You can work harder, or you can work smarter.

Most successful Agents don't go into a secluded room, pick up the phone, and toil away making hundreds of random calls over a non-stop eight-hour period. Few people would even consider that approach. I know I wouldn't, and I doubt you would.

Instead, those who win at prospecting begin by targeting who they will call and why. They don't waste their time or effort calling iffy contacts that may or may not even be in the real estate market.

Prospecting is only effective if it generates a lead from a truly qualified prospect, someone who is interested in what you offer, needs the service you provide, and has the ability and authority to become a client of your business or to refer you to someone who could.

And that's where targeting comes to your rescue.

Targeting prospects

Let me give you a recent example of the power of targeting. I work with an agent on the east coast. She's an ace when it comes to monitoring her marketplace, and as a result, she wasn't surprised when she saw her market's housing inventory swell significantly over a ninety-day period. For months she'd watched the momentum of the marketplace wane, but over the most recent ninety days, the effect had showed up in the box score. During a coaching call, she said, "It's over." What she was saying was that rapid appreciation and insane marketplace frenzy had come to a rapid end.

In the face of the market correction or bubble break, I asked her, "Based on this market change, who should become your new target for prospecting?" After a few minutes of discussion, she aimed her focus on her next prospects: Absentee owners.

She correctly determined that, once they became aware of the changing tide, absentee owners were most likely to want to realize their profits before prices dropped further.

My client made a decision to call these listing prospects. She would share the market evaluation, inventory, and absorption rates with them. Then she would ask if they wanted to risk all the equity and appreciation they had gained, or if they wanted to sell and lock in their gains. As part of her script, she would ask owners whether, with appreciation flattening or potentially declining, they might find the rental management, headaches, and repair hassles not worth the benefits of continued ownership.

Almost immediately, my client launched her new prospecting plan. Within ninety days of our call, she had listed ten absentee-owner properties, with another fifty leads that she expected to list in the next twelve months.

Her success was based largely on focused target-based marketing. She went after the right people at the right time and achieved tremendous results.

Published: September 4, 2009

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Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. To learn more regarding this article, please visit www.realestatechampions.com.