It’s essential to regularly prospect for new clients in this business. Unfortunately,    during  this new economy we find ourselves in, unless we have a prospecting system in place the phone is not ringing. However, taking action on a regular basis with your prospecting toolbox in hand not only makes a difference, but also makes all the business!

I am sure you are familiar with Albert Einstein definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. What this means is by continuing on the path that so many commercial real estate brokers are on (basically doing nothing new or different) you will continue to get the same results are currently experiencing – nothing new.

Enough said, let me share with you the four dangers of not prospecting:

1.       If you’re not staying in touch with your target market on a regular basis, your competition is. This means you are in danger of having that prospect that you almost have in your hand fleeing to the broker down the street.

2.       Establishing relationships are key. People buy from those they know like and trust.  The danger in not forming relationships with your prospects is that you risk having them get to know your competition better, decide they like them better and then you will lose that piece of business.

3.       Prospecting keeps you in tune each with the problems that your target market experiences. Remember your Target market will buy solutions to their problems. Therefore, it is very dangerous to lose Todd each with current problems being experienced so that you can craft solutions to those problems.

4.       Prospecting keeps your pipeline full. If you don’t prospect you will have less business – it’s that simple. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Keeping the pipeline full?

So, go ahead, try a little prospecting today. You never know, you might have fun!

13 – TOP SALES PROS BUILD COMMUNITIES OF PROSPECTS

Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube)

On-line discussion forums

Teleseminars and webinars

In-person get-togethers

14 – TOP SALES PROS AUTOMATE

This chapter talks about a concept I have never tried but have been tempted to. He suggests hiring an appointment setter whose job is to find and qualify leads for you. I have a client who does this very successfully. If you decide to do this, be very specific with your scripts and role-play several times before sending the appointment setter off on his/her own.

Frank references a real estate agent (residential) who has others running open houses, show up for showings, and leaves him to close only the serious buyer. I do this as well. I know most of you are saying, “This won’t work for me”; I have proven it does. Outsource as many tasks in the selling process as possible. (outline my system).

This is the chapter Frank suggests the flyer distribution service – simply brilliant for anyone doing landlord rep work.

Automate through the use of a CRM software product. CRM stands for Client Relationship Management System (IE: Infusionsoft – the one I use)

The point is find system for generating leads, automate it, measure results, and tweak.

Top sales pros automate.

15 – TOP SALES PROS BUILD AND USE SYSTEMS

Why re-invent the wheel each and every time? Do something once, create a system (checklist) for it, formally document and you’re good to go.

16 – TOP SALES PROS DON’T USE CLOSES

Top sales pros are so effective at delivering value, as well as the right solutions, to prospects that they never have to sell. People just buy from them.

Close are just needed by people who don’t deliver value (and solutions)

Example: W Clement Stone was masterful at this! Just read any of his books and you’ll see why.

17 – TOP SALES PROS CUSTOMER’S ARE IN AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB

Creating a communities, including online discussion forums, regular teleseminars, and in-person get-togethers where prospects and clients alike can mingle, share ideas, and learn how to better use your products and services for the most benefit. In addition, have a special group for just clients only.

This helps generate referrals.

Have a breakfast, luncheon, cocktail hour, sporting event or anything that gets you and your clients together. You can have seminars or webinars and provide valuable information.

Create an exclusive club where entry is becoming or remaining a client.

CHAPTER 18 – NOW IT’S YOUR TURN TO BECOME A TOP SALES PRO

The most important thing you must do is IMPLEMENT. Top Sales Pros IMPLEMENT.

One of my favorite books is “Selling Sucks” by author Frank J. Rumbauskas Jr. It’s a short book that talks about a handful of alternate strategies for getting clients. Last week I presented numbers1-6 and so below are strategies 7-12:

7 — SALES PROS ARE COMPETENT PUBLIC SPEAKERS

Go out and speak, speak, speak.

Trade show, Association meetings, weekly meetings, and chambers, networking groups. ANYWHERE your audience is.

8 – TOP SALES PROS THINK LIKE BUSINESS OWNERS

Prospects appreciate sales pros that understand there are only three things a business owner cares about:

He wants to make more money

Have fewer expenses

Increased efficiency

Showing business owners how to save time is like handing them cash.

If you can show him how to do one of these especially if it helps him solve a nagging problem – you will snag him as a client every time.

9 — SALES PROS ARE RECOGNIZED EXPERTS

“Few things will get you more sales and obliterate your competition faster the being perceived as an expert.” Experts dress professionally and prosperous; they speak clearly and confidently.

