houses. I’m looking for a house in that area. Can we talk for a few minutes today and see if we can do business today?

Joe: Yeah, sure.

Claude: Okay, off the role play. Right away, I grasp your attention. Great salespeople are empathetic. They think ahead of time what’s going through the mind of the person they’re calling. If you’re going to sound like a goofy clown calling them up like the other phone calls they received, you’re going to get that high level of rejection. Who wants that, right, Joe?

Joe: Right, exactly.

Claude: We got to approach them differently so we get their attention, so we create an emotional interest. If you folks are taking notes, that’s the key, and we want to get the prospect doing more talking than us. We want to ask the key questions which you hit on before: Is it vacant? Is it occupied? Is it a rental? Is it your own home? Is there a mortgage? “Mr. McCall, why are you selling it? It’s a lovely home with you and your four kids and the little dog. Why on earth would you sell that home you’ve been in for so many years?”

Joe: Well, you know, we want to … It’s time to get rid of it.

Claude: You just woke up one morning and said, “Let’s get rid of the house, honey”?

Joe: We already had it on the market for four months now, and haven’t sold it yet, and yeah, but I’m not going to give it away. I’m not going to just sell it for a song. We need to sell it but I’m not in a super hurry.

Claude: If I wanted to give you full price, we could probably do business today then, right?

Joe: Yeah, sure. If you wanted full price …

Claude: I’m sorry. Are you sure? Because you sounded a little mad at me before.

Joe: No. Yeah, if you can give me full price, that’ll work.

Claude: I’m sorry, what?

Joe: That’ll work. Yeah.

Claude: Oh, okay. I look for one or two things. I look for either price or terms, so if I was willing to give you full price on your house, could we work out something on the terms, maybe a rent-to-own or will you carry the mortgage subject to or something that’s a win-win for both of us? I could even save you a 6% real estate commission because I believe you mentioned before you were trying to sell it. Was that with or without a realtor?

Joe: Yeah, I have it listed right now with an agent.

Claude: Oh, okay. I guess we’ll have to bring your realtor into this conversation then, too, right?

Joe: Yeah, probably.

Claude: Oh, okay. What do you need from me in order for … Boom. See, we’re having a dialogue. I’m asking questions. I’m qualifying you. On a 1 through 10, the Claude barometer, your motivation, it’s probably a 4 or 5 right now.

Joe: Yeah.

Claude: At this point in my head, where’s my little timer? My little famous … You know my little 3-minute timer.

Joe: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Claude: At this point in my head, if I can’t get you up to a 7 or an 8, I’m wasting my time, so I want to get off the phone quick, but establish a relationship because when we call somebody from an ad, a telemarketer, a yellow letter, whatever, we’re about this far apart, aren’t we?

Joe: Yeah.

Claude: I’m going to call you. I’m going to introduce myself. I’m going to get us a little closer. Then maybe I’ll say something like, “Mr. McCall, what’s your process your family makes decisions like this? Do you need to get out of this house now or after the holidays? How fast do you need to move on this?”

Joe: We’d like to sell it in the next few months if we get the right price.

Claude: Okay, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Can I send you a letter of intent which introduces me and you have my contact information? I’ll give you some broad parameters of what I’d like to do and if you want to get back to me, otherwise, I’ll give you a call closer to the holidays. It’s been a pleasure to speak with you, sir. Is there anything else we need to discuss?”

Joe: No. Don’t you need to come look at the house or just make an offer on it?

Claude: Can I have your address? I’ll check it on Google Earth right now and save us both some gas.

Joe: Okay. It’s 123 Main Street.

Claude: Got it. I’ll send you a letter today. If you have questions, could you get back to me at 5:30 based on the offer I’m sending you?

Joe: You’re sending me an offer right now?

Claude: I’ll send you an offer within the hour. I have your email here. I’m going to check it out, and if I hear back from you before 5:30 with any questions, that’ll be fine. If not, have a nice day, sir. It was a pleasure. Bye-bye.

Joe: Thank you.

Claude: Boom. Now there was nothing there because you were a 5. I’ll send you a letter of intent. I’ll send you something. You might call me back with questions, so now we’re a little bit closer. I’m Claude, you’re Joe now. We’re not Mr. Diamond, Mr. McCall. We still don’t do a deal, so now I’m going to call you at Christmas. Hi, Mr. McCall. Claude Diamond here. You probably don’t remember me, do you, sir?

Joe: No, who is this again?

