Why Commercial Real Estate Farm and Agricultural Land Prices Are Skyrocketing
By Jim Gillespie | June 14, 2011
It’s not easy finding sectors within the commercial real estate arena where solid appreciation has been happening. Businesses are having a tough time staying in business, consumers are having a tough time just paying their bills, and this all leads to a commercial real estate market with downward pressure on property values.
So with this in mind, why are the prices of farms and agricultural land rising, and why are some very serious and significant investors buying these properties worldwide? The reason for this is they’re seeing the huge demand coming that the average commercial real estate investor isn’t seeing right now.
Rising energy prices have been causing the price of food to skyrocket. Just look at your grocery bill whenever you check out at the supermarket counter these days. But why is the cost of food is rising so much? It’s primarily due to energy. The rising cost of energy is what’s causing the price of food to skyrocket out of control.
This is because there are approximately 10 calories of hydrocarbon energy needed to grow, cultivate, process, package, and deliver every one calorie of food to your doorstep at home, before you even cook or refrigerate the food once it arrives there. So when the price of energy is rising, the price of food will be rising also. Those 10 calories of energy that go into creating every one calorie of food, just keep getting more and more expensive. You can click here to see the direct correlation between the price of energy and the price of food within this accompanying graph.
In addition, when you read this article that was recently published by Bloomberg, mentioning that the United Nations just published a report stating that "global food production needs to increase 70% to meet food demand by the middle of the century", you begin to understand more about all of the underlying dynamics. More agricultural land will be needed to meet the world’s food demands, so the demand for agricultural land will be rising.
There’s another factor involved here also that you may or may not know about. The soil of a lot of farm and agricultural land has become depleted within recent decades, due to the constant demands of growing as much food as possible on every acre. So the yield of food per acre is expected to decrease within the coming years, meaning that again, more agricultural land will be needed to meet the world’s demand for food.
So what does this all mean? It means that some of the savviest investors in the world are jumping all over this opportunity right now, and buying farms and agricultural land in anticipation of what’s coming. This article mentions that on a global basis, entities buying agricultural land include hedge funds, funds with links to J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, one company managed by a former U.S. Ambassador, and other major companies from around the world. In addition, the article mentions that farmland in Iowa that sold for just $6,000.00 an acre just a few years ago, has recently sold for as much as $11,000.00 an acre. What other types of commercial property are you seeing that kind of appreciation in these days?
In addition, this article will give you even greater insight into what’s been happening with agricultural land prices right here in the United States. To quote one expert mentioned within the article whose company specializes in selling agricultural real estate all around the U.S., "Nobody’s ever seen any prices like this."
I’m mentioning this to you because so many brokers are looking for new opportunities. Agricultural land may not be your specialty within commercial real estate, but this is a market with a huge demand right now, where big players with a lot of money want to invest in more property.
As the great hockey player Wayne Gretzky once said when asked what made him so much better than all of the other hockey players, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been."
When it comes to all of us having to eat food, this is not an option for us. More food will have to be grown to feed the world’s population, and some of the savviest investors in the world are recognizing this opportunity, and they’re capitalizing on it right now. So if you’re looking for opportunities within commercial real estate and you’re willing to do your homework, getting involved with agricultural land is skating "to where the puck is going to be".
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This Wednesday, June 15th, I’ll be telling you on a live teleconference how to powerfully market yourself as a commercial real estate broker so you beat the pants off of your competitors. I’ll be telling you how to brand yourself in your people’s minds as the one broker they’ll definitely want to work with, so you stand out to them as the one best choice they can make in a commercial real estate broker. In addition, I’ll be interviewing a top guest expert who will tell you how to get this all done easily!
So if you’re not already registered for this live teleconference, click here for more information and to register. And even if you register but can’t attend the live teleconference, I’ll still send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and highlights from my interview with this expert, 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.
"I was skeptical at first, but after working with Jim Im now producing much better results in my real estate business. His coaching program definitely produces fast results."
Bob Hoyer
Delphi Business Properties
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One of the Most Amazing, Heartwarming Stories I’ve Ever Heard
By Jim Gillespie | June 7, 2011
There’s a story I’ll share with you at the end of this article, and it’s one of the most amazing, heartwarming stories I’ve ever heard. This story actually reminded me of something that happened when I was in fourth grade, and I’m going to share that story of my own personal experience with you first.
