Stop Cold Calling Agents. Teach a Class, Get Referrals

0:00 What if you could stop chasing real estate agents for referrals and start giving them a reason to come to you? If you're a loan officer who's tired of making the same cold calls, sending the same follow-ups, and wondering how to get agents to actually see you as a valuable business partner, this episode is for you. You're listening to the show where we talk about practical ways that you can build stronger agent relationships, create more conversations, and generate more referral opportunities by teaching instead of chasing. I'm your host, Jeff Zimfer, and today we're answering a very specific question. How do you turn one agent class into actual appointments, conversations, and referrals? To help us answer that today, you're going to hear a recording from one of our private cohorts featuring my longtime client, Glenda White.

0:42 Glenda has been teaching classes with me since 2020. And she's taught this particular class, the Google Business Profile class, more than two dozen times. And she doesn't just teach the class and hope something happens afterwards. She walks into the room with a proven process and a plan. Her goal is to get 50% of the agents in attendance to book a one-on-one with her before she leaves. And she directly asks agents for the opportunity to work with their next buyer. Okay. In this episode, listen closely for three things. First, how Glenda positions herself as a business growth partner instead of another lender calling agents about rates. Second, exactly how she moves an agent from the classroom to a 15-minute call to weeks of follow-up conversations.

1:24 And third, how she makes the ask for the business without making the entire relationship feel like a sales pitch. You'll also hear why Glenda says some of her best agent relationships started with people she might not have ever targeted based on production alone and how one agent took what she learned and generated more than a million dollars in listings from Google. Now, if you're listening to this and thinking, hey, I'd like to teach agent classes, but I don't know what to teach, how to get started, how to get agents in the room, how to turn a class into referrals, I've created something just for you. It's called the Agent Class Method. It's my free five-day mini email course. Over five days, I'll walk you through the method Glenda used behind teaching educational classes, create conversations, and build credibility to develop referral relationships without relying on endless cold calls, coffee meetings, or chasing.

2:11 You can get it free at myagentclasses.com forward slash email course, or simply use the link in the show notes and get access to that today. So if you're ready to stop being just another LO asking agents for business and start becoming someone agents actually want to meet with, stick around. Here's my conversation with Glenda White inside the private cohort of loan officers learning how to teach aging classes. Let's get to it. Okay, so let's get into the agenda here today.

2:53 It's mostly us talking about the Google Business Profile process, the audit, how to go from class to audit to conversations and referrals. Glenda, how long have you and I been doing classes together? Is it five years? We started January of 2020, right before the world shut down. Oh, did we really? We did. Wow. And then, of course, we pivoted to Zoom, and now we're less on Zoom and more in person. How many times do you think you've done this Google class over the years? What was that approximate number you said? 27 since 2021. 27 times. I don't know what that equates to per year, but I remember I used to quote you doing this six to eight times a year on average.

3:34 Six to eight. I've already done it four times, and then I'll do it another four at the end of the year. Why? This is your number one class that you teach, right? Mm-hmm. It is. Why this one? It's easy. It's not easy conceptually. It's easy because it's a hidden piece of any real estate agent's business, even if you're a brand new real estate agent or one that is high producing. So it allows me to go in for an easier aspect to hire producers to say, hey, have you ever thought about your business page? And then it goes into just a like my mind span is, is your team set up on it? Because if your team set up on it, has anybody ever left your team?

4:18 And if they say yes, that's an easy conversation of, hey, we need to come have this conversation to you and your 15, 20 agents because everybody needs their own page, not a team page. So I think it's the easiest missing piece of business from them getting business and them showing who they are. And once you've kind of gotten comfortable with the language, the verbiage around this, understanding the kind of the fundamentals of the Google business profile through teaching the class and or reading or digesting the assets that are included with that, such as the guide, etc. How comfortable are you now in talking about Google with agents? Um, it's easy.

4:59 Um, I tried to book four to five appointments a week just to have a 15 minute conversation. Um, I'm not one I've been doing business for 15 years. I do not like cold calling, believe it or not as a lender, but if I do cold, cold call, it's about Google. It's about how I can help them with statistics and stats that I've closed on Google that maybe they're missing that. So you've gotten deals from your Google profile? Oh, 100%. Yeah, I've closed five transactions from Google. Wow, nice. And well, this is going to sound self-serving, but one of the side benefits that loan officers get by going through this class is they learn how to optimize their own profile.

