Cold Calling Tips for Commercial Agents and Realtors Today

When you work in commercial real estate agency, the prospecting process should be part of every working day. Cold calling is a central component of that prospecting activity. When you make the calls professionally and directly each and every day, you will produce more opportunity faster for yourself. That being said, the calling process requires diligence and personal persistence.

To get the cold call process underway within your daily agency business activities, it is wise to consider and control the following issues.

1. Define your property market geographically so you know exactly where you need to be directing your calls. The best way to do this is on a simple map of the local region. Choose the roads and the boundaries that capture the best segments of the business and property community.
2. Within your defined territory, determine the types of properties that you will be acting on. Typically they will be Office Property, Industrial Property, or Retail Property. Each classification of property has specific attributes that need to be understood. This is where your personal market knowledge becomes very important as you consolidate and grow your market share. You cannot be an expert across the entire property market and every property type. For this reason you need to specialise.
3. Once you have defined your property market and property type, it is essential to study the properties that are currently available for sale or lease within that area. When you start cold calling, you will find that information of value. Some business owners and property owners will test you out regards existing listings near to them and the existing property market activity.
4. When you decide to start making calls into your property market, you will need lists of businesses and property owners to direct those calls to. The research side of the prospecting process continues each and every day and should be merged into your diary process. Finding property owners can be a slow process however it needs to be done. Finding business owners is a lot easier and can occur from use of the business telephone book. Either way you will find the right people to talk to through consistent research.
5. You should be prepared for two or three weeks of hard work in your call prospecting before you see significant opportunity evolving. However, the process does work and simply needs to occur each and every day. When you stop the calls cycle, you fall backwards in your momentum and consistency.
6. To help your momentum and your call process, develop a very simple script to support your initial dialogue when you make the calls. The cold call should be a conversation and not a sales pitch. Your target from the calling process should be to create meetings with people who have an interest in local property matters.
7. Build your database from the results of your calls. This is a personal process and should occur at the end of the day when time is less critical.

You can generate a lot of new business from the contact calling process. It is a personal discipline that requires practice and focus. Should you choose to develop this skill, new listings and commissions will be far easier to achieve.