The Beginner’s Guide To Prospecting

The Step-By-Step Process for Maximizing Your Income by Pursuing the Business You Want

Have you ever wondered how the best of the best do it? Do you wonder how you can ascend to the ranks of the top-producers? Have you ever be frustrated with your own production or wondered where the next deal will come from?

I know how you feel.

When I began in the Commercial Real Estate industry, I had some inherited advantages. I was 3rd generation in a small town. My father, uncle, and grandfather had built for us a great name. I was walking into a no-lose situation.

However, if I weren’t a gene-pool lottery winner, I think I might have failed.

Why?

I didn’t implement a prospecting system to go after the business I wanted. I did not fill my pipeline with opportunities. I produced no deal flow.

It was years later, after hiring a coach through The Massimo Group, that my eyes were opened to how to go after the business you want.

Here’s the truth. The top-producers in CRE prospect continuously. They do it systematically. They track and know their numbers cold.

You can do the same. You should do the same. Unless you enjoy mediocrity, you must do the same.

So I’ve written my first ebook: The Beginner’s Guide to Prospecting – The Step-By-Step Process for Maximizing Your Income by Pursuing the Business You Want.

 

bozer75_a5_wider

 

In this step-by-step, in-depth guide to prospecting, you’ll find:

  • How to choose your specialty (and why you should specialize in the first place)
  • How to build your database (there are only 3 ways)
  • How to write a prospecting letter that warms up a prospecting call (it’s too quick and easy not to do)
  • How to use the true purpose of a prospecting call to generate more meetings
  • How to make the meeting about your prospecting (and not you!)
  • How to give a winning presentation (and differentiate yourself from your competition)
  • And much more…

prospecting ebook screenshot

You can’t buy The Beginner’s Guide To Prospecting anywhere. The only way you can get it is to subscribe to my FREE email newsletter. That means you will get an email every time I publish a new post or offer (about once a week.)

That way, you don’t have to visit my blog to stay up to date on fresh content. And you can unsubscribe at any time.

All you need to do is click the button below. Once you do that and confirm your email, I will email you the link to download this free resource.

Send Me The Free Ebook!

You really have 3 choices at this point:

  1. Keep the status quo
  2. Figure it out on your own…the slow way
  3. Let me share with you, for FREE…the fast way.

It’s up to you!

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

The 7 Proven Steps to Finding and Winning More Business

Do you remember the scene in Good Will Hunting where Robin Williams and Matt Damon are discussing the painting? Williams has this great line. “You know the real b**** of it? It’s paint by numbas [hear Boston accent].”

I’ve got some great cheat sheets for you. The first one is on prospecting, and you can get it at the bottom of this post. Can’t wait? Click here.

There is a real wisdom in the idea of paint by numbers.

What you need to know about finding and winning the business you want.

What you need to know about finding and winning the business you want.

In bootcamp, they taught us everything “by the numbers.” I’m not exaggerating. They taught us how to get dressed like a Marine – by the numbers. They taught us how to eat like a Marine – by the numbers.

The Marine Corps is fanatical about systemizing everything based on best-practices. They debrief after every exercise. What went well? What didn’t go well? What could be improved? The result of this disciplined approach to learning from everything is they have a specific way of doing everything. And it works.

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

[Video] Ask Bo – A Question from Jeno Berta on Prospecting

This episode of Ask Bo stems from a question sent in by Jeno Berta.  Jeno has a great question regarding prospecting for a New to the Business (N2B) broker.

He asks about what daily prospecting tasks are essential to the N2B broker as well as what one habit is most important to to the success of his business.

Go check Jeno out on Twitter at @jeno630.

I also mention in the video the prospecting series I wrote. Click here to see The 8 Steps to a Killer Prospecting System.

If you would like to ask me a question, look to the right of the screen and click the ‘Send Voicemail’ button.  You can then send me a voicemail straight through your computer. The next episode of Ask Bo could be featuring you!

Have a blessed day!

