3 Key Factors to Cold Calling in Commercial Real Estate

In making lots of cold calls in commercial real estate you can build your client base and your chances of growing your listing base.  That being said you do need to practice the process.  Every day you should be improving what you say, how you do it, and the habits of doing it at the same time each day.  Skills to do this can be improved over time.

Making Effective Cold Calls is a Real Skill

There are three key factors to making the cold calling process work for you in commercial real estate today.  When you really understand them and utilise them in making your calls, the call conversions to meetings improve greatly.

Here are those facts for you:

• Respect for the other person in conversation
• Confidence in making the connection
• Relevance in what you are talking about

The Key Question in Making Prospecting Calls

So how do you rank in all of these things?

Practice will help you move ahead.  Find someone that you can practice your call activity with.

Have you ever experienced a call coming to you from some business pitching a product or service?  The ones that do so with little connection to the customer invariably fail; you know that they are doing a basic pitch and that they are not connecting with you.  Some of those calls can be ‘canned conversation’ and straight out of the local book of scripts and dialogues.

Your call prospecting has to be better than that.

Establish Respect and Professionalism

Start your conversation with the client on the basis of respect.  Respect will lead to trust in the conversation, and soon you will be building on what the client may be doing now with property or needing into the future.

Here is a simple way to start a cold call conversation with a business owner:

‘Good morning Mr Brown, it’s Bill Smith from Acme Commercial Real Estate. Perhaps you can help me.  I not sure who I should talk to.

I am just calling to see if you are struggling with any property matters relating to your business or investments.  Is that an issue for you?’

You can see that this conversation is based on the client.  It is not a pitch about you or your services.  It is a simple question.    You cannot and should not do a pitch on the telephone in commercial real estate.  Our industry is based on relationships and your primary reason for making cold calls should be to create meetings with relevant people.

Looking at the above conversation starter again; everything after this ‘call starter’ is a conversation based on what the client is doing.  I go back to the point that you cannot and should not pitch in your cold calls.  Build the conversation and move towards meeting the person.  Feed your confidence and relevance into the conversation.