The Importance of Projecting Confidence in Commercial Real Estate

By Jim Gillespie | August 7, 2013

When I’m talking about confidence, the following quote always brings a smile to my face:

"Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you."

Zig Ziglar

Confidence is something that you want to exude whenever you’re interacting with your clients and prospects. If you’re not confident, they’re going to pick up on this, and it will lessen their interest in working with you. In addition, your lack of confidence will have your clients and prospects feeling less confident about anything that you’re recommending to them, thereby maximizing the chances that you won’t end up closing any transactions with them.

Your clients and prospects will be making an important financial decision when they’re working with you, and if you’re not projecting confidence around what you’re recommending to them, how are they going to feel confident about following your own recommendation?

Right now, how confident and at ease are you feeling whenever you’re interacting with your clients and prospects? If you’re not exuding the kind of confidence that you want to be, this is something that you’ll definitely want to be working on. Role play and have someone sit in as your decision maker, and videotape your presentation to them. Then at the end of your presentation leave the video camera rolling, and ask them for their feedback on how you did.

Then watch the video!

How confident are you feeling these days during your presentations? Are you feeling relaxed and feeling like you know everything that you need to know beforehand? Or are you worried that your clients and prospects might ask you a question that you don’t have the answer to? If you’re worried, you could be projecting this towards your clients and prospects, and that’s not good.

Know your real estate market, know the value of the properties in it, and always be able to confidently tell this information to your clients and prospects. In addition, always project to your clients and prospects that what you stand for above all else, is looking out for their own needs and protecting their own best interests at all times.

Everyone wants to work with a real estate broker just like that one!

It can also be helpful for you to make a list of the questions that your clients and prospects sometimes ask you, that you’d like to develop better answers to. Then work on developing better answers to these questions, and when you feel that you can then deliver these answers on autopilot whenever it’s necessary, this will help you tremendously in boosting your own confidence.

Whenever you have the internal feeling that no matter what question someone may ask of you, that you will deliver a good, appropriate answer to the question, you’ll begin to exude an even greater level of confidence. In addition, if someone ever asks you a question that you don’t have the answer to, you can then say to them, "I don’t have the answer right now. But I will have the answer to you by 5:00 p.m. today."

That’s taking a situation where you don’t have the answer, and then delivering both confidence and certainty in your response back to your client.

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We can transform your commercial brokerage business and get you making more money by doing one-on-one coaching work together. If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial brokerage business to the next level, click here and contact me.

"Jim has me much more focused on doing the things that make me more money and he holds me accountable to make sure that I do them."

Greg Barsamian
Coldwell Banker Commercial

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Topics: Persuasion | No Comments »

How to Brand Yourself in the Minds of Your Commercial Real Estate Clients and Prospects

By Jim Gillespie | July 31, 2013

Prospecting is a solid tool that will generate great leads for you whenever you’re doing it consistently. But one of the limitations within prospecting is that you can normally only prospect people 2-4 times a year without getting them angry.

This is why mailing can be a very important component of your overall marketing plan. When you mail to your people on a monthly basis, or even more frequently, you begin to brand yourself in their minds as the one broker they’ll remember over everyone else…especially when you’re combining this with doing your prospecting.

I’ve designed a newsletter that you can mail or Email to your clients and prospects every month, and the newsletter has already been written for you.

Here’s what one veteran of our industry recently said to me about the newsletter:

"This newsletter has become the primary source of my commercial real estate brokerage business."

Thomas B. Clay
Atlanta, Georgia

In addition, two of my coaching clients have been mailing just the first page of this 4-page newsletter, and the business journal serving their community reprinted their mailer, and highlighted it to their readers as a fine example of expert marketing. This is definitely the kind of publicity you want to be getting!

If you believe that now is the time to begin sending a regular newsletter to your clients and prospects, click here to learn more about my newsletter, and to see examples of it.

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"Jim’s coaching has assisted me in coming up with a brand new game plan to maximize my productivity in a transitioning market."

William Hugron, SIOR
Ashwill Associates

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Topics: Marketing, Prospecting, Uncategorized | No Comments »

How to Delegate Activities More Effectively in Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business

By Jim Gillespie | July 10, 2013

One of the common traits that I’ve seen among commercial real estate brokers is having the feeling that they have to do everything all by themselves. Delegation is something that’s simply not normally taught within our industry, and at the same time, when brokers don’t learn how to delegate, they can be severely limiting their income.

