I'm a huge proponent of blogging and subscribe to several blogs in addition to real estate news resources. As a real estate coach, I find that perusing blogs is a great way to get in tune with the mindset of today's agents.

What I've found is that there are a lot of scared agents out there who don't know where to turn for help. Sometimes they find good help and guidance, but sadly more often they only find each other and proceed to talk their way out of the business due to their fears.

Fear truly is the ultimate career killer. It keeps us from doing the very basic things we must do in order to succeed.

I came across this interesting question posed on a blog: Here's the situation, you are a new agent with no contacts or sphere of influence but you have identified 50 people that you want to talk with about the chance of doing business together. What prospecting or lead generation method would be the most effective or efficient?

The obvious thing to me here is that this agent is afraid of approaching these 50 people.

The discussion includes a couple of blurbs about cold calling, including what I'm sure you've heard a million times: Cold calling doesn't work. If someone tells you cold calling doesn't work, consider the source.

I find that cold-calling generally doesn't work when the person doing the cold-calling isn't committed to it. Your most successful long-term agents have used cold calling with success in their career. As a real estate coach, I've also found that most agents who are indecisive about cold calling are afraid of it. Afraid of rejection, no matter how anonymous it may be. Fear is the career killer.

An episode of Celebrity Apprentice from a few weeks back comes to mind. The job was to raise money for charity selling hot dogs ... with a $10,000 price tag. While the other celebrities argued and waxed philosophic about the best way to do it, Gene Simmons of KISS started making phone calls and was honest with the people he called. "I want you to buy a hot dog for $10,000. Yes, it's for charity."

Nothing fancy and no "sexy" hook ... just the truth.

While the others argued, he raised somewhere around $60,000 himself, which was more than the others combined.

There's a great lesson to be learned here ... don't let fear guide your actions. Fear wastes time, fear leads to poor decisions and fear loses you money.

The best way to prospect? Whatever you do, just DO it. Cold call, knock on doors, shake hands and pass out cards. For crying out loud ... ASK for referrals. Just tell people what you do for a living and you're trying to meet as many new people as possible. It works. Yes, you will experience some rejection. Not everyone wants to meet you. No problem. There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people who are your potential client base.

If you spend too much time mulling things over and not enough time just getting it done, those people will become someone else's clients.

Whatever method you choose, just do it.

Published: June 4, 2008

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Mark was born in left field and continues to live there. He's the Internet Marketing & Strategy Consultant for clients at GetMyHomesValue.com and he has have a coaching blog on ActiveRain, which is gaining in popularity. Mark believes that technology has really brought business full circle back to its roots... people helping people, and this is the basis for his coaching. He is also currently writing his first book, set to be completed by the end of the summer.