When I was in fourth grade, there was a boy named Andy in my class who by today’s standards would probably be called a nerd. He spoke in a nasal voice, he wore glasses, he walked funny, he didn’t have any friends to play with at recess or at lunch, and during class he’d sit at his desk at the back of the classroom making little toy figures out of modeling clay. Andy was a strange boy, and I felt empathy towards him. I wondered what it must be like to be in his shoes, where his classmates thought he was strange and they didn’t want to be anywhere near him. However it was that Andy felt, I was pretty sure he didn’t feel very good whenever he was at school.
My birthday was coming up, and I decided I would invite Andy to my birthday party. I felt that somehow in doing so I could make him feel a little more included than I believed he was probably feeling at school. As soon as his parents read my invitation to the party, they called my parents immediately, as Andy’s parents were concerned that their son would only be teased and made fun of at my party, and my parents assured them that this wouldn’t be happening.
While he was at my party, Andy still acted strange, but he seemed to blend in with everyone much better than he had been doing at school, and I felt good about having invited him to my party.
Then several months later something interesting happened to me. Danny, a boy who had attended my birthday party, was having his own birthday party. Everyone I was friends with was talking about the party and looking forward to it, but Danny hadn’t invited me to the party. So I walked up to Danny and said, "I don’t understand. You and I are friends and you were at my own birthday party. So why aren’t you inviting me to yours?" Danny responded with, "You invited Andy to your birthday party, and I don’t want anyone at mine who would invite Andy to his own birthday party."
So right then and there, in fourth grade, I learned that sometimes when you do what you know is the right thing to do, you can end up feeling hurt. But even then, right in that moment, I knew that I had done the right thing. The feeling that came to me from trying to make Andy feel a little more included with all the rest of us, was more important to me than Danny not inviting me to his party.
In both life and in real estate, when you stick to your guns and do what you know within your heart and your gut is the right thing to do, you will be rewarded for it. You may not be rewarded for it immediately, but in the long run, you will be rewarded for it.
In terms of doing the right thing, one of the must successful brokers to ever work in our industry told me of the great relationships he’s solidified, while advising his clients to not initiate transactions he would have earned huge commissions from. His clients had never experienced this before with other brokers, and they realized that they now truly had a broker who cared about their own best interests, above the broker’s own best interests at all times.
In moving forward, the following story I’m going to now share with you is what reminded me about my experience with Andy in fourth grade. Dr. Wayne Dyer, in this six-minute video, shares a story about Shaya, a young boy with a learning disability, and his father’s anguish over seeing his son in this condition. But one day, while Shaya is interacting with a group of young boys, something quite amazing takes place that I’m sure both Shaya and his father will never, ever forget.
Click here to see the six-minute video.
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Sperry Van Ness
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Former Commercial Real Estate Broker Sails the Caribbean on $16 a Day
By Jim Gillespie | May 25, 2011
With everything that’s been going on in commercial real estate in recent years, I thought I’d share a story about a broker who successfully followed his dream. One day years ago Gary Pierce and his wife decided to just leave everything behind and start sailing the Caribbean…all for just $16 a person per day.
So if you’ve got dreams of what you want your life to become beyond commercial real estate brokerage, sometimes those dreams may be closer than you think!
Click here to read the article.
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Sending a monthly newsletter to your clients and prospects is a great way to brand yourself in their minds and have them remember you over your competitors. Sending a monthly newsletter allows you to contact your people twelve more times per year than doing your prospecting alone, which means a lot more contacts per year than what your competitors are doing. If you’re not currently sending a monthly newsletter to your clients and prospects, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to brand yourself and keep you in people’s minds every single month! So if you’re interested in sending your own newsletter to your clients and prospects, click here.
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"After more than 20 years in the business, Jim has helped me to focus on doing the activities that make a huge difference in my income. I even generated 42 offers on one of my investment listings!"