Your time is worth, at the minimum, hundreds of dollars an hour whenever you’re meeting face-to-face with the clients and prospects you want to be working with, but your time is worth only $10.00 to $50.00 an hour whenever you’re doing administrative activities instead. So doesn’t it make sense to delegate more administrative activities to people who you can pay $10.00 to $50.00 an hour to, which will then free up this additional time so you can earn hundreds of dollars an hour with it instead?

Many brokers believe that hiring a full-time assistant to work for them is their only alternative when it comes to delegating more activities, but as I first wrote about back in 2002, this simply isn’t the case anymore. You can now hire what’s called a Virtual Assistant, someone who works from their own location, to delegate many of your activities to instead. Some of these activities can include getting your database into great shape, telephone prospecting, Internet marketing, social media marketing, creating and posting articles to your Blog, following up on all of your administrative activities within your escrows (which is known as transaction management), and generating mailing and Enewsletter marketing campaigns to all of your clients and prospects.

In addition, there are Virtual Assistants who are certified as being "Real Estate Virtual Assistants", meaning that they specialize in providing support services specifically for real estate agents.

If you’re thinking that you’d like to talk to a Virtual Assistant about all that they can do for you, here are a few resources for you. You can contact my own Virtual Assistant, Jeannine Clontz, by visiting her Web site here. Jeannine is one of the best Virtual Assistants in the business, and she regularly speaks to audiences as a leader within the Virtual Assistant industry. In addition, you can visit the Web site for the International Virtual Assistants Association, the Association that Jeannine has been President of, by clicking here.

So if you genuinely want to delegate more activities within your brokerage business, and you’d prefer to pay someone by the hour to do it for you instead of hiring a full-time assistant, contact a Virtual Assistant and begin a dialogue with them!

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"Through working with Jim I’ve developed new strategies and approaches that are getting me more market share with the type of companies I want to be doing business with."

Guy Eisner
Travers Realty Corporation

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Topics: Marketing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

How to Double Your Commercial Real Estate Prospecting Results

By Jim Gillespie | June 25, 2013

How many leads are you finding these days out of every 100 prospects you’re talking to live? Five leads? Ten leads? Even more?

So much of your results depends on the specialty that you’re focused in right now within commercial real estate brokerage, and the current level of activity within your own market, too.

One of the most important skills I learned as a commercial real estate broker was how to ask my prospects for leads…even when the prospect had no commercial real estate needs at the time. As long as you’re calling people on the phone and/or walking into their offices and trying to talk with them, why not ask them who they know who may have a commercial real estate need right now? When you feel that the moment is just right within the conversation, ask the person, "Who do you know who may be looking to buy, sell, or lease commercial real estate?" This is a much better question to be asking them when compared with asking, "Do you know anyone who’s looking to buy, sell, or lease commercial real estate?", because the latter question allows the person to more easily say "No" without really even thinking about it. But the first way of phrasing the question doesn’t really allow for an easy "No" response to come from them, and it presupposes that they already know someone who’s looking.

So in some situations, especially in those when you’ve developed better rapport with the person, when you ask them the first question they’ll find themselves thinking, "Yes, who do I know who’s looking to buy, sell, or lease commercial real estate?", and this is exactly the path you want them to be following within their own minds.

When I finally learned how to do this I literally began doubling my prospecting results overnight. Because now if I was uncovering one lead out of every 10 people I was speaking to live, I only needed one out of those same 10 people to give me just one lead for me to double my prospecting results.

So even if you’re getting only one lead out of every 20 or more people you’re speaking to live these days, similar to what I experienced, there could be great opportunity waiting for you in the many people who don’t really have any real estate requirements right now.

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"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

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Topics: Prospecting, Uncategorized | No Comments »

What Commercial Real Estate Contact Management Software Program Should You Be Utilizing?

By Jim Gillespie | June 12, 2013

At any given moment in time there are always commercial real estate brokers who are looking for a better contact management software program. Keeping this in mind I thought I would mention the three programs within this arena that I think you should consider utilizing within your brokerage business.

I was recently speaking in front of a live audience at a national commercial real estate convention, in front of a room filled to capacity with commercial brokers, and I told the audience that they should consider utilizing the following three contact management software programs. I then asked the entire audience if there was anyone recommending a contact management program other than these three, and not a single hand went up in the room.

