What if you graduated college, entered the workforce, and never learned anything new? Would this affect the amount of money you earn? Of course! And yet, most commercial real estate professionals plow through their days, weeks, months and even years without ever accumulating any new knowledge. Can you imagine? We have moved into the twenty-first century time-wise but most of us operate our businesses with the same old tools that were used in the 1800’s to get new clients!

The typical way a commercial real estate professional attacks growing their business and accumulating new clients is to:

1. Cold call everyone – after all, isn’t everyone a potential client?
2. Play the numbers game – 50 calls a day is perfect, the goal? Just get the “meeting”.
3. Use canned scripts for each call – aren’t each prospects needs the same?
4. At the meeting – spend all of the time trying to sell them a service they may or may not be ready for! Is this an effective use of time?

OK, so right about now you are asking yourself “What should this look like”? In the book, “The Contrarian Effect”, by Michael Port and Elizabeth Marshall the authors believe there are eight major signs pointing to shifts in the marketplace and the manner in which clients want you to interact with them, they are:

1. Clients find you and initiate the buying process – not the other way around.
2. Clients are in control of how-and-if you reach and communicate with them.
3. Clients have unlimited choices and access to unlimited information.
4. Clients are looking for you in new ways.
5. Clients want a relevant and valuable offer tailored just for them.
6. Clients want to decide when it’s time to buy – not you.
7. Clients demand respect – and carry a big megaphone.
8. Clients don’t trust you until you prove you’re worthy of their trust.

What does this mean? Traditional sales tools are broken and no longer effective tools to build relationships and generate sales. You need to spend some time and determine what’s working for you and what’s not!

Stay tuned next week for Part 2!

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