Cold Call Prospecting in Commercial Real Estate – Tips You Need

In commercial real estate today, the cold calling process is still a very big and important part of what we do as agents.  Each day you should be devoting 2 or 3 hours to the process.  When you do this you find the opportunities and the prospects that you can serve.

Many agents struggle with the research and effort required to get a list of people to call.  To help with that here are some thoughts:

1. Choose one or two property investors in the local area to research each day.  On average you should be able to contact one targeted property owner per day. Over time you will have built a list of 30 new property owners per month.  This is a very powerful way to build your property owner contacts.
2. The foundations for income and occupancy in commercial and retail property are in the local businesses and tenants.  Make it a priority to call 40 local businesses every day.  This process is easy as you can use the business telephone book for that.  You can also use the internet.  A business owner will quite likely tell you if they are a tenant, they own the property, who the landlord is, or if they need to relocate.  All of that information is very valuable.  Track the information in your database.
3. Selectively contact solicitors and accountants in the local area.  The best way to do that is by sending a letter first.  Then you make the call.  Introduce yourself and get to meet them.  These business professionals will have clients that you can help with property matters.  It takes a little bit of time for the levels of trust to be built up and the proof of experience to be established however there is very high value in this level of contact.
4. Get in touch with property developers to see what needs they may have locally with current and new projects.  It takes a bit of time for the relationship to be built here, but there is high value to you in doing so.  Understand that most developers have
   relationships with many other agents in your town.  Don’t spend your valuable time at no cost until you know that the developer is committed to you.

The secret to making a call prospecting process work for you is in regularity.  The process has to happen every day.  It is a habit that takes time to create and you will need to prime yourself for the challenge.  After about 3 or 4 weeks, the whole process gets a lot easier and results start to come in.