Cold Calling & The 7-Day Strike System

Everybody wants inbound leads. Set up a website, run some ads, wait for the phone to ring. The problem is every other investor in your market has the same idea, and the cost per lead on Google Ads for "sell my house fast" is north of $200 in most metros.

Cold calling puts you in control of the conversation. You pick who to call, when to call, and how many conversations you have today. A trained caller on a power dialer has 25-35 live conversations per hour. Each one costs you roughly a dime in skip tracing. Compare that to $200 per PPC lead and you see why the math favors the phone.

The problem with cold calling isn't effectiveness. It's that most people do it badly. They call once, get a "not interested," and scratch the lead off the list. Then they wonder why they're not closing deals.

The 7-Day Strike fixes that. It's a structured multi-channel sequence that hits the same lead seven times across seven days using calls, texts, and voicemail drops. By day five, the seller has seen your name enough times that you're not a stranger anymore. You're the investor who keeps showing up. And when the timing is right for them, you're the one they call back.

Scripts are training wheels. You use them until the words feel natural, and then you stop thinking about them and start listening to the person on the other end.

The opener: "Hey [name], this is [you]. I'm a local investor and I'm calling about your property on [address]. Have you thought about selling?" Don't ask how they're doing. Don't apologize for calling. Get to the point. Sellers respect directness.

If they say yes or maybe, move to qualifying. "What's your timeline?" "What price would you need?" "Is there a mortgage on it, and do you know the balance?" "What kind of shape is the property in?" These questions tell you whether you have a deal or a dead end. A motivated seller answers them openly. Someone who dodges every question isn't ready.

If they say "not interested," don't hang up yet. "No problem at all. Just curious, if something changed down the road, what would make you consider it?" That question surfaces hidden motivation. They might say "well, if the tenants move out" or "if I could get X dollars." Now you have a reason to follow up.

For the "what will you pay?" objection, flip it: "I'd need to know more about the condition first. What would you need to walk away happy?" Let them put a number out there. If it's in the ballpark, keep going. If it's retail, explain the trade-off: speed and certainty vs top dollar and six months on the MLS.

When you have a motivated seller, close for the appointment: "Sounds like this could work. Let me come see the property so I can put together a real offer. Does Thursday afternoon or Friday morning work better for you?" Two choices. Make it easy to say yes.

Dialing numbers by hand is the fastest way to burn out and quit. Half your time goes to ringing, voicemails, and disconnected numbers. A power dialer fixes that by calling multiple numbers and only connecting you when a live person picks up.

In FlipMantis, open your list and start a calling session. The dialer loads your leads and starts working through them. When someone answers, their property data, owner info, skip trace results, and any previous notes appear on screen. You don't have to ask "which property is this about?" because it's right in front of you.

After each call, tag the disposition. "Live conversation, interested." "Voicemail, follow up in three days." "Not interested, check back in six months." "Wrong number, remove." One click and the system knows what to do next. Interested leads get flagged for personal follow-up. Voicemails get enrolled in the 7-Day Strike. Dead numbers get scrubbed from your list.

Set your caller ID to a local number matching the area code you're calling. Local numbers get answered four times more often than out-of-area or toll-free numbers. FlipMantis handles this automatically based on the lead's area code.

Block out two uninterrupted hours. No email, no texting, no "quick" tasks between calls. The first fifteen minutes feel rough every single time. Push through. By the second hour you're in a rhythm and the conversations come easier. Track your numbers: dials, conversations, leads, appointments. If you're not measuring, you're guessing.

Most deals close between the fifth and twelfth contact. One phone call is an introduction, not a campaign.

The 7-Day Strike runs like this. Day one, you call. If they pick up, run your script. If they don't, leave a short voicemail with your name, the property address, and your number. Day two, send a text: "Hi [name], called yesterday about [address]. I'm a local investor, any interest in a cash offer?" Texts get read even when they don't get answered.

Day three, call again at a different time. If they're a morning person you missed in the afternoon, flip it. Day four, drop a ringless voicemail. It shows up in their voicemail box without the phone ever ringing. A soft touchpoint. Day five, call again. By now they've seen your name at least four times.

Day six, text with a take-away angle: "Last reach out from me on [address]. If the timing isn't right, totally understand. You've got my number if anything changes." People respond to take-aways because it removes pressure. Day seven, final call. If you've had zero engagement across all seven touches, move the lead to a monthly drip. Situations change. The person who ignored you in February might call you in June when their tenant stops paying.

Inside FlipMantis, build this sequence once and assign it to any list. The system executes each step on schedule and pulls leads out automatically when they respond. You stop managing a spreadsheet of who needs a text on what day and start focusing on the live conversations that close deals.

There are only so many hours in a day, and you can only be on one phone call at a time. AI Voice Agents let you reach leads you'd never get to personally.

The agent calls your list, introduces itself, asks qualifying questions, and records the conversation. It's not trying to close a deal. It's screening. "Are you the owner of [address]?" "Have you considered selling?" "What kind of timeline are you looking at?" Basic questions that separate the interested from the uninterested.

In FlipMantis, set up your AI agent with the questions you want asked and the hours you want it to call. The agent works through your list and logs every result. Transcripts show up in your CRM so you can read exactly what was said.

When the AI flags a lead as interested, you get notified. That's your cue to pick up the phone and have a real conversation with a warm prospect instead of cold-calling through a list of unknowns. The AI handled the volume. You handle the deal.

The call quality scoring system analyzes each conversation across seven dimensions and gives you a summary. You can see which leads gave strong buying signals, which ones need more nurturing, and which ones told the AI to stop calling. That last group gets marked DNC automatically.

This isn't about replacing you on the phone. The conversations that close deals still need a real person. But the 150 dials it takes to find those five conversations? An AI agent can do that while you're at a property walkthrough or working on a deal that's already under contract.