01
Cold Outreach
Zillow expired listings, cold DMs, and how to open without pitching first
The rule: Never open with what you sell. Open with what you know about them. The agent who gets a call about their specific listing is already more engaged than the agent who gets a generic "we do real estate media" pitch. Reference the address first. Always.
Zillow expired listing calls
Listings 30–60+ days on market
How to find them
Step by step
Go to Zillow and filter for active listings 30+ days on market in your target area.
Open the listing detail page — the agent's name and phone number are listed. Call directly, not through the platform.
Write the address down before you dial. You'll lead with it in your first sentence.
Check their profile first — sales volume, other active listings, any content presence. Shapes your angle.
The Zillow cold call — address first, pitch second
Opening with the address sounds like a buyer or another agent — not a vendor. The pattern interrupt gives you 15 seconds before they realize it's a sales call. By then, if you've done it right, they're already curious.
Opening line
"Hey [name], I'm calling about [full address]."
After they respond — pivot immediately
"I'm actually not calling because I'm looking to buy it — I'm in real estate marketing. I noticed this listing has been sitting for [X days] and I work with agents in [market] on video content that helps move listings faster and builds your personal brand at the same time. I wanted to see if that's something that would be useful to you."
If they engage — small ask to close
"Do you have 10 minutes this week to hop on a quick call? I'd rather understand your situation before I tell you what we do — it might not even be the right fit."
Discount hook for cold calls
"This month we're offering 10% off for listings that have been on market 30+ days — just trying to help agents who could use a visibility lift right now."
Cold DMs — Instagram and text
50/day target when actively building
Cold DM structure — specific reference, short ask
Generic DMs get ignored. Specific DMs get responses. Pull something real from their page, lead with it, keep the ask small — a call, not a commitment.
DM template
"Hey [name] — came across your page and saw [specific post or listing]. Really like what you're doing in [area/niche]. I work with real estate agents in [market] on personal brand content — video, scripting, the whole thing. Not sure if it's relevant but wanted to reach out. Would you be open to a quick call this week?"
Follow-up if no response after 3–4 days
"Wanted to follow up on this — no pressure either way, just curious if the content side of things is something you've been thinking about."
Qualifying before you call
| Zillow sales volume | Pitch approach | Starting offer |
|---|
| Under $3M/yr |
Single shoot entry. Don't lead with the retainer — it'll feel out of reach and kill the call. |
One listing video or a single personal branding shoot. Use the 30-day path to move them toward monthly. |
| $3M – $10M/yr |
Core retainer target. Active enough to need content, hungry enough to invest in differentiation. |
Content creator program — 3-month entry. This is the default pitch for this tier. |
| $10M+/yr |
Premium tier. These agents want everything handled. Full turnkey. Don't default to standard pricing. |
Custom premium retainer. Higher monthly, longer commitment. Price accordingly — don't undercharge. |
02
Discovery Call
Pre-sale — understand before you pitch. 15–20 min max. No pricing until the end.
What this call is: A consultation, not a pitch. Your job is to ask questions and listen. Every answer they give is material for the pitch that follows. If you skip this and go straight to selling, you're guessing at what matters to them — and they can feel it. Record on Otter.ai or Gemini. The transcript feeds the scripting GPT after they sign.
Before you dial
10 min of prep
Pre-call research checklist
Do all of these before picking up the phone
Pull their Instagram — posting frequency, content mix, follower count, whether they're doing any video at all.
Check Zillow — sales volume, active listings, price points, how long listings are sitting.
Google their name — first-page results are what clients see before they meet them.
Identify one specific thing you noticed that you can reference in the first 60 seconds. This is the single most important prep step.
"I pulled up your page before this call — I noticed [specific thing]. How has that been going for you?"
This one line proves you're not reading from a script. It earns immediate attention and sets you apart from every other vendor who's called them this month.
Follow-up directions
"Did that come through a referral or did someone find you online?"
"Does your online presence feel like it's reflecting how active you actually are right now?"
"How long have you been in real estate, and what market are you mostly working in right now?"
Follow-up directions
"Mostly listings, buyers, or a mix right now?"
"What part of the market have you been seeing the most activity in lately?"
"Is there a specific area or price point you've been trying to grow?"
Vision — where they want to go
Core discovery
"If you had exactly the online presence you wanted — what does that look like? What would people say about you when they landed on your page?"
Brand identity pull. Their answer tells you how to position everything, what tone to write in, and what they'll respond to emotionally in the pitch. Let them talk. Don't interrupt.
Follow-up directions
"Is there an agent — local or national — whose brand you look at and think, that's the energy I want?"
"What feeling do you want someone to have before they ever meet you in person?"
"Do you want to come across as the luxury expert, the hyperlocal specialist, the relatable guide — or something else?"
"Who do you want to be known as in your market?"
"Who is your ideal client — the person you do your best work with and genuinely enjoy working with?"
Their ideal client should be the implied audience in every video we make for them. This shapes content angles for the entire relationship.
Follow-up directions
"What does that client care about most when buying or selling?"
"Are you trying to attract more buyers, sellers, or investor-type clients right now?"
