When the doorbell rings, I don’t even flinch. It’s usually one of my kids’ friends, so I let them answer it. I have developed immunity to the ding-dong sound.
But on Wednesday afternoon, I was the only one around, so I answered the door. Standing before me was something I had not experienced in a long time: a door-to-door salesman.
I kid you not. A door-to-door salesman. In the middle of a pandemic. To make it even more interesting, it was a chilly day, and he was standing in a light rain.
The guy was polite, and he stood a good seven feet back from my door to make sure he was social distancing. He was clean-cut, probably in his early twenties, and he was selling security systems.
I immediately threw out an objection: “I already have a security system.”
His rebuttal focused on exterior cameras.
I objected again. “I already have exterior cameras,” I said, motioning toward the one mounted under the eave pointed right at him.
He rebutted again. Then I interrupted him: “I’ll be totally honest with you. There’s zero chance I’m going to be your customer, but I have to tell you something. I really admire you, man. It takes a lot of guts to do door-to-door selling during a pandemic. I’m a salesman myself, and you have my respect.”
I wished him luck. He thanked me and amicably went on to the neighbor’s house.
I wasn’t just trying to make him feel good when I said I admired him. It was true. I was genuinely impressed.
One of the reasons he impressed me so much is that I work with many higher-level, more advanced selling professionals (you could call them “real estate brokers” if you like) who are showing less hutzpah during this pandemic.
Frankly, I’m tired of agents using the pandemic as an excuse not to go out and get new business. I’m not saying all brokers are sitting on their hands and passively, “waiting it out” or “waiting for the dust to settle,” but a lot of them are.
During times of uncertainty, it’s important to keep your activity level high. Incoming calls will likely be lighter, a higher percentage of deals will fall through, and it will take clients longer to make decisions.
Just keep talking to new people and getting existing prospects to take little steps further, make small commitments. Over the course of time, those little commitments will add up to completed deals.
Be on the lookout for opportunity. Brokers are getting some deals only because of the pandemic. Remember that we make money on the churn. As long as people are buying and selling – coming and going – there is at least some money to be made.
If you’re going to prospect for new business, it helps to know what you’re doing.
In order to improve their ability to win new business, many companies are using our new Dealmakers virtual sales training program by having each broker complete the modules during this crisis. That helps brokers come back strong in the third and fourth quarters of 2020.
Brokers can easily complete the program individually while they’re stuck at home.
This program is literally only $99 a month for your whole office — all of your agents can use one membership. That makes this CRE training surprisingly cost effective.
Sign up right away and start completing the commercial real estate sales lessons as early as today!
For a list of the course modules and descriptions, click HERE.
