Cold Call Surprise: "We Were Just Talking about Space!"

Sales 101... My friend Mark Ritchie at Ritchie Commercial in San Francisco claims the following story is true! (Note: Previous Dispatch cold calling stories on Jul 27 and Aug 1.)

"A newbie circa 1985 walks into an office and starts questioning the receptionist. Suddenly a broker comes forth to drop off some papers, overhears the newbie and says, 'Why that's incredible! We're having a meeting in 2 minutes in our conference room on that very same topic (need office space?). Why don't you come in and tell us about your services?'

"Newbie can't believe his good fortune, puffs up and enters the conference room to a table full of suspiciously demographically similar looking guys. The chief says, 'Tell
us why you are here today calling on us!'
He does and the room bursts into cruel laughter, as he has just cold called a national commercial brokerage firm's office and plunged into the icy waters of their sales meeting!"

Real estate coach Jim Gillespie at Advanced Real Estate Sales Coaching. "Oftentimes I ask my coaching clients, 'If you were to prospect 10-12 hours every week for the next year, what impact would this have on your income?' Most people respond by saying their income would at least double, some say it would triple, and most everyone says their income would increase by at least 50%."

John Klymshyn at The Business Generator writes. "Cold calling is difficult because people straddle the fence between OVER preparation (an hour-and-a-half of looking at a company’s website before picking up the phone to ask a single question) and total LACK of preparation ('Hi,uh... when is your lease up?')."

Matthew Keane at Applied Marketing Sciences writes that his firm will identify and qualify prospective clients. Brokers "just strap themselves in and make calls." But you still gotta make the call.

-- Peter Pike