Common Pitfalls of a Career in Commercial Real Estate

When you start your career in commercial real estate, you will soon know the common pitfalls that prevail in the industry. They are nothing special and unique, but they do require specific focus and action to resolve. The pitfalls that most agents and salespeople come across are some of the following: Finding new clients in the local area is not as easy as it originally seemed. The process requires hard work and daily diligent focus. Prospecting is one of the most important things that you can do in your career. The competitive nature of the industry means that you will be up against other agents continually in presenting and pitching your services. It is easy to believe that you will win a listing, however the motivations of clients are many and varied. Agents and salespeople with local property knowledge are useful, however the agent that usually wins the listing will be the one that shows the greatest level of confidence and solid negotiation skills. Clients like to work with experienced achievers that can solve their property problem quickly. These three points would indicate that you must be prepared to work hard and to a plan. The most successful agents in the industry achieve their results through diligent focus and daily hard work. I go back to the point made earlier; you must prospect daily regardless of how much other work you have currently. Failure to prospect today means that your business will slow down within about two or three months. Here is a good business model that can be used in most commercial real estate agencies. This is a personal model that should apply to sales people.Research the new business leads and opportunities every night before you commence the next day. On this basis you will have new people to contact. A big part of your job is to create a new leads and new opportunities. That is how you will grow your market share. Start your day early and always with the prospecting system and process that is relevant to your property type. Generally speaking this will mean lots of cold calls within a defined system that you feed with new leads and opportunities. The prospecting process should take about two or three hours every morning. By the time you get to the middle of the day, you will have achieved two or three meetings from those calls made in the morning. Do your property inspections and client meetings in the afternoon. That then leaves the late afternoon for you to do your paperwork and marketing. Organisation and focus will turn your career in a positive direction. This does take time, however diligent daily process should see positive results within about one month. When the results start to come in, you simply keep the process moving ahead. Do not change the rules, and remain consistent.