How to Solidify Relationships With Your Commercial Real Estate Clients
By Jim Gillespie | March 13, 2012
One of the most important activities you can do as a broker is to stay in contact with your past clients, and continually follow-up with them to see if there’s anything else they need. So many commercial brokers make the mistake of dropping out all communication with their clients soon after they’ve closed transactions with them, and this paves the way for other brokers to begin forming more solid relationship with these clients.
In addition to continuing on with solid follow-up with your clients, consider sending "thank you" notes to them, too, showing them your appreciation for their business.
Two to four times a year, consider sending a "thank you" note to your clients similar to the following one:
"Thank you for letting me be your commercial real estate broker. I greatly appreciate the business we’ve done together, and I look forward to working with you again on our next transaction together."
This shows genuine gratitude towards your clients, and people love to work with others who express their gratitude towards them. In addition, this implies that there’s a continuing broker-client relationship that’s now in place with them.
When you combine this with you staying in contact with your people, keeping them informed, and asking them what more you can do for them, you have a simple yet powerful combination for getting more business. Combine this even further with giving your clients gifts 2-4 times a year in addition to socializing with them, then you’ll have an unbelievably powerful combination. All of this combined will have your clients feeling that you’re always their agent between transactions, and this is exactly where you want them to be.
But just for now, if you’re not giving gifts to your past clients and socializing with them, doing what I’ve initially recommended here is a powerful way to start solidifying your relationships with them.
So many brokers spend their careers constantly hustling for new business, and constantly hustling to find new prospects, but they’re not solidifying their relationships with their past clients to get constant, repeat business with them.
Don’t be one of those brokers.
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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 contact me.
"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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Here Are the Best Commercial Real Estate Properties to Be Owning Right Now
By Jim Gillespie | February 29, 2012
Trying to predict what will happen with the economy in recent years hasn’t been easy. It appeared several years ago that we were going to see a flood of distressed properties and foreclosure sales hitting the market, but then "extend and pretend" was implemented by our lenders, severely limiting this activity. But as you can see right here in this article I’m linking to, there are warning signs that more foreclosures and distress sales with commercial properties may be on the way.
With so many companies laying off workers, closing locations, and having a more difficult time remaining profitable, it leaves people scratching their heads wondering why the stock market has been performing as well as it has been. But when you read an article like this one I’m linking to here, and you then discover that the total amount of the bailout wasn’t really $700 billion, but more than $16 trillion…more than the entire one-year Gross Domestic Product of the United States, you begin to recognize that throwing this kind of money into the economy will definitely have an impact.
In addition, as I’ve mentioned in a previous edition of my E-newsletter, when you look at the information provided by the people located at ShadowStats.com, you learn that the true inflation rate, as it used to be calculated, is really double the rate that’s been reported to us. You also learn that the true unemployment rate, as it used to be calculated, is really 22-23%. This is what happens when the method utilized to calculate these indices has been changing in recent years.
With so many changes happening behind the scenes, it’s not easy predicting, on an apples-to-apples basis, where everything is headed economically. However, it’s easy to understand that with these approaches being implemented from behind the scenes, they’re not being implemented because things are looking really solid.
Keeping this in mind, apartment buildings are the darling of the commercial real estate industry right now. I’ve read articles and have seen videos of people within our industry discussing this, proclaiming that this is a sign that our economy is finally turning around. But what they’re not telling you is that the demand for rental housing has increased because people have been losing their homes, and they’re looking to rent places now instead. So the increased demand in rental housing has been driven in a big way by the worsening of our economy, and this really isn’t a signal that the economy is turning around.
The lenders, recognizing this trend and the increased demand for rental housing, have been responding favorably, and they’ve been willing to provide more financing for multifamily investments. But they haven’t been nearly as excited about lending on office, industrial, and retail investments.
With companies downsizing, laying off people, and closing locations, office, industrial, and retail investments are a greater risk right now to lenders. But with every single person still needing a place to live, and with more people looking to rent nowadays as compared with just several years ago, multi-unit apartments now represent a safer investment for lenders when compared with other types of properties. In addition, in the absence of all of us experiencing another financial or economic meltdown over the coming months, this will probably remain the same for awhile.
Keeping this in mind, apartment buildings will do better in the near future as compared with other types of real estate investments. But there’s one more criterion that’s extremely important for us to factor in here…
Location.
Investors should own their apartment buildings close to where the greatest abundance of jobs are…which usually means within the major cities. The cost of commuting great distances to work by driving is getting more expensive, and in outlying areas where there’s no public transportation to utilize to commute into the central business district, this will become a big problem. The price of gas right now is already cutting into people’s budgets. But imagine what it will do when gas prices reach $5.00, $6.00, and $7.00 a gallon, which they will definitely do…over time.
When this happens people living within the outlying areas where they have to drive great distances to work, will need to move closer to the central business district. They just won’t be able to afford the cost of gasoline for the long commute anymore.
As this happens, if you own apartment buildings within the major cities, close to where many of the jobs are, you’ll be poised to reap the benefits of this increased demand for rental housing, because your buildings will already be located where a great abundance of renters will want to live.
But here’s a big warning…Owning investment properties within the outlying areas where people must drive great distances to work…is extremely dangerous. As the price of gasoline increases, people will no longer be able to afford driving these great distances to work, and the demand to live in these areas will decrease.
So whether it’s office, industrial, retail, apartments, or land being owned, recognize this changing, underlying dynamic that will be going on, and own properties in areas closer to where the jobs are. No one wants to own properties in areas where the people will start believing that they can no longer afford to live there, because the cost of driving to work, when compared with the amount of money they’re making from their job, just doesn’t allow them to pay their bills.
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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 contact me.
"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
Colliers International
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Why Making a Great First Impression on Your Commercial Real Estate Prospects is So Important
By Jim Gillespie | February 21, 2012
We’ve all heard how important it is to make a good first impression on the people we want to do business with, but have you really recognized how important this is within your own brokerage business? One of the best ways to recognize this within our own lives is to ask ourselves the following question:
When someone has made a less-than-ideal first impression on me, how often have they then turned it all around to the point where I now believe they’re making a good impression on me?
The answer to this question for many people is probably somewhere between "never" and "very rarely".
The first impression that a salesperson makes upon someone in the business world, has the prospect concluding who the salesperson is and whether or not they should be working with them. Once this first impression has been made, if it’s a bad one, it’s very difficult to overcome this impression within the person’s mind.
The clients and prospects you’re dealing with in commercial real estate brokerage are making some of the biggest, most important decisions of their lives. Because of this their radar is up, and they’re looking to determine if you’re someone who they can trust, who has the knowledge, expertise, and professionalism to guide them through their next transaction. So if you don’t make a good first impression on them, their immediate response will oftentimes be to begin looking for another broker.
The following questions can help you to create a solid first impression on your people:
1) When you meet your prospects for the first time, do you look and dress in a manner that conveys that you’re the top broker within your market?
Because if you don’t, and they meet with one or more other brokers who do, those other brokers will now have an advantage over you.
2) Do you drive a car that conveys the message that you’re the top broker within your market?
When people are making decisions worth either hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, they often want to be working with someone they feel is very successful. The car that they see you driving in, and the car that you drive them around in, projects a certain image of you. Make sure that the car you’re driving projects the image of you being the best broker they feel they could ever work with within your market.
Yes, it would be nice if we lived in a world where the car that we drove didn’t make a difference in people’s minds. But that’s not the world that we live in. As an example of this, ask yourself the following question:
How would I feel if I were meeting with a financial planner for the first time–the person who I want to have guide me to my long-term financial success through their investment advice–and the person drove up to the meeting in a subcompact car?
First impressions are extremely important, so if you’re committed to maximizing the amount of income you want to make during your brokerage career, make sure that the first impression you leave on your prospects is a good one.
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3 Very Special Bonuses for You
If you order my Commercial Broker Newsletter right now, the newsletter that you can customize and mail or E-mail to your clients and prospects on a monthly basis, you’ll also receive the following three special bonuses:
1) A special, dynamic 170-page E-book titled "The Magic of Newsletter Marketing", by Jim Palmer. This book contains everything you need to know to send a solid newsletter that brands you in the minds of all of your clients and prospects.
2) My highly-acclaimed special report titled, "How to Explode Your Real Estate Prospecting Now!", featuring my prospecting scripts that tell you how to get past the receptionist, how to get the decision maker to talk to you, and how to leave voicemail messages that compel your prospects to call you back.
3) Access to listen to my 57-minute radio interview titled, "How to Prepare for the Coming Commercial Real Estate Market". During this interview I’ll tell you the true underlying phenomenon that’s driving our commercial real estate market, where this market is headed, how to reposition yourself for what’s coming, and what properties you’ll get burned by if you’re still holding them.
In addition, you’ll get two months of my newsletter for the price of one in your very first month when you order the newsletter right now. If sending a newsletter to your clients and prospects is something you want to begin doing, click here for more information. When checking out in the shopping cart, include the word "Bonuses" in the Comments section to get all of these special bonuses sent to you.
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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 contact me.
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Bob Hoyer
Delphi Business Properties
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The Owner Who Tried to Steal $300,000.00 from My Commercial Real Estate Clients
By Jim Gillespie | February 14, 2012
When you’ve been in our industry for a long time, you see some wild things happen that can completely take you by surprise. In addition, some of these things can then become part of your repertoire of stories that you tell other people many years down the road, too.
Well, here’s one of my stories…:)
Back in the mid 1980s there was an investment property that came on the market for sale in my area that I thought would be of interest to one of my buyers. So we immediately wrote an offer on the property, and were then met with some stiff competition from a few other buyers also.
But lo and behold I put on my best real estate agent running shoes, got the listing agent more interested in having my buyer get the deal than the other people, and we soon signed an agreement for the purchase of the property for $850,000.00. (I’m now guessing that the property is worth over $2,000,000.00 in today’s market.)
So once we began moving forward with the due diligence on the transaction, my buyer informed me that he was bringing two partners into the deal along with him. One of the partners had never even purchased an investment property before, and he was very cautious and worried throughout every step of the transaction.
Well after moving through the contingency period and getting the financing, we were all set to close the transaction 90 days later. But a few days before we were scheduled to close, my buyers announced that they needed one additional week to close the transaction. One of them had a CD maturing that he was going to utilize for his down payment, but he now realized that it wasn’t going to mature until one week after our scheduled closing date.
Upon hearing this the seller went ballistic, saying that he had already obligated himself to purchase another property with the money he would be receiving, and that my buyers were endangering his other transaction with their request for a one week extension. But he soon gave in and granted my buyers the extension.
Flash forward now to one week later on the day the transaction was scheduled to record. I live in California, which is an escrow state, and typically in this situation the escrow agent will call the real estate agents informing them when title has successfully changed hands and has been recorded in the names of the new buyers.
So at 10:00 a.m. on the morning of the closing, our escrow agent called to inform me that the grant deed had been recorded, and congratulated me on successfully closing the transaction through her. So, needless to say, I put the phone down and began feeling good about closing the deal and the approximately $20,000.00 that was coming my way as a result of it. Then something completely unprecedented and unexpected happened that would never happen again throughout my entire 20-year career as a real estate agent…
The escrow agent called me back again about 20 minutes later, telling me that we now had a problem. I responded with, "What do you mean we have a problem? The sale of the property has already been recorded. How could we possibly have a problem?"
She then responded with, "The title company just ran another search on the property, and they’ve picked up a new $300,000.00 trust deed that’s just been recorded on it. I’m going to follow-up on what caused this and I’ll be getting back to you."
So, as compared with how I was feeling 20 minutes earlier, I was now wondering what this all meant in terms of this deal actually closing. But about 30 minutes later, our escrow agent called me again with a new update…
"Hi Jim. Here’s what happened. Our messenger was on his way to deliver the seller his check with the proceeds but we got a hold of the messenger in time and stopped him before he reached the seller’s office. I just got off the phone with the seller, and when I asked him about this new $300,000.00 trust deed he responded to me with ‘What $300,000.00 trust deed are you talking about?’ But when I told him he wouldn’t be getting any of his proceeds from the sale until this new $300,000.00 trust deed was removed from the title, he quickly responded to me with, ‘Oh THAT $300,000.00 trust deed!’"
So what the seller had successfully done was borrow an additional $300,000.00 from a private party the week before when we were originally scheduled to close the transaction, which was why he was so irate about the one week delay in closing. He was planning on that private party taking several days to record the new trust deed, which is exactly what happened. But in this situation the $300,000.00 trust deed was recorded just as title was being transferred on the property one week after its scheduled closing time.
So the seller immediately paid off the trust deed through escrow, his lender signed off on the reconveyance, and everybody was back to where we were supposed to be once again.
But from my experience as an agent…Wow! What a wild set of circumstances we went through at the last minute that I hope to never, ever experience again!
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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 contact me.
"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
Sperry Van Ness
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How Rodney Dangerfield Helped Me to Close a Commercial Real Estate Listing Presentation
By Jim Gillespie | February 7, 2012
Years ago I was making a listing presentation along with a broker I had never teamed-up with before. We decided that we were going to share some of our listing opportunities together, and this was the first listing presentation that we had ever made together.
As we got to the end of our presentation, and we asked the owner of the building to sign the listing, the owner then put the listing aside and told us he’d need several days to think about it.
Then my partner completely stunned me by launching into the following…
He grabbed the knot in his necktie, started moving it around, and then launched into a full-on Rodney Dangerfield impersonation! He stood up right in front of the owner, began imitating Rodney’s voice, and then said, "I tell you I get no respect. We prepare a listing presentation for you, we deliver the presentation, and then you tell us you need several days to think about it. I tell you I get no respect."
I was stunned as I watched this happening. But I was equally stunned by the owner’s reaction to it. He was laughing hysterically, he grabbed the listing and signed it, and he then told us to get out of the office and find him a tenant for his building.
Now, more than 20 years later, this reminds me that sometimes you really have to be more outrageous in your presentation style. Commercial real estate brokerage is an arena where people are very serious, yet most everyone we know loves to be entertained. My listing partner recognized this, he launched into what typically would have been an outrageous presentation style within our industry, and it couldn’t have worked out any better!
So remember this…
People love to laugh and be entertained by others, and if you can accomplish this within your presentations while you’re also showing them that you’re a true real estate professional, you now have an amazing skill set that can definitely lead to more new business for you.
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3 FREE Special Bonuses for You
If you order my Commercial Broker Newsletter right now, the newsletter that you can customize and mail or E-mail to your clients and prospects on a monthly basis, you’ll also receive the following three special bonuses:
1) A special, dynamic 170-page E-book titled "The Magic of Newsletter Marketing", by Jim Palmer. This book contains everything you need to know to send a solid newsletter that brands you in the minds of all of your clients and prospects.
2) My highly-acclaimed special report titled, "How to Explode Your Real Estate Prospecting Now!", featuring my prospecting scripts that tell you how to get past the receptionist, how to get the decision maker to talk to you, and how to leave voicemail messages that compel your prospects to call you back.
3) Access to listen to my 57-minute radio interview titled, "How to Prepare for the Coming Commercial Real Estate Market". During this interview I’ll tell you the true underlying phenomenon that’s driving our commercial real estate market, where this market is headed, how to reposition yourself for what’s coming, and what properties you’ll get burned by if you’re still holding them.
In addition, you’ll get two months of my newsletter for the price of one in your very first month when you order the newsletter right now. If sending a newsletter to your clients and prospects is something you want to begin doing, click here for more information. When checking out in the shopping cart, include the word "Bonuses" in the Comments section to get all of these special bonuses sent to 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 contact me.
"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
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Topics: Persuasion |
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Why Two Commercial Real Estate Brokers Prospecting the Same People Can Produce Different Results
By Jim Gillespie | January 17, 2012
Have you ever wondered why two brokers doing the same amount of prospecting can produce dramatically different results? At first glance it might be easy to dismiss this as one broker calling on an area with more leads, but there’s very likely more to the story…
The broker producing the greater amount of leads probably has better people skills.
Think about this…
You’re a prospect who’s constantly getting calls from commercial real estate brokers, wanting to know if you have any commercial real estate needs. You don’t want any undesirable brokers…the ones who don’t make you feel good, or the ones who don’t have good presentation skills…to continue hounding you about your upcoming real estate needs.
So you could:
1) Tell certain brokers that you don’t have any upcoming needs, even when an upcoming need is on your radar screen.
2) Tell them that your current lease still has longer to run than it really does.
3) Tell them that you’re already working with another broker.
All of this is geared towards not wanting to have a broker you don’t want to do business with put their death grip on you, and continually bother you about why you should be working with them.
This, in many ways, is human nature. Despite the fact that we have a Do Not Call law and a Do Not Call list here in the United States, telemarketers still call me at my home. The fact that they’re ignoring the law and my request to not be disturbed, has me not want to do business with them…no matter what they’re offering me.
Similarly, commercial real estate brokers, as well as all salespeople, make first impressions on their prospects. With this in mind, if your first impression isn’t a good one, people will want to get you out of their lives ASAP. Maybe you’re not being offensive towards them, but you may not be measuring up to the other brokers who they’ve been talking to.
I’ve had this experience myself when residential agents have knocked on the door of my home. It’s amazing how quickly I get a feeling around whether or not I’d want to do business with an agent, and when they fall into the "not" category, that’s pretty much the way it’s all going to go. There are just so many other agents out there, and the ones who make me feel good immediately are the ones who have me want to do business with them.
So you definitely want to have your prospects feeling good about you immediately!
What I recommend you do here is role play your prospecting along with someone else. If you’re normally calling your prospects on the telephone, then role play with someone else on the telephone. If you normally prospect by walking into people’s businesses, then role play with someone else in person, talking with them one-on-one.
You might also consider having two separate role playing exercises…one with the receptionist, and one with the decision maker. Because becoming outstanding at building rapport with both of these kinds of people is vitally important to your success.
I recommend recording any telephone conversations you’re having when you’re role playing, and videotaping any presentations you’re making when you’re role playing with someone in person. At the end of each "prospecting call" ask your partner how you did, and then ask them if they have any recommendations on how you can improve your presentations.
In addition, what’s also important here is that you role play with people who will do a good job of representing the kind of people you’ll be prospecting, and that they’re also the kind of people who will shoot it straight with you. The last thing you want in this situation is someone who wants to make you feel good instead of being someone who wants to tell you the truth.
When you’re really serious about improving your prospecting skills, find people to role play with, record your presentations to them, ask for their feedback, and then learn from listening to and/or watching the recordings. When you do this you’ll continually have more prospects wanting to work with you over your competition.
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Wednesday: Totally Eliminating Your Brokerage Competition
This Wednesday I’m doing a live teleconference interview with a broker who’s a member of both SIOR and CCIM, and he’s the best marketer I’ve ever known in commercial real estate brokerage. He mails to his clients and prospects multiple times every month, he creates and gives away promotional items, records marketing videos of himself and posts them online, and even records portions of his listing presentations in advance and entertains his property owners by having conversations with himself in the videos during his live listing presentations!
If you’re not already registered for this live teleconference and you want to get your hands on the audio CDs, written transcription, and MP3 recording of this teleconference all for just $19.95, click here for more information.
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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 contact me.
"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: Persuasion, Prospecting |
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Why the MF Global Bankruptcy Is Important to You
By Jim Gillespie | January 11, 2012
Every once in awhile a story comes along that’s not a commercial real estate story, but it’s one that has such broad implications for all of us that I have to mention it to you.
In June of 2008 I wrote that the Royal Bank of Scotland, an institution that has been around since 1727, was calling for a full-fledged collapse in the financial markets within three months, and we all know what happened three months later in September of that year.
This is one of those kinds of stories.
But it isn’t a story predicting when another major financial event will be occurring. It’s a story telling you that approximately $1.2 billion in account-holder money is now missing from a major financial institution, and that it could happen to you, too.
In October of 2011, MF Global filed for the 8th largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States. But the bankruptcy itself wasn’t what had me write this article. It was what happened in addition to the filing of the bankruptcy that had me write this article…
Before the company had filed for bankruptcy, MF Global had allegedly utilized assets that were in their customer’s accounts to cover their own financial obligations to other financial institutions, and $1.2 billion in customer money is now missing.
So for many account holders who had been thinking that their money was safe and secure, they’re now struggling to get their hands on even any amount of it. Gerald Celente, considered by many to be the top trends forecaster in the world, watched the more than six figure balance within his own account completely vanish. Gerald had been telling people of the financial dangers we’re facing right now when our money is entrusted to other people, and this is what he had to say on this:
"What’s the takeaway from this? It’s to make sure you have every penny in your pocket."
This brings us to asking the following question: "How do you know if any of the accounts you may have with financial institutions are safe from having this happen to them?" The short answer to this is, "You don’t really know", but I’m writing this article right now to wake you up and get you to become more vigilant. It’s not easy to know right now if any of your own accounts have been jeopardized by your financial institutions in ways you’d consider to be unethical, but if you choose to leave funds within uninsured accounts, do everything you can to make sure that the institution holding your money is in solid financial condition. The problem here, though, is that oftentimes you never really know for sure if the institution is being completely ethical.
If the executives within a financial institution believe that utilizing customer money for company obligations is their one last hope for staying in business, do you think that they might do it? How about if the executives believe that even if they’re caught, they’ll never, ever be prosecuted for it?
There’s one additional item I want to mention to you here, too…
Sometime ago my bank opened up a new branch that was closer to where I live, and they were inviting the bank’s customers to get safe deposit boxes inside of the new location. When I was handed a flyer about this inside of the bank, I asked a bank employee, "How much are the contents within people’s safe deposit boxes insured for?" The employee responded back to me with, "There is no insurance on the contents within people’s safe deposit boxes. Those safe deposit boxes are only provided as a convenience for the bank’s customers."
But soon thereafter the thought then came to me, "I have to believe that at least one person from the bank has the ability to open up everyone’s safe deposit box if it’s ever deemed necessary, and when combining this with now knowing that there’s no insurance to cover the contents within the safe deposit boxes, this doesn’t make me feel good."
So I wanted to mention this to you in case you either have or are thinking of getting a safe deposit box. It’s easy to assume that if your deposits within your checking and savings accounts are insured, that the contents within your safe deposit boxes are insured also. Check with your own institution on this, but the contents within any safe deposit boxes they’re offering are most likely not insured.
So take what I’ve written here and do your homework on your own financial institutions. If after reading this you’re concerned about holding your money in uninsured places and in uninsured accounts, take the action you feel is necessary to protect your assets. At least for the time being, having your money within insured accounts will probably protect you better against having your money stolen, but there are no guarantees.
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If you want to begin sending a printed or an E-mail newsletter to your commercial real estate clients and prospects, you can get two months of newsletters for the price of one in your very first month when ordering my Commercial Broker Newsletter. If sending a newsletter to your clients and prospects is something you want to begin doing in 2012, click here for more information:
__________________
If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level, click here to contact me.
"During these tough economic times, being a member of Jim’s Inner Circle program has greatly assisted me in doubling my income."
Sam Finnerman
Hudson Commercial Real Estate
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Is it Time to Start Sending a Newsletter to Your Commercial Real Estate Clients and Prospects?
By Jim Gillespie | January 10, 2012
If you want to begin sending a printed or an E-mail newsletter to your commercial real estate clients and prospects, you can get two months of newsletters for the price of one in your very first month when ordering my Commercial Broker Newsletter. If sending a newsletter to your clients and prospects is something you want to begin doing in 2012, click on the following link for more information:
http://www.commercialrealestatenewsletter.net/
Topics: Marketing, Prospecting, Uncategorized |
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Planning Your Commercial Real Estate Excellence for 2012
By Jim Gillespie | January 4, 2012
Once again we’re at the beginning of a new year, which means for a lot of us it’s time to set new goals. If you’ve already set your goals for the new year and have determined the game plan you need to be working to achieve those goals, congratulations! This article will then help you to make sure that your goals and the game plan you’ve designed will have you achieve everything that you want to this year. But if you haven’t yet set your goals for the year and you haven’t determined the game plan you need to be working to achieve those goals, this article will help you to do this.
With this in mind, 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 the new year. But keep in mind that the sum total of all the best the agent could bring to the table throughout the past year 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 this year 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 this past year?
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 for the coming year?
2) What specifically is your game plan of activities that you’re going to do to make these goals a reality by December 31st?
And…
3) What do you have to do differently than what you did last year, in order to achieve your new goals this year?
And finally, one activity that’s extremely important to incorporate into your game plan for the coming year 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’s actions will ensure 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 thoughts 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 thinking, "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 goals the deeper you’re getting into the year. Then around September or so, you start thinking something 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."
Similar to 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, immediately go 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 for the year completely out the window if you don’t.
You may have noticed something in our industry over the years. Our industry has its share of people with very big egos. I deal with this constantly with brokers who produce great results in their business through working with me, but more than anything they really want to return to having no one 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 this year. 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.
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If you’re interested in becoming much more effective at doing your commercial real estate prospecting in 2012, click here for my prospecting scripts and special report titled, "How to Explode Your Real Estate Prospecting Now!"
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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 contact me.
"My work with Jim has helped me to fine tune and systematize my marketing program, and produce more leads for my business with far greater ease."
Ian Bertolina
Bertolina Commercial Real Estate Services
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How to Make Sure You’re Getting Your Commercial Real Estate Prospecting Done
By Jim Gillespie | December 13, 2011
In last week’s article I focused on how much prospecting you need to be getting done on a regular basis. In this article we’re going to focus on how to make sure you’re getting your prospecting done, which is oftentimes the more difficult part of the big equation.
The most important component of getting your prospecting done is really, really, really wanting to get it done. Your underlying desire here is what really drives you towards getting your prospecting done, and your general lack of desire will have you making excuses for why you didn’t get it done.
As a coach, desire is the one ingredient that I can’t manufacture within commercial real estate brokers. That desire must come from within.
Trying to find a broker who enjoys doing prospecting isn’t easy. But if you don’t get your prospecting done, your income will suffer. So your desire to get your prospecting done must outweigh your desire to avoid doing it, and it must outweigh your desire to just make excuses for not getting it done.
The reality here is you’ll get your prospecting done if it’s really, really important to you.
Your desire to get your prospecting done under all circumstances, and your unwillingness to accept making excuses for not getting it done, is the engine that completely drives your success within this arena.
So many problems around increasing one’s production in commercial real estate brokerage, could be resolved by getting more prospecting done.
So once the burning, unyielding desire to get your prospecting done with no excuses is already in place, here are some things you can do to help make sure that you get your prospecting done.
1) Always make sure that you schedule your prospecting time in advance
Many brokers don’t set aside the exact same days and times every single week in their calendar for getting their prospecting done. As a result they often end up doing their prospecting when they feel like they have the time for it. This approach must be reversed, and setting your prospecting times in advance must become your top priority. Once you do this then you schedule your other appointments around these times. When you schedule your prospecting times in advance, for example, on every Monday through Thursday throughout the year from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, you begin realigning your thinking regarding making prospecting your number one priority.
2) Allow nothing to get in the way of getting your prospecting done
Since prospecting is for most brokers their most important tool for generating more new business for themselves, you need to make sure you’re getting it done. More importantly, you need to recognize how important getting your prospecting done is for maximizing your income, and you need to recognize that whenever you’re not getting your prospecting done, this is costing you a lot of money.
When your clients and prospects suggest times for appointments with you that fall within your scheduled prospecting times, respond by saying something similar to, "I have something else scheduled at that time. How about 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday instead?"
You need to begin getting into the habit of holding your prospecting time sacred, and allowing nothing whatsoever to interfere with it.
3) Consider making your prospecting calls from outside the office
If you’re concerned about being interrupted during your prospecting time, consider making your prospecting calls on your mobile phone from outside of your office. Choose a place, maybe even one with a view, where you’ll enjoy making your prospecting calls…and begin dialing. Sometimes doing something as simple as this can really help you to get your prospecting done, as compared with constantly being interrupted by the people at your office.
In addition, if you decide to make your prospecting calls from inside of your office, make sure you minimize any distractions. Tell your receptionist to forward all incoming calls for you into your voicemail until the end of your prospecting session. Don’t check your voicemail until your prospecting session has ended, and don’t answer any incoming calls. In addition, consider putting up a sign on the door of your office or on the outside of your cube saying something like, "I’m prospecting until noon today. Do not disturb."
When you’re serious about not being disturbed by the other people in your office, they’ll get it.
The more you prospect the more leads you’re going to uncover for yourself. If you begin increasing the number of your prospecting calls by 50%, you’ll increase your leads by 50%. Similarly, if you double the number of your prospecting calls, you’ll double your number of leads.
Recognize how important every prospecting call is towards you generating the amount of income you want for yourself, let nothing stand in the way of you getting your prospecting done, and get it done with no excuses.
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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 contact me.
"My work with Jim keeps me focused on being productive and doing the activities that will maximize my success."
Terry Adams
TOLD Partners
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Topics: Prospecting, Uncategorized |
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