Do Not Try Another Cold Call Without Reading This

The telephone is a powerful prospecting tool in commercial real estate brokerage, and in saying that, certain things should be understood if you are going to make it work with good results as part of your business model.

Stay on task and improve your skills.  As a broker or agent, you can waste a lot of precious time in making outbound calls if you are not using the right call strategies and you are not supplying valuable information as part of the call process. 

Your tele-prospecting conversions and results will depend largely on the systems and strategies you use daily in the call momentum.

Primary Call Contact – System Success Plan

It is a fact that you will find plenty of new business leads and clients if you use the telephone as a primary source of prospecting; it’s time to establish and practice your call contact systems.  It’s time to consider the proven processes that can create better outcomes in the call prospecting process.  Here are some of the main ones for you to consider and merge into your business prospecting practices:

1. Do your research the night before – Organization is so important to make calls in a timely way. Get the research done at a quiet time of day and not when your focus should be elsewhere.  Know who you are calling and why you are doing it; research will help you do that.  Put some ‘direction’ into your business calls and connections.
2. Control raw data – Your lists will be growing every day and you will have plenty of ‘raw data’ to explore and keep under control. Some calls will be a ‘dead end’ so you will require a filtering process to drop off the calls to contacts that have no future need for commercial real estate help; keep your data ‘clean’ and accurate.  A spreadsheet is a good way to keep your ‘raw data’ organised before and whilst you make your initial calls to your list.
3. Record and repeat – A good call contact made with a prospect that may have a potential property requirement in the future, can be escalated into your database. From that point on, you can connect again with the prospect or client with a focus on established requirements and reference back to the previous connections.  Respect the person you are calling by referring to earlier conversations and connections.
4. It takes 20 minutes to get started – Too many agents will stop the outbound call process at the slightest opportunity. They will find excuses.  It is a proven fact that the calls don’t get real momentum until after some 20 minutes of deliberate effort. Stay at the calls beyond that time and keep up the process of making the calls for 2 hours.  That is a proven time-based formula to stick to daily.  Put the time in your diary.  Make the calls.
5. Stand up when you can – This is perhaps the most important process you can implement in establishing your outbound call processes. It is simply the matter of standing up as you make your calls.  Not only will it help you remain ‘fit’ for business, but it helps you greatly with your conversational intelligence and call conversions.  It is a known fact that a stand-up call conversation is more engaging.  That will directly help your professional conversations as you make them with new people.
6. Open with facts and information – Use your local listing information as a basis for opening or expanding a call conversation. Local business owners and property owners are interested in their local area; you will have plenty of listing, price, and lease information that can be shared as you make your calls.
7. Record your efforts and track and measure progress – A big part of call momentum is in knowing what you are doing and how you are progressing. There will be limits as to how many calls you can make in 2 or 3 hours each day, but your conversions to meetings should be escalating as your conversational skills improve.
8. Mindset is critical – Ask yourself this question. Why are you making the calls to people that you don’t know?  Your answer should be clear and precise.  If you don’t know why you are calling, then you won’t be able to connect with others in making the calls.  When you have a solid perception of why you are making the calls, then your conversations and opening statements take a ‘professional’ shape; that then is the foundation of a successful cold call prospecting system.
9. 90-day cycles are critical – People will forget you and or your business, and their property needs will change. On that basis ensure that you are connecting with every prospect in your database at least once every 90 days (or more frequently).  Regular contact on a professional basis creates familiarity with the right people that can need your help in the future.

There are some things to do here.  These skills are to be implemented and refined if you are to make the cold calling prospects a successful part of your real estate business.  As mentioned earlier here, the telephone can and should be a primary source of new business for you in agency and brokerage activity.  Enjoy the new business and leads that can come your way.