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

How You Can Become a Top Producer

So many settle for mediocrity.  I have done it myself.  I despise that place.  You can see others around you excelling at what they do – what you could do.  You may find yourself asking, “Is it even possible for me to have that kind of success?”  Good question.

The Four  Not-So-Secret

I started playing the guitar when I was 14 years old.  I was looking for something that I could be good at.  I had already realized it wasn’t going to be sports.  I took a few months of lessons and then kept playing.  By the time I got to college, I was OK at best.

Then Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds played a show at my college.  They were incredible.  Two guys with their acoustic guitars on stage playing.  No band.  Just them.

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

How The Voices In Your Head Can Hold You Back

I heard a great story this week that has had my wheels turning ever since.  I’m going to share it with you in a minute.

But first, I want you to consider how you talk to yourself – in your head.  I think I’ve heard someone call this self-talk.

eye

Photo by David Meier

The way I talk to myself holds me back all the time.  My first couple of years in commercial real estate, it held me way back.  I would talk myself out of making a call.  I would decide for a prospect that they weren’t interested…before I made the call.

This self-talk makes a difference.  What does the talk in your head sound like?  Consider this story.

A rich oil sheik decided he wanted to learn how to play golf.  So he built one of the world’s best golf courses.  It was perfect – gorgeous.

The sheik then invited a US club pro to spend two weeks with him on his new golf course giving him lessons. The pro accepted the invitation.

So the Sheik sent his private jet to collect the pro and bring him to the Middle East.  Once there, the pro spent two weeks in complete opulence.   Everything that he could have wanted was available to him.

The pro loved the course and very much enjoyed teaching the Sheik.

After 2 weeks, the pro was boarding the private jet to go back to America.  The Sheik, being very pleased with his two weeks of lessons, offered the pro anything.

The pro responded and told the Sheik that this had been the best 2 weeks of his life.  His hospitality and generosity were payment enough.

The Sheik insisted, asking the pro if he collected anything.

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

Why You Will Never Dominate Your Market – These 7 Reasons

If you are reading this blog, it is likely that you want more.  You want to improve your productivity, your prospecting, your presence, your something.  Nobody gets up every morning with the goal of being mediocre.  Ultimately, you want to dominate your market.  But the truth is, you can’t.

7 Reasons You Will Never Dominate Your Market

My kids are in the driveway right now playing basketball with the neighbor kids.  When I was their age, the Bad Boys version of the Detroit Pistons were winning championships.  I remember playing in the driveway and pretending I was Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars.

I wanted to dominate a basketball game the way they did. But I topped out at 5’7” with less than average athletic ability and a suspect jump shot.  I was never going to dominate a basketball game.

And you are never going to dominate your market because of these 7 reasons.

7 Reasons You Will Never Dominate Your Market

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

The 4 Needs of Every New to the Business Broker

On March 18 at 2pm EST, Rod Santomassimo and I are hosting a free webinar – How to Thrive as a New to the Business Broker. We will be covering in more depth the content of this post. You can register below!

I remember the first day I started in commercial real estate.  I got out of the Marine Corps the day before.  All of the sudden, I’m wearing civilian clothes and standing in a blank office.  There was a phone and a laptop on my desk and little else.  If I’m being honest, I didn’t have a clue what to do.

The 4 Things Every New To The Business

I spent the next two years trying to figure it out.  I shadowed my dad constantly.  I noticed how he handled situations – what he said to clients and prospects.  I was soaking it all in.  I battled the nagging thought in my mind that said, “Why would anyone want to work with you when they could work with your dad.”

I lacked confidence.  I lacked a framework.  I lacked understanding about what were the most important things.  I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Commercial real estate is not easy.  Most new to the business (N2B) brokers don’t make it past their first year.  I was fortunate that I had a dad who wouldn’t let me fail.  Everyone doesn’t have that.  This is why Rod Santomassimo, founder and president of the Massimo Group, and I are hosting a free webinar later this week on How to Thrive as a New to the Business Broker.

We believe any N2B broker can thrive if they focus on 4 critical needs.

