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Why Two Commercial Real Estate Brokers Prospecting the Same People Can Produce Different Results

By Jim Gillespie | January 17, 2012

Have you ever wondered why two brokers doing the same amount of prospecting can produce dramatically different results? At first glance it might be easy to dismiss this as one broker calling on an area with more leads, but there’s very likely more to the story…

The broker producing the greater amount of leads probably has better people skills.

Think about this…

You’re a prospect who’s constantly getting calls from commercial real estate brokers, wanting to know if you have any commercial real estate needs. You don’t want any undesirable brokers…the ones who don’t make you feel good, or the ones who don’t have good presentation skills…to continue hounding you about your upcoming real estate needs.

So you could:

1) Tell certain brokers that you don’t have any upcoming needs, even when an upcoming need is on your radar screen.

2) Tell them that your current lease still has longer to run than it really does.

3) Tell them that you’re already working with another broker.

All of this is geared towards not wanting to have a broker you don’t want to do business with put their death grip on you, and continually bother you about why you should be working with them.

This, in many ways, is human nature. Despite the fact that we have a Do Not Call law and a Do Not Call list here in the United States, telemarketers still call me at my home. The fact that they’re ignoring the law and my request to not be disturbed, has me not want to do business with them…no matter what they’re offering me.

Similarly, commercial real estate brokers, as well as all salespeople, make first impressions on their prospects. With this in mind, if your first impression isn’t a good one, people will want to get you out of their lives ASAP. Maybe you’re not being offensive towards them, but you may not be measuring up to the other brokers who they’ve been talking to.

I’ve had this experience myself when residential agents have knocked on the door of my home. It’s amazing how quickly I get a feeling around whether or not I’d want to do business with an agent, and when they fall into the "not" category, that’s pretty much the way it’s all going to go. There are just so many other agents out there, and the ones who make me feel good immediately are the ones who have me want to do business with them.

So you definitely want to have your prospects feeling good about you immediately!

What I recommend you do here is role play your prospecting along with someone else. If you’re normally calling your prospects on the telephone, then role play with someone else on the telephone. If you normally prospect by walking into people’s businesses, then role play with someone else in person, talking with them one-on-one.

You might also consider having two separate role playing exercises…one with the receptionist, and one with the decision maker. Because becoming outstanding at building rapport with both of these kinds of people is vitally important to your success.

I recommend recording any telephone conversations you’re having when you’re role playing, and videotaping any presentations you’re making when you’re role playing with someone in person. At the end of each "prospecting call" ask your partner how you did, and then ask them if they have any recommendations on how you can improve your presentations.

In addition, what’s also important here is that you role play with people who will do a good job of representing the kind of people you’ll be prospecting, and that they’re also the kind of people who will shoot it straight with you. The last thing you want in this situation is someone who wants to make you feel good instead of being someone who wants to tell you the truth.

When you’re really serious about improving your prospecting skills, find people to role play with, record your presentations to them, ask for their feedback, and then learn from listening to and/or watching the recordings. When you do this you’ll continually have more prospects wanting to work with you over your competition.

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Wednesday: Totally Eliminating Your Brokerage Competition

This Wednesday I’m doing a live teleconference interview with a broker who’s a member of both SIOR and CCIM, and he’s the best marketer I’ve ever known in commercial real estate brokerage. He mails to his clients and prospects multiple times every month, he creates and gives away promotional items, records marketing videos of himself and posts them online, and even records portions of his listing presentations in advance and entertains his property owners by having conversations with himself in the videos during his live listing presentations!

If you’re not already registered for this live teleconference and you want to get your hands on the audio CDs, written transcription, and MP3 recording of this teleconference all for just $19.95, click here for more information.

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If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level, click here to contact me.

 

"After more than 20 years in the business, Jim has helped me to focus on doing the activities that make a huge difference in my income. I even generated 42 offers on one of my investment listings!"

Larry Cannizzaro
Beitler Commercial Realty Services/TCN Worldwide

Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.

 


Topics: Persuasion, Prospecting | No Comments »