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One of the Greatest Mistakes Made By Commercial Real Estate Brokers

By Jim Gillespie | February 8, 2011

So many commercial brokers don’t get their prospecting done on a regular basis. And one of the patterns that commercial brokers find themselves getting into, is prospecting until they have enough leads to keep busy, and then reducing or eliminating the time they’re spending doing their prospecting. This is one of the greatest mistakes that commercial brokers are constantly making, and it ends up costing them a lot of money.

One of the main reasons that brokers need to be continually prospecting, is because this will have them find bigger and better leads than the ones they’re currently working on. But you’ll never find these leads or even know that they exist, unless you’re continually doing your prospecting.

Many brokers think that they need to be working on most of the leads that they’re constantly coming across, and this can greatly get in the way of them making money. So what happens is brokers will then prospect until they get busy with the maximum number of leads they think they can handle, and continuing to prospect makes no sense to them whatsoever. I mean, why would you want to prospect if you believe there’s no way you could handle working on more leads, and that you wouldn’t even have the time to follow-up on them?

This is where brokers must learn how to keep prospecting anyway, and continually throughout the year, and learn how to let go of the less desirable leads they’re working on. But when you only prospect until you get busy, working on all the leads you’ve already uncovered, you often don’t want to let go of any of these leads. You’ve got the time to work on them, and as long as you believe there’s money to be made on them, why would you want to let go of these leads?

But when you’re continually prospecting during the year, you’ll uncover more and better leads than the ones you’re currently working on. But you’ll never, ever see these leads if you stop doing your prospecting. So what you want to be doing is prospecting continually during the year, working on many of the new and better leads you’re constantly locating, and letting go of what are now becoming the less desirable leads that these new and better leads are now replacing for you. This is a far cry from what many brokers are doing, who are prospecting until they get busy with leads, then they reduce or eliminate their prospecting altogether, until they’re done working on the leads they’ve already uncovered. This can cause huge gaps in the incoming commissions of a commercial broker, as from the moment a broker begins prospecting once again, it can take awhile before they close their next transaction.

On the other hand, when you’re continually prospecting during the year, and working on only the best leads you’re continually uncovering for yourself, you upgrade the quality of the prospects you’re working with, you’re working only with the people who will be loyal to you, and you’re increasing the amount of the average commission you’re earning on every transaction. This is because you’re continually uncovering more opportunities where you’ll be earning even larger commissions, and you’re letting go of the opportunities where you’d be earning smaller commissions instead. But you never would have uncovered these opportunities for earning larger commissions, if you had stopped doing your prospecting once you had uncovered your original leads.

So as a commercial broker, you want to continually be prospecting during the year, and mastering the skill of working only on the best leads you’re uncovering for yourself, while continually letting go of what are now becoming your more marginal leads. When you do this you’ll continually be working on only the best leads in your territory, you’ll begin earning larger commissions, and you’ll maximize the income you’ll be earning within your brokerage business every single year.

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My February Commercial Broker Newsletter is now ready for you to mail or E-mail to all of your clients and prospects. If you’re not currently sending a monthly newsletter to all of your clients and prospects, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to brand yourself and keep you in people’s minds every month during the year. If you’re interested in more information on how you can send this newsletter to your clients and prospects, click here.

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KW Commercial

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