Create a leave behind (or send ahead) piece that contains your contact information as well as a few relevant news stories, press releases, and articles you have published. This will crush your competition and positions you as an expert. The fact is people prefer to deal with experts!

3 Ways to be seen as an expert:

1. Article publishing. Write at least one article per month and have it published on www.ezinearticles.com. Include a resource box with your USP and all contact info including website (yes, you need your very own website).

2. Press Releases. For $80 per release PRWeb.com will handle getting your press release published. It will show up in Google News and Yahoo News. This again positions you as THE EXPERT. You can forward links from Yahoo and Google to everyone and it will be very cool. I plan to check this one out!

3. News Query Services the third way to be seen as an expert is both the most expensive and least guaranteed to work. However when it does work it is terrific and outranks both article publishing and news releases combined. Join PRLeads.com for $99 per month and when a reporter needs a quote in your specialty you get to submit some stuff and if yours is picked you will be published in MAJOR publications.

10–TOP SALES PROS GET AND USE FREE PR

Think – INTERNET!

11 – TOP SALES PROS ARE INTERNET-SAVVY

Frank calls the World Wide Web the World Wide Prospecting Web instead. He recommends getting yourself a website of your very own and driving traffic to it. Two purposes for a website. FIRST and the very most important – capture leads. Secondly, credibility.

12 – TOP SALES PROS GIVE FIRST AND GET LATER

Create value by speaking and publishing good content with no expectations in return. This is the fastest way to grow your business.

One of my favorite books is “Selling Sucks” by author Frank J. Rumbauskas Jr. It’s a short book that talks about a handful of alternate strategies for getting clients. So, over the next 3 weeks I will disclose 18 of the strategies! Here goes the first six:

1 – IT’S TRUE, SELLING SUCKS

Selling suggests an uphill battle of trying to convince somebody to buy something they really don’t want to. It’s all about playing the numbers game and trying to set appointments with whoever is willing to meet with you. The theory here is at some point you will hit the jackpot and find a qualified prospect. Someone who has a genuine need to lease, purchase or sell an income producing property.

Wouldn’t it be better if you had a non-stop supply of hot qualified leads that called you?

Selling is only necessary when you’re in front of someone who doesn’t really have a problem for you to solve.

Sales superstars are masters of attracting prospects who have an immediate problem for you to solve and you hold the key to the solution!

2 – TOP SALES PROS ARE MASTER PERSUADERS

Master persuaders are focused on creating a win-win situation that benefits everyone involved.

3 – TOP SALES PROS DON’T COLD CALL

Cold calling simply is not the most effective lead generation tool today. Sure it will get you an appointment here and there but it is an incredibly inefficient way to spend your time.

Less than 1% of all cold calls actually result in a qualified lead. Cold calling will get you a few appointments but generally not quality appointments.
(Try keeping track of your results – you’ll see)

Time is money and spending your time on an activity with the lowest return on your time investment is FOOLISH.

Instead, spend time solely on activities that yield the highest rate of return.

If you’d like to be a top sales pro. . .stop cold calling and start spending your time by using intelligent systems of self-marketing to generate leads.

4 – TOP SALES PROS GET AND KEEP THE POWER

Old school methods of selling tend to put salespeople in a position of weakness and prospects in a position of power. This is disastrous to sales results. Keep your power by:

Avoid phony rapport
Avoid phony or canned language
Slow down
Stop saying “right?” or “You know?”
Take as much space as you’d like (physical space)
Keep your hands calm while speaking
Don’t allow disrespectful behavior
Answer questions within your own frame and timing (i.e.: at end of presentation)
Be brief and simple
Be confident
Keep the presentation (or phone call) moving forward
Speak clearly

5 – SALESPROS DON’T GO TO NETWORKING CLUBS

They speak at networking clubs (allows them to be seen as the expert).

6 – SALESPROS GET HOT REFERRALS

Most sales pros are taught do a good job and ask for 3 referrals. “Do a good job and ask for 3 referrals is as effective as cold calling – meaning NOT AT ALL”. The bottom line is if you want referrals you either need a raving client or a referral program.

If you have no company referral program, at the very least find a way to gift referrals out of your own pocket.

“Appointment by referral only” concept.

Do you use Calling as a Marketing Strategy? Many of you know I am not a huge fan of cold calling. I have had newsletter readers opt out every time I say something that doesn’t support cold calling. In fact, I get hate mail about it! But…I love warm calling. I like to make them and I continuously encourage my clients to regularly do the same. Below are my 5 steps for successful warm calling. Have fun and if you drum up some business be sure to let me know!

