How To Work Networking as a CRE Professional

As a CRE professional, your connections are everything. Your contacts are an important factor that supplies the business from which you sustain your living. Without your “rolodex”, you may as well roll out of real estate. Social individuals thrive in CRE because when you get down to it: it’s all about networking. However, time is money, so one must be sure to invest in the areas that are going to get a good return in the future.


Join The Club
Joining a professional society helps you rub elbows with fellow professionals, gain insight on new ideas and leads, while also helping you promote yourself outside of your immediate contacts. It is ideal to join a professional society, like CCIM, that relates directly to your industry. It’s also wise to join a society that is aligned with your values, interests, and/or expertise. This will help you make contacts outside of your industry’s well-traveled circles. Urban development and environmentally sustainable planning organizations in your area, like the Kansas City Downtowners, are great options. Regardless of what society you join, take full advantage. Attend the happy hours, grabbing more business cards than beers. Join a committee and insert yourself into the leadership of the society. It may involve some early morning meetings and extra work, but this will demonstrate your value to your peers.

Make A Club
Large professional societies are great, but you also want to compliment your networking portfolio with intimate gatherings. Form alliances among brokers and business people in related industries. Key factors when making a club include:

• Location! Location! Select a location for your meeting that best fits your societies needs.
• Develop creative and innovative event ideas in order to encourage engagement with members within your professional societies. 
• Hold monthly breakfast meetings where you share leads, industry news or tips about the market.
• Create a club members emails list and send weekly emails with current, relevant and useful information and news.

Check In To Say Hey
After meeting a person of interest at an event or meeting, you should do the following:

• Drop them a note.
• Check in with your contacts and close acquaintance on a routine basis. 
• Set recurring monthly reminders in your Outlook to check in on your clients, contacts and those people you just don’t want to lose contact with.
• On every call, make note of something personal: their son plays high school football, their favorite restaurant, they love baseball, they enjoy golf, etc. Be sure to take note of these personal details and recall them when you touch base with them again.

Plenty of people reach out for a first time after a meeting and then don’t call again until they need something. However, you will have a much more dramatic impression on someone if you call to check-in routinely and just say hey.

I leave you with the vital components when trying to effectively network and better your own career, according to a Forbes networking article:

• Make connections 
• Enlist advocates
• Stay in touch
• Be social
• Be an information hound

Contributing Author:

 
Dan Durkin
Vice President / Director of Strategic Consulting
Block Real Estate Services, LLC
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