Making Sure You’re on Fire Now in Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business
By Jim Gillespie | February 24, 2010
I’ve just recorded a new 7-minute audio presentation you can listen to for free titled, "Making Sure You’re on Fire Now in Your Commercial Brokerage Business in 2010". Just dial 1-507-726-3727 to begin listening to this presentation.
You can listen to the presentation on your own, but I’ve really designed it to be played on speakerphone during one of your brokerage company’s upcoming sales meetings. Just put the conference room telephone on speakerphone, dial 1-507-726-3727, and the presentation will then begin playing for all of the brokers in your office.
And if you’re not the manager of your office, please forward this onto your manager and recommend that they play the presentation during your office’s next sales meeting.
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How Dangerous is the Stock Market for Your Commercial Real Estate Clients Right Now?
By Jim Gillespie | February 9, 2010
As a broker you definitely want to come up with compelling reasons for your clients to buy commercial property nowadays. Because there are a lot of people out there watching the commercial real estate market and waiting on the sidelines right now.
And at the same time, there are people who invest in both the stock market and in commercial real estate who are thinking, "The stock market has gone up almost 70% since last March, and look at what’s been happening with the price of real estate. With this kind of return in the stock market, why would I want to invest in commercial real estate right now?"
Well, a good reason is that the stock market appears to be in a very precarious position. As you’ll see in the video clip I’m going to provide for you, someone has been investing $50-60 billion in after-hours trading…buying stock futures. And this has had a tremendous impact on the total value of the stock market. And the market expert you’ll see interviewed in this video thinks that it’s probably the government that’s been making these purchases. (I mean, who else has an extra $50-60 billion to invest in stock futures nowadays?)
If hundreds of billions of dollars have been utilized to bailout Wall Street firms, and The Federal Reserve ended up buying approximately 80% of $1.5 Trillion in U.S. debt brought to auction last year, is it really that much of a stretch to think that $50-60 billion might have also been spent by the government to shore up stock values? The dramatic rise in stock prices certainly can’t be correlated to higher corporate earnings, or to private investors putting more of their own money into the stock market.
Which means that now may be the time for some of your commercial real estate clients to begin getting out of the stock market, and begin buying commercial properties. If the stock market has been counting on this major infusion of money in order to keep it going, it’s certainly not on solid ground. And the more you can get your clients who are invested in the market to recognize this, the more likely they’ll begin turning more towards commercial properties.
Click here for the video of CEO Charles Biderman being interviewed on Bloomberg, where he mentions that in his opinion, only the government would have this kind of money to make this big of an intervention into the stock market.
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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 send me an E-mail.
"After just 4 weeks of working with Jim, my team has developed more new business than we have in the past 6 months."
Mica Berg
NAI Las Vegas
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An Update on Our Current Real Estate Market Condition
By Jim Gillespie | February 2, 2010
I have two resources that I’m passing along to you. The first is an interview with a commercial real estate investor and developer that describes what we’re up against because of the new rules the lenders are being allowed to play by these days. If it wasn’t for all of the government intervention and bailouts for our lenders, commercial brokers would be swimming in a much greater abundance of sale transactions right now.
This interview reveals how the new rules our lenders are being allowed to play by are stifling our commercial real estate market. And the real heart of this information within the interview begins when you see the question, "So what about commercial real estate?"
Click here to read the interview.
The second resource I’m passing along to you is Robert Campbell’s most recent Real Estate Timing Newsletter. Robert is a friend of mine and in August of 2005 he advised his newsletter readers to sell their homes if they wanted to realize the highest prices for them before the market correction began to set in. His research and the underlying fundamentals he utilizes in making his housing market predictions are outstanding, and I recommend that you consider buying his book and/or subscribing to his newsletter by visiting his Web site at www.RealEstateTiming.com.
Click here to read Robert’s most recent Real Estate Timing Newsletter. This 10-page newsletter describes many major housing markets throughout the United States, with special emphasis on the Southern California markets.
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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 send me an E-mail.
"Jim’s coaching and training has assisted our company in landing millions of dollars of new real estate business."
Pat Hall
Told Partners
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
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Achieving Your Commercial Real Estate Goals in 2010
By Jim Gillespie | January 25, 2010
Hopefully you’ve already set your income goals for your brokerage business in 2010. But have you also defined specifically what activities you need to be doing every week and every month in order to achieve these goals? Because writing down your income goals without designing the game plan you must work to achieve these goals, leaves you basically in a position of hope. And hope is very weak when compared with designing and working a game plan you feel confident will have you meet your income goals for 2010.
