For new sales representatives, the world of commercial real estate may feel like a foreign country. Between the technical jargon, multiple asset classes and massive variety of industry roles and players, CRE can feel very overwhelming.
You may have your products and pitch deck ready, but before reaching out to CRE professionals to set up meetings, it’s important to ensure you’re connecting with the right people, and doing so strategically.
If you’re just dipping your toes into prospecting for CRE, you can explore organic ways to get in touch with new leads. This includes researching your target audience using social media, meeting them at industry-specific networking events or showcasing your expertise by posting content and inviting them to get in touch.
While these methods might elicit promising results, you can also save time by utilizing a singular CRE-specific prospecting platform such as Biscred. Through Biscred, users can conduct a criteria search by person or company, and narrow their search by filtering for a specific job title, asset class, geographic region and relevant keywords.
Check out three organic ways for sales professionals to put themselves in front of the right CRE decision-makers, according to Biscred’s upcoming ebook — and learn more about how Biscred can help expedite this process.
Identify Your Target Audience
The first step is to pinpoint which CRE professionals can benefit most from your products and facilitate more intentional reach-outs.
Note down attributes of five previous clients, identifying their job and asset class, the challenges they’re facing and what they’re looking to accomplish. This information can be compiled to create specific characters, which will serve as the target audience.
You can also take advantage of the breadth of information that social media — and LinkedIn in particular — has to offer. LinkedIn’s search function enables you to enter relevant keywords — for example, sustainable development — and indicate which criteria you’re searching through filters such as industry, location and region.
Put Yourself Out There
Sales reps can put themselves in front of the right industry professionals by saying “yes” to events, including trade shows, proptech events and CRE-specific events hosted by Bisnow.
Leading up to the event, you can look at the speaker or exhibitor list in advance and take notes on who could be lucrative connections. Going in knowing who you plan to talk to will help make the most of your time at the event.
While starting conversations can feel intimidating, you can lead with questions about what the individual is noticing in the industry or what projects they’re working on. Be sure to follow up on conversations that went well with a request to exchange contact information, and reach out within one day of the event. The email should include points from your conversation that stood out to you and an invitation to connect further, either through a meetup or sharing any resources you had told them you would send.
Bisnow - Richmond State of the Market
Always Follow Up
When going into follow-up meetings with clients, it’s important to think about where you can step in to help or offer your expertise. Some examples: A person mentioned a business obstacle that aligns with your knowledge, or has a project for which you can offer guidance.You can also ask if there’s anyone in their network that may be facing similar circumstances.
Sales reps can also demonstrate their knowledge by participating as a speaker at events as well as creating blog content or posting CRE-related information on LinkedIn. This can help with finding and connecting with new contacts.
Be sure to include a call to action that enables viewers to reach out and continue the conversation, whether that be through a connection request on LinkedIn or by signing up for your newsletter.
How Biscred Can Help
A platform like Biscred can help you get the information you need to make strategic connections with the right CRE players, whether you’re researching attendees before an event or looking to expand your network by connecting with people and companies in the asset class you’re targeting.
When conducting a “people” or “company” criteria search, users will be directed to a dashboard, where they can view data based on the information they entered or add additional parameters. Both searches will provide contact details in addition to the CRE-specific information set within the filters.
For example, users can search for “CRE executives who work in affordable housing in the Northeast.” They can narrow down the search further by including the person’s name, role or city.
It takes just a few minutes and clicks for the platform to generate lists. They have the ability to save their searches and download them onto an Excel spreadsheet for later use.
By leveraging your resources, getting out there to meet your target audience and following up in a timely manner, you are one step closer to getting invited to the meetings you need to close deals. Learn more about how Biscred can help you achieve your business goals.
Photo by Katie Telder
Comments