Apto Commercial Real Estate Blog

You, the commercial real estate broker, live and breathe your market. Helping businesses find space to lease or buy is what you do and what you know so well.

As for the people running those businesses, they have other things on their minds! While some might have a bit of familiarity with the market, many of them don’t have the faintest clue as to how to find the right space for them.

So while you’re aggressively calling to win their business, keep in mind that they’re probably pretty stressed about the thought of the move. Considering rent may consume up to 20% of company revenues, depending on the industry, and that the devil is in the lease details, it's important they make the right decisions. That starts with selecting the right broker for their needs.

For many brokers, creating marketing materials for a property is a frustrating ordeal.

Even if you have the technology in place to create websites and brochures, you’re often entering details over and over, wondering if you missed something, or fiddling with the formatting. Then once the site is out there, you’re left sifting through unqualified leads.

And what about those off-market deals that you know you can sell, but don’t necessarily have the budget for materials that can help showcase the property?

You don’t have time or resources for all that. You need a professional website that’s easy to create, that’s built from the system you already have in place, with a centralized hub to organize and follow up with the leads that you reach out to or that come in on their own.

Well, we’ve got good news. We just launched Apto Property Sites, our latest product feature designed to help you work your deals more efficiently.

Are you one of those commercial real estate brokers that has a tendency to put off prospecting? No matter how often you think about it, how often you promise yourself or your team that you’ll do it, how often you block time on your calendar, you just can’t make it happen. It’s your least favorite part of the job and the first thing you postpone when you’re busy.

Of course, you know how important it is to prospect. It feels great to be working deals and know the commission check is in sight, but once those deals are done and the check is cashed, what’s next? You can rely on repeat business and referrals if you’ve been around for a while, sure. But even tenured brokers know that to be continually moving forward, you have to keep prospecting.

Here are two tricks that can help make prospecting a little bit easier.

All commercial real estate brokers have been there.

You’re hitting the phones, trying to drum up new business and connect with new people, and you just can’t seem to get past the gatekeepers.

Those decision makers you’re calling have receptionists for a reason, after all. Whether it’s a property owner or tenant, they probably have a lot of people trying to reach them, and they sometimes even train those gatekeepers to block pesky salespeople like you, sending you straight to the abyss of voicemail.

But getting past those gatekeepers can be done. And it should be—you have real value to offer, after all!

Here are a few simple tips to help you get through and reach new connections, and make sure you keep them on the line once you do.

We’ve all been there, having to make the “dreaded” cold call. While few commercial brokers are a fan of cold calling, they’re a reality for this industry — especially when you’re a broker who’s just starting out.

Cold calling often feels uncomfortable because the person isn’t expecting to hear from you, and you have no idea if they’re in the right mood or frame of mind to have a sales conversation.

Like anything else, it’s all about the approach. Whether you’re a seasoned broker or just starting out, there’s an opportunity to change how you view cold calling.  

This starts with embracing the idea that you’re never actually making a call that’s truly cold because you always have insight backing up your prospecting.

We all know prospecting is one of the best ways to win new deals, build your market presence and strengthen relationships. But did you know consistent prospecting offers two massive, yet largely unexpected benefits?

In his book Commercial Real Estate Power Brokers, Jim Gillespie breaks down some of the most effective prospecting techniques brokers can use to strengthen their business. Along with the well known benefits, Gillespie sheds light on two little known reasons everyone from junior brokers to seasoned veterans should never stop prospecting.

From building a network of top clients to consistently earning stronger commissions, here are two reasons you should make prospecting part of your daily schedule.

Have you switched to the top-of-mind prospecting system?

The concept is appealing. Outlined by Blaine Strickland in his book, Thrive: Ten Prescriptions for Exceptional Performance as a Commercial Real Estate Agent, the strategy involves less cold calling, and instead outlines a method that focuses on identifying 125 high-value targets in your market to build relationships with so you’re “top of mind” when they need an expert CRE advisor. Over time, they’ll give you a healthy income, and you don’t have to spend all day on the phone.

But what exactly makes a good target prospect for that list?

We started getting the barrage of calls and emails last summer.

Apto currently occupies the second floor of a building right in the heart of downtown Denver. Our lease is up later this year, and since we’re a growing company, we’ll probably need to expand somewhere a little bigger.

So it makes sense that it was last summer that brokers started pounding on our door. They would talk to whoever they could get a hold of on the phone―our customer support line, our salespeople, our operations manager...they even requested demos of our product just to make their pitch to us.

For better or worse, we already had representation in place, thanks to our founder. He was a broker himself and had connections to get us an experienced team.

But it got me thinking. What would it take to uproot an incumbent broker? Or just to beat another broker in a competitive situation? After all, our product promises to give brokers a competitive edge, and I do believe our technology lives up to that promise. But how exactly does it work? And what else does it take to win?

It comes down to this: If you’re up against another broker in winning a competitive deal, you need to be more knowledgeable, more proactive, or more organized. To find out where your gaps are and how you can win, ask yourself these three questions.

There’s no denying Microsoft Excel revolutionized the way businesses approach data.

Originally launched in 1985, Excel's strong graphics and fast processing speeds helped it beat out Lotus 1-2-3 to become the dominant spreadsheet software by the mid-1990s. For the next decade it helped businesses around the world analyze and present their data more effectively than ever before.

But times have changed.

Given the options available today, Excel simply isn’t the best tool for commercial real estate professionals who need a platform to analyze data, prospect, and help them close deals. Modern customer relationship management (CRM) software, especially those focused specifically on CRE, create new possibilities and give brokers new ways to act on their data.

If you’re thinking about investing in new technology, now is the time. And if you’re still using an outdated spreadsheet, while shortcuts and tricks can help, ultimately you risk falling behind.

When you think about prospecting, is cold calling the first thing that comes to mind?

It is for many brokers, and it’s easy to see why — if you want to find new prospects, you first need to call them, right?

It’s hard to argue with that, and while cold calling does play a role in every prospecting strategy, it shouldn't be your entire strategy. Instead, the best prospecting strategies are rethinking the use of cold calling, transforming it from an end in itself to just one part of a larger approach to securing new business.

From building your market presence to using technology to segment and systematize your efforts, use these three prospecting strategies to move beyond cold calling and make more meaningful relationships in your market.