6 Truths About Cold Calling in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

The telephone can be your ‘friend’ or ‘enemy’ in the commercial real estate business.  The most successful agents and brokers get telephone processes under control and use them in a variety of ways as part of their business day.  The telephone is their ‘friend’.

Don’t take too long to develop your telephone prospecting skills and the integrated database systems to suit.  If you want to get anywhere fast as a broker or agent, then the telephone must be at the centre of your daily activities.  Set your call targets and achieve them.  Discipline yourself to that specific and golden rule of new business.

So, the ugly truth about cold calling in brokerage is that you must do it and you cannot delegate it.  Personal practice and system development will help you ‘fast track’ your activities and results.  Start each day in the privacy of your home, with 15 minutes of practice with your call ‘scripts’ and dialogues. 

To help you get traction in making more calls, ensure that you prepare your call lists before you get to the office.

Telephone Prospecting System

Here are a few other factors of telephone prospecting that are worth remembering:

1. Don’t pitch your services – create conversations that build rapport. The other person doesn’t know you, so ask questions about their property situation.  See if they want property help or services in the future.
2. Provide local information – you have plenty of sales and leasing information that can be shared. Prepare a few case studies and market research reports that you can send out or share as part of a call or contact made.
3. Use a set time of day – routine is quite important in getting a call contact program underway. Choose the best time of day for your outbound calls where you can stick to the routine and reach new people with reasonable reliability.
4. Go through the 20-minute barrier – it takes a good degree of focus to get your call routines underway each day. Stay in the process for 20 minutes and avoid any distractions.  After some 20 minutes, you will be engaged in the call contact routine for the day.  Devote at least 2 hours to the call process.   Repeat your calls at least once every 90 days.  The property pressures change for people, and the ongoing contact process is the only way to connect with the right people as they get into or near a property challenge.
5. Keep organised with a database list – given that you will be calling plenty of people; you must stay organised. Some people you will be connecting with again into the future across the telephone; they will remember you and what you said last time the connection was made.  Your database, spreadsheet, or notebook will be a way for tracking conversations, agreements, and decisions.  Ensure that you have all conversation note processes active and running.
6. Seek out meetings where appropriate – don’t waste your time or that of others. Seek out meetings where you think a potential need will exist.  Stay ‘professionally active’ with new contacts and property clients in making meetings.  It is a good target to seek out two new meetings per day.

Simple things like these will help you with your call contact processes in brokerage.  Modify your call systems and stay on task every working day.  There is plenty of local property business to be identified in your area if you seek it out.