CREATE YOUR IDEAL CLIENT PROFILE
Who do you enjoy working with?
Where are they located?
What business are they in?
What size? How many employees?
Get the idea?

NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHO YOUR IDEAL CLIENT IS, WHERE DO YOU FIND THEM
This one’s easy
Look in your personal database
Company database
Past clients
Referrals
Association members
Friends
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter

WHAT DO YOU SAY
Say you’re calling to check in and see what’s new
Ask how business is
Share a recent success
Offer to collect relevant information
Anything that allows you to connect in a warm and friendly manner

MAKE IT A ROUTINE
Block time each day or week
Avoid Interruptions
Have a goal (10 calls a day)
Be organized and write a list
Just do it
If you don’t call, your competition will

HAVE A FOLLOW-UP SYSTEM
Decide how many calls you’ll make to a single contact
How often
What you’ll do to stay in contact between calls – email, snail mail, newsletter and etc…

OK, no excuses, get going!

A client recently emailed me with a revelation he had, although it was really more of a question. He wanted to know why professional athletes who have retired tend to make successful commercial real estate brokers. Quite a thought provoking question; one that caused me to stop and ponder. Luckily, I have coached a handful of professional athletes that are now commercial real estate brokers and so after thinking about it for a while I was able to come up with the following 7 traits they possess:

1.       Discipline – Simply put – Top Producers do what 95% of their competition won’t do.

2.      Commitment – Top Producers are not just interested in quality and profitable performance; they’re committed.

3.      Daily Success Habits – The Top Producer averages 7 daily habits; the average producer is lucky to have 1.

4.      A “Do It Now” Mentality – A Top Producer gets the job done; now, today and does not procrastinate

5.      Continual Knowledge Seekers – A Top Producer values learning.

6.      Willingness to Delegate – Top Producers know he/she can’t do it all!

7.      Understands the Value of Experimentation – Top Producers regularly take calculated risks and know they will win more often then lose.

These are the traits that made them great athletes; these are also the traits that allow them to be Top Producers. If you learn and master even one of these traits you will be well on the way to fulfilling your own potential. Raise the bar on what you expect of yourself, find a great coach and become a Top Producer.

12-Month Goals – Setting goals is necessary because it sets the stage for what needs to happen over the next 12 months.  Having set goals makes it easier to take action steps that support your goals. It forces you to make choices about what work should and should not be.

Make sure your goals are specific and measurable, and make sure they have a deadline.  Develop 90-day plans with day-by-day action steps that support your annual goals.  Then, make sure you have blocked out time each day to complete the tasks.  If you follow your plan without cheating, success will be yours.

Manage Your Time – Now that you have goals, you must manage your time properly in order to be able to complete everything.  The 6 keys to effectively managing time are: attitude, goal setting/planning, prioritizing, scheduling, managing interruptions, and delegation.

If you have a firm grip on these 6 strategies and you are blocking time for necessary activities, delegating what you don’t do well or can pay someone else to do, and managing interruptions all while remembering to plan each day – your income will soar.  Guaranteed.

Be Organized – Are you organized?  Do you know where everything is?  Do you have files set up where all of your paperwork is kept?  Are there folders in your desktop?  Do you know what needs to happen everyday without giving it too much thought?

Whoever tells you in spite of the mess on their desk they know where everything is – don’t believe it!  IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!  Don’t fall into this trap – take the time needed to get and stay organized once and for all.  In order to stay organized, new habits need to be created – start today!

Cold Calls (YIKES!) – I often write about other and probably better methods, but nothing replaces old-fashioned cold calling no matter what type of business you have.  Have a script ready before making any calls – tweak it when needed.  Choose a specific number of calls to make each day and stick to it.  Begin with between 5 and 10, thus creating a habit.  Refer to various sources for gathering names to call, directories, online searches and of course your own personal database.

Knock on doors; knock on every door within the competing area of your property.  Leave a brochure and business card.  Be friendly and professional.

Add each name to your personal database and keep track of whom you called, and the result.

Develop a Tickler System – The only way to keep track of what needs to happen and when is to have a tickler system set up.  A what, you ask?  A tickler system is a system that keeps track of what follow-up is required and when.

You probably have something already on your phone or computer that does a great job of reminding you – but if not – do it manually – it’s easy!

Have Meetings – A client of mine tells me his number ” 1″ goal is meetings.  He knows that if he is able to have a face-to-face with a prospect he has a high probability of at least getting to the next step of turning a prospect into a client.