5:39 Now, did you change your profile as a result of doing the class? 100% I changed everything that I do on Google because of the class and if you guys are okay with this I want her to take pick it up from the point of how she books the audits in the class itself rather than you know let's not have her go through the class now she teaches that you guys have the video so uh does that sound like a good place to start how she gets the audits okay so Glenda you're in class you're up there teaching how do you get these audits scheduled on your calendar The whole thing for the audits is I want to be a true partner in business growth. I don't want to be the lender that's calling about a right staff. So whenever I'm presenting this digital audit, 15 minutes for free, my goal if there's 10 people, I want five to book an appointment that day.

6:23 And I just simply tell them, I want to be a partner for business growth. And then I show them my loans that I have closed from Google that if you implement it, you will absolutely close transactions. And then their eyes light up to say, oh my gosh, I need to have a 15 minute conversation, which leads into more conversations down the road. And there's a QR code that we have that goes directly to my calendar link that is listed out. I use Acuity Scheduler. Some of my... Acuity. Acuity. U-I-T-Y, yeah. Mm-hmm. And that's how everything is booked on my calendar through Acuity. But that's even this morning of looking how many classes since I've started it, I can pull all the data.

7:05 And as a lender, I love data. So then I can break it down of, hey. We've had four digital media audits for your Google, what's working and what's not working, and what's your lender not helping you currently right now. So it's an easy, quick QR code before they walk out the door to get 50% booked on my calendar that day. So I want to put a pin in something you just said, which we'll come back to is let's let's everybody here hold me accountable. The other thing Glenda does is she does accountability calls once she's done the audit. I mentioned this to you guys, I think, but she does those, I think, for six weeks. But let's circle back to that. OK, so you're in the class. You're standing up. You're doing the slide, which everybody knows the slide you're referencing.

7:47 It's got the QR placeholder there. I know there's some technical challenges sometimes. By the way, do you have a backup option in case people are QR code challenged? No, I literally walk over to where they're sitting and say, hey, can you pull up your QR code? I don't let them leave a class unless they're having their phone with a QR code. I also have a little template that I built on Canva that the front page is give me a Google review. And then right next to it is book your digital media audit for Google. And it literally does the class check in. And on the back, it's got the Google review and a digital audit. So they have the paper in front of them on the table as well. And it cost me, what, 20 bucks or Canva to make it.

8:30 And it's a little, like a three and a half by five hard stock matte paper. So that's a handout for class? Literally, it's like, I wonder, I don't ever, I'm really bad about that. I don't hand anything out. It's all digital. Besides, if you want my information, here's my information on my Google. Go check my reviews. Number one, I'm accurate. Now that I'm over 100. And then two, book your digital media audit for that class. So it's in front of them. Okay. I love that. Did I hear you say you're asking for reviews from the agents in the club? 100%. All right. So tell me. Absolutely. My goal is 80%, especially on Google, 80% if you haven't given me a review before you walk out, because I tell them reciprocity works.

9:14 If you give me a Google review on how I collaborate with you, then I'll give you one on your collaboration, which again leads to I gave you a review, you gave me a review, let's start the true partnership journey. And now it's an easy, like, it's an easy ask for anything. If they're giving me a review before I walk out the door, they already know I sold them on how to grow their business. And that's my goal. Yeah, you've got so many things working for you. If they're leaving a review before they leave the class, number one, I mean, so much trust and reciprocity is happening. I want to also for a moment, because I know what's in some of your heads. Is anybody thinking, well, we didn't do business together. What review are they going to leave?

9:54 Like that's definitely come up in the past. So I, as you know, Glenn, I call these character reviews. Yes. Right. Do you want to describe essentially, and you're welcome to pull up your Google page as well. Do you want to describe what they might be saying, even though you guys haven't transacted together? Yeah. Um, excellent in communication, excellent in delivery of classes. Because of what she told me to grow my business, I'm going to help her grow her business. Um, I think I have, um, probably 40 or 50 agent reviews. Um, which is fine because it collaborates of how I do business and then how I close loans. And so they're both. And then I have to remember visually that when I moved over to the broker side, I lost all the experience.com.