Larry Cannizzaro
Beitler Commercial Realty Services/TCN Worldwide
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A Simple Tip That Will Help You Land More Commercial Real Estate Listings
By Jim Gillespie | May 17, 2011
Earlier this year I interviewed SIOR Past President Stan Mullin, and during my interview with Stan he mentioned one simple tip that can help brokers to land more listings. He mentioned scheduling "the meeting before the meeting", meaning scheduling a meeting before your official listing presentation with your property owners, to help build an even better relationship with them. During one of these meetings you can find out what’s important for your owners to make sure is included in your listing presentation, and really show them that you care about them.
In this day and age, it’s so rare to find salespeople who convey a sense of caring towards the customer, and when a customer really feels this from the salesperson, it can really go a long way towards having the customer want to work with them. So as long as you’re in the running to get the listing, scheduling a meeting like this ahead of time with your owner can help to create this feeling within them, and set you apart as the one broker who really cares about making a difference.
When scheduling the meeting with them you could say something like, "It’s important that I understand in great detail everything about your property, and what’s important for you to accomplish in having me market it for you. So what I’d like to do is schedule a meeting with you ahead of my listing presentation to go over this, so that I deliver for you exactly what you’re looking for."
During this meeting it will be helpful if you can tour the property along with the owner at the exact same time, or tour the property along with them for at least a portion of the meeting. Have a list of questions prepared to ask the owner about the property, as well as questions about what’s important for the owner to accomplish in their upcoming transaction. You might also want to ask them a question similar to, "What are the important questions that you want me to answer during my listing presentation? As I want to make sure that I answer all of these these questions for you."
So many brokers deliver the exact same listing presentation to their owners over and over, while changing primarily just the address of the property and its features when making their presentation. With this in mind, you want to make sure that you’re addressing what the prospect wants from you, instead of assuming that it’s already contained within your presentation.
Some questions you could also ask the owner include:
1) How will you determine the broker you’ll be listing your property with?
2) How will the broker you’ll list your property with differentiate himself (or herself) from the competition?
3) Is there anything specific that you want me to make sure to include for you within my listing presentation package?
4) What’s important for you to make sure you accomplish in closing this upcoming real estate transaction?
The fact that you’re meeting with the owner ahead of time, because you feel it’s important to make sure you’re taking care of their needs, can really set you apart from your competitors. So many competitors would never do this, and it can feel great to the prospect when they’re treated with this kind of special attention. In addition, if you’re going to arrange a meeting like this one ahead of time, the closer you schedule the meeting to the actual date of your listing presentation, the better it’s going to be for you. This will have the experience remain fresh within the mind of the owner when you’re finally making your listing presentation, which will compound the effect.
Anytime you show your clients and prospects that you care about them, it will help you to beat your competitors for the business. It’s just so rare for any salesperson to communicate this kind of care to their clients and prospects, but when they do, their clients and prospects will begin lining up to do business with them.
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WEDNESDAY: Receive a 29-Page Presentation on Effectively
Utilizing Social Media in Commercial Real Estate
This Wednesday, May 18th, I’ll be interviewing the one broker who many believe is the best at utilizing online social media in our industry. At the most recent SIOR Conference, brokers were buzzing in talking about how much they’d like to emulate this broker in this arena.
In addition to telling you how to build successful relationships, power network, and get referrals in your commercial brokerage business, when you’re registered for this teleconference my guest will be giving you a PDF file of his 29-slide presentation titled, "Social Networking for the Commercial Real Estate Professional." This presentation tells you the five important goals you’ll want to accomplish with online social media, the seven tools you’ll definitely want to be utilizing within this arena, and the one most important tool to be utilizing…(And it’s not Facebook or LinkedIn!)
So if you’re not already registered for this live teleconference, click here for more information. And even if you register but can’t attend the live teleconference, I’ll still send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and highlights from my interview with this expert, 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.
"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 Energy and the Fukushima Earthquake Will Impact the United States
By Jim Gillespie | May 11, 2011
Recently I was interviewed on the radio program "Income Property Investment Talk", on the subject of how rising energy prices will impact the United States, and what ramifications we’ll now be facing as a result of the Fukushima earthquake that occurred in Japan.
Click here to listen to this 41-minute interview.
