A few months ago, the CCIM Institute asked me to participate in their System for Success series for Commerical Investment Real Estate (CIRE), their award winning publication. I was honored to do so.
This is the link to that article where I share what I believe it takes for brokers to thrive in the current economic climate.
The Clarity Series (CS) is a series of posts all on one subject. This particular subject is prospecting. While the context is commercial real estate, these steps and principles can be applied to any sales. To read the introduction of this series, click here. To read an overview of the entire prospecting system, click here. Thank you for reading!
iStockPhoto
When I was 15, my dad hired me to clean out a concrete drainage ditch. That ditch ran behind the houses of a street he had developed. We agreed on a price and I started digging. I soon discovered that I could hire my friends at a rate higher than minimum wage. I made all the income when I did the work. I made half that amount when they did the work.
It was an epiphany for me. I made money by providing work for my friends. It cost me no time. Instead, I would mow yards. It multiplied what I could make. As I look back, this was the summer I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. The other thing I learned that summer was digging ditches is no fun!
Prospecting is much like digging a ditch. It is no fun. However, it is the path to substantially increasing your income? If I paid you a million dollars to prospect, would you not do it? This is your choice every day when you decide how to spend your time.
Dig your ditch! Here is a recap of how to do it.
Don’t I look smart? My wife thinks so!
1. Introduction to the Clarity Series on Prospecting
photo from iStockPhoto
2. Choose your Geography and Specialty
iStockPhoto
iStockPhoto
via iStockPhoto
iStockPhoto
Make the dang call! via iStockphotot.com
WallpaperWizard
WallpaperWizard
This wraps up the Clarity Series on Prospecting. My hope is that you will now have actionable steps to implement into your business. Adopt the mindset that someone is paying your a million dollars to dig this ditch. Systematize your prospecting. Delegate every task you can. Make the calls! Do this and join the 5% of top performers. Nothing is holding you back except…you.
The Clarity Series (CS) is a series of posts all on one subject. This particular subject is prospecting. While the context is commercial real estate, these steps and principles can be applied to any sales. To read the introduction of this series, click here. To read an overview of the entire prospecting system, click here. Thank you for reading!
I was an Arabic Linguist in the Marine Corps. Those with my job specialty went one of two paths. They deployed in support of infantry units, or they were sent to a support battalion state-side. Those units did not deploy. I was placed on the second path.
My mom was thrilled as was my wife. I was not. I would volunteer for every deployment (they never sent me). I wanted to go and do the job.
I compare this to faithfully studying for a test. You have put in the work. You are ready. You know that you will come through when it matters at test-time. You are confident that you will ace it. But you never get to take the test. That is what it was like for me. I had put in the work and needed to take the test.
You have now landed a meeting to make a listing presentation (or whatever presentation applies to you). You have worked through the entire prospecting process to get to this point. Your put in the work becoming a market specialist. Building a database. Sending letters. Making cold calls. Conducting the needs analysis. It has all led to this moment. You sit in front of the prospect. The business is there for the taking. You have the privilege of potentially improving the life of the person in front of you.
What do you do?
Before we get into what the winning listing presentation looks like, let discuss the industry standard.
The industry standard listing presentation is broker-centric and follows the sequence in the picture.
Note that the prospect must sit through a presentation that has little to do with them and everything to do about the broker and his/her company. Often, the prospect has 4 of these back to back in an afternoon. The last broker in should bring a six pack.
In contrast to the broker-centric presentation, the winning presentation is all about the prospect.
In case you missed them, here are the top posts from March on the topics of Next Practices in Life, Business, and Commercial Real Estate.
I do want to invite you to subscribe to this blog just to the right of what you are reading now. This will make it so easy for you to get my new posts without having to remember to check my site. And I will never violate your privacy!
via iStockPhoto
The Purpose of a Cold Call – The purpose of a cold call is very simple and there is no debate. It is to get a meeting. That’s it. It is not to spend 20 minutes on the phone. It is not to build a lasting relationship. It is not to make the sale. The purpose of the cold call is simply to get a meeting.. Read more…
iStockPhoto
How to Write a Prospecting Letter – So, here is a not so short letter to my children. I share this because I believe intentionally communicating with our children what they should know is a great idea. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life, but it could also be my last. I want to intentionally take steps to share certain things with my children that could make a huge difference in their lives. I share this to encourage you to do the same. Read more…
Don’t I look smart? My wife thinks so!
