Prospecting: The Fastest Way to Generate New Business by Jim Gillespie
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 an 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. | 
