The volume of commercial real estate transactions that have closed nationwide has been down considerably during the first half of this year, and some estimates that I’ve heard have said that the total volume has been down by approximately 50%.
So with this being said, how much prospecting should you now be doing, to close the number of transactions that you need to, in order to achieve your desired income goal for the year?
In trying to keep this simple, let’s say that you were happy with your total amount of commission income earned in 2022, but it has now decreased by 50% in 2023. Doesn’t it make sense that you may now need to double the amount of prospecting that you were doing in 2022, to generate the leads that will now have the best chance of returning you once again to that same income level?
This is an approximation, but at the same time, if less people are now interested in buying, selling, and leasing whenever you call them on the telephone, doesn’t it make sense that you now need to call more people, in order to produce the same solid abundance of new leads?
As an example of this, during the last economic downturn, Mike Monteleone, CCIM, the best prospector I’ve ever known within our industry, told me that he was prospecting between 20 and 25 hours every single week, because he realized that he needed to do this in order to maximize his income during that difficult economic time.
So yes, I recognize that this is a lot of prospecting for someone within our industry to get done on an ongoing basis, but then ask yourself the following question: “How much money would I be making if I was doing that amount of prospecting myself right now?”, and if you like your answer to that question, step it up, and now get that amount of prospecting done!