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1)
Prospecting: The Fastest Way to Generate
New Business When
we begin our careers as commercial real
estate agents, prospecting is often the
activity that occupies most of our time.
We don't have any transactions we're
working on and we may not know of anyone
who's looking to close a commercial real
estate transaction, so the majority of
our time often revolves around finding
some people we can do business with. The
problem, though, is that oftentimes once
we've achieved a certain degree of
success in our industry, prospecting
becomes something we do when we feel we
have the time. And we all know how easy
it is to find enough things to do to
consume our day and not allow any time
for prospecting. In summary here, it's
easy to feel that as long as we're busy
working on activity, prospecting is not
really the most urgent matter we need to
deal with. And
in mentioning this, how is your level of
business activity right now? Are you
happy with the number of transactions
you're currently working on? How about
the size of the transactions and you're
average anticipated commissions from
them? If
you're happy with your answers to these
questions then what I'm about to say may
not be relevant for you. But if you find
yourself wanting more transactions or
higher quality transactions for you to
work on, the fastest way to elevate
yourself to this new level of activity
will probably be through prospecting. With
this in mind, how much prospecting are
you doing on a weekly basis these days?
I find that most veterans are probably
doing no more than two hours of
prospecting a week once they've
established themselves in the business,
and some of them are even doing less
than this. But when I normally talk with
agents who are doing this low level of
prospecting, most every single time
they're disappointed with the results
they're currently producing in their
businesses, too. And
when you're not doing your prospecting,
you can become like a scavenger in your
real estate business, working on the
deals that just fall into your lap or
have been passed over by other agents.
You can feel like a boat at sea with no
engine, no oars, and no sails...being
moved in a direction that's completely
outside of your control. In short, you
can feel like a victim, but at the same
time one who feels very busy doing a lot
of activities everyday! All
the business you've ever wanted for
yourself is constantly out there for you
everyday. Just look at all the deals
your competitors are closing that you're
not involved in and you'll understand
what I mean. If you had been prospecting
these same people six months to a year
ago, it could have been you successfully
representing them and closing these
transactions instead of your
competitors. Maybe you wouldn't be
closing all of these transactions, but
you'd certainly be closing a good number
of them. The
top agents I know personally prospect
10-12 hours a week. And what's even more
important, they continually prospect
like this every week even when they're
busy. Because they know in doing this
they'll continually find better leads
for more lucrative transactions that
they'd otherwise miss if they stopped
prospecting. So
if you really want to kick your
commercial real estate career into high
gear, here's my challenge to you: For
the next three months block out 10-12
hours a week on your calendar and
prospect during this time. Don't make
any excuses and just get this
prospecting done no matter what happens.
And if you do this for just the next
three months I can almost guarantee your
biggest problem will be deciding how to
handle all the solid new business you're
constantly working on. 
Click
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continually make hundreds of thousands
to millions of dollars a year.
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