In addition, rising energy prices are going to cause dramatic shifts within commercial real estate. Brokers, investors, and developers must understand the impact of this so they position themselves ahead of this coming transition, and recognize both the opportunities and the downside, so they don’t get burned by what will be coming. If you’d like me to lead my presentation titled, "The Coming Impact of Rising Energy Prices on Commercial Real Estate" for your company or organization, click here for more information on this.
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Next Wednesday, May 18th, I’ll be interviewing the one broker who many people consider to be the best online social media expert in commercial real estate brokerage. At the most recent SIOR Conference, brokers were buzzing when talking about this one broker, saying he’s the one broker they’d most like to emulate with both his online social media presence and his success in doing it. During my interview with this broker he’ll tell you how to position yourself with online social media when you’re a commercial real estate broker, and how to be very successful when doing it, too. In addition, we’ll also be telling you how to build solid long-term relationships with your clients and prospects, how to get repeat business from them, how to powerfully network with your clients and prospects, and how to get solid referrals from them on an ongoing basis, too.
So if you’re not already registered for this live teleconference, click here for more information. And even if you register but can’t attend the live teleconference, I’ll still send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and highlights from my interview with this top expert, 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.
"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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How to Effectively Work Your Game Plan for Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Success
By Jim Gillespie | May 5, 2011
One of the biggest problems facing commercial brokers is that they often get off track from working their game plan. As an example, did you set goals for this year? If you did set goals, did you design a game plan to follow during the year that will have you achieve these goals? And if you did this, how have you done at staying on track and working your game plan during the first four months of this year?
If you’ve stayed perfectly on track, congratulations! But as is the case with so many commercial real estate brokers, I’m guessing you’ve probably gotten off track sometimes during these first four months of the year.
Commercial real estate brokerage is a business where so many things keep coming at you constantly, that it’s easy to get taken off track from working your game plan. You can begin the week with the best of intentions of exactly what you want to get done, and then at the end of the week you can find yourself saying, "Did you get the license number of that truck that just came through here and destroyed everything?"
I remember one day when I was brand new in the business, and around 5:15 p.m. a top broker slammed down his phone, and looked at me and said, "Do you want to know what kind of a day it’s been? The best news I received all day, THE BEST NEWS, was that one of my deals is going to be delayed by 120 days because of financing."
Days like these can really test you as a broker and do everything they can to take you off track. But the better you are at staying on track anyway, despite what’s coming at you, the more successful you’re going to be, and the more money you’re going to make.
Since the nature of our business tends to have a week-to-week feeling around it, setting goals for each week and then holding ourselves accountable for these goals can be a great plan. In doing so, ideally you’ll want your goals for the week to coincide exactly with what you know you must do to stay on track in working your game plan for the year, the game plan that will have you achieve your goals for the year.
What I recommend you do is set the goals you want to accomplish for the week, every week before the week begins, and then focus on accomplishing those goals throughout the week. When you’re planning your week ask yourself, "What goals must I accomplish by the end of the week, to feel that I’ve been both successful and productive?" You ideally also want to make sure that the goals you’ve set for yourself are in alignment with following your game plan for the year…the same game plan you’ve designed to achieve your goals for the year.
Once you have your goals written down for the week, do the following…Look at your list of goals and read them twice a day–once in the morning before you begin working, and once again immediately after lunch. This will take you about 30 seconds to one minute to do whenever you do it, and it can have a tremendous impact on your business.
When you’re reading these goals twice a day like this, you stay much more in tune to what still needs to be done for you to feel you’ve had a successful week. You begin to have a better understanding of when you need to begin taking action on any particular goal during the week, too, in order to get it done. Otherwise, in the absence of writing down these goals at the beginning of the week, you can constantly feel busy during the week, but easily end up not being very productive, too.
When you’re working in commercial real estate brokerage, it’s easy to sometimes feel like you’re the captain of a ship, battling stormy seas throughout the week, while trying to get a good sense of your direction. Writing your goals down before the week begins, and then reading these goals once every morning before you begin work, and once again every afternoon immediately after lunch, can be like a compass when you’re in the middle of those stormy seas during the week. It can help keep you focused, on track, and poised to arrive at your destination.
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My May 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.
"My work with Jim has stepped-up my marketing program, making it easier for me to follow-up on deals while continually creating a steady stream of solid new leads for me to work on."
