Top Commercial Agents – Get Market Results Using Your Telephone
In commercial real estate agency the office telephone and your mobile phone are the feed points of opportunity. In saying all of that it is remarkable how many salespeople turn their mobile phone off over the weekends.
Private family time is one thing in our industry but don’t confuse ‘privacy’ with ‘stupidity’. If you want the listings and the commissions coming in to you, be available to take the calls most of the time.
Inbound calls are simple things to take most of the day; appointments can be arranged at times to suit you later on. You control your time, remember that. This strategy is especially important as you start out in the industry. Momentum and control are key skills in the life of an agent.
It is a fact that the people that buy and lease commercial property tend to look at the newspapers and the internet towards the end of the week. Websites usually see a ‘spike’ in people looking for property from Wednesday to Saturday. When a person sees a property listed for sale or lease, they will call you. If your mobile telephone is switched off you are losing business.
I have heard some commercial agents say that they take the ‘weekends off’; the weekend work is for ‘residential salespeople’. Most of those commercial salespeople are not ‘top performers’. Our profession is based on ‘personal contact’ and you cannot do that by turning off the telephone.
It is a very simple equation; if you are a commercial real estate salesperson or agent, you must take the calls. It is reasonable to turn your telephone off after 9pm every evening, but ensure that you can take property enquiries every day between 8am and 9pm.
Here are some strategies to help you manage your telephone, your meetings, and the enquiries that come in:
- Switch your telephone on every day at 8am. As a general rule take most of your calls when they come in, if only to take messages. It is easy to explain to a person that you will take their number and get back to them in 2 hours.
- Check your message bank every couple of hours if you have been in a long meeting.
- Use an automatic SMS response to inbound mobile callers if you cannot take the call. The SMS will simply say that you will respond when you are out of the meeting.
- Before a meeting send an SMS in the morning confirming that you will be seeing the prospect or client on that day at the agreed time.
- After a meeting with a prospect or client, send them an SMS thanking them for the meeting and the valuable discussion.
Get your mobile telephone number onto your social media, blogs, website, signboards, and flyers. Comprehensively get the message out that you are available to help people with enquiries any time and any day. Be available. That’s what top agents do.