For those of you that are busy and want me to get straight to the point, here it is: the best Real Estate agents find sellers before they’re sellers.

Now for those of you that want me to explain what that means, read on.

There Are No Shortcuts Around Building Solid Relationships

When I first started in CRE, I was one of those guys that looked for shortcuts. As a result, I had a huge learning curve because I thought I was smart enough to reinvent the wheel. I tried everything. And as a byproduct, made a lot of mistakes. Which is valuable, because now I’m an expert in everything that doesn’t work in this business.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was believing that I could build a book of business without building solid relationships. I thought that if I just cold-called enough and asked enough people “Would you look at an all-cash offer?” I could build a sustainable business. That strategy only works, until it doesn’t.

What does that mean? Sure, it worked in 2012 during the down market when nobody wanted to work in Real Estate. But in 2014 when everybody and their grandmothers became a Real Estate agent, it no longer worked. Why? Because everybody was using the same pitch. There was no differentiation! We all sounded the same. Unfortunately, I treated the philosophy, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” as gospel. And was reluctant to change - until I was forced to do it.

Find Sellers Before They Know They Are Sellers

Once I started surrounding myself with high producing agents, I realized a pattern. They were extremely consistent and hyper-focused. They would call the same 1,000 people 3-4x a year, whereas I was calling the same 4,000 people once a year. The difference was they were building actual relationships!

They knew their clients’ goals and objectives, and as a result could communicate more effectively with them. While me on the other hand, I had the same pitch year after year “Would you look at an offer? No? Ok thanks!” I mean you have to admit it gets old after a while, right?

Here’s what I learned from studying their sales practices. They were finding sellers before these owners knew they were sellers! Meaning if you called someone and they say “Yeah I’m selling! Bring me an offer!” You’re most likely too late. I mean let’s be honest, do you really think you’re the first and last person they’re going to say that too.

And do you also really think you’re the only agent calling them? Of course not. You’re the 10th or 20th person they’ve told that to. Why do you think they sound so confident when they say it? At that point, you’re competing with 20 other agents and your chances are slim unless you already have a relationship or truly have a unique value proposition.

Relationship Selling

You want to call someone that doesn’t know they’re a seller yet, and help them discover that selling is a good idea through effective questions. Usually that’s difficult on the first call, but it’s easy when you have a relationship. It’s called relationship selling.

Have you ever called someone that told you they weren’t selling and a few weeks later you see it on the market? It’s because they had a relationship with that agent. I’ve been on both sides of that equation.

Here’s the bottom line. Even though Jordan Belfort said that relationship selling is a crock of shit - it works. At least in commercial real estate. Now I know some of you reading this are nodding your head because you’ve built your practice on off-market inventory. I’ve seen it and I know who you guys are and I congratulate you.

But I’m talking about something different here. For those interested in building solid predictable business that lasts, relationship selling is the way. All the other ways only work, until they don’t.