Every Thursday, broker Adam Oberski opens Skills class with a challenge pulled straight from the field — this week, from three days spent with some of the top brokers in the country in Utah. The topic: why agents keep chasing cold leads while the easiest business sits untouched in their own database.

The Industry’s Biggest Missed Opportunity

Adam opened with a hard number: across the industry, only 1 out of every 4 to 5 transactions that happen inside an agent’s own database actually go to that agent. The other 75-80% go to someone else — even though those people already know you, already trust you, and already have a relationship with your name.

“That’s an offensive thing to hear,” Adam told the room. But the reason is simple: we aren’t talking to them.

He put it plainly: if you’re not asking for the business, you don’t deserve it.

The Math Behind 5 Conversations a Day

Adam broke down exactly what consistent database outreach looks like:

• 5 conversations a day with people in your database mathematically allows you to reach a 250-person database once every quarter.

• Agents who talk to just 10 people in their database per day between now and year-end will walk into next year with real momentum — guaranteed.

• One top-producing agent in Florida calls his entire 800-person database every Q4, asking a single question: “Are you planning to buy or sell in the coming year?” That one habit alone generates 90+ scheduled transactions before the new year even starts. He’s 100% database and referral.

The takeaway: it’s not about working harder outside your sphere. It’s about consistently showing up inside it.

Why Agents Avoid It

Adam was direct about the psychology behind database avoidance. Agents will happily call warm inbound leads — Zbuyer leads, video walkthrough inquiries, anything that feels like the other person reached out first. But calling someone in your own database feels harder, because there’s no signal that they want to hear from you right now.

His answer: normalize your clients’ behavior. People don’t answer unknown numbers. People let texts sit for weeks. That’s not rejection — that’s how everyone, including you, uses their phone. Waiting for someone to reach out first means you’ll wait forever.

“He or she who calls wins,” Adam said. “He or she who calls is in control. Every single time.”

What This Means for You

If you’re focused on expireds, FSBOs, or paid leads before you’ve worked your own database, you’re skipping the lowest-hanging fruit in the business. It’s free. It’s warm. And once you build the habit, Adam’s advice was simple: “You’ll never turn it off.”

The challenge for the rest of this year: 10 database conversations a day, every day, through December 31st.

Thursday Skills is a weekly training hosted by Broker/Owner Adam Oberski every Thursday at 9am at our Dearborn Heights office and live on Zoom. Not a CENTURY 21 Curran & Oberski agent yet? [Click here to request an invite to Thursday Skills.]