Prospecting Pain Serves You Well in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

In commercial real estate brokerage, you will need to go through some degree of prospecting pain and call reluctance.  Over time you will start to see some results with new clients and listings.  When you do that, the prospecting pain starts to diminish.

It is no secret that many agents and brokers struggle with call prospecting.  That is simply because they have not developed the correct mindset for the process and the necessary skills.  That being said, here are some tips that will fast track your results using the telephone as a prospecting tool:

• It takes about two or three weeks of deliberate effort and focus to break through the barrier of call reluctance.  Every day you will need to push yourself to make more calls.  To achieve this desirable habit, make the calls at the same time of day.  Don’t let anything else stop you from undertaking the process.
• When things get difficult as you make the calls, remember that most agents and brokers cannot get the process under control with any great level of success.  Those that do however, rise to the top of the industry much faster.  They find the listings and the clients that the other agents know nothing about.
• As a general rule, you should be connecting with 15 to 20 new people every day.  To achieve that ratio, you will need to make approximately 40 to 50 outbound calls.  When you connect with those new people, should achieve at least two meetings on a daily average.  Over a period of time, those meetings will lead to listing opportunities, and better property enquiry.  When you have identified a property need or an interest with a property investor or business proprietor, put that person into a contact cycle of one connection at least every 90 days.  You can shorten that contact cycle if you believe they are likely to take property actions soon.
• In commercial real estate today, most of the listings will be won on a foundation of trust and ongoing contact.  That is why you need to establish a prospecting contact system in your business model as soon as possible.  Keep making the calls, and the listing opportunities will eventually start to evolve.
• The prospecting process gets a lot easier when you think creatively and directly about your marketplace.  There are many people to contact within the various property categories and locations.  You will need a database for the process of ongoing contact and record keeping.
• Certainly you should be making your prospecting calls at the beginning of each day.  That will take you approximately 2 hours.  To improve your call conversions to meetings in a radical way, devote the last hour of each day to making even more cold calls.  Some of the people that you tried to connect with in the morning may have been out of the office or away from their business.  By repeating the call prospecting process at the end of the day, you can escalate your call results in a radical way.

The agency and the brokers in the property industry today that are quite successful are those that go the extra mile or the extra 1% when it comes to prospecting and client contact.  That extra focus and diligence requires a large degree of persistence, consistency, and a prospecting mindset.