John Kilroy
John Kilroy Realtors
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The Importance of You Being Resilient in Your Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business in This Economy
By Jim Gillespie | April 27, 2011
The economy that we’re experiencing right now is definitely testing people. Unless you lived during The Great Depression, you’ve most likely never experienced an economy like this one. So the question then becomes, "What must you do to make sure you’re on track and still doing everything you can in your brokerage business and in your life, despite what’s going on with this current economy?"
With this in mind, this quote may have direct application:
"Circumstances don’t make the man, they reveal him."
James Allen
Haven’t you found this quote by James Allen to be true? Aren’t many of the people we admire the ones who have just stared adversity straight down in the face, risen above the occasion, and despite the difficult odds, they mustered the focus, determination, and action to succeed under the circumstances? This is what creates greatness in many of the people we’ve admired over the years. Think of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and our Founding Fathers right here in the United States. These are people who overcame great adversity to succeed anyway, despite the difficult challenges that were right in front of them.
So maybe your brokerage business isn’t as on fire as it was several years ago. Maybe you’re not making the same amount of money you were back then, but you’ve definitely still got bills coming in that have to be paid. In addition, maybe your home isn’t worth what it was back then, and your equity in your home isn’t quite what it was back then, either. Or maybe the amount of the loan on your home is even more than the value of your home right now, too.
Depending on your situation, and with everything you’re up against right now, you may be wondering exactly how you’re going to make everything happen in your life. As much as we tend to think that it’s only ourselves who are having difficulty, there are a lot of people out there who are hurting right now…including millionaires.
Perhaps this economic downturn hasn’t affected you very much, but if it is affecting you, how are you responding to all that’s going on? What are you doing to rise above it all and make sure you’re producing the best results you can anyway, despite everything that’s happening? Because if you’re not being careful, it’s easy to let what’s going on right now affect your productivity…unless you take steps to make sure that this doesn’t happen.
As an analogy here, the sport of river rafting can provide a good one for us. When you’re river rafting, to navigate you need to be traveling faster than the speed of the river. If you’re only traveling at the same speed the river is traveling at, the river will take you wherever it’s going to, which may include dumping you onto the rocks. But when you’re paddling and your raft is moving faster than the river is, you can navigate your raft in the direction you want to go.
With this in mind, what’s going on with the economy right now is like the river…it’s moving in one direction with the speed and ferocity it’s moving in. You can let yourself be controlled by the river, and have it take you wherever it’s going to. Or you can decide that no matter what direction the river is moving in, and what speed it’s moving at, you’re going to get out in front of it, paddle so you’re moving faster than the river, and begin navigating to exactly where you want to go.
Whether it’s in your brokerage business, in your home and family life, or in any other arena within your life that you now may be challenged in, you can rise above it. The river may be moving in one direction for you right now, but with your drive and determination you can determine the direction you’re excited about moving towards, put your oars in the water and begin paddling, and navigate downstream towards your ideal destiny.
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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 20 years in real estate I needed to revive my business and look at new options and ideas. Together Jim and I evaluated my entire business plan, designed new strategies, and implemented a game plan that’s now making more money for both me and my team."
Bill Ukropina
Coldwell Banker Commercial
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How to Design a Great Commercial Real Estate Listing Presentation Package
By Jim Gillespie | April 12, 2011
If you’re working for one of the large national brokerage companies, you probably already have company software that designs listing presentation packages for you. But if you’re working for a small to mid-sized brokerage firm, and you don’t think you already have a great listing presentation package, what’s a great way for you to design one for yourself?
When you’re designing your own template for a listing presentation package, it’s much easier to do it if you’ve got one or more other listing presentation packages you can utilize as your guideline, to generate some great ideas for you. Attempting to design your listing presentation package template from scratch, without looking at other outstanding presentation packages, is like trying to reinvent the wheel without ever having seen one. It’s not easy, and you can really knock yourself out in the process.
So the question for you then becomes, "How can I see some great listing presentation packages that I can then utilize to generate some great ideas for my own package?"
