Everyone knows that you have to cold call prospects in commercial real estate. Unfortunately not enough of this is done in a consistent and professional way. The most successful people in the industry have largely done that cold calling process each and every day to build their business. The more cold calling you do, the faster your business grows.
In commercial real estate you need lots of listings. Not every listing will sell or lease. On that basis you need to keep your pipeline of listing opportunity evolving and circulating. Fortunately commercial real estate is largely built around businesses and investors that understand the market and will take your cold call productively if they have a need or an interest. They like to know what other properties are available locally and discuss what may be of interest to them.
So the moral of the story is to make lots of cold calls. Is this hard? The basic answer is no, however most real estate agents and brokers avoid the cold calling process as much as possible. This in itself is a major opportunity that can be seized by those that want to generate more business for themselves. A cold calling process takes focus and daily discipline. Are you better than the rest of the agents out there and can you do this every day?
In the first instance, cold calling is part of building your listing database. You should be running with at least 20 current listings at any point in time. Preferably half of those should be exclusive listings although this will be harder for you if you are just commencing in the industry. All the more reason for you to start the cold calling process, each day and at the same time.
Exclusive listings are easier to convert to sales when the property owner regards you as an expert in commercial real estate and therefore the best person to market the property. In that case they will listen to what you have to say.
Your credibility is something that you must strive to strengthen through ongoing specialist knowledge and market trends. Not enough people in the industry can talk to commercial property at a high level. Use this to your advantage.
Cold calling applies to not only generating the listings that you need, but also in speaking to purchasers when you are marketing specific properties. This says that every property should be specifically cold call marketed to its own target market in addition to any generic placement of advertisements in the media or on the Internet. The real estate agents and brokers that do this, convert significantly more listings to commissions than those that wait for the business to walk in the door or off the advert.
So what should you do in cold calling? Try these simple rules to help you with the process:
- Avoid using formal scripts, and be yourself.
- Use trigger words and keywords around which you can build your dialogue
- Seek to establish a rapport with the person that takes the call
- Make each call a pleasant event to the person on the other end of the telephone, remembering that you are the one that approached them.
- Offer to give them information of benefit or relevance.
- Do not push for a meeting unless it is really justified, remembering that your time in the industry is precious.
- Practice your calling process each morning before you leave for the office. This will be the most powerful way to increase your cold call conversions to meetings.
- Do not try to sell your services over the telephone, but rather see if the receiver of the call has a genuine interest or need. In that case and only then do you ask to meet with them.
These are some of the main secrets to the cold calling process. Learn to use the telephone if you’re going to be successful in the industry. Remember that cold calling procrastination will get you nowhere and keep you poor.