And while designing your game plan in itself is a great idea, and I highly recommend that you do this, the most important part of you achieving your income goals for the year is you staying on track and working the game plan that you’ve designed for yourself. Because in my more than 31 years of working in our industry, something I’ve definitely learned to be true is:
"When brokers don’t meet their income goals for the year, it’s usually because they got off track from working the game plan they designed for themselves. It’s not because the game plan they designed wouldn’t have worked."
Now granted, we’re in some very challenging times within our industry. But we’re also at a time when brokers should have a better idea of what they can expect now over the next year, because of the adjustments they’ve already experienced within our industry over the past 2-3 years.
So with this being said, I have some questions to ask you:
How are you really doing so far in your brokerage business in 2010? Have you already designed a game plan to achieve your success for the year? And if so, are you currently on track and working that game plan?
Along these lines, something I really recommend you do is continually look at the game plan of activities you’ve designed to achieve your income goals for the year. And when you continually look at these activities throughout the week, you’re much more likely to stay on track in getting them done. A lot of brokers make their big mistake by going long periods of time without even looking at these activities, feeling constantly busy, and deluding themselves into thinking they’re really on track and doing what will maximize their income for the year.
Don’t be one of those brokers!
Design your game plan, work the activities in your game plan, and look at these activities on a sheet of paper throughout the week for 15-30 seconds at a time. This will greatly assist you in making sure you’re on track instead of being off track from doing what will have you meet your income goals for the year.
__________________
If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level, click here to send me an E-mail.
"Within 7 weeks after beginning my work with Jim I landed new business worth over $500,000.00 in commissions to me!"
Mike Giuliano
Lee & Associates
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
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2010 National Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Industry Market Forecast Teleconference
By Jim Gillespie | January 7, 2010
I’m hosting the following teleconference and inviting you to attend the teleconference for free:
"2010 National Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Industry Market Forecast"
Click on the following link for more information and to signup to attend the teleconference:
http://www.RealEstateSalesCoach.com/ftsub.htm
This telephone seminar will take place on the following two specific dates and times:
Wednesday, January 13th, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (in the evening)
Thursday, January 14th, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
The information provided during each of these two teleconferences will be identical, so choose the date and time that will be the best one for you.
During this teleconference you’ll learn where this real estate market is headed, where the great opportunities are for you to make money, and what you must do to position yourself right now to cash in on the money!
I’ll also tell you what’s been holding our market back from exploding with commercial real estate transactions, and what must happen to begin totally swimming in an abundance of commercial brokerage transactions once again.
And I’ll share different approaches that will help you overcome this difficult market, including one of the best new approaches to find and close more transactions in this market–an approach that has recently closed more than $1 Billion in commercial real estate transactions for brokers within our industry. And it’s recently landed more than $2 Billion in new listings for one commercial brokerage company, too!
Click here for more information and to signup for this teleconference:
http://www.RealEstateSalesCoach.com/ftsub.htm
Topics: Marketing, Uncategorized |
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Planning Your Commercial Real Estate Excellence in 2010
By Jim Gillespie | December 29, 2009
Once again it’s the beginning of a new year, which means for a lot of us it’s time to set new goals. This can be a time to put this last year behind us and create a brand new slate of opportunities to pursue for ourselves in 2010.
But what are you really going to do differently this year? I’m asking this because so many agents often begin the new year feeling excited about all the possibilities that they can create for themselves with a fresh, full calendar year ahead of them. But in the end, how many agents will really accomplish throughout the year what they originally setout to do in January? Oftentimes agents can have the best of intentions every new year of accomplishing some exciting new goals, but by the time the end of the year rolls around they then feel disappointed with their results.
If you’d like to know the reason for this, it sometimes lies in the unrealistic goals that agents can set for themselves at the beginning of the year, and at other times it can lie in the flawed game plans that they utilize throughout the year when working towards accomplishing these goals. For example, an agent who made $100,000.00 this past year might set an income goal of $250,000.00 for 2010. But keep in mind that the sum total of all the best the agent could bring to the table throughout 2009 had them earn and get paid a total of $100,000.00 in commissions. So do they really now know what they have to do differently in 2010 to make the jump from $100,000.00 to $250,000.00 in commission income? And if they do know, why didn’t they just apply this information to their real estate business during 2009?
