Prospecting is the most efficient lead generator ever created. All it takes is time and a little bit of skill. You don't need large amounts of money to prospect well. When I entered real estate sales, prospecting was my only option, since I was undercapitalized in starting my business (translation: broke!). Developing and implementing a large marketing and direct mailing campaign was out of the question. I was forced to prospect for business.

Looking back now, I would not have traded my broke position in the beginning with no capital to invest for anything. It freed me to learn a primary skill of every salesperson's success early in my career. There is no method of lead generation that deals so well with the law of cause and effect. The law states certain causes create certain effects. Making phone calls and talking to people creates leads in bunches ... period.

We really only have two types of people we can call. Everyone in the world fits into these two neat categories. The categories are people we know and people we don't know. Those are the only two options. The question is which of these categories is bigger? I'll give you a minute to think about it. The people we don't know is larger. There are more potential prospects in that group. The group of people we know is smaller, but the odds of us doing business with them are greater because we are an insider, not an outsider like we are with people we don't know.

Most agents are searching for the "magic pill" formula or solution to avoid prospecting and have a Champion Agent's business. They are hoping and praying that their marketplace runs contrary to the laws of success. We have to plant seeds before we can harvest. If you look at prospecting as merely planting seeds, that may help. There is no harvest without sowing seeds.

In ancient scripture, there is a parable called The Parable of the Sower. The story tells about how seeds must be sown or planted. If you just cast them to the wind, some seed will land on the road and be trampled or eaten by the birds. Other seed falls on rocky soil and sprouts, but the seed has no water and withers. Still others fall among thorns, and the thorns grow and choked the young plants out.

Finally, some falls on good soil and grows and produced a crop 100 times as great as the seed. In our prospecting, we will encounter the road and get trampled and beaten up. We will fall on rocky soil where things look promising but there is no depth to the prospect or even our strategy and technique, so our results will quickly wither. We will cast the seed of prospecting and get choked out by the negativity of others. The good news is some of the seeds of prospecting will land in good soil and will bring you wealth, success, and happiness exponentially, compared to the amount of seed planted - a crop that is 100 times as great.

Anyone who approaches you by saying, in effect, "I have taken out the road, rocky soil, and thorns and left you only good soil", you must question. That is, in effect, what most peddlers of the "magic pill" marketing gimmicks without some prospecting are offering. "Just send my stuff out in the world, and watch the flood of success come your way." It doesn't work that way in life, and we all know it! My best advice is if it seems too good to be true; it probably is.

Published: January 28, 2011

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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.