Cold Prospecting at the DMV

A while back I took my daughter, Vicky, to the DMV to take her driver’s test.

Going to the DMV is not my idea of a fun afternoon and the idea of having another one of my precious children on the roads of L.A. scared the Lights out of me, but I couldn’t put off the inevitable forever.

Vicky’s test was scheduled at 2pm and we ended up pulling into the parking lot a full 20 minutes early (no small feat in L.A. traffic).

On our way in, we noticed a distraught guy in the parking lot acting crazy and yelling at everyone who walked by. Unfortunately, there are a lot of mentally disturbed people in L.A. But this guy didn’t seem to exactly fit that mold. He looked like he really needed help with something.

But nobody was stopping to help. So I walked over and asked what the problem was.

Turn out his car battery was dead and he was late for an important meeting.
 
He had jumper cables but needed another car to supply the juice.

By this time we were about 15 minutes away from Vicky’s driver’s test so I didn’t have time to provide him with my car, but I realized I could help him in another way.

See, the way he was yelling and shouting at people in desperation reminded me of the way most real estate investors cold call.

And this guy was basically just cold prospecting to get someone to give him a jump. Pushing your message down people’s throats without understanding or acknowledging what people are dealing with on their side is a huge mistake in cold prospecting.

People are often too eager about getting what they want. They forget that there is an invisible wall dividing you and your prospect – or in this case a guy with a dead battery and someone with a car that works.

So I took 2 minutes to coach him on how to talk to people to get what he so desperately needed – a jump.
I took him to first get someone’s attention not by shouting at them, but by using his body language and tone to initiate a friendly conversation.

And as luck would have it, he was able to commandeer the very next car that pulled into the DMV parking lot.
He calmly explained the situation to the lady driving. And her response in the deepest baritone voice I have ever heard was, “sure, I’ll give you a jump pal!”

She proceeds to line her car up hood to hood, opens the door of her tiny car (it reminded me of one of those red and yellow little tikes cars my kids used to have), and squeezes out of the door in her skimpy red dress – complete with her 6 foot 2 inch frame, hairy legs, a 5 o’clock shadow, and hands the size of my arm!

After they got the car started up, she announced in the deepest masculine voice, “ok, start it up, boys!”

You never know what’s around the corner here. Gotta love L.A.!

Committed to your success,
Ernie “Coaching At The DMV” Vargas | The Probate Fox