Introducing the Clarity Series: Prospecting – Clarity is such a powerful thing. It allows you to act with direction and focus. It gives you the ability to maximize your efforts and your results. Clarity of purpose allows you to say ‘no’ to good things and ‘yes’ to great things.
I am introducing the Clarity Series. Let me explain what the Clarity Series is.
iStockPhoto
Preparation for a Cold Call – I recommend that you take 2-3 minutes before you make a call and see what you can find out about your prospect. There is way too much information out there not to. Your goal is to find something quickly that you can use to establish common ground. Remember, cold-calling is a numbers game. Don’t spend too much time researching your prospect. And don’t spend too much time on the call itself. Read more…
iStockPhoto
5 Steps to Build a World-Class Database – In 2004, I got out of the Marine Corps and moved home with my family. The next day, I started working with my dad in his CRE brokerage business. As we would be driving around town, he would share with me the histories of the properties we drove by. He knew everything. He knew who owned the property. He could tell me what they paid for it. He could tell me how big they were. We would pass some properties he had sold multiple times. He defined encyclopedic knowledge of a market. I remember thinking that I would never get there. Read more…
The Clarity Series is a series of posts all on one subject. This particular subject is prospecting. While the context is commercial real estate, these steps and principles can be applied to any sales. To read the introduction of this series, click here. To read an overview of the entire prospecting system, click here. Thank you for reading!
So far in this series, we have discussed what it means to choose a farm area or geography. We also discussed the value of specializing. The next step in implementing a killer prospecting system is to build your database.
iStockPhoto
In 2004, I got out of the Marine Corps and moved home with my family. The next day, I started working with my dad in his CRE brokerage business. As we would be driving around town, he would share with me the histories of the properties we drove by. He knew everything. He knew who owned the property. He could tell me what they paid for it. He could tell me how big they were. We would pass some properties he had sold multiple times. He defined encyclopedic knowledge of a market. I remember thinking that I would never get there.
Building a world-class database is how you get there. And you can do it in months.
Your purpose in building a killer database is two-fold. First, you want to personify the kind of encyclopedic market knowledge like my dad has. Second, your database is your road map – your foundation – to consistently finding and winning business through prospecting.
Here is how you do it!
John McDermott is one of my favorite guys in the CRE industry. Here is his list on what should be in your database for each property.
Final thought – I believe and preach that anything that can be delegated should be. You need to focus your time on the tasks that only you can do. Building a database is an exception, however. You should do most of this yourself. To become a market expert, you actually need to learn the properties and the people. There is no better way than getting on the property.
So we have now covered geography, specialty, and building a database. The remainder of this series will deal with how to use the data to find and win business.
What are your favorite tools to finding properties and owners? Please share with us in the comments section.
The Clarity Series is a series of posts all on one subject. This particular subject is prospecting. While the context is commercial real estate, these steps and principles can be applied to any sales. To read the introduction of this series, click here. To read an overview of the entire prospecting system, click here. Thank you for reading!
photo from iStockPhoto
In 2010, I bought the family commercial real estate brokerage business from my dad. That week, I had 3 closings. It was great timing. All of them were Single Tenant Net Lease (STNL) deals. I experienced in a new way broker’s remorse.
Broker’s remorse is that feeling of exuberance a broker feels once a good size deal closes. It is followed 5 minutes later by the feeling of, “Oh crap! What next?” In commission sales, it is like you are unemployed between closings. After those deals closed, I looked at my pipeline and panicked.
I had nothing else happening. I had zero clue when my deal would hit. I had not been prospecting and I was paying for it. I also had an epiphany.
The only deals that were getting done were STNL deals. Until that day, I was a generalist. On that day, I chose my specialty. I prospected on 405 Dollar stores in the commonwealth of Kentucky.