4 Needs of Every N2B Broker

  1. Pipeline – A broker’s pipeline is the bloodline for his/her business.  In fact, a 10-year study showed that the amount of time between a broker’s first and second deal accurately predicted the long-term success of their career.  A N2B broker needs deal flow in a full and vibrant pipeline.
  2. Prospecting – Prospecting is how you fill up your pipeline.  I spoke with a N2B broker last week who said his shop gave him a phone and a book of property owners.  His directive was to start calling.  Is that the best way to prospect?  How do you learn and apply the best prospecting practices of top-producing brokers?
  3. Production – Prospecting is one thing, but what do you do when you start to win some business?  How do you get that exclusive to the finish line so you can actually get paid?  In many industries, you gain a client when the prospect buys something.  There is an added step in real estate.  You have to find the business, then win the business, and then fulfill the business.  Then you get paid.
  4. Planning – How should a N2B broker spend his/her time?  Should it be on research?  20 hours a week prospecting?  Networking? Oh that someone would have given me a blueprint at the start of my career that could have accelerated my success.
There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

8 Reasons Why You Need Digital Presence

My dad started developing self-storage units somewhere around 1980.  The name of this company is AAA Rent-A-Space.  About the same time, my mom had one of four or five Century21 franchises in our town.  The name was Century21 A Barron Company.  Both of these companies were named so they would be listed first in the yellow pages.  How do you think the yellow pages business is doing right now?

Business man surrounded by people

One of the comments I hear most often as I engage with experienced brokers across the country is this.  “These kids are coming out of nowhere and taking my market share.”  They are lamenting that the presence that took them a decade or more to develop is being eroded by younger, new to the business brokers who are creating dominating digital presence.

Presence is being known – being top-of-mind.  You know you have it when the most influential and connected people in your market are sending business your way.  You know you have it when people are glad you called and don’t need to ask who you are.

It is no secret that commercial real estate is behind the curve when it comes to digital presence adoption.  We have an industry that is dominated by white men who aren’t in their 20’s or 30’s anymore.  That is just a demographic fact (though I see this changing.)

There is a reason why younger brokers are having this kind of success.  What used to take a decade or more to build, can now be accomplished in a year or two.  But this is not just a younger person’s game.  The landscape has changed. Anyone can take advantage of this powerful aspect of building your business.

In fact, everyone in a sales or service profession should create a digital presence.  Here’s why.

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

The 7 Steps to Knowing the Best Time to Prospect

Last week I received an email from one of my coaching clients.  He asked a question that we receive on a regular basis.  He asked when is the best day and time of day to call.

Great question.

iStock_000000350369Medium

The answer is there is nothing that says a certain day at a certain time is the best time to call.  To be sure, you can google this topic and find information that will tell you many different answers.  But the truth is, there isn’t a magic bullet.

There is, however, optimal times for you to call your database of prospects.  You simply have to figure out when those times are.

Before I get into how that is done, I want to address a fallacy.  Many who are in sales try to time their prospecting like someone would try to time the stock market.  This is a bad idea.  Your results will always be better – over time – if you consistently prospect on a daily basis.  You just need to keep doing it.

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.

The 3 Ways to Build Your Prospecting Database

I coach new to the business (N2B) commercial real estate brokers with the Massimo Group.  In my web-call with my newest group today, I was asked the question that I get asked most often.  How do I find the numbers for the prospects I need to be calling?  That is a key question, is it not?

For those of you who have never seen one of these - it is a Rolodex.  Ask your boss about it.

For those of you who have never seen one of these – it is a Rolodex. Ask your boss about it.

Do you remember the second half of 2008 – when the economy completely tanked?  You may recall how the sky was falling.  Everything changed.  Many in the CRE industry didn’t make it.

For the number of years before that time, a monkey could have made six figures.  Transactional velocity was everywhere.  Cap rates were compressing.  Capital was cheap and readily available.  Deals would just walk in your door.  But when the market turned, top producers kept succeeding while others fell away.  How did they do it?

There was an issue loading your timed LeadBox™. Please check plugin settings.