The commercial real estate industry is based on effort and service. As an agent you need plenty of both. The clients and prospects in the local area should know you as the ‘best agent for the job’. If you have not reached that ‘level of branding’ then take a look at what you are doing as an agent in prospecting and service, and decide how you can improve it. Get involved in your market by ‘opening more doors’ on new relationships.

Making the first appointment in commercial real estate agency is critical to market growth. Each day you should be making more calls to new people and finding out just what they need or do with commercial property. Some of those connections will turn into meetings and from that point onwards a relationship with a prospect can be built.

I say to most agents that their prospecting model should be creating 2 new meetings per day with new people. That is a good target to establish. It is really easy to get at least 1 new meeting per day; to lift that to 2 meetings is not hard but it requires effort and focus. You work in commercial real estate agency where the rewards are high and so are the challenges. Be prepared to do the hard work.

How much new business would you create if you could meet with 2 new people every day? Over time you would have an impressive list of clients and your commissions would rise. Would you be busy in the process? Yes, but that level of activity is a good thing.

Here are some rules and targets to apply as part of getting that first meeting with a prospect:

1. Understand that you are working with a decision maker. Given that many of the people that we work with are ‘business’ people, do some research about them and their business.
2. Set an appointment time and confirm it on the morning of the day of the meeting. Make it easy for people to contact you if pressures of time occur. Business owners and property investors are typically quite busy each and every day, so make it easy to find you and make adjustments to any meeting time.
3. Keep on top of property trends and market activity. The value that you bring to your clients and prospects will be centred in market knowledge, up to date information, and personal real estate skills. At that meeting you should be showing all three of those traits clearly and solidly.
4. Check out their properties prior to any meeting so you can be prepared to talk from a highly relevant level.

When you are fully prepared for that first meeting, you leave a good impression and set the foundations for a good client and prospect relationship. Keep the ‘doors of contact’ open and build your trust and relevance with every prospect that you reach in commercial real estate agency.