So with that being said if you’re looking for a new contact management program that’s specifically designed for commercial brokers, click on the following links for these three programs to learn more about them:

1) REA

2) ACT!CRE

3) ClientLook

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"We own a commercial brokerage company, a real estate development company, and a property management company. With Jim’s help we’ve now substantially reduced our overhead, and have implemented a marketing approach that’s bringing us more quality transactions than we ever would have imagined."

Jeffrey Weitz and Matt Schweitzer
North Rim Partners

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Topics: Marketing, Prospecting, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Most Important Component for Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Success

By Jim Gillespie | May 14, 2013

We can talk about both your strategy and your game plan for commercial real estate brokerage success all day long, but it doesn’t mean very much unless you have a burning, unyielding desire to become hugely successful in our industry. This is the engine that completely drives your success.

You can see this drive within the brokers who have already become hugely successful. These are the brokers who are constantly driven to outdo themselves and what they’ve already accomplished, whereas many other brokers often don’t have this same kind of passion for the business.

When you don’t have great passion for your commercial real estate brokerage business, you’re often fighting and resisting doing the things that will have you become hugely successful, and this will limit your income.

The people who are the biggest successes within their own industries are oftentimes the ones who really love what they’re doing more than anyone else. So if you don’t love your commercial real estate brokerage business right now, what do you have to do to become extremely passionate about it? Determine what this is, do it 100% full-out for the next month, and then notice the big difference in how you’re feeling.

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"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
Las Vegas, Nevada

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Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Here is the Plan to Confiscate Your Bank Deposits

By Jim Gillespie | May 1, 2013

While my focus in writing articles is to help you to make more money in your commercial real estate brokerage business, sometimes I come across a story within another arena that I believe is very important to tell you about…

With what recently happened in Cyprus, where people’s bank deposits were confiscated from them, many of us here in the United States have wondered if something like this could ever happen here, too. Well imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only is there a plan like this in the works, but it’s been in the works since at least sometime back in 2012…at the minimum, months before the event in Cypress ever occurred.

The best way for me to tell you about the details around this is to give you a link to an article which describes this plan that’s now been moving forward. But what really shocked me the most within this article is the following description about how our bank deposits are now treated legally within the banking system, which shows you how vulnerable our bank deposits really are:

"Although few depositors realize it, legally the bank owns the depositor’s funds as soon as they are put in the bank. Our money becomes the bank’s, and we become unsecured creditors holding IOUs or promises to pay."

When you recognize that we are only unsecured creditors with our bank deposits as far as the banking system is concerned, this doesn’t create a very secure feeling within us around our money.

This article does a very good job of explaining the situation to us, and it provides links to other good resources around this subject, too.

Click here to read the article.

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"I was skeptical at first, but after working with Jim I’m now producing much better results in my real estate business. His coaching program definitely produces fast results."

Bob Hoyer
Delphi Business Properties

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Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Here’s a Prime Example of a Young Man Stepping-Up and Staking His Claim

By Jim Gillespie | April 3, 2013

What are you waiting to take action on right now in your brokerage business? Is there someone you’ve been thinking about calling but you still haven’t called them yet? Is there an opportunity you know you should be checking-in on that you just haven’t followed-up on yet? Are there clients who you’ve closed transactions with throughout your career that you’ve really become out of touch with?

This video clip I’m about to show you is a prime example of someone who had his heart in his throat, but he went ahead and just asked for what he wanted anyway. And in doing so, I believe he completely transformed his life.

Take a look at what Vanderbilt University freshman Michael Pollack accomplished here. He was sitting in an audience with other people watching Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Billy Joel perform for them, and Michael stood up and had the guts to ask Billy if he could come on stage and perform with him. Billy then paused and thought about it for a few moments, and then Billy invited Michael to come up on stage with him.

What then happens is pure magic. You can feel the electricity within the audience, as Michael shows everyone what a great pianist he really is, especially as he gets closer to the end of the song.

I’m sure this was really a transformative moment Michael’s life, as soon afterwards he got invited onto the Today show, and onto other TV shows also, to both play the piano and talk about his moment.

So my question for you is…who do you need to call right now? What should you be doing in your brokerage brokerage that you’ve been putting off…that could really transform your business if you just did it?

Click here to see the video.

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"Through working with Jim I’ve developed a system to locate a greater number of new prospects to work with in my area."