Here are some ideas for you:
1) When you’ve made a listing presentation where you’ve successfully landed the listing, and you’ve competed against other brokers for the listing, ask the owner to let you have the other listing presentation packages. You’ve already impressed the owner enough to have been awarded the listing, and since they’ve already rejected the other brokers, they’ll probably be OK with giving you the other presentation packages. After all, they’re not going to be having a continued relationship with these brokers since they’ve already turned them down.
2) When you’ve made a listing presentation where you haven’t gotten the listing, and the listing has been awarded to another brokerage firm, you could say something similar to the following to your owner: "Bob, it’s very important to me to continually improve myself as a broker, and as you know I’ve spent some time in researching your property, preparing my listing presentation package, and making my presentation to you. All I ask since I didn’t get the listing, is that you let me review the other listing presentation packages, so that I can improve both my package and my presentation, and land the listing the next time."
3) If you’re friends with a broker who doesn’t compete with you, because they specialize in another kind of commercial real estate, or they work in a different territory than you, ask them to let you see their listing presentation package. (This person could even be right in your own office!) If they don’t compete with you and the two of you are friends, this is probably something they’d be willing to do for you.
4) If you’re a member of an organization like SIOR or CCIM, or you work for a brokerage company that has offices in other cities, this could be a perfect opportunity for you to network with other members of your organization, share information with them, and obtain copies of people’s listing presentations that will help you to build your own.
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If you’d like to obtain a PDF copy of an 18-page listing presentation package that a top SIOR broker is now utilizing in his brokerage business, then join me for my upcoming teleconference this Wednesday, April 13th. This SIOR broker will tell you what he’s been doing to close 45 transactions a year in this difficult market, and he’ll be giving you a copy of his listing presentation package, too!
So if you’re not already registered for this live teleconference, click here for more information. And even if you register but can’t attend the live teleconference, I’ll still send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and highlights from my interview with this top expert, 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.
"My work with Jim is making me more effective at finding new business with the kind of companies I want to work with."
Larry Crumbley, SIOR, CCIM
Fickling & Company
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How to Position Yourself in People’s Minds To Get More Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Business
By Jim Gillespie | April 6, 2011
Many commercial brokers don’t do a good job of positioning themselves in the minds of their clients and prospects, so that they stand out as the one best choice their people can make in a commercial real estate broker. Many commercial brokers just call their prospects maybe 1-4 times a year, but if your competitors are already doing this themselves also, how do you then stand out as the one best broker your people will want to work with?
Mailing and E-mailing to your people throughout the year, with good, solid information they’ll definitely want to know about, and informing them on the important trends you’re observing within the market, is one way. But here’s another approach that could really help you differentiate yourself in the minds of the people you want to do business with, if you decide to move forward and implement it:
Record 15 to 30-minute telephone interviews with business leaders within your community, and E-mail the links to listen to the interviews to everyone you want listening to them. You can choose the people you’ll interview according to who you want to do more business with, and you could interview civic and political leaders within your community also.
Choose subjects your commercial real estate prospects would like to know about, and choose people to interview who will do a great job of delivering the information to them. And in the process you’ll provide your people with insights from top community leaders they’ll want to hear from, and you’ll be positioning yourself as the one broker who has an inside relationship with these people, too. And people love to work with others within their community who they feel are connected with the top-level people!
Now in addition to you sending these interviews out to the people on your E-mail list, the people you’ll interview will probably want their own interview heard by everyone on their own E-mail list, too. So just provide the people you interview with a link to send to their own people so they can listen to the interview, and you’ll be getting great publicity with a wider audience!
So now when you’re calling the people on the telephone who you’d like to do business with, and who you’d like to interview, you could leave a voicemail message for them similar to, "I’m calling because I’d like to schedule an interview with you as a top business leader within our community, and the interview will be listened to by thousands of business owners in the area."
Now that’s a great message to be leaving for people, as compared with one that’s asking them about their current real estate needs!
In addition, if you wanted to you could create audio CD sets from these interviews and give them to the people you want to do business with. Because who else but the top commercial broker in your territory would have audio CD sets to give away, featuring their own interviews with top business, political, and civic leaders within the community?
Positioning yourself in the minds of the people you want to do business with, so that you stand out as the best choice they could ever make in a commercial real estate broker, is where you want to be playing the game. And as I once heard a great direct response marketer say on this subject, "When it’s time to ask your people for their business, you want them to be so sold on working with you in advance, that it feels more like order taking from them and a lot less like you having to sell them."