"Is there a niche — VA buyers, move-up sellers, new construction, second homes — you've been wanting to go deeper in?"
Pain — what's not working
"What frustrates you most about how your online presence reflects who you actually are right now?"
Agents don't buy content — they buy confidence and the feeling that their work is being seen. Sit in the discomfort here. Don't rush to fix it yet.
Follow-up directions
"Is it that you're not posting consistently, or that when you do it doesn't feel like you?"
"Have you ever had a potential client mention they looked you up before reaching out — what do you think they found?"
"Do you lose listing appointments to agents with weaker track records but stronger online presence?"
"What's your current process for content — doing it yourself, working with someone, or basically not doing it?"
Surfaces objections before they become objections. If they've been burned before, you need to know now — not when they bring it up during the pitch.
Follow-up directions
"What's been the biggest friction point with that?"
"Have you tried working with anyone on content before — what went wrong or didn't stick?"
"What made you reach out now versus six months ago?"
ROI — define success on their terms
Do not skip this phase
"What would a real return on investment look like to you — not likes or followers, but an actual business result that would make this feel worth it?"
They close themselves when they answer this. Once they state the outcome out loud, the math on your pricing becomes obvious without you ever calculating it for them.
Follow-up directions
"Is it winning more listing appointments? Buyers reaching out to you instead of the other way around?"
"Would even one extra listing in the next 90 days pay for six months of working together?"
"How many opportunities do you think you're leaving on the table because people aren't seeing you the way they should?"
"On a scale of one to ten — how confident are you that someone could pull up your page right now and feel like you're the right agent for them, before you ever speak?"
Makes the gap between where they are and where they want to be concrete and visible — to them, not you.
Follow-up directions
"What would make that a ten?"
"If a seller Googled you tonight before your listing appointment tomorrow — what would they find?"
On-camera comfort
If personal branding is on the table
"How do you feel about being on camera — does that come naturally or is it something you've been avoiding?"
Sets expectations for shoot day. Tells you how much coaching they'll need and what tone to write toward.
Follow-up directions
"Have you done video content before? What felt off about it?"
"How do you want to come across — polished and professional, approachable and real, authoritative, high energy?"
"Someone people feel like they already know, or someone who commands the room?"
03
Sales Process
9 steps from first contact to signed commitment. Follow the order.
The sequence matters: Rapport → Discovery → Bridge → Offer → Proof → Math reframe → Price. Never jump to price early. The 70% one-time-to-retainer conversion happens because agents feel understood before they feel sold to.
Pre-call research
Check Instagram, Zillow, Google. Know their listing volume, posting frequency, and find one specific thing to reference in the first 60 seconds.
Warm open — not transactional
Reference something specific before asking anything about your services.
Opening line
"Hey [name], I pulled up your page before this call — saw that listing you just closed in [area]. Did that come through a referral or did someone find you online?"
Discovery — listen more than you talk
Run the discovery questions from Section 02. Listen and take notes. Every answer is material for the pitch that follows.
Bridge — repeat back what you heard
Summarize their situation back to them before saying a word about your services. This is where trust gets built.
Bridge line
"So what I'm hearing is — you've got a strong track record, you're doing the work, but right now if someone Googled you before a listing appointment, they're probably not seeing that. And that gap is costing you opportunities you might not even know about. Is that right?"
Introduce the offer — in their language
Don't pitch a package name. Describe what it does using their words.
Offer intro
"What we do for agents in your situation is build you a consistent, on-brand content presence — so when that seller looks you up tonight before your appointment tomorrow, they see someone who looks like the obvious choice. We handle strategy, scripting, the shoot, and the edit. You just show up."
One social proof story — not a list
Pick one client whose situation mirrors theirs. Specific result, specific context. One story lands harder than ten names.
Proof line
"We work with an agent in [similar market] — solid business, basically invisible online. Six months in, they're consistently winning listing appointments against agents with bigger teams because the seller has already seen their content and trusts them before they walk in the door."
The math reframe — let them do the math
Before you say a price, anchor them to the value of one deal. Let them say the number out loud. After they do, your pricing is small by comparison.
Math reframe
"Before I go over the investment — if this helped you win even one extra listing in the next 90 days that you might have otherwise lost to someone with a stronger online presence, what would that one deal be worth to you?"
Let them answer. Sit in the silence. Their number is now the frame for everything that follows.
Present pricing — confidently, no apology
No hedging, no feature dumping. State what's included and what it costs. Three-month commitment is the default entry.
Pricing delivery
"The content creator program — four videos a month, strategy call, scripting, one shoot day, full edit — runs [price] a month on a three-month commitment. Most clients see real traction by month two. Want to lock in next month's shoot date?"
Single-shoot fallback with conversion path
For agents not ready to commit. Don't drop the price — add a bridge.
Fallback line
"If you want to start with a single shoot and see how we work together first — we can do that. And if you decide to move to monthly content within 30 days, we apply the shoot cost toward the program. 70% of the agents who work with us once come back. I'd rather you see the work."
Exclusivity and scarcity close
When you're at or near capacity — use this to create urgency without manufactured pressure
This works because it's true. At volume you genuinely do cap retainer clients. Frame it as exclusivity, not a sales tactic.
