New Home Owners
This is something I did years ago, when everybody was buying a new home. It may
still work today, on a smaller level. I wanted to share this with you and hope that you might get some ideas from
it.
I used to target new homeowners and find a reason for them to allow me to come
and see them. Remember, I say that half of the job is getting your foot in the door.
First, I had to find the new homeowners' information. I first did this by going
to the court house. I would go to the probate office and ask to see the land deed property transfer book. It is
open and public record for anyone to look at. I would always start in the back of the book, where they just put in
new homeowners deeds. I had done this for many years, before finding a better way of doing it. Later on, I used
http://www.gaassessors.com/
here in Georgia, to access
the local tax assessor's website. I learned how to do a sales search on most of the websites. This gave me a list
in excel of everyone that just bought a new home in my area and also showed me their deed info. I knew how much
they paid for the house and who is all on the deed. It even has a picture of the house on it, which helps me find
the new home. My friend used to own a lead company, and this is how the lead companies get the new homeowners
addresses also.
Okay, now I had the new homeowner's information, and I had to think of a reason
to contact them and a way to help them. I remember when I first moved into my new home, all of the churches and
people around my house came to welcome me. I use to wonder how the churches and the people knew that I just moved
in, but now you know how they knew that I just moved in. I decided to be like a one person welcoming committee, and
I would offer them help with some of the problems that new families have when moving into a new homes. Think about
just moving into a new home, or a new city. I did it, and I can still remember the stress from all of
it.
This is what I came up with to help them.
I would start off by calling them. Hi, I'm Mark Rosenthal, and I'm your local
insurance agent. I would love to come out and welcome you to the city of Griffin and bring you some free gifts and
meet with you. I want to come bring you some coupons for a free Large Papa John's pizza, a free dry cleaning, a
free teeth cleaning, a free oil change, 10% off at about 20 places to eat and local services, and a ton of free
things. I also brought them a big kit that I had made full of important info that I though could help them. It
contained the phone numbers to poison control, the police dept, fire dept, and all the phone numbers they need to
have utilities turned on. I also had a secret yard sale book that the lady's loved. I had some fresh homemade
cookies that my wife made. I would also stop by Sam's Club and buy a couple of things. Like a free long distance
calling card or some free Tide Washing Detergent.
Okay, I know you are dying to know how I got all that free stuff to give to them
and I'm going to share my secret with you. I started calling businesses and talking with them about new home
owners. Let's start with the dry cleaning place, so that I can show you this example. In Griffin, there are about
10 drying cleaning places. They are all the same to me. The truth is, people stick to the first company they use
for the first time. Like me for example, I have been using the same place for years. I'm not even sure they are the
cheapest anymore, but I'm too lazy to go looking at other places. Let's not forget that all these business that I
call are spending tons of money on advertisements and to target the new home owners. Why not allow me to do the
work for them? I tell them what I'm doing, and I would like to bring their coupon to the new homeowner. After using
their service one time for free, they will be a customer for life and won't try the other places. The same idea
works on all the places. I picked one pizza place and I stuck with it. Have you ever bought a coupon book from a
kid doing a fundraiser? The business will do this for just about anyone that is going to help advertise them. All
you have to do is ask them and tell them what you're doing. Most of these things didn't cost me anything. I got
those important phone numbers out of the phone book, along with the free map of Griffin that I gave to them. But, I
made it look nice.
Let's get back to my approach, now that I told you my secret. So far, I had found
the new homeowner and had a reason to contact them. After contacting them, I gave them a reason for me to come out
and visit them and welcome them. Let's not forget that I did tell them what I do for a living. I'm the local
Insurance Man. I bet the only one in town that came out to welcome them and bring them free gifts.
Next I show up to their new home, and I start showing them all of their free
gifts. Let's not forget what it feels like to just move into a new home. They don't know anyone, and they don't
know how to cut on a lot of services like the trash service. I'm giving them all the numbers to the places I think
they will need. I could spend a long time going over each thing that I give them, but trust me they are grateful.
I'm going to get back to the insurance part now, and let's not forget I already know what they paid for the house.
Most of the time, I'm inside the home and they are showing everyone there what I have brought them. They are always
very proud of their new homes and even show me around the home. I start asking them questions. This sure is a nice
home; did you get a good deal on it? Where did you move from? How do you like the city of Griffin so far? I ask
where they work. I want to know if they both work, to know if it takes both of their income to pay for the home.
Notice I don't call it a house, because it is now a home. Most of the time, the people are very friendly and open
to my questions. If the husband is not at home, I would ask her what she is going to do if something happens to the
husband today. Will she be able to keep the home by herself? I start telling them that I'm in the business of
protecting families and making sure that if something happens to either one of them, that the rest of the family
can maintain their current lifestyles. I ask them if they have any life insurance yet and start telling them about
what I do. Most of the time, I don't try and sell them right there on the spot. I'm just doing some fact finding
right now and I need to go back to my office and runs some quotes. I work for a number of life companies to make
sure that I'm giving you the best prices and best product. They respect this, and most of them go ahead and set up
a future appointment. Not to say, that I won't sell them right then, if I think that is what they want to do. I
always have my laptop with me and the apps with me at all times. I'm kind of hitting them off guard, and I want to
come back when they are ready for me to sit down and just talk about insurance. I'm not saying you have to do it
this way, but it is what I did most of the time. I'm skipping a lot of the sales talk, because most of you know
what to say and do and I don't want to bore you with things you already know.
After making the sale, I always asked them for referrals. I did this many
different ways. I would ask them what kind of a job I did today protecting them or helping them. Would they
recommend me to a friend or family member? Sometimes I would ask them, if my boss called them later, would they
tell him that I done a good job. Most of them would laugh and start trying to reinsure me that I done a great job
and they loved what I done for them and they would recommend me. I used to work for a company also that had a
referral cards, that they client filled out for a drawing to win a big screen television. The more names they gave
me the more chances they had to win. I always left them with about 10 cards, so they could give them out for
me.
Back in the good days, before all this crap we are in these days, this was the
golden market and I did well in it.
I think that one day; this idea will work again, or on a smaller level still work
today. Sooner or later things will have to get better and people start buying new homes again.
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUIP83A_dCA
Here is a video that I made to show you guys how to find new homeowners.
I'm showing you how I do it here in Georgia.
You can do the same thing just in about any state by looking for your local city tax assessors website.
I've also made a booklet on how to do it in most other states. If you will email me at rosenthalfiles@aol.com, I will send it to you for free.
I a lot of companies are charging for new homeowners info. This will also allow you to look up deeds and do a
number of things.
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