Getting Your Pot of Gold: Commercial Real Estate Prospecting Ideas

It takes more than the Luck of the Irish to secure a new commercial real estate client. Prospects are barraged more than ever with emails, LinkedIn messages and messaging from every which direction. Here are 10 commercial real estate prospecting ideas to get your name in front of your prospect and make the connection to take them to client status:

1. PPC / Display Advertising - Google in particular has tinkered and improved their Display and PPC advertising immensely over the past years so that you can target potential clients like never before. You can dedicate budget to keywords or ads that can be served in front of the kind of client you are looking for. One idea would be to pay to put your display ad in the trade magazine of your ideal target prospect. 
2. Get Involved - join your local Chamber of Commerce, take leadership in your local CCIM or SIOR chapter. There are lots of ways to get involved. Click here for some ideas.
3. Start A Blog And/Or Start Speaking - a potential client is more likely to trust and seek the advice of someone who is an expert. Position yourself as a thought leader in the industry by creating content and/or lining up speaking engagements to share your CRE insight. 
4. Cold Calling / Warm Calling - introducing yourself via cold calling and reminding the prospect of who you are via warm calling is still a valuable prospecting tool. Make sure you avoid these 5 scary cold calling mistakes. 
5. Become A Guest Columnist - dovetailing off the #4 idea, writing regularly for a column in a publication that your target market reads is also another way to brand yourself as an expert in the industry. 
6. Create A Referral Network - create a symbiotic referral community among brokers who have different specialties than you and vendors who you have had a good experience working with. You refer them when appropriate and they refer you.  
7. Keep Up With Growing Companies - keep a finger on the pulse of what is going on in your market. Is there a surge of start-ups? Are companies growing and adding on jobs, needing more storage? Seek out the decision makers in these organizations and offer solutions for their growing pains. 
8. Email Newsletters - keep your database updated on what properties you have available, but also make sure that your newsletter is not all about you. Offer value to your target audience by including links, reports or insight that they would value. 
9. Write A Prospecting Letter - a great way to precede your cold call so that your prospect has a head's up you'll be calling. See our tips on how to write a prospecting letter. 
10. Client Referrals - the survey question to end all questions applies to commercial real estate, too - "Would you refer this service / person to a friend?" Treat your clients well and do good work for them so that they will be more than willing to refer you. Their word will be most valuable in wooing a new client. 

These are some of our favorite prospecting ideas from the brokers at Block Real Estate Services. We wish you the best of luck prospecting to get your pot of gold!