10:39 I had 195 five-star reviews from them, and I didn't have anything three years ago. So within three years, I built it up to 116 reviews. And now for me, that's a character witness to say, hey, I can close loans and I can help you grow your business. So now your goal is 50% of the people in the room to book an audit with you? Nope. 50% to book an audit and 80% to leave me a review. Interesting. You've got to do a lot of work before they leave the room. And I show that because I tell them that's how I translate my business. That if I'm doing all the upfront work for you to prepare you, that's how I handle my clients. And that's how I handle my transactions.

11:19 So then it relates in a different standpoint of, hey, I'm not just asking for review. I want to show you how I transact. So then when you have a client, I can help them. This is the same conversation we're going to have on your client side. It's fun. For me, it's a challenge because if I don't, for me, my mindset is if I don't get calendar appointments before I walk out of the room, I didn't do my job well enough to portray the value of what I'm showing them. So the mindset, no matter what class I do, is I want 50% booked now because you're committed to me and I committed my last hour.

12:00 Okay, so you got people who scheduled the audit. Now take me from, now you're having an audit conversation with that realtor. What are you doing prior to that? You know, we've got the GPT that everybody uses. Walk me through your whole process there. If they have a Google page, then we all, I mean, the GPT is so amazing. You just throw in the name of the GPT and then we talk about the strengths, the weaknesses, what's working, what's not working. And then I tell them to put it on their calendar. 30 minutes a week, non-negotiable for Google experience is what I call it. It's a Google experience. And now they're changing something every single week based upon the to-do list that the custom GPT built out for us.

12:44 I want to, for a moment, step back because I should have asked you this question first before asking about the audit itself. Are you looking up the agent's production, doing any reconnaissance, you know what I mean, prior to? You're not. I am not because my top agent today came from Google a year and a half ago from one class and she was a brand new agent. We have closed 10 transactions for just me and her and she was a brand new agent. So I don't care if you don't do any business. I don't care if you do 50 units a month. My goal is to do the visionary piece and to help you grow your business. And then one of my agents that implemented from, she was a year ago, Google, by July of 2025, she had 1.2 million in listings from Google.

13:34 Really? So it worked. She implemented 100% of what we did on the audit. She implemented it. She still uses it. She had 1.5 in listings because of her Google page. So now it's a non-negotiable. I'm her lender for life because I helped her do something that... Yeah, there's no loyalty issues there. Yeah. No, at that, it was an hour class that I was able to help her do her audit. She implemented it, which that's the biggest thing is have you help them implement it. But then I show them case studies of if you implement it, it will come. All right. Sorry to have to circle back there. But all right. So now you're you're on the Zoom and you're doing most of these over Zoom, right? Absolutely. Yeah, because I'm in South Dallas, South Dallas and Fort Worth.

14:18 So no matter what, just to get to the next town, it's 25 minutes. And a lot of my agents are an hour away. I'm not driving for a 15 minute audit. I'm going to get them plus with kids. I want them to book it on their calendar. Are you pretty, pretty strict with the 15 minutes? Are you doing 30 or what does that kind of look like in the real world? The first audit is absolutely 15, non-negotiable. I don't stretch it after that because sometimes they're back to back to back. I let them understand of it's a quick conversation to do an analysis on your stuff. I like to have the name before it. So even on my... calendar appointment for digital audit it has your handle on there what you have so then i can pre-work it so as soon as we get into the conversation we're already audit like it's business it's straight business you take the google profile link and preload it so it's all ready to go yeah so it's already there i'm like i'm not doing a zoom to help you fix the name i want to see your name so we know what to fix And you are now you are just going through what the GPT puts out.

15:20 Remember? And guys, show this to everybody. I did a demo. By the way, has anybody used the GPT yet to run a Google audit? Anybody here? Yourself or an agent? Okay, cool. Some of you have. Literally, are you just going through that in 15 minutes, Glenda, and saying, well, here's what GPT says? Yes. That's what's insane. I do not let my agents have that link at all because I want to do it. Thanks. So I'm like, here's your strengths, here's your weaknesses. And then I tell my GPT to put it in a PDF for me. So then we can send it to them in an email right as we get off the phone. Zoom is also really good because it'll transcribe everything and give me my meeting assets. So on top of that, they're saying, okay, I had a meeting with Glenda. I've never met her before.

