5 Prospecting Rules to Live By

I got an email the other day and the subject line was something similar to 5 Prospecting Rules to Live By but when I opened it up I was very disappointed because it was just a bunch of propaganda to sell me something. I decided to write my own version and make it really good.

So, below are the 5 Prospecting Rule to Live By. Follow these and your business will have nowhere to go but up!

1.    Prospect Daily: This is a no-brainer but I have learned very few commercial real estate brokers are consistent with prospecting. It’s usually an afterthought. You need to establish the habit of prospecting everyday. Even if it’s just touching base with a handful of old clients while you drive to or from work. If you don’t prospect your pipeline will dry up quickly and if you do prospect you will never run out of clients.

2.    Know What Prospecting Strategies You’re Good At: There must be at least 100 prospecting strategies available today. Anything from making calls, to door knocking to postcards to newsletters and many more. But the best ones are the ones you will take action on. So, if you hate cold calling, make warm calls instead. If you hate canvassing, drive around and see who has a full parking lot and probably needs to expand. If you think Facebook is a waste of time try LinkedIn.

There are no magic bullets when it comes to prospecting. That’s why there are so many different possibilities. It takes a minimum of three solid strategies that you use regularly. Choose ones you will do rather then force ones you hate upon yourself; you’ll be more successful.

3.    Treat Prospecting as You Would an Important Meeting: This means you need to block time in your daily calendar and honor the timeslot as you would an important client meeting. What typically happens is that because you don’t like prospecting you easily find other activities to take its place and justify it by selling yourself on the idea that what you did instead was more important – but it wasn’t. No excuses.

4.    Know Who is Your Ideal Client Is and How to Qualify: This is BIG! The first thing you need to know is who is your ideal client? For example if you are an office tenant rep broker it may be companies with 50-200 employees who have multiple offices in your trade area. This means these are the types of companies you look for and reach out to when you prospect. A company with 10 employees would not be a good fit.

And then, if you are lucky enough to dig up a prospect and before you spend too much time, be certain the prospect is qualified. You know, doesn’t already have a broker, has a REAL need, is the decision maker, has the financial ability and well…you get it.

5.    The Money is in The Follow Up: OK, this is key and I see the same mistake being made over and over. You find a prospect, the prospect is qualified but you didn’t follow up as promised and you read in the paper that a deal got done with this company and you weren’t the broker – your competition was.

You must have a tickler system that let’s you know when and how often to follow up or you’ll loose the business. The number one reason companies change broker’s is a lack of communication, don’t be that broker.  

Good luck with your prospecting – you ought to be able to land a few new clients now that you’re committed…

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