How to Launch a Cold Calling Program in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

It is a fact that cold calling is a critical part of prospecting in commercial real estate brokerage.  If you want to win more listings and clients, you will have to make calls to new people that you have not spoken to before.

So many agents struggle with the process and avoid it at any opportunity.  So let’s say that you have the ability to break through the ‘calling’ barrier.  What you will need to do is launch your own cold calling program.

The System to Cold Call Prospecting

Here are some stages to the process that can help you with building your call numbers and conversions.  Try these things:

1. Get an exercise book or use a standard form to write down your targets and prospects.  Organisation is critical when you start this method of prospecting.  Writing things down will give you some momentum to making calls and contacting people.
2. You will need a database program to enter qualified prospects into.  At the very least you can use the ‘contacts’ list in your email program, although something better will give you more control on the information that you collect and track.  A true database program will give you fields to capture details of property requirements and your conversations.  Ideally, you will need enough information to grow a relationship with a prospect over time.  You will be talking to them frequently.
3. Get details of all the businesses in your region.  You can use the business telephone book for that as well as researching the streets of your town or city.  Local businesses will be some of the groups that you will be calling to see if you have any property needs.
4. Research all of the quality properties in your region as well as the property investors and owners.  This research takes considerable time as it is harder to find the right names and contact details.  For this reason, make it easier on yourself by setting a call target of just one or two new property owners per day to contact.
5. Every night prepare the call list for the next day.  Ideally, the list will be a mix of business owners, property investors, and tenants.  You need about 40 or 50 people on the list to call each day.  That will take you 2 or 3 hours.
6. Devote the same time each day to prospecting; in that way, it can become a habit, and that is really important in getting traction in your real estate business.
7. Set up a simple dialogue for starting a cold call.  You don’t need to pitch when you talk to someone new in prospecting; you simply need to understand their property requirements now or in the future and if you can be of any help to them.
8. Finally, it should be said that call practice is really important. The more you practice, the faster your results.  It’s simple really!

So it’s easy to see what can be done in a cold call prospecting system in commercial real estate.  It is a personal process that you cannot delegate.  Your success in the process is up to you and your efforts.