Claude: Claude Diamond. I was the guy in Colorado called you up about your house. We discussed a wholesale deal, a lease purchase deal, but we couldn’t …

Joe: Oh, yeah.

Claude: I have a note here that said to give you a call. By the way, Merry Christmas.

Joe: Thank you.

Claude: You must have sold that house by now.

Joe: No. I think we’re going to rent it out. We haven’t sold anything yet.

Claude: Suppose I gave you full price and I wanted to rent it for three years and pay you on time and take care of all minor maintenance. Could we do a deal today?

Joe: I don’t know. Maybe. Tell me more. What do you mean by that?

Claude: Okay, boom. Now we’re in another dialogue. Did I get your attention?

Joe: Oh, yeah. The full price thing.

Claude: I’m not going to argue full price. If I get the terms, I don’t care about the full price. Sometimes I get just the price. I’ll get a great price, cash deal. Sometimes I get terms, but full price. Sometimes, I get a hybrid.

Joe: Let’s do this …

Claude: In a few minutes … I’m sorry. In a few minutes, we’re having a dialogue and I’m getting to the bottom line in seconds rather than back and forth and back and forth. It’s exhausting. Sorry. Go ahead, Joe.

Joe: That’s excellent. Let’s do the role play again. I got to sell this thing today. I can’t rent it out. I got to get rid of this thing.

Claude: What’s the hurry, Joe? You’re living in it anyway. I mean, are you in the witness protection program? What’s going on?

Joe: No, it’s vacant, but …

Claude: Oh, it’s vacant.

Joe: … I’m so sick of this thing, I just got to get rid of it.

Claude: It’s vacant. It’s free and clear. You’re not paying a mortgage on it anymore, are you?

Joe: Yes, I am. I got a mortgage payment. I don’t know how much longer I can keep that up.

Claude: Round numbers, what are we talking about? 500? 1000?

Joe: I owe 100,000 on it and my payments are about 800 a month, and it’s becoming a pain in the butt. I don’t know. I just might call the bank and try to do something with them.

Claude: Maybe you should. How many months has it been empty?

Joe: Six.

Claude: Six months. I had a friend, same situ- … Cost him his credit, cost him the equity in the home. Put a great deal of stress on his marriage. Horrible situation. I don’t know if that’s something you want to discuss with me so we could avoid that same situation for you.

Joe: Sure. I’m open to suggestions. What are you talking about?

Claude: We take a breather. Time out. You’re now at an 8. Now I’m in … It’s the magic moment. You and I are on the doorstep. It’s the minute. I don’t know if I like that visual. Wait a second. What I mean is this is the beautiful time now, and then you go right to before you give your presenta- … Notice I don’t do the 40-minute Q & A: What’s a lease purchase? How does it work? I don’t do that until I’ve closed you or I have a commitment up front. This is gut selling.

Joe: Oh, yeah.

Claude: This is working fine, and we’re having fun here. Did you notice on the first phone call, who rejected who?

Joe: You did.

Claude: Yes.

Joe: Yeah. You were the reluctant buyer, as I like to call it.

Claude: Yeah. Instead of the prospect saying, “I’ll think about it. Send me this. I’ll talk to my wife.” How many times can you hear that before you go crazy? When we go crazy, we get frustrated, and when we get frustrated, we don’t work as hard as we could in this business, but I’ve got you now on that second phone call at an 8, so now I’m going to make you a tentative, a pre-emptive offer, get a commitment from you, and then we’ll go to the presentation.

Joe, if I could solve your problem, if I can get you out of this and help you with the back payments and help repair your credit and get you out of this house, if we can find a way to do this, what would you say to me next?

Joe: Yeah, I just want to get rid of this thing.

Claude: No, I understand. How’s your wife feel? Isn’t she part of the decision making process? Should we get her in on this call or how does your family work, if you don’t mind me asking?

Joe: Yeah, she’s more sick of it than I am.

Claude: Okay, so if we find a way … We’re going to do some Q & A questions here. You’re going to ask me questions, I’m going to ask you, and let’s make an agreement at the end of this phone call, if we can find a way to do business, I will get you the paperwork and we will move forward today, and if not, would you just say no to me? Can you do that, Joe?

Joe: Yeah, that sounds fair.

Claude: See. We have an agenda here. We’ve qualified and we have a commitment and we did it in a small space of time, rather than the … How many times have you and I in the old days done these 40, 50, 60 minute phone calls, get in the car, drive to the property, go back and forth, buy them lattes and everything, and then they say, “No, Claude. We’re not going to do it right now”?