Exclusivity close
"I want to be upfront — we only take on a limited number of content creator clients each month because we want to actually show up for each one. We have [X] spots right now. If this feels right, I'd rather lock in your slot than have you come back in six weeks and wait."
04
Objection Handling
The six objections you'll hear. Know these before you get on a call.
On objections: Most aren't about price or time — they're about perceived risk. The agent doesn't know if this will work for them specifically. Your job is to reduce that risk, not argue. Acknowledge, reframe, offer a smaller first step if needed.
"I don't have the budget for this right now."
Don't drop the price. Go back to the ROI conversation you already had. If they said one deal is worth $8k–$12k in commission, the math is already on your side.
"I hear you — and I want to ask something. You mentioned one extra listing would be worth around [their number]. If our content helped you win even one of those in the next 90 days, would the investment have paid for itself? Because that's the only question that actually matters here."
"If timing really isn't right, let's do a single shoot. You'll see what we do and we can revisit the monthly program when it makes more sense."
"I already have someone who does my photos."
This is a misunderstanding of what you're selling. You're not replacing a listing photographer. You're adding personal brand content that their listing photographer isn't doing.
"Totally — and we're not replacing that. Listing photography is one thing. What we do is build your personal brand so sellers choose you before they ever see a listing. Your current photographer isn't doing strategy calls, scripting hooks, or building content that gets 30,000 organic views. That's a completely different lane."
"I'm not good on camera."
This is the easiest objection to handle because you solve exactly this problem.
"That's exactly why we handle everything before you're ever in front of a camera. We script it, we go through it with you before we shoot, we coach you on delivery, and we do multiple takes. Every one of our best clients said the same thing before their first shoot. Watch the first video we make for you and tell me if you still think that."
"I tried video content before and it didn't work."
Ask what "didn't work" means. Most agents who say this posted a few videos with no strategy, no scripting, and no consistency — then quit after two weeks.
"What did that process look like — did you have a content strategy, scripted hooks, or were you kind of figuring it out as you went?" [Let them answer.] "That's the gap. Random posts don't build a brand. What we build is a strategic content system — strategy calls, scripted videos, consistent output. It's a different thing than what you tried."
"I don't have time to be on camera every month."
This is actually your strongest pitch — they don't need much time because you do the work.
"One shoot day a month — we block it out, we come to you, we handle everything. You show up for 4–5 hours and we manage strategy, scripting, filming, and editing. That's the entire time commitment from your side. Your current listing process probably takes more time than that."
"Can I just do month-to-month instead of three months?"
Hold the three-month minimum. It's not arbitrary — it's the time needed to actually show results, and it protects both sides.
"Here's the honest reason we don't do month-to-month: content takes time to build real traction. One month won't show you anything meaningful and it'd be a disservice to both of us. Three months is the minimum for you to actually see the impact. Most clients who hit month three sign on for another six."
05
Lead Gen & Growth
Broker opens, the affiliate model, and building inbound through your own content
Broker opens — best entry-level lead gen tactic
Free. High volume. Use when building.
The model: Show up at a broker open, film the house, shoot 10 quick agent intro clips. Give each agent their own video. Ask them to tag you when they post. One broker open puts your name in front of 10 potential clients at zero cost — and every time one of them posts, you're their referral.
How to run a broker open entry
The process
Find upcoming broker opens — listing agents announce them in local Facebook groups, MLS, or through office networks.
Reach out to the listing agent beforehand: "I'd love to come film the house and shoot quick intro clips for each agent who attends — it helps your open get more traffic and gives every agent a free marketing piece."
At the open: film the house first, then shoot 10–15 second "I'm here at [address]" intro clips for every agent who shows up.
Send each agent their clip the same day. Ask them to tag you and the listing agent when they post.
Follow up the next day: "How'd the open go? Let me know if you ever want to do something more developed for your listings or personal brand."
What this does
Every agent who posts and tags you becomes a passive referral ad to their audience — other agents and potential clients.
The listing agent owes you a favor. They're likely to send referrals or become a client.
You leave with 10–15 warm contacts who've already received value from you before you've pitched anything.
The affiliate and collab model
Collaborate on every post — make your clients your best marketing
When an agent posts content you created, your name should be in it. Every time they tag or collab-post with you, their audience sees your work. This is how you build a following without paying for ads.
Set this up with every client during onboarding
"One thing we do with all our clients — when you post the content we make together, use the Instagram collab feature so it shows on both our pages. You get more reach, we grow our portfolio. Win-win."
Ask them to tag ASM in every post and share their wins to your story.
When a client's video performs — repost it, celebrate it publicly. Other agents watching your page see proof that it works.
Post BTS of shoot days, before/after content comparisons, volume milestones. Agents who see "we just wrapped 100 shoots this month" want to be part of that.
70% conversion stat — use it in the pitch and in your own content
This is a credibility line worth using explicitly because it reframes the single shoot as a risk-free trial, not a one-time transaction.
How to use it
"70% of the agents who work with us once come back to the monthly program. I'd rather you start with a single shoot, see what we do, and make the call yourself than pitch you on something you're not sure about."