With Diane Bulmer, Sales Agent, McGrath Central Coast
Having owned and operated a highly successful national telecommunications business for 15 years and boasting five successful years of sales and marketing within the local retirement village sector, Dianne (Di) Bulmer has now well and truly found her niche in real estate. Passionate about people and property, she gains great satisfaction from helping people move and has been achieving great cut through in the area in which she has chosen to specialise – Kincumber. Di is achieving such great numbers in Kincumber that she is ready to expand her team. Di says, “I'm on track to double my GCI next year so expanding my team is definitely on the cards."
One / Never Stop Learning and Seek Help from your Peers
Di says, “I am so fortunate to work around people like Mat Steinwede, Trevor Hamilton, Chris Smith, and Brian Whiteman, and know that whenever I'm stuck I can pick up the phone and ask any one of them for help. I continue to learn. I listen to podcasts in the car; I watched a McGrath webinar yesterday and so on. The support at McGrath has been gold for me, especially coming in from another industry. I have these amazing people around me and I seek their help regularly.”
Two / Door Knocking before an OFI
To cut through, one of Di’s most effective strategies was to door knock just before an Open For Inspection (OFI). It creates an authentic connection, which is what McGrath Central Coast are looking for.
Di explains, “What has given me the greatest cut-through is door-knocking. Let's face it: it's not the most glamorous job. You know, you're standing at somebody's door and you’re aware of how much you don’t like it yourself when a stranger knocks on your door. But I think when you’re face-to-face with another human being and you’re being real, people can associate with you – at least that's what I've found."
Before the first open home, Di always arrives about 45 minutes early and door knocks the neighbours to invite them over. She would simply say, “I've got an open house in your street starting in 15 minutes. Come on over if you like.” That one simple exercise increased her profile quite quickly. “I was always there, I was always in front of them, which I found worked really well,” says Di.
Three / Nurturing your core area
Di sends out Just Listed and Just Sold cards and also gets on the phones and contacts neighbours whenever a property in their neighbourhood sells.
She says, "I pretty well saturate about 50 to 100 houses around that particular property – 50 to 100 is my aim every time. I find I have really good cut-through with the people I've nurtured. I seem to nurture them quite well because in the end they just go with me because I actually become their friend. I will often just pick up the phone and chat with them about whatever – it doesn’t have to be related to real estate."
Four / Connections
Di says one of the advantages of working with McGrath is that you have connections all over the Central Coast. So if a client in Kincumber is moving to Toukley, you know you can pick up the phone and call a colleague from the Toukley office and ask them to help your client find a new home.
Di says, “It doesn't even matter too much if the property your colleague suggests isn’t really what they're after; it's another touch point for them; its another conversation and they see you as being very helpful.”
Five / Five minutes of courage
Di says she is working on developing her 5 minutes of courage.
“Do I sign everyone first time around? No. But I've spoken to amazing McGrath Central Coast agents like Mat and Brian who have assured me that not everybody does. I would love to though. I would love to have the courage to ask for the business on the spot.
"Instead I usually give them the opportunity to chat and call them later. I am winning a lot but I have to admit I feel uncomfortable about saying, ‘How about we sign up now?’. It’s not that I don’t sign up any business on the spot. I can generally pick the ones who will – they’re usually the ones I've nurtured for a long time.”
This is an area all agents struggle with. John McGrath called it, ‘the five minutes of courage’. Di says a line that she uses, which is helping her gain that 5 minutes of courage is, 'Are you ready to commence the process?'.
The key learning at McGrath Central Coast is that you don’t always need to sign them up on the spot. In other words, if you fail to win the business on the day it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Your 5 minutes of courage could be to leave the potential vendors with an authority form when you know (because they’ve made it clear) that they want to think it over. This strategy is called the Quote Pad Close. Sometimes this strategy can be a more effective way to use your 5 minutes of courage than pressuring them to sign on the spot because it makes the prospective vendors feel comfortable with you.
Di says, “I simply give them the completed authority form and say, ‘Here is the authority, which is all filled in. By signing at the bottom right you would activate my services, but that's completely up to you if and when you decide to do that’. I have received so much positive feedback from clients about how comfortable I made them feel."
Six / Nurturing people is the key
Di says, “I find a lot people are quite nervous about selling so I like to reassure them that it’s completely normal to feel that way and that everything is going to be alright. I take the time to sit with them; I give them a lot of time if they've got any questions and I reassure them.
"That's probably my biggest thing - reassurance every step of the way.”