How Do You Know A Good Broker When You See One?

All right, welcome back to another episode of CRE – The Unspoken Truth. This one is a fun one, a different one, a special one. No Craig, we got Sam in place. Sam Absalom. Sam has been one of our top sales guys, or he is our top sales guy, since we started the company. And I say this about Sam: when we started the company, we actually started it out of Craig’s home office. And it was me, it was Craig, and it was Sam. And so he’s been with us from the very beginning, and he’s got a very unique perspective to share.

And we’re going to dive in the topic today from Sam’s perspective: what makes a great broker. And so frame it for us, Sam. You’ve never been a broker, but you’ve talked to a million of them, right? Give us the numbers.

Yeah, so I’ll start by saying this, Charlie. I have a unique perspective, and by no means am I even close to saying I’m a broker. Along with that, I’ve never been also a client of a broker as well. But that being said, I’ve talked to the brokers every single day till last 4 years. In fact, I would say this: I’d be hard pressed to find somebody in the United States who’s talked to more commercial real estate brokers than me across last 4 years.

Here are my stats. I just went back and pulled it from our tracking. I’ve had 5,000 cold calls alone with brokers. I didn’t include any phone calls. Along with that, I’ve had 2,500 meetings on these Zoom calls with the brokers as well. So it’s been a hell of a lot of time spent one-on-one with these brokers across the US.

2,500 meetings over the last, what, 3 years? 3 and 1/2, technically, that’s right. 3 and 1/2 years. I don’t know what the numbers are, but that’s a lot. I sit by you, so I know it’s several a day for years. Easily. Yeah. And so you’ve talked to a lot of brokers. I’d be curious, what makes, from your perspective, selling software, talking to these brokers, what makes someone impressive to you?

Yeah, well, bearing in mind, obviously, I’m on the other end of the spectrum, right? Rather than these brokers trying to impress me, I’m trying to impress them. But I’m still seeing a really unique perspective of these brokers who tend to be the higher producers, tend to have these qualities I’ve seen more common, at least more commonly, amongst these guys.

The first one I’ve noticed, and this is for just, I think, any salesperson in general, but especially brokers, is the best brokers always seem to be the best communicators. So when I would talk to high producers, they never hang up the phone. They never just slam it within the first 5, 10 seconds. They’re just really concise, and they’re really quick, and they make up their mind really quickly, Charlie. So I’d go as far as to say it’s guys who can say yes and can say no equally quickly and can recognize what’s worth their time.

And it’s these guys who I know is the easiest to meet with, cuz we jump on a Zoom call, rather than, say, spending half an hour, 45 minutes on a Zoom call, it tends to be a 15 or 20 minute conversation where it’s concise, it’s to the point. It’s: what do you need? Can you provide a solution for you? Etc. And I find that it’s those brokers, first and foremost, who want to, are good communicators of what they care about, are the ones that tend to be the most successful.

Is there a point in the communication? You say you have a bunch of cold calls and meetings. What’s, like, the earliest point, and you may not know, it may take a while, but is there an early point in a conversation or relationship where you’re like, that person’s got it?

Yeah, 100%. We always say, “Hey, they’re dialed.” I’d say they’re dialed when, typically, it’s the initial phone call. And it’s me explaining, “Hey, here’s what we do, mate. Does it interest you?” And they’re really quick to ask a good question or two. I’d say it depends on the level of their questions, on how good of a communicator they are, right? Cuz it shows how quickly they process the information and how well they can sift through it to understand if it’s worth their time.

And it’s, they ask a couple questions, I go, oh, those are good questions, they’re really paying attention. And then they go, “Yep, I want to calendar that, let’s go ahead and schedule it for next time.” And they almost guide me through the sales process rather than me guiding them, cuz they know how they want to buy. Yeah. Yeah, so go ahead.

Say this, I’ll give you one more example. Talking to so many brokers, what I’ve heard, the most frequent complaint from brokers, or that’s a regret, would be the words, “I should have followed up with that guy.” And so many brokers drop the ball, simply coming down to a communication issue, where they think, oh, there’s a landlord I was meant to follow up with, or a tenant in the marketplace who asked me to give him a call back after Christmas or whatever it was, and I just didn’t do it. And what I’ve really seen is that these brokers who are the elite communicators, whether it’s that through natural talent or just through better systems, they have really, really good communication skills to be able to follow up with people, and do it at an appropriate time.

So you have a lot of good things in there. Number one, they’re great communicators. Number two, they’re polite, but they’re, like, succinct. They’re, what was the way you said it? You know, they’re very direct in how they talk. Yeah, they make up their mind quickly. They make up their mind quickly. Yeah, they make their time, they make up their mind quickly. They ask great questions. That’s another thing.