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My April 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.
"Jim has helped me to organize a game plan and work it with the tenacity that’s producing a greater number of transactions for me in my marketplace."
Scott Wilcott
NAI Capital
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Why Companies That Have Been Hurt by the Japan Earthquake Will Need Your Help
By Jim Gillespie | March 30, 2011
I live in earthquake country here in Southern California. And I’ve been through a lot of them, including the Northridge earthquake back in 1994 that collapsed the Santa Monica Freeway, making it necessary for me to drive on side streets for several months to get to and from my industrial real estate territory.
But what I’ve experienced in all of these earthquakes doesn’t compare to the one earthquake that just hit Japan. And the fallout from the earthquake and how it will now affect businesses both in Japan and here in the U.S., will never compare to what I’ve experienced either.
Japan is a country with the world’s third largest economy as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), behind both the United States and China. And Japan does a ton of business with the United States, too, which is evidenced by the strong presence of Japanese companies in locations all over the U.S., and the strong dependence of U.S. businesses on Japanese components and products.
But while the U.S. media is mainly focused on discussing the radiation coming out of the nuclear reactors in Japan, and whether or not that radiation poses a threat to us here in the U.S., they’re completely missing the big picture. The economy of Japan is being devastated by the earthquake and its aftermath, and the impact of this devastation will be felt here in the U.S., too, within the coming months.
I was talking to a reporter who lives in Japan, and here’s what he told me:
"Tokyo now has 30%% less electricity than it had before the earthquake, and they’ve implemented rolling blackouts within the city. Blackouts that may need to be in effect for one full year."
And the reporter then began reading a list of the Japanese companies who were suspending or slowing down their operations, and the list read like a "Who’s Who" of Japanese corporations. And in terms of the potential impact of all of this here in the U.S., read this article and you’ll see that Toyota is telling its U.S. plants to prepare to shutdown. And reading this other article will tell you about the impact that’s now facing the entire automobile industry because of all that’s happened.
And what I’ve just mentioned involves just the automotive industry. Now imagine what may be involved around how all of this may impact both the computer and the electronics industries, and other industries, too.
With the shutting down of their nuclear reactors, all of the power that was generated by those reactors is no longer available. So replacing this power instantaneously just isn’t possible for them, and replacing all of this power is going to take a long time. So despite the massive disruption from the earthquake and the damage that it’s caused, Japanese companies don’t have the same amount of electricity available to them anymore, and this will have a big impact on their ability to manufacture products.
With this in mind there are people who are most likely going to be needing your help within the coming months, and here is a list of some of the people and companies you may want to be in close contact with, to see if they need your assistance:
1) Companies that are headquartered and based in Japan
2) Companies whose business relies on products, parts, or components that are manufactured in Japan
3) Japanese companies that are owner/users of their own facilities, as they may gravitate towards doing sale/leaseback transactions
4) People and organizations who may be invested in commercial real estate in Japan, as this may now impact their desire to buy or sell commercial real estate here in the United States
5) Owners of properties occupied by Japanese companies, as this may now cause shifts and consolidation in these companies’ plans for occupying commercial real estate
What’s happened in Japan is difficult for many of us to comprehend, and it’s something that none of us would ever want to have to live through ourselves. As a commercial real estate broker your business is about providing service, and your income is often commensurate with the quality of service you’re providing.
So pay attention, as the time may be here right now when you’re able to be of great service to the people who will really need you.
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On Wednesday, April 13th, I’ll be interviewing a top SIOR broker who will tell you all the specific strategies he’s now implementing to make solid money in this difficult economy. And this one strategy he’s been implementing in his brokerage business has him standing out as the best choice his clients and prospects can make in a commercial real estate broker, and he’ll tell you how you can implement this strategy into your own brokerage business also.
So if you’re not already registered for this live teleconference, click here for more information. And even if you register but can’t attend the live teleconference, I’ll still send you the audio CDs, written transcription, and highlights from my interview with this top expert, 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 to contact me.
"My work with Jim has given me better scripting and new approaches to get more listings and exclusive right to represent agreements signed by my clients and prospects."
Mike Spedden
MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services
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