Joe: Oh, man.

Claude: Oh.

Joe: That is horrible. That’s like one of the worst things that can happen to somebody, so I love what you were doing with … My wife just brought me coffee, too.

Claude: You’re kidding. Well, Claudia just brought me tea. Claudia, say hello to Joe. We’re recording.

Joe: Hi, Claudia.

Claude: Isn’t that funny? I didn’t know if you could see her or not.

Joe: My wife just brought me some …

Claude: Put on some clothes.

Joe: No, she’s dressed. It was just like 30 seconds before that my wife did, but okay, so Claude, let’s say I want to buy their house. I want to make an offer to buy their house so I’m more interested in price, not terms. Can you walk me down the path of what you would say? You know what? I just want to sell this thing today. I don’t want to lease it.

Claude: Great. Sounds good, Joe. What do you have it listed for? What are you asking?

Joe: I’ve been trying to sell it for 100,000.

Claude: What’s it worth, if you don’t mind me asking?

Joe: Zillow says it’s worth 120.

Claude: You’re selling it for 100. Can we assume that’s correct?

Joe: Yeah.

Claude: Okay, so that’s a $20,000 difference. What do you owe on the property, Joe? Round numbers.

Joe: I owe 70.

Claude: You owe 70. Why are you selling this lovely home? What’s the urgency?

Joe: It’s vacant. We don’t want to be landlords. I don’t want to rent it out. I just want to get rid of it.

Claude: I understand that. What’s the least you’ll take to do a deal today and close in 30 days or less?

Joe: I’d really like to get 100 for it.

Claude: I’d really like to be 6 foot 2 and God gave me 5 foot 8 genes. What are you going to do?

Joe: I don’t know. Just make an offer.

Claude: I don’t know. You want 100. You say it’s worth 120 and you owe 70. I’ll tell you what. I’ll make you one offer and you can say yes or no. I’ll split the difference to you. The difference between 70 and 100, that’s a $30,000 spread. I’ll give you $85,000 cash, I’ll do the closing costs, and I’ll close in 30 days or less. Yes or no?

Joe: Oh, man. I don’t know. That’s pretty …

Claude: I got other deals to do, Joe. I’m not trying to pressure you, but I can give you a good price, close quickly, or you can leave it on the market another two years and watch the price and deal with other people who might give you more.

Joe: Why don’t you just come over and look at it? Because it’s such a nice house. It doesn’t need any work.

Claude: Joe, I know that just by talking to you, Joe. That was a stroke, by the way. Joe, you can say, God bless you, say no to me or you can say yes. My offer right now is for $85,000. That’s the best I can do. Otherwise, I have to move on.

Joe: I need to think about it.

Claude: You’re not allowed to, Joe.

Joe: Why not?

Claude: Because I think you’re more worried about my feelings. When people say they’ll think about it, they really mean no and they don’t want to hurt my feelings because they know how sensitive I am. Joe, I’ll tell you right now. We can say it’s over and we’re still friends. I got $85,000 cash, no real estate … Joe, if you’re not in any rush to sell the home, if I was you, I would just leave it on the market, get a realtor. Maybe you’ll get 95, 100, $105,000, but if you want to move quick, I can give you a cash deal right now because I’m an investor. I need either price or terms. If you’d like, I’ll give you 100,000 for the property, but we’ll have to work out a different means of payments for your equity over five years, at least.

Joe: How about 95?

Claude: Can’t do it. It doesn’t make any sense to me, Joe, because I can’t make enough for the investment.

Joe: 90. I’ll sell it for 90. That’s as low as I’ll go.

Claude: I understand that, Joe. I really can’t. I’ll tell you what. You want 90. I want 85. How about 87-50 and we got a deal? Virtual handshake?

Joe: Okay. That’s it.

Claude: Boom. That’s what I sound like.

Joe: That is really, really good, and you pull away. You draw them to you. You play the reluctant buyer and I love how you phrase, “If we can agree on the numbers, if we can agree on the terms, are you ready to make a decision today?”

Claude: How about “You’re not allowed to think about it”?

Joe: This is my favorite thing. I do these role plays a lot with Claude. He’s a phenomenal coach, and I don’t know if I mentioned this in the introduction, but Claude is one of the guys that got me started. Whenever I’m having a problem or frustrated with something, I call Claude. He gives me some great advice. He’s one of the best real estate mentors and coaches out there. I really recommend look up Claude Diamond. ClaudeDiamond.com, but I want to do this. I love asking this question. Pretend I’m the seller now, Claude, and I’ll …

Claude: We can do a seminar, just role play for two, three hours, Joe.