And so how do, like, ask great questions. How do brokers, like, when you’re talking to them on a meeting, what are those questions that you’re like, oh, that guy gets it? Or is there anything that you’re like, as you’re talking to someone, where they say something where you’re like, oh, this guy is impressive, the way he’s thinking about this? How do great brokers think through things like that?

I’d say it comes down to, part of my job is recognizing that brokers don’t sit down all day long and think about their systems. And part of my job is walking them through thinking about what’s working, what’s not working, to understand if one tool can fit in. And what I’ve seen is that the brokers who are the most impressive come in with a good impression and a good pulse on their business. And therefore that drives relevant questions. So it’s typically along the lines of, “Hey, what are you using? How effective is it for you?” And I’m not pulling information out, cuz they understand that sharing the appropriate amount of information is a net positive for both of us, cuz it helps them get to the point quicker and helps me understand quicker if we can actually be of value to these people or not.

Yeah, that’s interesting. I agree, right? In the meetings I lead, it’s like, hey, and even when I’m on the other side, where I’m looking at software: “Hey, this is exactly what I’m looking for. Do you do it or not? Cuz we’ll just make this fast,” you know.

Yeah. And even this is, well, that, I mean, another really key attribute I’ve seen brokers have who are successful is they do the hard things. And they do the boring things really well. And I think some of the most boring things you can do in any system, in any, sorry, in any sales role is systems, right? And it’s making sure you have consistent to that, that warrant success.

So we mentioned the follow-up example earlier. It’s typically not brokers remembering from their memory to follow up with somebody. It’s usually through a system they’ve been placed. Some guys just shoot from the hip and they just throw it in Outlook or Excel and notes or their reminders app, and sometimes that works, but for most guys I’ve seen them be more dialed in. The guys who tell me they don’t drop balls, the guys who really have really good systems, and they do those boring things really, really well. The call notes that are relevant, not all of them. They do the most important things, like follow-up, and send thank-you emails and stuff like that. I’ve seen really brokers stand out who do the boring things through systems really, really well.

So that’s something I wanted to talk on, is give me, like, the top two or three from your perspective, the habits that brokers have with software, with systems, the top two or three that you see, like, “Hey, they’re dialed with their systems.” You just said follow-ups. Like, give us the top two or three that you see.

Yeah, I’ll set context, Charlie. Every time I meet with a call with a broker, so I’ve these almost 3,000 calls with the brokers, I always ask, “What do you use, and how effective is it for you?” So I’ve got a really good understanding of what is working well for brokers and what’s not. Probably the most effective habit I’ve seen from brokers who use systems well is they choose, they have a single location for their most important relationships. And it’s typically, what I found, is not your top 10, cuz the top 10 brokers know. It’s the 11th through the 100th relationship, right? And that’s the one where you make a lot of income, for these brokers. It’s a better way to track these people, any key interactions.

And a really important part I just touched on 2 minutes ago, the follow-up is really key. If brokers, if I’ve asked brokers, “How do you remind yourself to follow up with folks?” and they say, “I’ve got it in my CRM,” I know that they are absolutely dialed.

So how, I know we talk about this internally, we call it intrinsic motivation, other people call it growth mindset. When you’re talking to someone, how are you able to decipher if someone has the growth mindset or not?

I’d say it’s how open they are to change. If I have a broker jump on a call and he’s in his 60s, and I say, “Hey, you’ve got a couple years left. You’re kind of close to the sunset. Do you want to change?” they’re pretty candid and say, “No, I don’t.” It’s the guy, and that’s okay, that’s understandable. But the guys who are really forward in their career, for the first 30 4 years of their career, it’s just by me simply asking them, “What are you using? How effective is it? And hey, does it even make sense to try and change this?”

And I’m actually constantly surprised by how many guys are just okay with bang average systems. And I would say, if it wasn’t for average systems, and there’s people performing at average levels, you wouldn’t have the outstanding performers as well, the elite brokers who are the top 1%, who have those really good systems, right? But I’ve seen that the brokers who have the good systems are the ones who are performing the best.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, you gave the example of someone in their 60s may not want to change. It made me think of one of our customers, Doug Twyman, who, I don’t know how old he is. He’s in his 60s, probably. And, I mean, he’s open to change, man. Like, he is always trying to get better. He’s trying to learn. Of course, that’s super rare, right? That is not the common broker, you know, especially the common person in their 60s or 70s or whatever. But he’s been very impressive to me, on how much he’s always trying to read. He’s always, you know, definitely has that growth mindset.