Setting goals at the beginning of the year can be a great experience for all of us, but it’s how we’re going to get those goals accomplished that represents the real meat and potatoes that will either lead us towards accomplishing those goals, or feeling disappointed.
So with this in mind I’m asking you:
1) What are your goals in your real estate business in 2010?
2) What specifically is your game plan of activities that you’re going to do to make these goals a reality by December 31, 2010?
And…
3) What do you have to do differently than what you did in 2009 in order to achieve your new goals in 2010?
And finally, one activity that’s extremely important to incorporate into your game plan for 2010 is feedback. You need to check in with how you’re doing throughout the year to determine if you’re on track or off track in accomplishing your goals. And if you’re off track, you need to make modifications to your game plan to still ensure that you’ll successfully achieve your goals by December 31st.
As an example of this, experts say that a jet flying from New York to Los Angeles is off track from reaching it’s final destination approximately 98% of the time. But the continued monitoring of the flight path and correction through both the jet’s inertial guidance system and the pilot himself still ensures the jet’s timely arrival in Los Angeles.
With real estate agents, however, this is often not the case. One’s ideal goals for the year can be created in January, but the "flight path" of the agent throughout the year can oftentimes be completely off track from accomplishing these goals. The agent can be thinking something like, "As long as I’m feeling really busy, I must be on track towards accomplishing my goals for the year." This is similar to the pilot of the commercial airliner saying, "As long as I’m up here right now flying this aircraft, I must be on track towards arriving at my desired destination on time."
But alas, in both situations, achieving the desired goal in a timely manner does not result from just being busy doing activities, it comes from doing the right activities at the right time, and in the right sequence.
With this in mind, see if the following has ever applied to you:
You set your goals for your real estate business in January and feel enthusiastic about accomplishing them. You feel extremely busy throughout the year, but you recognize you’re falling behind in achieving your income goal for the year along the way. Then around September or so, you start thinking a thought similar to "If I can just find, negotiate, and close both sides of a $30,000,000.00 transaction by the end of the year, I’ll meet my income goal."
Like the airline pilot and the inertial guidance system within the plane itself, you need to monitor your success throughout the year to make sure you’re on track. Set a reminder at the end of every month in your contact management program to check in and see how you’re doing. Are you on track towards achieving your income goals for the year, or are you falling behind? And if you’re falling behind, go immediately and get some help from someone. Sit down and talk with a top producing agent, your manager, or hire a real estate coach. Because right now you’re risking throwing your income goals completely out the window if you don’t.
You may have noticed something in our industry over the years. Our industry has its fair share of people who have big egos. I deal with this constantly with coaching clients who produce great results in their business through working with me, but more than anything they really want to return to having no one whatsoever advising them on running their real estate business. But trying to do it all alone in this business on an ongoing basis can be a very costly decision. As Albert Einstein once said, "We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." And if you’re constantly trying to solve your business development problems with the same mind that created them…your own mind…you could be in for a very long and frustrating year.
So check in with yourself once a month to see how you’re doing in accomplishing the goals you’ve created for yourself in 2010. And if you find yourself falling behind in accomplishing these goals, stop everything you’re doing and find someone who can give you the help and direction you need to get back on track and make these goals happen for you.
__________________
If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level, click here to send me an E-mail.
"My work with Jim has helped my team, my company, and my development business to perform at substantially higher levels."
D. Alex Rhoten
Coldwell Banker Commercial
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
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Should You Be Utilizing Online Social Networking in Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business?
By Jim Gillespie | December 2, 2009
Online social networking is a phenomenon that has grown considerably in recent years. But is it something that you should be utilizing in your own commercial real estate brokerage business?
While many commercial brokers have begun to utilize online social networking, only a small percentage of them have actually made any money in doing so. So for most commercial brokers the payoff in terms of commissions earned vs. time invested really hasn’t been there for them. But this doesn’t mean that it all couldn’t change over the coming years.
In the early 1990s, the idea of using the Internet to market oneself and one’s commercial listings hadn’t really gone mainstream. Heck, back in 1990 I had my own desktop PC and I was utilizing ACT! contact management software for my own commercial real estate brokerage business. And other brokers would tell me that keeping stacks of business cards with rubber bands around them was working just fine for them.
They just didn’t see what was coming.
And now that we’ve experienced how much the Internet has changed commercial real estate brokerage over the years, the question then becomes, "Will online social networking finally catch fire in commercial real estate brokerage, much like the use of the Internet finally did?" And the only truthful answer I can really give to that question is, "We’re going to have to wait and see."
