Building your business: Create a leads group - by Edward Smith

This column is offered to help educate agents new to commercial and investment brokerage and serve as a review of basics for existing practitioners. 

Finding leads is an important part of prospecting and building your commercial real estate business. Knowing what companies are planning to move into or leave your area creates sale and leasing opportunities for us.

Most areas have a local Business Networking International (BNI) chapter, joining the group can be very beneficial, but starting your own leads group may even be better. 

Both basically work the same way. The group is composed of only one person from an industry to avoid competition. At each meeting members must bring two to three leads of businesses that are moving; with complete contact information. (A standard form should be developed for information about each lead.) The leads are discussed and shared with all the members, who can each follow up by contacting these businesses and offering their services.

Set the meeting for a specific time, perhaps the third Tuesday of each month. What works well is an early breakfast meeting at a local diner. Rules need to be established and enforced. Or this could end up as a nice social event but with no one making any money. 

Sample rules should include, if a member show up for two meetings with no leads to share, they are out! Someone else from that industry will be recruited to replace them. Or if a member misses two consecutive meetings they are out. Eight to ten people is a good size for the group; meeting should be short to the point and last less than an hour. 

To get started, discuss the concept with someone you know from another field such as an: accountant, office designer, moving company, architect, insurance agent, property manager, office furniture, janitorial company, IT provider, telecommunications, attorney or other. Create your rules. The two of you pick a third person and have your first meeting. At that meeting the group picks another business representative to join in. Build your group each month but, expect some turnover in the beginning, stick to your rules. 

Within a short time you will have plenty of leads and be making money as a result of this investment of your time.

Another way to find leads is through trade shows. You can have a booth there, which can be effective but also may be expensive. Or attend armed with plenty of business cards. Introduce yourself to each business that has a booth, talk about their company’s future real estate needs. Find out who the owner is or who is in charge of their real estate etc. This is a very productive use of your time; any trade show that I have attended and “worked the floor” has resulted in business opportunities.

Edward Smith, Jr., CREI, ITI, CIC, GREEN, MICP, CNE, is a commercial real estate consultant, instructor and broker at Smith Commercial Real Estate, Sandy Hook, CT.