Aw man, I just wrote a huge long post and then I started to fall asleep… As I went to save, I actually did NOT save and now it’s all gone. Fucking A. Argh!

Anyway, one of my revelations of late is that door knocking and canvassing are now my lead gen activities of choice. Why? Bc I can reach more people in less time. Yeah, that cold calling stuff was bullshit. I mean, people just don’t answer their phones anymore. And when they do, their radar for anything salesy is on super high alert. Five words in and I’m shut down. It sucked.

With door knocking, at least I am really practicing body language, speaking, and you know, building rapport. So after our weekend in Temecula, I was all worried of course about hitting my numbers. As soon as we landed in SJC, I went home, changed, printed out more flyers, and I hit up three parks in Santa Clara. In 2-3 hours, I also passed by some open houses, went in, and then continued on. The factors that worked in my favor? It was Sunday and the weather was beautiful. Families were out together enjoying the sunshine. For the most part, people weren’t in a huge hurry and maybe being in the presence of their kids also made them behave more politely. I mean, don’t get me wrong, on the path between the parks, I still ran into some jerks. They cut me off and glared like I was majorly inconveniencing them, what with my 10 seconds of talking… On the plus side, I also ran into one family where the dude stopped, listened, and responded, “Right on, yeah, we’ll see you there!” Say what? His reply made me laugh, even if he still probably won’t attend. It’s pretty interesting just the spectrum of reactions… In those two hours, I reached about 45 people, which is a good use of time I think. I def felt better about my numbers.

The next day, I hit up the library and then my office park. I really thought my office park would be a slam dunk, esp since people work in the adjacent buildings but eh… after walking the public spaces at lunch for a few days, it was generally the same people. Some very pleasant and nice. Others not so much.

But today we had the fifth of seven classes in my prospecting program. Afterwards, I was feeling motivated to up the attendance for my homebuying class next week, so I tried the Whole Foods. I spoke with the manager and got approval to hand out my flyers. Holy. Crap. People were super rude. They wouldn’t even take my flyer. And it was hotter than hell outside too. I dunno if maybe they were on a schedule or what but people were extremely snobbish and unfriendly. Still, I decided to give it an hour… things did get better and I actually had two real conversations… including someone who asked me about strategies to win in a multi-offer situation. I came clean and said I was new but I had spoken with a lot of lenders who shared what they did to help close the deals. He seemed happy with my reply and said he would consider going to my class! Woo hoo.

There was a moment today though standing outside of the Whole Foods the first 20 minutes when I felt very vulnerable and defeated. But then something inside me resolved that I’m not going to be shamed into leaving sooner than I originally planned just bc some people think they are better or think I offer zero value. I’m not there for them and I won’t be intimidated by their busyness or urgency or impatience. I reached probably 30 people. I can’t say I’ll return but never say never. 🙂 I’m sometimes a glutton for punishment after all.