But I can almost guarantee you that over the next two years in your commercial brokerage business, you’ll make much more money from the time you spend prospecting, marketing yourself, and networking by other means than through online social networking. But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t engage in online social networking at all. Because if it really does catch fire over the coming years, you’ll want to be fully on board with it instead of beginning to start from scratch when that time finally gets here.
And in trying to determine whether or not online social networking will catch fire within commercial real estate brokerage, meaning whether or not it will begin making commercial brokers a lot of money, one arena we can look to in determining this is the residential real estate brokerage arena. Because as most of us already know, residential agents have been far ahead of commercial agents in terms of implementing new technology into their businesses. I mean, here we are at the end of 2009 and I estimate that less than 10% of all commercial brokers even have their own standalone commercial agent Web site up on the Internet.
But even on the residential side of the business, online social networking isn’t making the majority of residential agents a lot of money. And as one top Internet marketing expert for residential agents said to me, "Online social networking can be like a bright, shiny object distracting residential agents. It’s just one approach that should be utilized along with many other marketing approaches for them, and the truth is that there are other marketing approaches that are much more effective for them."
In addition, there’s another factor we have to consider in terms of where online social networking could be headed to in commercial real estate brokerage. I heard a future trends expert say when addressing a real estate audience, "We’re now entering the time when the people from Generation X are beginning to hold important decision-making positions within the business world. This is the first generation of people who were raised on video games, and when they want something they’re not accustomed to waiting for it. So when they look to hire a real estate broker, they won’t necessarily take the time to interview different brokers. They’ll gravitate towards hiring the first broker who responds to them."
And with this in mind, since the people in Generation X have grown up with both the computer and the Internet being a more normal part of their everyday lives, online social networking may become deeply ingrained in them by the time they begin making commercial real estate decisions. So while today’s commercial real estate decision makers may tend to be in their mid-40s to late-60s, the next generation will slowly be moving in. And if they’re dedicated to online social networking, you’ll want to be involved in it, too.
So while right now it’s very rare to see commercial brokers making very much money through online social networking, it’s possible that this could all be changing over the coming years.
__________________
If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level, click here to send me an E-mail.
"My work with Jim has helped my team, my company, and my development business to perform at substantially higher levels."
D. Alex Rhoten
Coldwell Banker Commercial
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
Topics: Marketing, Prospecting |
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A Simple Approach That Can Help You Land More Commercial Real Estate Listings
By Jim Gillespie | November 24, 2009
There are many things brokers can do in their listing presentations that can greatly assist them in landing more listings. It’s not that any one single idea will land the listing for them, it’s that several well-thought-out approaches when taken together can greatly help them to stand out from their competitors, and get the listing.
With this in mind, here’s a simple approach that you and/or your team can utilize that can have more owners feel like moving forward with you.
1) Buy the domain name for the address of the owner’s property and tell the owner that you’ve purchased the domain name.
During your listing presentation you could say something similar to, "We want to get busy marketing your property as soon as possible, so we’ve bought the domain name ‘500MainStreet.com’. We want the entire commercial real estate world to know that your property at 500 Main Street is now on the market and available for sale, and this will help to get the word out to everyone in commercial real estate about it."
2) Create a simple Web site for the property at the domain name you’ve already purchased, and show the Web site to the owner during your listing presentation.
The combination of you owning the domain name with the address of their property, and already having a Web site for their property online at that exact domain name, can help them to feel that they’re already moving forward with you. And if you don’t know of someone who can create a simple Web site for you very inexpensively, you can definitely find someone at www.Elance.com.
__________________
If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level, click here to send me an E-mail.
"After just weeks of working with Jim I’m getting much more done now with far greater ease, and he has my agents completely on fire and much more passionate about their business!"
Mike Spears, SIOR
The National Realty Group
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
Topics: Persuasion |
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Our Greatest Obstacle to Getting Out of This Recession
By Jim Gillespie | November 18, 2009
Four years ago I wrote an article that began with the following words…
"Of the approximately 300 articles I’ve written on the subject of real estate, this one could be the most important one."
Well, this article that you’re reading right now is even more important than that one. And the reason it’s more important is because the subject that I discussed in that original article four years ago, "Peak Oil", has now manifested itself and is the real underlying cause of many of the economic problems we’re now facing.