16:01 What's her communication style? And within a couple minutes, I have the meeting assets, what works and what doesn't with a PDF. But that's how I handle my clients too. Everybody's on a calendar. So then they understand the business side of things. Every client is like a doctor. Like my clients are like my doctor's office. And so it treats that stability of, again, the growth phase. Okay, so you've done audits and then you get to the end of the call. Take me through the scripting there on what that sounds like. My scripting is super easy that I appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to teach you something different.

16:41 I literally ask them for the business on day one. Are you and can I commit to you and can you commit your next buyer to me based upon my opportunity to help you, my presentation method, my follow up method that you already see within the first seven days. So I asked for the appointment, the commitment on day one from that. At the end of the audit call? at the end of the audit call. And then it goes into the next strategy of, I want the commitment for the next buyer, but are you open for a next six weeks conversation? Because I want a six-week follow-up of that goes into everything. Like that goes into business, that goes into strategies, that goes into lead gen, but it all comes from the Google digital audit with a six-week follow-up.

17:26 And it's non-negotiable. So that's my accountability to them is, hey, we want to tweak it. It may take you six weeks to implement it. But by week six, I don't have to cold call anybody. Yeah. Which is good. It's already 15 minutes. And we booked them as soon as like, again, acuity is amazing. So I book an appointment and it reoccurs the next six weeks, no matter what. Yeah, exactly. You can do that with pretty much any calendar system. Yeah. So for the group here, just to refresh your memory, we've covered this by now with everybody here, the scripts around asking for the business, which to refresh your memory sounds something like You've done the audit, just like Glenda, then you get to the end of your call, and it's just like, let me take Brandon. So, Brandon, most agents, when we get to this point, ask me, what else can we do together?

18:11 So that's like an open, and you can transition into whatever you want to do there. You can do the six-week or four-week. It doesn't have to be six. You pick the number. accountability calls and check-ins. And so most agents ask me, what else can we do together? You do the thing of what it is you're going to do. And then let's just say you're going to do the accountability thing like Glenda does. Yeah, I would love to get accountability calls from updates and check-ins and see how I'm doing. Great. The only thing I ask in exchange for all this value is, would you be open to working together on, I gave you the guys example of, three clients over the next 12 months. You could say your next two clients. Whatever it is you want to put in there. I think the structure and sequence is important in how you set that up.

18:52 And then you use your own variables of, you know, numbers or does this make sense what I'm saying? Well, it's also the ask inside the class. So the soft ask is already there because nine times out of the 10, they ask, how much does it cost for me to do this? Agents are tailored. Every single class they go to, there is something. Yeah. So when I say it is a zero cost opportunity, but I want you to commit your next buyer, I have already asked that inside the class. So they already understand it's coming. So then it's a follow up to that commitment. I like that too, because you're, you basically demonstrated your value and knowledge in Google. You're showcasing the audit that you're willing to do for them.

19:33 I'm willing to do this for, you say that in front of the group. Yes. For those that are motivated and committed, I'm open to doing this for free in return for your next buyer. Because that's always the very first question they ask is, what does it cost for these services? Are you going to run my Google? I'm like, no, I'm not going to run your Google. My ask is commit your next buyer to me because that's how I grow my business is to help you grow your business. Non-negotiable every single time. And you're doing that from the front of the room one time? 100%. I do that like at introduction because I always ask, what's the cost? So I'm going to get it in front of them before I even present. And then after, they're so dumbfounded because it's an amazing, overwhelming experience. They're like, oh my gosh, she knows so much of this.

20:16 I'm going to commitment expire to her. And by the way, for those of you who feel like Glenda just said, she knows so much of this. Now, granted, she's got, the only thing Glenda has that none of you here have is time as an advantage, time in doing this. But as you've heard her describe, and, you know, you and I love each other, Glenda, so she knows where I'm coming from on this. you're not doing anything, quote, exceptional. Now, in their eyes, you are. But in terms of the format we've given you, the customs, like, you guys can do exactly what Glenn is doing right now. The only difference, she's done it, I don't know, 100 times, whatever it is. 27.