Joe: You should do a seminar in Hawaii.

Claude: Oh, we are. December 11th, 12th, and 13th. Joe and Claude, three days of Joe and Claude by the pool, drinking mai tai’s and learning about this wonderful business. What could be more fun?

Joe: Okay, that’s great. Let me go back a little bit. Claude, that sounds really nice. I need to talk to my wife about it. I need to …

Claude: Let me check with my … Honey. Oh, she just left. I’m going to check with my … No, she said it’s okay. My wife said it’s all right to sell you. You check with your lovely bride if it’s okay to buy or whatever we’re doing here. This is how silly it sounds sometimes.

Joe: Do you really do that?

Claude: On my word of honor, always. Always. I really even … People don’t believe this. I even tell them they’re not allowed to think about it. Now think about it. Some people, when you say that the first time and you take a dramatic pause, most people will get a little upset with you, but you do have their attention, and then we have Claude’s you can fix it later rule. Sales is about getting them emotionally involved. When I tell somebody they’re not allowed to think about it, you got to believe they’re emotional. “Who is this guy telling me I’m not allowed to think about it?” You got to have fun on the way to the bank. If you’re not in control, if you’re not prepared …

This is what I do with my students. All we do is what you and I are doing now. Every week, we role play and practice and practice. This is the missing link, Joe, in real estate or any business is being so good in your sales and knowing what to say when different situations come up and the rationale for it. We use a science and an art to make this work, so sales is fun because for most people, sales is not fun. It’s uncomfortable. It’s humiliating. It’s rejection. We take that all away by practicing and using a system like you and I are doing right now.

Joe: Yeah, and this stuff is so, so powerful. Claude, we need to do more of these.

Claude: Oh, we’ll do it in Hawaii. We’ll do tons of this in Hawaii. You give me a stall or an objection or a problem, and I’ll give you a gut solution for it. It doesn’t always work. It’s not foolproof, but it’s about protecting you so that you can go to the bank more often and have more fun. You and I just did this … You know our video on YouTube? The one you gave me that phone number?

Joe: Yes.

Claude: I think … Is that up to a quarter million people have seen that video?

Joe: That many?

Claude: That thing is phenomenal. Yeah.

Joe: I’ll put a …

Claude: I have people call me up all the time about it.

Joe: Where’s my check? Where’s my royalty checks from that?

Claude: I’m not charging for it. I gave it to YouTube for free. Joe: I’ll put a link to that in the show notes.

Claude: You should.

Joe: Guys, go to RealEstateInvestingMastery.com. Look at the show notes for this podcast. You’re going to get a link to our Hawaii workshop. I’m going to twist Claude’s arm and get him to do more podcasts with me, and share some more juicy tidbits and sales advice because …

Claude: Anytime.

Joe: … sales is the million dollar skill, and if you want to do a lot of deals, you need to learn how to talk to sellers and how to close more deals, but Claude, I wanted to ask you. I didn’t even ask you this before we got on. Do you have a free book or something I can give to folks if they want to get more information about you?

Claude: They can either go to ClaudeDiamond.com or call us up, 970-281-5151, either myself, my wife, my secretary will answer the phone an we’ll send you a free book. We got a great newsletter all about sales and fun stuff in this business.

Joe: Awesome. Claude, I wanted to ask you about this. You have an introductory book to the Gut Sales system that you’ve given away for free before.

Claude: Yes.

Joe: Is it okay if I put that in the show notes here?

Claude: Absolutely. Lease Purchasing for the 21st Century. You put it in the show notes, or Conversations with a Lease Purchase Mentor. Great stuff. Still the best strategy out there. Thank you for inviting me, Joe. This is always fun, man.

Joe: Okay. Very good. Thank you, Claude, and guys, remember, December 11th through the 13th, 2014, this year. It’s about 80 days away from now. We’re going to be doing a three-day workshop, intensive, roll up your sleeves workshop. It’s not going to be just us teaching them. It’s going to be us working with them and practicing and doing role plays and coming up with really phenomenal business plans and marketing plans, and it’s going to be awesome. Go to the website to get more information about it. GutsRules.com/cowee?

Claude: Kauai, Kauai.

Joe: Kauai2014. Thanks, Claude. We’ll talk again soon.

Claude: Take care, Joe. Thank you.

Joe: Bye-bye