Question: What is your specialty? (If you paused or couldn’t articulate it in 20 words or less, then you don’t have a specialty.)
Top producers in commercial real estate are specialists. This is known and proven. So, when you are crafting a prospecting system, you must start with these two steps: geography and specialty.
Now remember – when you are prospecting, you are asking for the business. Your geography is simply the physical area where you will be doing so. Let me give you some examples:
In my case, my geography was the commonwealth of Kentucky. I had to go that wide to have enough inventory of Dollar Stores. Ideally, you want a minimum of 400 properties to call upon in your chosen geography.
You can be a geographical specialist. The number one broker of the number one CRE firm (by number of transactions) in New York City is Bob Knakal. Bob is a geographical specialist. He can show you on a map which blocks in the city he works. In fact, his entire office is set up this way. Each broker has their own territory. They know everything about every property within that territory. Or they get to go work somewhere else.
I was in Chicago last week training some brokers in our office there. It is a top 3 office in our company. One of their top 3 guys was explaining to me all the success he has had since he specialized. And his specialty is a specific neighborhood. He owns property in that neighborhood. He is a peer with the owners he is calling on. You can’t go 2 blocks without seeing one of his signs.
More common, however, is a product type specialist. You can go with the major food groups – multifamily, retail, office, and industrial. Or, you can go more of the niche route and focus on STNL, medical office, sale-leasebacks, self-storage, and on and on. I know a great broker who specializes in marines. Another who does charter schools.
The key to remember is that you know what you are, and you know where you pursue deals.
To make this decision, ask yourself the following 3 questions:
If you can find a specialty where the answers to these three questions intersect, then you may have found your sweet spot. Once you have this, the next step is to gain encyclopedic knowledge of your specialty. That will be the focus of the next post.
Clarity is an elusive gem. When you have it, you are a rock star. When you don’t…
Don’t I look smart? My wife thinks so!
A month ago I was playing guitar in the praise band at the church I attend. I’ve done this since I was in high school. For the first time, I noticed that I was having a difficult time making out the chord charts. This had never happened to me before. [And Peter, I’d love to jam with you sometime.]
I had a particularly hard time distinguishing between a B chord and a D chord. If you play any kind of instrument, you will understand that getting confused and playing the wrong chord in the middle of a song is bad. It gets noticed.
So, for the first time since high school, I had my eyes examined.
I had the puffs of air blown in my eyes (I just about fell backwards out of my chair – warn a guy!) I had a retinal scan. Then I had the experience where the doctor asks, “Which one is clearer…1 or 2.” At the end of the tweaking, he showed me what my vision was like. Then he showed me my vision with corrected lenses.
I was blown away! I had no idea how clear vision could be. Now, my sight is not that bad. I have a mild astigmatism. The glasses help when I read, and they help with the stuff far away. However, I am wearing them all the time. I love the clarity. Plus, my wife thinks I look smart!
Clarity is such a powerful thing. It allows you to act with direction and focus. It gives you the ability to maximize your efforts and your results. Clarity of purpose allows you to say ‘no’ to good things and ‘yes’ to great things.
I am introducing the Clarity Series. Let me explain what the Clarity Series is.
The Clarity Series: Prospecting will have a beginning and an end. If this is well received and adds value, I will take on other topics. I am thinking that ‘creating presence’ would make a great next topic. Please use the comment section to suggest other topics.
I previously wrote a post about the 8 Steps to a Killer Prospecting System. This Clarity Series will break down each of those steps in much more depth. Please keep in mind that the context here is Commercial Real Estate. However, these steps are applicable to anyone with a product or service to sell. The 8 steps are as follows:
I remember the first time that a drill instructor tried to describe how I was supposed to make the rack. It did not go well. A ‘rack’ is a bed, by the way. There is a very specific way that this is done. Nothing short of perfection is acceptable. There is a 6 inch fold here. A 45 degree crease there. The green cover was pulled so tight…
iStockPhoto by alexsi
The problem I had was drill instructors don’t speak English. They speak Marine. And they do it loudly. What do you do when having a difficult time understanding someone? You watch their mouths. However, you aren’t allowed to look directly at a DI. I was not able to quickly process the super fast speech, the unique cadence, the strange words, and the gravely voice. I mean seriously! He was explaining to me how to make a bed!