Walt Arnold, SIOR, CCIM
Sperry Van Ness

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Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Are You Getting Your Commercial Real Estate Prospecting Done?

By Jim Gillespie | March 5, 2013

We’re now two months into the New Year. With this in mind, are you getting your prospecting done these days? Whenever the New Year gets here it’s easy to get excited about all of the solid results you’re now going to be producing, but are you really doing the prospecting right now that will make all of this happen?

In order to have the kind of year that you want to be having, you need to be getting your prospecting done. With this in mind, how much prospecting have you been getting done every single week so far this year? And when answering this question, is this really the amount of prospecting you need to be getting done in order to make the kind of money that you want to be making this year?

We’re now in March, and any sales that you intend to close and get paid on by the end of the year will most likely need to be initiated by August, or by September at the latest, to ensure that you’ll get paid on these transactions in 2013. There can often be contingencies and delays in these transactions, and the 60-day escrow can easily transition into becoming the 90-day escrow…or longer.

In order for you to get paid on leases, this can oftentimes depend on the exact type of property you’re working on, and on the overall size of the transaction. But in order for you to get paid this year on lease transactions, you’ll most likely need to be showing space to your clients and prospects by September…or by October at the latest. Which means that you’ll need to have then located your prospects by September or October through your prospecting.

So in order to get paid on all of your transactions in 2013, you’ve got about six, maybe seven months to still find your prospects and begin initiating your transactions with them. Otherwise there’s a good chance that you won’t get paid on your transactions with these prospects in 2013.

With this in mind, are you getting all of your prospecting done right now? Because doing your prospecting is a vital component of you both finding these prospects over the next 6-7 months, and then closing transactions with them that you’ll get paid on in 2013.

So how much prospecting have you been averaging every single week so far in 2013? Keeping this in mind, how much prospecting do you need to be averaging every single week over the next six or so months, in order to locate the prospects that will lead to you achieving your income goal for the year? And finally, what do you need to be doing every single week to make sure that you’re getting your prospecting done…with no excuses?

Prospect 10-12 hours or more every week. Schedule your prospecting time in advance every week, and hold the time sacred, letting nothing ever stand in the way of you getting your prospecting done.

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"My work with Jim has developed solid new brokerage business for me, and it’s branded me solidly within the minds of the people I want to do business with."

Todd Rosborough, SIOR
Cornerstone Commercial Associates

Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.

Topics: Prospecting | No Comments »

Here Comes the Future in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

By Jim Gillespie | February 6, 2013

I interviewed Bill Gladstone recently on one of my Million Dollar Commercial Real Estate Agent Inner Circle teleconferences. Bill is the most amazing marketer I’ve ever known in commercial real estate brokerage, and his marketing budget for his own brokerage business is over $100,000.00 a year.

Bill’s someone who’s always pushing the envelope in his marketing approaches, even having bobblehead dolls made that look like him that he hands out to his clients and prospects for promotion.

During my interview with Bill he began discussing Augmented Reality, a dimension he’s now moving towards incorporating within his own brokerage business.

Take a look at this video…which shows you how Augmented Reality can be utilized to find homes for sale within a given neighborhood.

Here’s a video showing how Augmented Reality can be utilized to find available commercial properties within a given area, too.

And finally, take a look at this video…most particularly what it begins showing you right around two minutes into it. You’ll see how Augmented Reality will allow you to tour your clients through available office space, while showing them what the space will look like when the tenant improvements have been completed…along with the difference in the total cost depending on how elaborate they want their improvements to be.

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"After more than 20 years in the business, Jim has helped me to focus on doing the activities that make a huge difference in my income. I even generated 42 offers on one of my investment listings!"

Larry Cannizzaro
Beitler Commercial Realty Services/TCN Worldwide

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Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »

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The Importance of Projecting Confidence in Commercial Real Estate

How to Brand Yourself in the Minds of Your Commercial Real Estate Clients and Prospects

How to Delegate Activities More Effectively in Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business

How to Double Your Commercial Real Estate Prospecting Results

What Commercial Real Estate Contact Management Software Program Should You Be Utilizing?

The Most Important Component for Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Success

Here is the Plan to Confiscate Your Bank Deposits

Here’s a Prime Example of a Young Man Stepping-Up and Staking His Claim

Are You Getting Your Commercial Real Estate Prospecting Done?

Here Comes the Future in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage