Here’s Why You Should Be Taking Your Commercial Real Estate Clients to Lunch
By Jim Gillespie | September 13, 2011
Commercial brokers need to be leaving no stone unturned these days in their quest to uncover leads for solid new transactions. What I’ve always found to be amazing within our industry, though, is the high percentage of brokers who close a transaction with someone, and then they drop out all communication with them for months or even years. This almost guarantees that you’ll be competing against other brokers to work on the next transaction with the same client, because these other brokers will be doing a much better job of staying in relationship with your people than you are.
This is why in times like these you need to be taking your past clients to lunch and socializing with them. When you do this you maintain your relationship with them, you help to position yourself to close their next transaction along with them, and you put yourself in a great position to obtain referrals.
Make a list right now of the people you’ve already closed transactions with who you’ve been out of relationship with for awhile, then begin calling these people and inviting them to lunch. If they ask you why you’re inviting them to lunch you could say, "There are some important real estate trends developing within the area and I want to keep you informed on what’s been going on." Or as an alternative you could say, "I’ve just published a report showing you the current real estate trends in the area along with the most recent comps, and I want to give you the report and explain to you what’s been going on." Or for one more alternative you could say, "I want to check in with you and see how you’ve been doing, and at the same time I want to tell you what’s been going on in real estate within our area."
When you’re out to lunch with your people, this is a perfect opportunity to bond with them and position yourself to work with them again on their next transaction. Show them that you care about them, find out how they’ve been doing, and find out what’s important to them in their life outside of just working at the office. When you begin talking to people about their family, their hobbies, and their personal interests, you become much more like a friend to them, and people like doing business with their friends.
But when you’re doing what many brokers do, which is dropping out communication with their past clients for months or even years, or just calling them sometime down the road when their contact management program says it’s time to call them, you risk not creating the all-important glue that bonds you with your clients and positions you to close multiple transactions with them in the future. In effect, you seem much more like all the other brokers who have been prospecting them, because their memory of your transaction together has now faded.
When you’re at lunch with your clients, this is also a great time for you to obtain referrals. When you’re maybe 2/3 of the way through the lunch say something like "Bob, I really enjoyed working with you on our transaction together, and I’d like to work with more people who are just like you. So who do you know who may be interested in buying, selling, or leasing commercial real estate?"
If Bob can’t come up with anyone to refer you to, then you could consider asking something like, "As I mentioned before I’d like to work with more people who are just like you. So who do you know who I can call who may have commercial real estate needs sometime down the road?"
When you contact the people your clients refer you to, you come into that relationship along with the credibility of the person who made the referral. Which is a much stronger place to begin a relationship from when compared to just making cold calls without any referral.
So begin reconnecting with your old clients. Call them, invite them to lunch, and when you do this regularly you’ll form the kind of relationships with them that will lead to ongoing transactions and solid referrals for new business.
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This Wednesday, September 14th, I’ll be interviewing a top SIOR member on the subject of Power Brokering and taking your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level. My guest for this interview is a 27-year industry veteran, he was a top broker for both CB Richard Ellis and Grubb & Ellis for more than 20 years, and he now owns his own brokerage company that’s been designated by CoStar as being a top "Power Broker" office within the entire Los Angeles area. In addition, his clients include Kraft General Foods, The Walt Disney Company, and Prudential Insurance Company.
During the teleconference we’ll tell you what you need to be doing right now to produce solid results in your brokerage business in this economy, we’ll show you what’s holding you back from becoming the Power Broker that you want to be, and we’ll tell you how to break through the barriers that are holding you back, so you take your production in your brokerage business to an entirely new level!
When you’re registered for this teleconference, even if you can’t attend it we’ll still send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and written highlights from the teleconference, all in the mail to you!
If you’re not already registered for this live teleconference and you want to get your hands on all of this information, click here.
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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.
"Jim has me much more focused on doing the activities that generate new listings for me, in addition to doing the activities that have me sell those listings."
Chris Sands
KW Commercial
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How to Keep Disasters from Happening in Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business
By Jim Gillespie | September 7, 2011
I had a catastrophe happen with my 8-year old daughter Jamie several days ago. Jamie loves music, loves singing and dancing, and she was all ready to go to her first rock & roll concert in just a few weeks. She always tells me who her favorite performers are, and I saw that one of her favorites, Miranda Cosgrove, was coming in concert later on this month. So I bought us tickets to the concert several weeks ago, and all of us were excited about going to Jamie’s first concert together.
Then last Thursday the phone rang, and the person calling from the concert venue informed me that the concert had been cancelled. Jamie was standing right in front of me when the call came, she could tell that I was disappointed with what I’d been told by the person on the other end of the telephone, and she asked me what had happened.
I knew she wasn’t going to like what I had to tell her no matter when I told it to her, so I decided to just tell her the news right then and there. But when I told this to her, you would have thought I had just told her that her mother had died. Her face got all twisted, contorted and upset, and she began crying loud and uncontrollably right in front of me. The noise was so loud that my wife came running upstairs thinking that Jamie had seriously injured herself, and she began screaming out, "What happened to Jamie?"
Well the crying and the overall sadness continued, and then finally Jamie yelled out, "This has been the worst day of my life!" (Which of course brought a little smile to my face…:)
Then I decided to immediately snap into action. So I got on the Internet, did a little research, and discovered that Jamie’s favorite performer, Selena Gomez, was coming in concert later on this month, to an arena about an hour away from us in San Diego. So I bought tickets to the concert, told Jamie about this the very next day when she came home from school, and what had been "the worst day of her life" had now been transformed into excitement in knowing she’d soon be seeing Selena Gomez live in concert!
I had taken what had originally been a disaster for my daughter, and turned it into what will now become a wonderful experience for her. In doing so, this reminded me of what it’s like sometimes in commercial real estate brokerage…
In commercial real estate brokerage, you really want to keep the surprises and the unexpected disasters to a minimum, and anticipate any problems in advance so you can alleviate them before they ever become disasters.
You’ll want to know the financial condition of the people you’re planning on working with, so you know they’ll fully have the ability to close the real estate transaction you’ll be working on.
You’ll want to have a Phase 1 environmental report done as early as possible, so that if any problems arise they can be alleviated before negotiations begin…otherwise the buyer can walk away due to the fear generated during their contingency period, if environmental problems are discovered within the property.
You’ll want to see a title report before you begin marketing a property, so that you can remove any problems on the report before they end up stalling everything, and getting in the way of you closing the transaction.
You’ll want to both know and understand the personalities and the negotiating styles of the people you’ll be representing, and utilize this to your advantage when it’s important. When you really know your people you can anticipate what they’ll be doing during the upcoming stages of the negotiations, and you can plan your strategy accordingly.
Along these lines, there are some principals who can help move a transaction forward whenever they’re put face-to-face in front of the other principal, and then there are some principals for whom doing this with them would spell total disaster. With these latter principals, you need to remain as the buffer and the communicator between both them and the other principal, so that the other principal remains interested in doing business with them. There are just some people who when put face-to-face in front of the other principal, try to overpower them with their own ego, and this just doesn’t work.
In addition, you’ll want to work with escrow and title officers who will recognize potential problems well in advance, and who’ll do a solid job of taking care of these situations for you, as this will definitely make your day-to-day life progress much easier for you as a commercial real estate broker.
Getting back to the situation with my daughter Jamie, buying concert tickets whenever a problem comes up in the middle of a transaction may not solve the problem for you, but buying concert tickets as well as tickets to other events, and giving them to the people you want to do solid business with, can be a great marketing approach for you. If you listened to my August Inner Circle call you heard William Hugron, SIOR, CCIM, telling you that for his top clients he has them picked up in his vintage, classic Rolls Royce by a chauffeur, and then driven both to and from a nice dinner or a special event…with everything all being paid for by William.
For your own clients you may need to do this with a limousine instead, but that’s the kind of experience your clients will never, ever forget, and it will solidify them in wanting to do business with you again in the future.
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During my upcoming teleconference on Wednesday, September 14th, we’ll be joined by a SIOR member who’s a 27-year industry veteran, he was a top commercial broker for both CB Richard Ellis and Grubb & Ellis for more than 20 years, and he’s now a partner in a brokerage company that’s been designated by CoStar as being a "Power Broker" company within the entire Los Angeles area.
During this teleconference we’ll tell you what you need to be doing right now to produce solid results in your brokerage business in this economy, we’ll show you what’s holding you back from becoming the power broker that you want to be, and we’ll tell you how to break through the barriers that are holding you back, so you take your production in your brokerage business to an entirely new level.
When you’re registered for this teleconference, even if you can’t attend it we’ll still send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and written highlights from the teleconference, all in the mail to you!
Click here for more information on this teleconference if you’re not already registered for it.
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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.
"Working with Jim has increased my productivity to a higher level. As the top agent of my firm for the last eight years I was at a point where I thought I had hit a ceiling. With Jim’s help I found that I am only just beginning and am now experiencing my most successful year ever! I can attribute a lot of my success to Jim and his ability to keep me focused on success combined with the tools that he has to get me there.
Scott Caswell
Delphi Business Properties
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Are You in Control of Your Own Destiny in Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business?
By Jim Gillespie | August 25, 2011
For many brokers within our industry, their brokerage careers began by someone telling them to pickup a phone and begin calling people, and then from there after some time they started to wing it. The problem with this is that when you begin getting busy, working on transactions, closing transactions, and still trying to generate more new business for yourself, things can start getting crazy.
Oftentimes brokers get themselves to the point where they become reactive…responding to incoming phone calls, texts, and E-mails from their clients and prospects, instead of being proactive and doing what will control their destiny. If you’re being reactive to the demands of your clients and prospects, instead of being proactive and controlling your own destiny, you’re letting other people determine your own level of success in your business.
Here are some questions to be asking yourself right now around this:
1) How much do you feel you’re in control of your own destiny in your commercial brokerage business?
2) How much do you feel you’re in control of how you’re spending your time right now in your commercial brokerage business day-to-day?
3) Do you feel that other people or other circumstances are interfering with how you really should be spending your time?
If you want to control your own destiny within your commercial brokerage business, you need to be the person who’s in control of how you’re spending your time.
With this in mind, ask yourself how much time you’re spending every week in your business working on these five activities:
1) Prospecting 10-12 hours every week.
2) Sending out mailers to your clients and prospects two or more times every month.
3) Having a database that includes every prospect you want to do business with, their individual names, phone numbers, the properties they own or occupy, and their mailing addresses.
4) Building great long-term relationships with your past clients, taking them to lunch, socializing with them, and giving them gifts 2-4 times a year.
5) Working on your presentation skills so you continually improve them and deliver the best presentations of any broker in your market.
These five activities represent a system and an approach that will help keep you focused, on track, and doing what will have you continually grow your brokerage business.
Many brokers aren’t prospecting 10-12 hours or more every week in their brokerage business, yet brokers most of the time are relying on prospecting to develop more business for themselves. So if you’re serious about developing more new business for yourself, get your prospecting done with no excuses.
Mailing is a great way to brand yourself in the minds of the people you want to do business with. Sending 24 or more mailers a year to your people will make it really difficult for them to think of any other commercial broker except you, especially when you’re providing them with helpful, informative information in your mailers. Sending 24 mailers every year, in addition to making 2-4 prospecting calls every year to your people, will brand you far ahead of all your competitors who are just making their prospecting calls.
You must have a database that includes every prospect you want to do business with along with their contact information. Because if you don’t have this information in your database, you can’t do business with the people who aren’t in there. In addition, if you need a solid resource for getting your database into great shape, take a look at the service that’s available at www.ProspectNow.com.
One of the greatest mistakes commercial brokers make is dropping out their communication with their past clients after they’ve already closed transactions with them. This then has you competing with other brokers to work with the same clients the next time. By keeping in contact with your past clients, going to lunch with them, socializing with them, and giving them gifts, you maximize the probability that they’ll be working with you once again on their next transaction.
And finally, working on your presentation skills is what will have you close more people on working with you exclusively, which then leads to you making more money. Role play with someone with them acting as your decision maker, and videotape the presentation. Then watch the video and learn what you can to improve your presentations to your clients and prospects in the future. The more that you impact people through your presentations, the more they’ll want to work with you.
So if you focus on the five basic activities I’ve outlined above, you’ll begin making more money and you’ll obtain more repeat business from your past clients. Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of these five activities, determine which ones represent the greatest opportunity for immediate growth within your business if you begin focusing on them, and then get to work on improving your business! When you continually do this process throughout time, you’ll end up systematizing your business, focusing on the activities that will make you more money, and you’ll become more proactive rather than reactive within your brokerage business…doing the activities that will have you chart your own destiny.
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The latest edition of my Commercial Broker Newsletter is now ready for you to mail or E-mail to all of your clients and prospects. If you’re not currently sending a monthly newsletter to all of your clients and prospects, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to brand yourself and keep you in people’s minds every month throughout the year! If you’re interested in more information on how you can send this newsletter to your clients and prospects, click here.
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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.
"With Jim’s coaching I landed $1.7 million in new business in my first eight weeks!"
Mark Whitman
Dorin Realty
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Topics: Marketing, Prospecting, Uncategorized |
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Here’s a Commercial Real Estate Broker Who Wrote the Book on Getting Rich
By Jim Gillespie | August 17, 2011
It’s not often when I come across a broker who’s really implementing some solid new marketing and promotional ideas into their own brokerage business. But Dan Dulin of Marcus & Millichap has implemented not one, but two new ideas into his business that have really gotten attention. He’s written a book on how to become rich, which I’ll give you a link to download for free at the end of this article, and he’s also invented a card game that teaches people the tools and the proper decision making that’s involved in becoming rich.
Dan wrote the book to unquestionably brand himself as a top real estate authority within his own marketplace. As in any marketplace, there are brokers in his territory wanting to be perceived as a top authority, but Dan seized the opportunity and took a bold step to set himself apart from everyone else.
"I had three main objectives in writing the book", Dan says. "Number one, I wanted to endear my clients to me. I involved them in the development process of the book and exposed them to the wealth creation concepts in it that they weren’t getting directly from any other source. Many of my clients provided me with valuable feedback on the earlier drafts of my book, and my first objective has largely now been accomplished.
Second, I found that many times I was arguing with my clients when I’d see them getting off track from making the decisions that were the best ones for them. So in the book I compiled the ‘golden rules of investing’, and now when a client fights me on something that is clearly in their own best interest, I refer them to those golden rules, which then usually solves the problem. The book itself is an authoritative instrument on the subject, and a broker arguing with them is not!
Third, I wanted to generate more business with this creative marketing idea. Since I’ve just released the book, this aspect of my plan is currently a work in progress, because I really want to finish the audio version of the book before I begin marketing the book full out to my prospects. But the early feedback I’ve gotten from people on the book has been very positive!"
Then when I asked Dan to elaborate further on this last statement, he said, "When someone learns that I’ve written a book, a ‘real’ book, they’re both surprised and then they want me to tell them more about it. In addition, they treat me with more respect. My clients and prospects are very complimentary and admire what I’ve accomplished. However, once they actually read the book, they turn into raving fans and tell all their friends about it!"
For most brokers, writing a book alone would be a great accomplishment, but as I mentioned earlier, Dan also invented a card game that teaches people the principles of building wealth. The game is called "Net Worth, The FUN Money Game", and here’s what Dan has to say about it:
"The game teaches people the value of becoming debt free and collecting assets like investment real estate. Players shed their debt, collect assets, and use financial events to prevent other players from doing the same. As the game’s name implies, the player with the highest net worth at the end of the game wins.
While I was writing the book, I thought that it would be nice to be able to teach some of its wealth strategies in a tangible, fun way. But I had two big challenges to overcome while I was creating the game. First of all, it had to be fun to play. Secondly, it had to have a tie-in to my commercial real estate brokerage business. Eventually, both challenges were solved.
The game is another tangible reminder that I am not your average broker. When clients get their hands on both the game and the book their jaws tend to drop. In fact, most are so curious about the game that they interrupt our meeting and want to play it! Then after a few hands we return back to the real estate business that we need to talk about.
I’ve been giving each client and prospect I meet with a single card game for themselves, but inevitably they like the game so much that they ask me for more of them, and on the average, I end up giving away three card games per client. This is something I didn’t anticipate when I created the game, and the game has really become a huge conversation piece!
The game is really a blast to play. It’s probably best been described as ‘Uno meets Monopoly, with a dash of financial planning’".
So there you have it. One broker’s quest to stand out from and beat his competitors has him writing a book about becoming rich, and inventing a card game on the subject also. In times like these, the subject of becoming rich really gets people’s attention, too, because so many people’s financial statements aren’t what they used to be.
Click here if you’d like to download Dan’s book, or if you’d like to read more about his book and his card game.
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The latest edition of my Commercial Broker Newsletter is now ready for you to mail or E-mail to all of your clients and prospects. If youre not currently sending a monthly newsletter to all of your clients and prospects, youre missing out on a huge opportunity to brand yourself and keep you in peoples minds every month throughout the year! If youre interested in more information on how you can send this newsletter to your clients and prospects, click here.
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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.
"Just one marketing idea Jim gave me produced $14,500,000.00 in new listings for me. His coaching program really works!"
Mark Groves
BRC Advisors
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
Topics: Marketing, Persuasion |
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How to Get Your Commercial Real Estate Prospects Interested in Working with You
By Jim Gillespie | August 9, 2011
I was listening to an audio series that focused on both sales and how people can effectively build their businesses. During the program they talked about what sets effective salespeople apart from all the others, and how to best enroll your clients and prospects in doing business with you.
Here is what they said:
"The more that your clients and prospects feel that you truly understand them and resonate with their problem, the more they will want to do business with you. Therefore 90% of your job as a salesperson is having your clients and prospects feel that you truly understand their problem, and only 10% of your job as a salesperson is educating them."
This is quite profound.
So many commercial real estate brokers think their job is about providing people with information, educating them, and getting them to move towards closing a transaction. When what’s most important to your client or prospect, is feeling that you understand what’s really important to them.
Going through the motions of providing your people with information, educating them, and trying to get them to move towards closing a transaction, can make them feel like you don’t really understand them. Your communication can feel like you’re constantly broadcasting towards them, instead of it feeling like you’re constantly listening to them, and understanding what’s really important to them.
How many salespeople have you interacted with throughout your life, who’ve made you feel like they really provided you with outstanding service? How many salespeople have provided you with such an incredible experience of working with them, that you’ve felt compelled to tell your friends and business associates about them?
I’m guessing this is a pretty short list.
Listen to your clients and prospects and find out what’s important to them. Say things like, "It’s important to me that I provide you with outstanding service, so tell me everything that’s important for us to accomplish together in this real estate transaction."
Have them feel with certainty that you’re really listening to them, and have them feel that what you care about most is making sure that you take care of all of their needs.
There was a time when I was closing a transaction with a man who was an absolute legend within the garment industry, but he was a very difficult person to be working with. Whenever we’d get agreement on some of the terms with the people we were negotiating with, my client would begin changing his mind about what he wanted, and then he’d start blaming the other side for being so difficult. This was causing problems with everyone involved in the transaction, and I began butting heads with my client because he was such a pain.
Then there was a moment in time when, despite all of my frustration, I put aside my ego and decided I really needed to reconnect in my relationship with him. So I paused, relaxed, and then said to him, "What is it you want me to do that will have you feel that I’m providing you with the most outstanding service imaginable?" He was blown away by this and said, "That’s the most brilliant question you’ve ever asked me during our relationship!"
Asking him that question and listening intently to what he wanted to communicate to me, was a major turning point in closing the transaction. Now he felt that I was really reconnected with taking care of his own best interests, instead of us continually butting heads and disagreeing about his actions within our negotiations. And somehow at the same time, he backed off just a little from being a major pain.
So listen to your clients and prospects. The more that they feel listened to, and the more that they feel you truly understand what’s really important to them, the more that they’re going to want to work with you.
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This Wednesday, August 10th, I’ll be leading a teleconference titled "Becoming a Master at Getting Exclusive Listings". During this teleconference I’ll be interviewing an outstanding member of both SIOR and CCIM, who’s averaged more than 75 closed transactions a year during his career. Before he became a top commercial broker he was an asset manager and a property manager, so he knows exactly what owners and decision makers need to hear from commercial brokers, in order to list their properties with them. If learning how to successfully land more listings is something you’d like to do, click here for more information on this teleconference. In addition, when you’re registered for the teleconference, I’ll send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and written highlights from the teleconference, all in the mail 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.
"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
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
Topics: Persuasion |
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How to Achieve Success and Happiness in Tough Economic Times
By Jim Gillespie | August 3, 2011
Earlier this year I interviewed New York Times bestselling author Alan Cohen on the subject of "How to Achieve Success and Happiness in Tough Economic Times," and you can listen to this audio interview right now for free. Alan has written more than 20 books that have been translated into 24 different languages, and I’ve gotten solid feedback on the information that’s contained in this interview from the many commercial brokers who have already listened to it from around the world.
So if you haven’t already listened to this interview, or if you’ve listened to it and you want to listen to it again, here’s what we’ll be telling you during the interview:
1) What to do when you’re feeling frustrated about not producing the results you want to in your business, so you can break through to the next level of production.
2) How to deal with the stress you’re feeling right now during these tough economic times.
3) How to balance your work within your business with what’s really important to you in all the other areas of your life, so you feel great about this balance and the total, overall condition of your life.
Click here to listen to this interview.
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The August edition of my Commercial Broker Newsletter is now ready for you to mail or E-mail to all of your clients and prospects. If you’re not currently sending a monthly newsletter to all of your clients and prospects, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity! This newsletter brands you in your people’s minds twelve times a year outside of you doing any prospecting, so you stand out ahead of your competitors in your people’s minds for the business. If you’re not currently sending a newsletter to your people, click here to learn how easily you can begin doing this.
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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.
"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, CCIM
Ashwill Associates
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
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How to Generate Solid New Ideas to Earn and Get Paid More Commercial Real Estate Commissions
By Jim Gillespie | July 20, 2011
There’s an easy exercise I’ve recommended to commercial brokers over the years to help them to generate more income for themselves, and since I’ve been mentioning this exercise a number of times in recent weeks in my one-on-one coaching calls, I’m going to mention this exercise to you right now, too.
So many brokers are looking for new ways to generate more income for themselves, and unfortunately it’s been very easy for brokers to get into a rut in both their habits and in their brokerage activities these days. It can feel frustrating for brokers because of how the real estate market and the economy have changed, and brokers can sometimes feel like they’re in a state of overwhelm…feeling burned out and wondering what the heck they can do right now to make more money.
So here’s the exercise:
Go somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed for approximately 30 minutes to an hour. An outdoor location for this exercise would be ideal…like a park, someplace with a view, or at the beach.
Bring a pen and a stack of blank index cards along with you, and leave your mobile device somewhere else.
For about 30 minutes to an hour, constantly write down ideas on the index cards that are ones that you can implement into your brokerage business to make more money. Write down just one idea on each card, and keep going until you feel you’ve emptied every idea that’s in your mind on this subject.
Not having any access to your mobile device is extremely important during this exercise, as accessing your mobile device will divert your attention away from focusing on the big picture, and it will take your mind away from doing some creative thinking. The same kind of distractions will also come into play when trying to do this exercise on a computer, too.
When you’re finished with this exercise, after about 30 to 60 minutes or so, you’ll now have a stack of index cards, each card having one individual idea on it, and these collectively will represent some potential ideas for you to implement right now into your brokerage business. Put a rubber band around the index cards, or put them into an index card holder, or into a recipe box. Then sometime later on come back to these cards, begin going through them, and select the top 3-5 ideas for you to now focus on and begin implementing into your brokerage business.
You’ve probably had a solid number of ideas go through your head throughout your brokerage career, that you’ve thought would be good ideas for you to implement into your brokerage business. But then soon afterwards the phone rang or you had an appointment, or something else came up that took your mind off of the idea that you’d come up with. These ideas are still inside of your head, and you need to take the time to bring them to the surface once again and write them down. Once you’ve written these ideas down onto the index cards, including any new ideas you may have come up with while doing the exercise, you now have these ideas all in one place where you can access them very easily at any time.
So if you’re thinking that you need some new ideas or a new game plan in order to generate more brokerage business for yourself, do this simple exercise and notice the excitement you’ll begin feeling around the new possibilities for you within your own brokerage business!
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On Wednesday, August 10th, I’ll be leading a teleconference titled "Becoming a Master at Getting Exclusive Listings". Exclusive listings are the lifeblood of most of the top-producing agents in our industry, and in almost every commercial real estate territory the highest earning agents are the ones who’ve mastered the process of successfully landing a ton of listings year-after-year. During this call we’ll be joined by a broker who’s become a master at getting exclusive listings, and we’ll focus on how to make sure you get listings that are priced to move, and what you need to know to take your success in landing more listings to an entirely new level. If learning how to make this happen in your brokerage business is something you’d like to do, click here for more information on this teleconference. In addition, if you’re registered for the teleconference, I’ll send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and written highlights from the teleconference, all in the mail 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.
"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: Uncategorized |
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Here’s a Tip to Assist You With Getting Your Commercial Real Estate Prospecting Done
By Jim Gillespie | July 12, 2011
Commercial brokers must prospect a lot more nowadays to produce anywhere near the same kind of results they were producing in their brokerage businesses years ago. And even when you’re doing more prospecting, you can easily end up producing less income than you were several years ago, too.
Mike Monteleone, CCIM, a broker who’s averaged more than $40 million in transaction volume a year throughout his career, told me that he’s been prospecting more than 20 hours a week in this economy. So if you want to produce the best results imaginable in this economy, how many hours a week do you think you need to be prospecting?
One of the greatest problems that brokers constantly face around prospecting, is not getting it done. This can lead to getting so far off track from producing the results that brokers want in their businesses, that they can completely lose track of how much prospecting they’ve really been doing. But at the same time, by feeling constantly busy, they can delude themselves into thinking they’re doing everything imaginable to develop more new business for themselves.
This can be a horrible, frustrating place for commercial real estate brokers to be operating from.
With this in mind, are you committed to doing whatever it takes to maximize your income this year in your brokerage business? Because if you are truly committed, you need to be prospecting constantly, and you need to be tracking how much prospecting you’re actually getting done every week. Which brings me to the following recommendation…
Every Friday, at the end of the day, write down how much prospecting you’ve gotten done for the week on a sheet of paper, and sign your name to it. You can prepare a basic form you can utilize every week for this, where you can fill in the dates for the week, the amount of prospecting you’ve gotten done, and then sign your name to it.
This can be a big reality check for you, because the amount of income you’re going to earn over the next year will be directly proportionate to the amount of prospecting you’re getting done. So make sure you’re not deluding yourself about this, and just get your prospecting done with no excuses.
There’s something very powerful about doing this process. When you’re writing down the amount of prospecting you’re getting done every week, be it the number of hours you’ve completed, or the number of prospecting calls you’ve made, you get really clear on how much prospecting you’re actually getting done. When you come face-to-face with this every single week, it serves as a real kick in the butt to make sure you’re doing your prospecting.
There aren’t many brokers who would be willing to do this on an ongoing basis, because it makes brokers come face-to-face with who’s really responsible for their results within their own brokerage business, and that can be very tough to swallow.
"It’s the economy!"
"I’m doing everything I can to grow my brokerage business!"
These are the cries we often hear from brokers in the heat of battle. Yes, the economy is having a major impact on your income these days, but when brokers aren’t getting their prospecting done, they’re having a major impact on their income, too.
Do this exercise I’ve recommended for 120 days in your brokerage business, and if you like the results and the number of leads you’ve been producing, do this exercise in your brokerage business on an ongoing basis.
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This Wednesday, July 13th, I’ll be interviewing a CCIM member who’s closed more than $1 Billion in commercial real estate transactions, and we’ll be telling you how to powerfully get more done in your commercial brokerage business, and make more money.
When you’re registered for the teleconference, in addition to receiving the audio CDs, written transcription, and highlights from the teleconference all sent to you in the mail, you’ll also receive the following:
*** A 9-page report titled "Quick Start Tips for Utilizing Social Media"
*** Direct online access to more than 50 editions of my guest’s "Real Estate CyberTips" E-newsletter
*** A 12-page report on "101 Ways to Utilize a Virtual Assistant" in your brokerage business
*** A 4-page report on "The 10-Step Guide to Hiring the Right Virtual Assistant" in your brokerage business
So if you’re not already registered for this live teleconference and you want to get your hands on all of this information, 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 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: Prospecting, Uncategorized |
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Here’s the Best Marketer I’ve Ever Known in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage
By Jim Gillespie | July 6, 2011
Bill Gladstone, CCIM. SIOR, serving the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania market while working for NAI CIR, is the best marketer I’ve ever known in commercial real estate brokerage. I could write word after word of information about Bill’s marketing techniques and approaches, but this is definitely a time when giving you examples of Bill’s marketing will speak much louder than my own words. So imagine the presence you’d constantly create within the minds of your clients and prospects, if you implemented some of Bill’s techniques into your own brokerage business.
Here’s a link to a summary of the publications that Bill’s currently sending to his commercial real estate clients and prospects:
http://www.billgladstone.com/gillespie/
Here’s a link to an archive of previous publications that Bill’s already sent out to his clients and prospects:
http://www.billgladstone.com/Resources/ArchiveIndex.htm
Bill utilizes his own bobblehead doll as part of his marketing efforts, and here’s a link to the "Bill Gladstone Bobblehead Doll" photo gallery:
http://www.billgladstone.com/Services/bobble.htm
This is a link to all of the items that Bill hands out to his clients and prospects as part of his ongoing marketing campaign, and he includes an explanation as to why he utilizes each item:
http://realestatesalescoach.com/Bill_Gladstone_Marketing_2011.pdf
Here’s a video Bill’s recorded that he utilizes to introduce people to his brokerage team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTIoCWQ4XyQ
Here’s a video Bill’s recorded for his clients and prospects, where he features an expert talking about the impact of Federal Reserve policy on bank lending:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwFTbrUJzEA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Here’s an example of Bill’s quarterly video report that he makes available to his clients and prospects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB3wOJZmjAI&feature=youtu.be
And finally, as you can see in this video, Bill and his team like to have fun together, and here’s a link to the music video that they’ve recorded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgOjN9TD0kI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
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Next Wednesday, July 13th, I’ll be leading a teleconference where I’ll tell you about the company that’s doing telephone prospecting for brokers with some of the largest, most recognizable firms in our industry. If getting someone else to do your prospecting for you is something that interests you, click here to learn more about this teleconference. In addition, if you’re registered for the teleconference, I’ll send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and written highlights from the teleconference, all in the mail 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.
"We own a commercial brokerage company, a real estate development company, and a property management company. With Jims help weve now substantially reduced our overhead, and have implemented a marketing approach thats bringing us more quality transactions than we ever would have imagined."
Jeffrey Weitz and Matt Schweitzer
North Rim Partners
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
Topics: Marketing, Uncategorized |
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One of the Most Important Commercial Real Estate Negotiating Tools I’ve Ever Learned
By Jim Gillespie | June 22, 2011
You may have attended seminars, dinner meetings, and conferences over the years, trying to learn more to help you become an even better commercial real estate broker. During my early years as a broker I attended a seminar on negotiation, and the man leading the seminar said something that’s still emblazoned upon my mind some 30 years later:
Whenever you’re negotiating, never give a concession unless you get a concession in return for it.
This is a very important concept for brokers to understand. When negotiating, one of the biggest mistakes brokers make is caving in to other people’s demands. This is oftentimes done when being asked to reduce one’s commission.
Here’s an example of this:
Property Owner:
"I know we’ve agreed to a 6% commission on this transaction, but the buyer’s now making additional demands on me. Will you accept a 4% commission now instead?"
Broker:
"Well, if it will help us to close this transaction, then yes."
That’s not a good response for the broker to have made, and a better response would have been, "John, I work hard for my commission, and what you’re asking me to do isn’t reasonable. The difference between 4% and 6% is 50% of the money you agreed to pay me, and that just won’t work for me. But here’s what we may be able to do. If you agree in writing that the next building you’re going to sell you’ll list with me, we can close this transaction for 5%. You’ll be paying commission to brokers on the sale of your next building anyway, so just list it with me. You’ll be saving on the commission in this one transaction right now, and you’ll be paying the same amount of commission you normally would be paying on your next transaction, too."
John may not agree with exactly what you’re asking for here, but it now starts the ball rolling in the direction of negotiating with him to give you more than the 4% he’s just offered you.
Successful business people, especially the ones who are entrepreneurs, like negotiating with people. In addition, they’ll respect you more as a business person when you engage in negotiating along with them, instead of just caving in to their demands. This is one reason why negotiations can fail in a transaction when one principal caves in to all of the demands of the other person. For people who love negotiating, the game that they love isn’t being played by the other principal when the principal just caves in to them, and this alone can cause someone to walk away from a transaction. If one principal keeps giving in to the demands of the other principal, the principal making the demands can lose respect for the other principal, and begin feeling that there must really be something wrong with the property…because the owner is willing to give away so much in the negotiations so easily.
So recognize that when you’re negotiating, both for yourself as a broker and for your clients, the way that you negotiate can greatly impact both you and the people you’re representing. Your effectiveness at negotiating is an important component in determining whether you and the people you represent get what the best potential outcome is for all of you…or not. So remember, "Whenever you’re negotiating, never give a concession unless you get a concession in return for it."
There’s a game being played and a kind of a dance that’s going on when you’re negotiating, and how you participate with your own negotiating style will have a big impact on both you and everyone else who’s involved in the negotiations.
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The latest edition of my Commercial Broker Newsletter is now ready for you to mail or E-mail to all of your clients and prospects. If you’re not currently sending a monthly newsletter to all of your clients and prospects, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to brand yourself and keep you in people’s minds every month throughout the year! If you’re interested in more information on how you can send this newsletter to your clients and prospects, click here.
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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
Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.
Topics: Persuasion, Uncategorized |
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