20:57 I mean, the audits, you know? Oh, yeah. I don't even know those. But it is because, and it's even been updated, which is really good. And I like it because we're teaching to the presentation. We're not going to find extra stuff. It's just, and the responses that I get was, hey, we've had Google classes before. We've had attorneys teach it. We've had title companies teach it. But what you dive into is the business side of things. So that's the presentation side. And when they put two to two together of, oh, it's the best class because we've lined out 60 pages on a presentation, I literally go through each slide. So they get the assets, they get all the marketing, and they're like, oh, my gosh, you're giving me all of this?

21:41 Yes, because my goal is for you to work with me because I'm giving you all of this for free. So, Sean, I love what you said in the chat. Sean says, I invest my time helping you grow via Google versus me spending my time cold calling a bunch of realtors. absolutely i know when you say that in a room sean the realtors are going to be like yes thank god we're tired of getting cold calls from you i do and that is a good conversation because i tell them i'm not calling you between 9 and 11 on monday because i booked with appointments from my classes my value add is for you to grow your business and not make that 9 to 11 monday call because we all hate that so you won't so you won't be getting a cold call from me the call we'll be having together we'll be helping you grow your business 100% Chime in with a couple questions here Go ahead All great stuff Glenda thank you So the follow ups are those all also via zoom or a quick just making sure you're doing your things Those are quick phone calls Um, usually on the last one, if they've implemented it all, I want to see it because I want to give them, you know, a great kind of hurrah.

22:44 My goal is to help them and promote them as well. And so by the week six, if they've done all the weeks, I want that last one to zoom. But the 15 minutes are just quick phone calls. Did you do it? Did you not? Not. What stood in your way? What didn't work? What did work? And how is it working? Yeah. And that's it. I mean, those are great when we can have a 15 minute, six week conversation. We already know who we're talking to. So when they book their first one, I just follow up the same time. And I asked them, does this time work for you for the next six weeks? They're like, yes, absolutely. Okay. And then thinking back when you were us at the very beginning, is there anything if you could think back when you were us that you would maybe, knowing from our lens and how new we are, you would change?

23:32 That's a great... I would use my case study for implementation. Like if I'm a noob on all of this, my goal would be, hey, I've run it through my business page. I'm starting it as well. And that's what I did. Whenever I started it, as you can see three years ago, I had zero reviews. So my goal is to say, hey, I've walked through your steps. I'm also building mine out. Because once you understand your profile, it's easier to convey the message differently. than just a presentation. Like I have it up on a screen here and a screen here and literally walk page by page, change it, and that will say, hey, I've done it to my page, so I know this works.

24:13 So now you're a case study for it. Got it. Okay. Let's talk about how to bring in a case study for yourself and also how to get a realtor potentially to team up with you and do the class. So we have another fellow Texan near Glenda, Tiffany. And Tiffany's been with me, I don't know, three years now. And what Tiffany decided to do, we have a class that's on YouTube, YouTube for Real Estate Agents, and it too is full of lots of information and incredible examples. But what Tiffany decided to do was there was an agent in her town who she knew was doing well on YouTube. And so she contacted that agent and said, basically, hey, Marquez, I know you're a rock star and you're doing stuff with YouTube, and I'm hosting a class all about YouTube for real estate agents.

25:00 Would you be open to coming and sharing a few ideas, a few pointers? And so you could do this with Google as well. By the way, that relationship for Tiffany... has now turned into an ongoing thing where the two of them team up for classes on a regular basis, YouTube specifically in this case. The last class Tiffany just did, she had 40 agents in person and 20 on Zoom. Now, what's the beautiful thing about that? You guys don't have to teach the whole class. Like this realtor can come in. Now, why would a realtor want to get in front of other realtors? What do you think their angle is there? Potential broker owner trying to build a team. Exactly. Take EXP, takes real, take any of the ones who build a downline, right?

25:43 Or want to build a team. Even KW does this. Um, so there are agents who want to build a team. Now, if I was you in your area, I would be Googling realtors and I would be finding the realtors who have a, a decent, doesn't have to be 300. What's decent Glenda? 40, 50 reviews. Right now it would be a 45 or more. And absolutely. I would call them to team up and have that collaboration and have them talk about their capacity of it with what Jeff brings to you for sure. And the beauty part of that is, you know, you've got the class slides, et cetera, ready to go. It's just some layering in some of their content. You can delete some of the other stuff to shrink it down because the agents will probably appreciate more from the fact that there was a local realtor who showed them how they get reviews.

