A question that I get asked sometimes from coaching clients is, “Should I expand my territory to include one or more additional commercial real estate markets?”

While sometimes doing this can be a good idea, before you begin walking down this path, ask yourself the following three questions:

1. What percentage of the people and companies that you want to be prospecting in your current territory, do you already have in your database?

Because if you have holes in your database, and you’re still missing having many of the ideal prospects that you’ll want to be calling on, I would first begin by filling in those holes, and getting those people into your database, along with their current contact information.

With this in mind, remember that you are a total expert within the area that you’re currently serving, so it would make more sense to increase the number of prospects that you can call within your current territory first.

2. If you’re thinking of expanding into another territory, can you already speak to the prospects within that territory as a total expert on the property values within that market?

Because if not, now you’re going to need to spend time getting up to speed on property values there, and on regularly maintaining your knowledge on what’s going on within that territory, too.

In addition, when you’re going after listings within a new territory, you’ll be competing against brokers who are already total experts there, who have a track record of getting listings that they have already sold or leased, that they can then show to owners, and you’ll need to come up with your own presentation on why you’re still the best broker that these owners could want to list with.

3. How much of the additional new business that you want to be developing for yourself, could be handled by you doing even more prospecting within your current territory?

Because if you’re not currently getting the amount of prospecting done that you know you should be, stepping-up these numbers alone within your territory is going to bring you in more new business.

So while expanding into another territory sometimes may be warranted, just make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, and don’t do it when there’s still a ton of new business that you could be capitalizing on right now within your current territory.

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If you’re interested in becoming more effective with your prospecting, and in getting more listings, closing more deals, and transforming your brokerage business with the latest AI technology, and you’d consider doing one-on-one coaching together to make it all happen, send me an Email or give me a call!

“Jim has helped us to zero-in on what we needed to change within our listing presentations, so that we deliver more powerful, impactful presentations to our property owners.”

Craig Black, CCIM, and Scott Nurski
NAI