And if you’re not familiar with the term "Peak Oil", I recommend that you read the article that I wrote about it four years ago. (Click here to read the article.)
In order to get out of this recession, we need to increase GDP, or Gross Domestic Product. And Gross Domestic product is generally defined as "the value of a country’s overall output of goods and services within a given year."
Now here’s where we’re faced with a difficult problem around all of this…In order to increase GDP we need to consume more energy, and the world over the past four years has now peaked with the amount of petroleum we’ve been able to extract out of the ground annually. You can click here to see the information from the U.S. Department of Energy on this, showing that global petroleum production has peaked at between 73 and 74 million barrels of oil a day for the past four years. You can also see on that chart that U.S. oil production peaked in the early 1970s, making us now much more dependent on importing our oil from all over the world.
And when I utilize the word "peak" it means the following…that this is the highest level of petroleum production possible with today’s technology, and that future years will see gradually lower levels of petroleum production. This is what is recognized today as technological fact within the petroleum industry.
The fact that the world has now peaked in its annual production of petroleum, amid an increased world demand for petroleum, explains why prices have risen so high in recent years. I remember about seven years ago paying just one third of the amount of money I’m paying for gasoline right now, and this is all due to Peak Oil.
So if in order to emerge from this recession we need to produce more goods and services, and producing more goods and services requires an even greater consumption of energy, can you see that we have a problem? Whether it’s increasing manufacturing, increasing distribution, or increasing the delivery of services to both people and businesses, more energy must be consumed in order to accomplish this.
So amid this paradigm of peaking petroleum, and what will soon become decreasing annual petroleum production worldwide, combined with rising energy prices because of a greater demand for energy, businesses are now finding it more difficult to remain profitable, and people are spending more money on energy themselves, too.
So with everybody getting squeezed financially around this, it’s no surprise that we’re in the economic condition we’re in right now. People for awhile were able to take equity out of their homes to meet their monthly expenses, but that option has pretty much disappeared for many of these people.
What still amazes me is that four years now after I wrote my original article on this subject, I know of no one else in our entire industry who’s written an article about Peak Oil. I’ve received many "thank yous" for writing that article from people within the real estate industry, and from people within the petroleum industry, for bringing this subject to our real estate industry. Because there are many people within the petroleum industry who have have known about this problem for many, many years.
When we were in the middle of the Great Depression, we still had abundant energy resources to increase our GDP, and eventually we pulled out of the Depression. But we don’t have those same abundant energy resources anymore. And if you’re thinking, "But what about alternative energy?", many people think that this is where the solution to the problem really lies. But if you read my original article from four years ago on this subject, you’ll understand that alternative energy definitely will not solve our problem.
So I sit here as someone who’s written more than 400 articles for our industry, and most all of them have been on solutions to help you as a broker to make more money in your business. And in knowing that’s what I’ve written about over the years, I wondered if I should even write this article you’re now reading on this subject…Because it’s not one that inspires great, positive feelings within all of us. But I decided I needed to write it anyway, because as intimidating as it is, I think there are some people who will still want to learn more about this subject.
Since I originally wrote my first article on Peak Oil more than four years ago, I’ve received E-mails from brokers thanking me for the information, and telling me that since then they’ve done their own additional research on the subject. And while they don’t like the ramifications of what they’ve learned, they’re glad that they now know about it in great detail, and that they understand it.
Doesn’t it make sense that the most extraordinary economic conditions we’ve ever experienced in our lifetime, are all due to an extraordinary underlying cause? Well Peak Oil is that extraordinary underlying cause. It’s the underlying cause of the collapse in our banking and financial systems, and in our economy. And as much as I don’t like thinking about this, I feel strongly that it will cause still another collapse in the stock market in the future. And while my expertise is really in writing about subjects relating to commercial real estate, you may remember the article I wrote on June 23, 2008, describing how the The Royal Bank of Scotland, founded in the year 1727, was advising its clients “to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months.” (Click here to read the article.)
I wouldn’t have published that article if I didn’t believe strongly in what they were forecasting, and we all know what happened in the stock and financial markets over the following three months after I wrote that article…
So again, while my expertise is really in writing about commercial real estate, I wouldn’t be writing this article to you today unless I had researched the information extensively, and knew that it was true.
Three weeks after I wrote my original article on Peak Oil, the U.S. House of Representatives agreed with me, passing Resolution 507 stating that "the United States, in collaboration with other international allies, should establish an energy project with the magnitude, creativity, and sense of urgency of the `Man on the Moon’ project to develop a comprehensive plan to address the challenges presented by Peak Oil." (Click here to read the Resolution.)
