One of our long-time users, Charles, graciously took the time to share his Sherpa tips-and-tricks in the list below:
1. Only use good data and reputable skip tracers.
2. Treat your phone numbers like loved ones—Sending too many messages too fast will get them blacklisted. Varying your message is a must.
3. Watch the YouTube training videos—They will answer a lot of the questions you have.
4. Decide early on how you want to handle wrong numbers—DNC or just mark dead.
5. Decide early on what status you want for every owner that doesn't convert—For example, "cold" for someone who owns but wants to sell over retail price. You can change your process for this or previous item at any time but be consistent.
6. Make sure to validate owners—Chances are you will regret it if you do not.
7. VAs should be able to send an average of ~2k messages per day.
8. Decide how deep and how wide you go—There is nothing against doing a hybrid.
a. Going deep—Get a good salesperson on your staff to hit a super-targeted, stacked list.
b. Going wide—If you send volume, Sherpa is a data hog. Be prepared to find a lot of data, but, almost more importantly, you need the staff to handle it.
9. If just starting out, I suggest either you or someone else you know who can close and/or is process-oriented own Sherpa for a bit. Once you understand how it will fit in your business, then you can hand it off.
10. How many SMS sends does it take to get a deal? It will definitely vary by market, level of person responding, and what they are saying in the response.
11. Does the system work? Definitely, just look at the users posting in the Facebook Group who are getting deals in their first week. I was using bad data when I started and it still worked out.
If you only take one thing away from these tips, don't use bad cheap data!