All good prospecting efforts are wasted without good follow-up. Here are some fundamental tips of the trades for all the soldiers pounding the pavement for deals every day.

1. By Ronald H. Cohen
Chief Marketing Officer
The Besen Group
Follow Up or Go Home:
15 Tips for a CRE Broker to Cultivate Leads
November 23, 2015

3. It all starts here.

4. All your prospecting efforts
are worthless without good
______ __.*
*Hint: the title of this presentation
Follow Up or Go Home: CRE Broker’s Tips To Cultivate Leads | 4

5. So here are 15 quick tips you can
do to follow up as a CRE broker:
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6. #1: Qualify & prioritize your leads
• Distinguish “warm” from “hot leads”
• Have a coding system
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7. #2: Launch your schpiel quickly & strategically
• When you get the prospect on the phone, get
to the point
• Avoid open-ended questions
• Have some relevant data points/comps
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8. #3: No does not always mean no
• It may just be no for now, or no for this
particular property
• Persevere even after you get rejected
– Unless you’re told unequivocally to flip off!
– Ask what other service we can provide if a sale is not
on the immediate horizon
– Seek to understand other needs or happenings in
their business
– Ask when you should re-contact them
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9. #4: Expect no one to call back
• Chances of assistant’s message resulting in callback
for cold call is, wait for it: slim & none
– Ask when a good time to reach them is and refer to Tip #6
• Leave a voicemail for the direct contact
• Give yourself permission to call back again
– “Hi, this is Ron with Besen Group. We said we’d talk this
week to discuss next steps. Because I’ve missed you, I’ll try
you again this afternoon at 4pm and if we don’t connect
today, expect a call at 8:30am tomorrow. In the meantime,
you can reach me at 646 424-5317…”
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10. #5: When they say call back, call back!
• People are super-busy and you’re low priority
• Ask when the best time to catch them is, and
then “show up”
– Start that conversation by reminding them they
told you to call at this time
• If they say call back in 6 months, make it 3
This could go on for months, but just keep
calling back until they actually talk to you
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11. Polite persistence…
“Being persistent without
becoming a pain in the *ss.”
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12. #6: Kiss the ring of The Gatekeeper
• Be polite if not conversational
• Get his/her name & note it down for future use
• Get his/her e-mail if they won’t give out that of
the principal
– Next time you can start the conversation by name,
so it’s like “they know you”
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13. #7: Ask smart, focused questions
• “Are you aware that several properties in close
proximity to yours have traded recently for
stratospheric prices?”
• “If you were to consider selling at this time,
would you pay the capital gains taxes or look to
do a 1031 exchange?”
• “If I got you an offer of $_____, would you sell
the property?”
• “What can I do to get you to hire me today?”
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14. #8: If you cannot get them on the phone,
send them something by mail
• Means of tracking them down & getting their attention
• Formal letter/credentials package to their office or
home
• E-mail to them or their admin
• Basic letter to their building address, “Attention: Super”
• Soft offer/indication of interest in writing
• Stick a business card in
• Letter templates are available!
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15. #9: After you do get them on the phone,
send them something by mail
• If they are at all considering a sale (warm lead)
• Formal letter/credentials package
• E-mail to them or their admin
• Relevant article about the neighborhood their
property is in or recent comps
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16. #10: Be a problem solver
• Follow up with relevant and/or valuable answer
to key question(s)
– Example: my building resides in location designated
for rezoning, what is the timing on that?
• Can guide them to other valuable resources
– Legal, 1031 intermediary, replacement properties
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17. #11: For Crissakes, use a CRM!
• Must have a structured, organized system in
place to log leads & build in follow-up alerts
– ACT is the official company recommendation
– Outlook can work, but is not the ideal tool
• Create a “prospect database”/mailing list that
receives updates of your sales activity
• Have a “Top 100” client/prospect list
MISSED FOLLOW-UPS WILL COST YOU DEALS
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18. #12: Speak to partners too
• If there are multiple partners involved, speak
to other partners as well if possible
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19. #13: Try a handwritten thank you note
• Many people threw out the advice of sending a
handwritten thank you note. With e-mails
flooding in by the hundreds every day and
everyone’s first tactic is to just delete as many
messages as possible, a personal written
message is an anomaly.
– A handwritten card shows you really took the time to
communicate, and it will have that human touch
• Combine it with a well-timed follow-up e-mail
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20. #14: Make it easy for them to try you out
• In many cases you may have a prospect that
happily uses a competitor’s service and has no
need for you
– Pry a little to find out if they’ve had any negative
experiences with the competition
– Offers to let them try us out for 30 days and/or at a
slightly lesser fee
– Ask if we can bring them any offers
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21. #15: Get a Meeting (!!)
• Face-to-face, interpersonal connection always
trumps all else
• No one is hiring you to sell their multi-million
dollar asset without looking you in the eye first
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23. Ronald H. Cohen
Chief Marketing Officer
The Besen Group
(646) 424-5317
www.besengroup.com
rcohen@besengroup.com
www.linkedin.com/in/ronaldhcohen
@besengroup|@RonHCohen
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