26:30 Right. And obviously with the reviews, that's the big part of what the agents want is more reviews. And most agents don't have a great process for asking for that. So that's what that agent can bring to the table. If it was me, I would, you know, this, this week go back to her. My top agents already work with who are some listing agents I've worked with. And I would look them up on Google. Now, by the way, you can do the same thing for AI search, but we'll get to that when we get to that class. Um, yeah. And that way you can look at those, Sally at Remax or Fred at real.com, right? And then you just make your calls. Hey, what's up, Fred? I know it's been a while since we talked and blah, blah, doing some research on agents who have a strong Google presence in our local market. Guess what? You came up as one of the agents who have a strong presence. Congratulations. Thank you very much, Paul.

27:10 I'm curious, like, is this a big focus for you and your business? Yeah, it is. Of course it is. If he has 50 reviews, right? Hey, I'm hosting a class coming up in three weeks all about Google business profile for real estate agents that would you be open to how open would you be right to being a guest in my class? I'm going to guess with the agents egos seven or eight out of 10 will say yes, right? Now, I have had stories where an agent has said no, but guys, what do we do when somebody says no? We move on. Thank you very much. So that'd be, I tell you what, that's today's homework assignment. Go find one agent. Just get one who says yes to being a guest at your Google profile class. Glenna, how many times have you done it? 27? 27 since 2021.

27:51 27, six or eight times a year. You have bandwidth to do it. Four or five times a year. You can do it every quarter. One of my agents sent me a referral last week and her conversation, her text thread was, oh my gosh, I finally got a buyer from you from your Google class. It was just a collaboration of staying up to date with them, you know, sending Friday emails, doing everything, but it all tracks back to that original Google class. And now I've got a buyer. What I like about the Google reviews is I ask the open-ended question, how many people are in a transaction? And they're like, everybody, 15 people.

28:32 Oh, I had a roofer. Oh, I had a foundation. I had warranty. I had all this. I'm like, great. Have you ever got a review from them? And their eyes are like, wait, what? I'm like, why are you not asking your buyer's agent, seller's agent, listing agent, your title rep, your warranty, your roofer? Or have you ever done a review from them from a great conversation? Because more often than not, their eyes are like, oh, my dear, I never thought I had a great conversation as the buyer's agent with the listing agent. But what if we now have a... future client that you're my buyer's agent or listing agent again. So now we're collaborating on the outside to show a true team.

29:13 And I literally tell them to go list it, list everybody on your transaction and go give them a review to get a review. Yeah. The way to get a review is to give one. A hundred percent. Brandon, one key takeaway you're going to implement. Sean, no pressure, but we're going to end on a high note with you. Oh, great call, Jeff and Glenda. Thanks for your time. I sent you an email offline question for you, Jeff, but character reviews, that was a big aha moment. So like I've got a couple more. I'm setting up my own profile. I'm going to dive into that this week. Glenda, great recommendation, setting mine up and then asking for reviews, you know, for any business I do, not just mortgage. And so a character reviews, that's like, Never thought about that.

29:53 So great call. Thank you. Appreciate it. Bye-bye. You bet. Okay, so that's it for today's episode. There's one idea I hope you take away from this conversation with Glenda. You don't have to chase real estate agents to build real referral relationships. You can give them a reason to want a relationship with you. Glenda's process is a great example of that. She teaches something agents can actually use, creates a natural reason for a one-on-one conversation, follows through with accountability, and then asks for the opportunity to earn their business. That's a very different approach than calling an agent and asking, got any buyers I can help you with? And if listening to this episode has you thinking, hmm, I think I want to start teaching agent classes, but I need a process to follow. I need content. I need help. That's exactly why I created the agent class method.

30:35 It's my free five-day mini email course that walks you through how to use educational classes to get in front of real estate agents, create more meaningful conversations, demonstrate your value, and turn those relationships into referral opportunities. And you don't need to be an expert or have years of teaching experience to get started. Simply go to myagentclasses.com forward slash email course, check the link in the show notes, and sign up for the free agent class method. Again, that's myaginclasses.com forward slash email course. Or if you're listening on your favorite podcast app on your mobile phone, just tap the link in the show notes and you'll get instant access to the free course. So if you're ready to spend less time chasing agents and start giving agents a reason to come to you, go grab the free course.

31:16 Thanks for listening. See you on the next episode.