Pro-activity Brings Unlimited Commissions in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

In commercial real estate brokerage, proactivity brings unlimited opportunity in listings and commissions.  In saying that it is wise to consistently focus on the right things that will help you in your market share.  It is all too easy to become reactive rather than proactive in sales, leasing, or property management.  Don’t get ‘swamped’ with irrelevant and redundant issues; top agents just don’t do that.

So what are the problems that create this challenge?  Here are some of the bigger ones that most brokers and agents struggle with:

• Letting random issues and pressures from the office take over the day
• Not getting out into the sales territory enough
• Too many meetings with people that really have no value to business growth
• Overlooking the quality time required to plan prospecting and client contact
• Starting the day too late and doing so without a list of high priority tasks
• Not doing the right things that will help build business

Commercial real estate business can be real fun and very rewarding; it just takes process and focus to achieve that.  You could say that habits are the real structure behind building commission and listing opportunity.  Every day the same quality things repeated will help you with consolidating and compounding your client contact.

To do the right things here and become more proactive as an agent, these are some valuable rules:

1. First and foremost you really do need to control your day and your diary.  Don’t let others book up your time without a valid reason.  Don’t share your diary with others because they will fill it very quickly.  I am not a big fan of ‘diary sharing’ because it lets others determine what they can do with your time (that includes the boss).  People need to find you and seek you out if they want some of your time, and that should only be given when you are satisfied that the reason is valid.  Learn to say ‘no’ to things that are irrelevant or not productive; move those issues away from your working day.
2. Take the lead in your market with your property type.  Focus all of you activity on the quality buildings and clients that can bring you solid rewards in business opportunity.  Some clients are more valuable than others; some clients can waste a lot of your time.  Attract the good clients to you and ‘dump’ the low quality ones.  Only those clients that have given you an ‘exclusive listing’ should have fast and direct access to you (and even that is within reason).
3. Don’t answer your emails and mobile telephone at all times of the day.  They are two of the most disruptive practices that derail good activity and focus.  Segment your day to deal with emails and telephone messages once in the afternoon and once in the morning.  Screen yourself away from things that can waste your time.
4. Avoid team meetings inside core business hours.  Any team meetings can occur early in the day.  Start them at 7:30am and have them over and finished by 9:00am.  Don’t let those meetings eat into your prime business time.
5. Don’t do long lunches or social meetings.  Move them to the ‘out of hours’ time frame.

So it is clear that all of these things will help you with becoming ‘proactive’ as a real estate agent or broker.  The final part of the equation is to take action every day and set new habits.  Your commercial real estate business will open up from that point.