This was the first time I heard the term “Barney-style.” Barney-style means I’m going to explain something in a super simple way. I also heard shotgun-style a few times, but “Barney” was the term of choice to describe the recruit who was utterly confused. That was me on that day.
Commercial Real Estate has a broken and fractured market. It does not function to serve the best interest of the buyer or seller. It serves the best interest of the broker. And brokers tend to be greedy. I have the solution to this, and I am going to give it to you Barney-style.
The following 3:59 minute animated video is voiced over by my CEO, Kevin Maggiacomo. This is without a doubt the easiest to understand version of the Sperry Van Ness Difference. I challenge you to watch it and share with me your thoughts in the comments section.
My wife has an angelic voice (right now she has laryngitis and is confined to a whisper). She is a beautiful Southern girl. Before she gave it up to marry me, her dream was to go to Nashville and be a country singer.
WOW!
I don’t like country music as a rule. The main exception to this is I liked the Keith Urban music that she would play. One year, as a gift to her, I took her to a Keith Urban concert in Memphis. By this time, I knew his music.
My first observation of that concert was that it was my wife and me and 15,000 17-year-old girls. I felt completely out-of-place. Then he started playing. The songs that I thought were good were suddenly outstanding. I found myself wondering why the same songs were so much better live. I was completely blown away.
I think there were a couple of reasons. First, I play guitar. I appreciate talented guitar players. Keith Urban might be the best guitar player I have ever seen live. I did not expect this to be the case.
Second, the energy in the place was off the charts. I found myself moved. I did not expect this either.
Third, the sound and lights coupled with the excellence of the live delivery shocked me. Urban and his band were awesome musicians. They played with passion and authenticity. I could feel the emotion and the connection they had with the music. Then you add the lights and multi-media experience, and I was loving it. I completely didn’t expect that.
A couple of months later, I ran a mini-marathon (it didn’t feel mini!). You know what I listened to for about 2 hours? Keith Urban. His concert completely exceeded my expectations. It gave me goose-bumps.
That is what WOW is – goose-bumps. I’m still not a country fan, but I will listen to his music anytime. I’ve had an experience with it.
In his book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, Michael Hyatt begins that you must start with WOW. So how do we know what WOW is? It is constantly exceeding the expectations of your clients, prospects, customers, volunteers, etc. It is delivering goose-bumps.
So let’s consider how you can apply the concept of WOW to your business.
These are next practices!
In case you missed them, here are the top posts from February on the topics of Next Practices in Life, Business, and Commercial Real Estate.
I do want to invite you to subscribe to this blog just to the right of what you are reading now. This will make it so easy for you to get my new posts without having to remember to check my site. And I will never violate your privacy!
What are You Worth? – I have a mentor and client who is incredibly successful. He owns over a dozen businesses. He employs hundreds of people. He loves Jesus and is one of the most generous men I’ve ever met. He is an amazing man. He is someone who we should all want to be like. A couple of years ago, I was meeting with this man. I asked him what the inflection point was in his career. He surprised me with his answer. He told me about a conversation that he had with his mentor. At that time, my mentor had hit his limit. He was experiencing what John Maxwell calls the Law of the Lid (read the book – affiliate link). Read more…
Me and the Beast
A Letter to My Kids – So, here is a not so short letter to my children. I share this because I believe intentionally communicating with our children what they should know is a great idea. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life, but it could also be my last. I want to intentionally take steps to share certain things with my children that could make a huge difference in their lives. I share this to encourage you to do the same. Read more…
CRE All-Stars: An Interview with Chad Grout, CCIM – I tried something new! Thanks to my new friend Dan Hayes, I can now record a Skype call (if you want to know how, just leave a comment below, and I will hook you up). This is the first in a series of interviews of CRE All-Stars. I will be interviewing CRE All-Stars throughout the United States and bringing you their best practices. So…meet Chad Grout! I asked the following four questions to Chad. Read more…