Well, we’re facing the challenges that they were describing in that Resolution right now.
I recommend that you read the original article I wrote on Peak Oil four years ago to learn more about this subject, as it will give you a far greater understanding of this article you’re now reading. (Click here to read my original article.) And I also recommend that you do your own Internet searches under the term "Peak Oil", too, in order to gain an even greater understanding on the subject.
But if you’re really interested in finding out more details on Peak Oil, and what we’re going to be facing around it, there’s a movie that’s just been released that I really recommend you watch. The movie is called "Collapse", and I drove 3 1/2 hours in traffic to L.A. to see the premiere of it last Friday night. I think that everyone should see this movie to better understand what we’re faced with right now, but at the same time, I have to tell you that the subject matter isn’t very pleasant once you see it and begin to understand it.
Had this movie been released one or two years ago people wouldn’t have believed what’s talked about in it. But now that we’ve experienced some shocks to our economic and financial systems, people are really beginning to pay attention. Even "The Wall Street Journal" has recently written an article about this movie.
You can click here to see the movie’s Web site. The movie will be playing for one week in select theaters within the United States and Canada, and it’s just now becoming available on video-on-demand on Verizon FIOS, Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, and Cox cable systems within people’s homes. (And here’s an update–It’s now available on both DVD and on Netflix.)
Whether or not you decide to see the movie, I recommend that you do your own research on the subject of Peak Oil. It is, in my opinion, the most important subject that we’re facing in the world today.
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Getting and Utilizing Powerful Testimonials In Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business
By Jim Gillespie | November 3, 2009
Something that continually amazes me in our industry is how few commercial brokers get and utilize powerful testimonials from their previous clients, when trying to land new business with their prospects. Because when you think about it, what someone else has to say about you will oftentimes carry more weight with your prospects than what you have to say about yourself. And this makes perfect sense because people have learned to be very cautious about what salespeople say to them.
As a commercial real estate broker, sometimes it’s not easy differentiating yourself from all of the other brokers. And part of the reason for this is that oftentimes no one has ever really taught you how to do this. But if you just add several simple approaches within your presentations, you’ll find yourself standing out from your competitors much more often, and landing a larger percentage of the business for yourself.
With this in mind, getting and utilizing testimonials from your previous clients can really help you to differentiate yourself. When a prospect is hearing claims from your competitors about what these brokers are going to do for them, and those claims sound very similar to what you’ve been telling the prospect, and you then provide the prospect with 10-40 testimonial letters from your previous clients along with your presentation package, this can definitely help to differentiate you in the mind of the prospect. The idea being, "If all of these clients had such great things to say about this broker after working with them, I’ll probably have great things to say about this broker after I work with them, too."
So if you don’t have 10-40 testimonial letters right now from previous clients to include in all of your presentation packages, you’ll want to begin getting these testimonial letters from your clients. Because these letters can be very powerful for you to utilize throughout the rest of your career.
The best time to get these testimonial letters is right after you’ve closed a transaction with someone, when they’re feeling great about all that you’ve just done to assist them in closing the transaction. And even if it’s been awhile since you closed a transaction with a given client, you can still contact them to get testimonials letters from them.
You can contact them and say something similar to, "Stan, I really enjoyed working with you on the transaction that we closed together. And something I’d like to do with your approval is get a testimonial letter from you. And I want to make this really easy for you, too. So what I’d like to do is write a testimonial that I believe covers what we both experienced in working together, and have you take a look at it and then approve it. And if the testimonial works for you then you can copy and paste it onto your stationery, sign it, and then I can pick it up from your office. Does this sound like something that will definitely work for you?"
So all you’ll then need to do is begin gathering these testimonial letters from your previous clients, add new testimonial letters from the clients you’ll close transactions with in the future, and begin including all of these testimonial letters in the presentation packages you’ll be giving to the people you’ll want to do business with in the future.
I certainly know that for me 10-40 good testimonial letters in a presentation package given to me by a residential agent, would go a long way towards having me become interested in working with them. And I know that the same will apply to you, too, with all of the prospects you’ll want to begin working with in your commercial real estate brokerage business.
__________________
Click here for my downloadable E-book with prospecting scripts for commercial brokers, and my live audio interviews with top commercial real estate agents.
Topics: Marketing, Persuasion |
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