A Day In The Life Of A Commercial Real Estate Agent
Choosing commercial real estate as a career path is one thing, and being a successful agent is another thing. A lot of hard work and consistency is required to achieve your dreams. Working long hours is one way to do it, along with acquiring the skills necessary to pursue a successful career.
Continuous learning would be your torch of light that will guide you throughout the process, and you need to learn from your peers. We would like to go through the routine of successful agents in the market and help you out in structuring your schedule accordingly because this routine has helped out several commercial real estate agents immensely.
Starting the Day Off
After getting up early in the morning and getting your workout and breakfast in, you should be in the office by 7:30 am. Check your voicemails, so that you can get back to the clients who have called you in your absence.
Afterward, check your contact database to schedule your cold calling routine for the day. Try reading the local papers and international papers, especially the business section to analyze whether someone in the industry could be your next client or a prospect. You need to know what’s happening in your area and around the globe because it can help you create a better proposal for your clients. Listen to podcasts related to real estate and try to motivate yourself to close a deal today.
Meeting with Your Colleagues
After getting your schedule done, you should meet with your colleagues and discuss what needs to be done today. You can consider different clients you need to talk to, or you can discuss your next strategy to close some deals. Create a list of tasks that need to be performed and divvy them up amongst your team members so that every task becomes more comfortable and no one in the team is burdened.
Make sure that you schedule another meeting at the end of the day so you can review whether the tasks you decided to complete today have been completed or not. Ask your colleagues about the deals in the pipeline and whether they are facing any problems which can be solved with your help. Try to send your teammates into the field, and collect data on trade leases and other opportunities available in the market to work on in the next few days.
Generating New Business
After meeting with your colleagues, get back into your office and start cold calling according to the schedule you had set earlier. Make sure that you get a meeting with one of the clients you have called and find out what they need so you can provide them with the right kind of deal. Find out who is the decision maker in the company you have called and make sure you can get connected to that person. Send your marketing material to that person so that you don’t lose the opportunity. The attention span of a client is quite short, so you need to hit the iron when it’s hot.
Lunch
Try your best that you are not eating your lunch alone. Invite a client over for lunch or a prospect or your teammates. If you have got an opportunity or a client for lunch, that would be best because you can discuss the market situation with them and collect information. This will help you formulate a deal that will be acceptable to both the parties. Even if you are eating lunch with your team, you can easily catch up on activities that have taken place in the office since the morning. You can ask your teammates whether you can help them with something or not.
Afternoon Activities
Right after being done with your lunch, you should go to your office and recheck your voice mails. Turn on your computer and check if any emails need your immediate attention. Call your clients or their legal representatives on the deals in the pipeline. If you’ve got any developments going for a project, stay up-to-date and inform the clients if anything comes up. You can also visit different properties in the area during this time and check if they can be of any interest to your clients.
Evening Schedule
In the evening, you should be focused on creating different marketing strategies and marketing material for your upcoming campaigns. You need to reach out to your prospects in the best way possible. Check with the finance or contracts department and make sure everything is moving according to plan. You don’t want any last minute surprises blowing up your deal.
After all of the accounting and financial arrangements are checked out, ring the sales department and get the details about deals being closed as well as deals in the pipeline. Check to see whether you are on target with the estimated revenue you calculated from the beginning of the year. Get as much information as you can from the sales manager.
Try to set up a meeting with your colleague once more at around 6 pm in the evening. Go through all the activities that are going on in the firm and update them regarding reports from the accounting and sales department.
Revisit the targets you set up in the morning and the progress being made to achieve those targets. Get a list of clients being contacted today and make follow up calls so that you stay updated with the situation. You can also set up a team meeting with the clients or his/her legal representative for the next day to discuss important issues.
End of the Day
At around 7 pm, you should start wrapping up the activities in your office for the day. Check your emails and voice mails once again. Meet with the whole team and motivate them to come prepared for the next day with more energy and enthusiasm. Wish them goodbye and call it a day.