“Meetings” come in all different shapes and sizes.  We are no longer bound by the stereotypes of yesteryear.  A meeting can be the result of a conversation in a networking group, at a school event with other parents, at the gym while working out.  Anywhere you have a conversation that results in an opportunity to do business together.

Today it appears as if most of us keep track of everything electronically. Maybe you have ACT and utilize the feature that reminds you of things you need to tend to at a future date via an alarm system. I think Outlook has an almost identical option and so do most other similar programs. We think this acts as a tickler file system and for a select few it does. It can do a decent job of keeping us accountable to calls and contacts that need to happen; but, for the majority of us nothing can replace the good old-fashioned tickler file system for paperwork, bills, and projects.

The importance of using a tickler file is to keep track of things that need to happen in the future. People who need contacting, leases up for renewal, properties ready to sell and so on.

Why bother?

Again, tickler files are for items you want to be reminded of in the future. The files are designed to “tickle” your memory and keep track of details you don’t want to think of or have on your desk.

Of course it is important to not only create this system but you must actually use it!

Here’s how:

1. Get yourself a file cart (on wheels) and while you’re at it purchase some of those hanging folders too – have fun, use colors.
2. Get a bunch of manila (or colored) file folder:
   • Make labels for each year (feel free to go as far into the future as you’d like – 10 years is ideal).
   • Make labels for each month in the year.
   • Make labels for each week in the month (optional step).
   • Make labels for each day of the month (1-31).
3. The yearly file folders are for everything to occur or be followed up on in some year in the future. Same for the monthly folders. The daily file folders are for projects to be done on a certain day.
4. Now, the fun begins. Estimate the response date for every piece of paper you need to follow up on. Drop the paper (or document or to do) in the folder labeled with the date, month or year assigned.
5. Each morning, pull the proper folder and handle the day’s follow-ups. In certain cases you may need to move the to-do into a new folder.
6. At the beginning of each month (and year), distribute that month’s follow-ups into specific-day folders.
7. Things you might not think of to put in your tickler:
   • Phone calls you will need to make
   • Errands
   • Requests you need to fulfill
   • Assignments needing completion
   • Things you need to delegate
   • Invitations

A great tickler file will keep you organized and way ahead of the competition, start yours today!

Today’s commercial real estate professionals are eager for new clients. 2011 has been a challenge for many and yet outstanding for a few. What contributes to this disparity? Well a great many things: skills, habits, experience, geographic location, a staff to help, energy levels and so on. I didn’t include time because we all have the same amount of that! Plus, the bottom line is most of you won’t take the time required to do what’s most important for ultimate success and that’s research.

Why research? Because that’s the only way one can access the information you really need. Information like companies expanding, landlords in desperate need of your service, and the most important thing – the contact! Who to contact and the contacts vital statistics, such as email and phone number, are getting harder and harder to find and yet are more available then ever before (an oxymoron?).

I recently Googled “retailers expanding” and wound up with access to a list of just about every single national and regional retailer and their 2011 expansion plans – a small goldmine for any retail broker! The information I access on the internet just by spending a little bit of time each day is astounding (and has been extremely profitable).

If you spend just 30-minutes a day on research everyday between now and January 1st, what difference do you think it will make? How about a hundred new prospects? How about knowing who the decision maker is for those 100 prospects? How about the renewed energy you’ll get because you know so much more then you did just yesterday? The possibilities are endless.

If you stop and think about Top Producers you’ll probably agree they are walking information databases; how did they get there? Hmm . . . now there’s something to ponder!

With the New Year approaching quickly I suspect many of you are asking yourselves how you can boost your 2010 commissions. With all of the opportunity we keep hearing will be available to us in the coming year, how can you be certain you get your share? Keep reading…

1. Canvass – Get out and see the people, see the property in 2010.
2. Call — Call your past clients. How often do you make contact with an old client? Chances are never. What are you waiting for? Past clients are the best source for new business!
3. Cluster – Cluster like activities together. For example, return and initiate phone calls twice a day in one block of time without interruptions. Pick two or three afternoons a week and have multiple meetings in each. You’ll get more done in less time.
4. Commit – Commit to being consistent. This is key. Choose 3 money making actions steps you are committed to taking daily – then take them
5. Challenge – Challenge yourself to be better in 2010. But first, identify what that means to you and your business. Then, just do it!

Don’t forget Einstein’s definition of insanity – “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result”. If the action you took in 2009 wasn’t working for you – change it. What will you do differently in 2010?