Don’t do what I did - How my poor follow up cost me a 100k SF deal
This story should serve as a harsh warning to ALWAYS FOLLOW UP.. Follow up forever!
My lack of follow up cost me dearly - hopefully it never happens to you.
HOW TO AVOID NEVER MISSING ANOTHER DEAL DUE TO POOR FOLLOW UP - AUTOMATION!
How I Got The Deal
Again, cold calling until my eyes were crossed and my legs were numb. I do have a stand up desk but that sometimes makes your feet hurt standing that long.
Anyhow, I had been calling on this company for quite some time. Multiple voicemails and email follow ups. The normal stuff.
One of those prospects that lives in your CRM but you don’t really ever give serious thought to, it’s a name that pops up so you call them because you know they are in your target range based your ideal prospect’s criteria.
In this example, this company leased over 5,000 SF and had a lease that was expiring within the next 24 months. I don’t ever call on anyone that falls outside that criteria.
Tip: Establish who your ideal clients are, gather and refine the data. Track it in a CRM and make sure you are able to easily retrieve a list of ideal prospects to call at any time of the day.
Always default to a mode of prospecting for new business by making it easy to do with technology.
….. I remember sitting at lunch with my business partner and I got an email from the company CEO “we’d like to have you come in and talk about our growth and real estate plans.”
I quickly responded and proposed a few times.. frankly I would have met with him at any time but we were able to get a meeting scheduled for the following week.
This is one of the high points of the commercial real estate business!
When someone connects with you and says “hey, I need your help and I’d like to meet with you”. There are only a few other high points like this so make sure to embrace them.
Research Time
I gave myself 10 minutes to celebrate and then immediately went into preparation mode.
Website, social media, reading news about the company. Of course I also dug into CoStar to determine what their current RE situation is.
CoStar is always 100% spot on, right?!
In this case, CoStar probably did me a huge favor because the information on the building was incorrect so most brokers would overlook this tenant based on incorrect SF and lease expiration.
Digging in a bit more it looked like there were many options in this submarket for the prospect to consider so my chances of negotiating a favorable deal were looking good.
Over the next few days, I was excited as I had a 5,000 SF’ish prospect (at least that’s what I thought) who was looking to either renew or relocate.
A nice little single for a young tenant rep!
Tip: Make cold calling a regular practice but also have a pre-meeting research plan in place.
What info is critical to you in preparing? Document your pre-meeting research and follow it every time.
A bit more on cold calling, for those who value it. Here’s a thread I wrote on the mechanics of making a good cold call. Check it out and jump in on the comments.
The Meeting
Oh man, did things change quickly.
I must say, the ability to control your excitement level is important in any business.
Sometimes you have those meetings that are so far beyond your highest expectations that you almost break out into laughter.
The CEO comes in and starts talking about the tech company and come to find out the company currently employs 150 people and they also own the building next door.
Thanks again CoStar for missing that!
The company’s operations were split up which was incredibly inefficient and an opportunity for a tenant rep to shine.
Then the CEO goes on the tell me and my partner that they plan to grow the company to 600 employees in the next 3 years.
Holy Crap!
In my mind that equated to about 100,000 SF!!
So, the CEO begins to lay out the vision of getting into a 60,000 SF space, selling the building he owns and relocating/growing the company under one roof.
The best part is he liked me and my partner and it only took about 10 days for him to review and sign our engagement.
We were off to the races!
The Deal Came Together Quickly
Now that we were looking for 60,000 SF, there were only a few options in the geography the client would consider.
We found a nice building with plenty of parking, negotiated a great deal with heavy TI for 10 years.
This was the biggest deal of my career - $349,000 fee!
I was on top of the world, had the local commercial real estate journal calling to ask me questions about the deal, it was awesome!
Tip: Don’t get cocky, when a deal closes, especially a big deal, don’t get lazy. You have to keep prospecting every day and following up with new and old relationships. You are in the relationship business.
You Are Never Done
Now that this huge deal was closed it was time to go find another deal, right! Absolutely!
However, not so fast partner!!
You just closed the biggest deal of your career with a company that is in massive growth mode.
How are you going to stay in touch with them FOREVER so you can get the next deal?!
AT LEAST, THIS IS WHAT I SHOULD HAVE ASKED MYSELF… i didn’t though :(
Instead, like an idiot I dripped a few emails here and there. Stopped in “when I was in the neighborhood, didn’t provide any real operational value after the deal closed.
So what happened?
I got on the phone and started re-creating my pipeline with new deals of course.
Like a dummy I started getting back to the singles and doubles and naively thought….
“I’m their guy, we killed it for them on that deal and there is no way they won’t call when they need more space”
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!
Then, I will NEVER forget.. I read a story about the company in the same publication I was so proud to be mentioned in earlier.
This time it was how the company has now expanded into an additional 100,000 SF.
My heart and stomach sank.
However, it was my own fault. I got lucky enough and caught the company at the perfect time the first time.
I didn’t spend the time later to continue to build that trusting relationship that would have at least positioned me to be a top consideration for the expansion.
Now, all I can do is reflect on that mishap and move on but I hope this never happens to you.
Tip & Common Theme: Please, make sure you put follow up plans in place for all new prospects but also for all of your past clients.
Your past clients are absolute gold and it would be a terrible misfortune for you not to do multiple deals with them because you are bad at relationship building.
Hopefully this has inspired you to build a follow up system. If you need help with it please let me know.
So, what’s the biggest deal you have “lost” due to poor follow up or something happening that killed the deal late in the game?