Yeah. Are there any other people that come to mind when we talk about, like, “Hey, great communicators, make decisions fast”? Like, who are the two or three, yeah, you know, people that come to mind on this topic? Well, I’ll say, the, give them a shout-out. Yeah, the shout-out.

The most recent name, this is recency bias, cuz I’ve been speaking to him a lot in the last couple of months, is Justin Langlois with Stillen Properties in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And he’s dialed in. He frankly, every attribute that I’ve mentioned on this call, he nails and over exceeds. And there’s a lot of other guys I speak to as well who just stand out. Another one would be even Alex Affas with a fire realty as well, and locally here in Phoenix.

And, Charlie, for those guys, what I think, I’ve really seen it, average teams come in, and the way that they are separate and not as good as these elite teams is through also, these elite teams have better ways of staying top of mind from brokers, right? And from their clients in the market. And what I’ve seen is, when there’s a LinkedIn, whether it’s a casual text for that broker, whether it’s marketing emails, these really good broker, Justin’s one of them, right? Is, I’m just going through LinkedIn and I see Justin’s name pop up, or I see there’s Rob Powell with Resolute in New Mexico. He does the same thing. He’s always on LinkedIn. And it’s just this air cover constantly, that they put one post out, but hundreds and not thousands of people out there are getting little pushes and nudges to think of that person for that right time for their real estate needs.

Yeah. Yeah, so air cover, communication. I want to flip this a little bit and say, give me three things that, when you hear this, a red flag goes up, right? Like, if we’re saying all the great qualities, what are the bad qualities where you’re like, immediately, dang, you know, this person’s difficult to work with?

Well, I think the first thing is this, and it’s almost the inverse of these top three, right? I don’t want to make, that’s almost the easy way out. So I’ll try and get more creative here. But the first one is just, guys don’t respond. It’s guys who are not good communicators, right? It’s like, I give a guy two or three times not responding. If they’re not responding to me, then it’s not worth my time, and frankly not worth theirs as well. That they’re giving me that communication by not responding.

But also, if it’s not just me who’s not responding to you, right? I’m someone who’s, let’s say, low on the totem pole, but there’s plenty of others as well that typically not responding to as well. And I’ve talked to a lot of brokers, frankly, who I’ve heard speak about other brokers in this way, saying, “Oh, this guy, I can never get ahold of him, for this listing broker or this buyer broker. I can never get ahold of him.” And I think it’s shocking that these professionals try, and try, at least they’re trying their best, but it’s not effective. It’s typically because their system is letting them down. It’s not typically because of lack of a desire.

Yeah, it’s interesting, cuz when we end up, do talking to people who have no-showed us two or three times, yeah, they end up, you know, being good, they’re good people, right? It’s not that there’s anything wrong with them. It’s just something dropped the ball, something let them down. Yeah.

I wrote a couple things down on red flags. You know, the person who is constantly bragging about the deals they’re doing. That one is kind of an interesting one. It’s totally fine to hear one crazy deal, or one here, one there. But there’s, like, people where you spend 20, 30 minutes talking to them, and they’ve weaved in, you know, eight humble brags and five different deals that they’re working on, and it’s like, “Okay, like, we’re not even, you know, like, what are we talking about?” Yeah, yeah.

I’d say the other one, like, obviously not responding or not showing up. Those are obvious. I think the one other one that I thought of, too, is someone who’s just very indifferent, and you can tell that’s part of their personality, is, like, they’re just kind of a go-through-the-motions a little bit. Yeah. And unfortunately, like, that may show its face on a software demo, but I guarantee it’s showing its face in other areas of their business.

Also this, cuz these guys, they’re focused on something, right? But they typically are so caught up in the inertia of just slinging deals and trying to close the next deal, they don’t ever give themselves the time, and even I’m guilty of this sometimes as well, to take a step back and look at things in an overarching perspective and think, “How can I improve these processes, work an extra 10 hours this week, so that I can work 1 hour less each of the week of my remaining, my career?” And it’s something brokers don’t take that time and put that effort in.

Yeah. Yeah. So, wrap this up. I have a couple notes. You said good communicator, make decisions fast, good systems, and they have a good pulse on their business so that they can ask intelligent questions. Anything I’m missing there? And just that the air cover as well, right? It’s the LinkedIn post, staying top of mind. But no, you nailed it. That’s it. The air cover.

So this is all from our software perspective, right? So take it with a grain of salt, but I will say I echo what Sam said at the beginning. No one has talked to more brokers in the country over the last 3 years than Sam Absalom. And so, although we’re talking to brokers in this niche about software generally, and a little bit more around there, there are these typical habits and systems that we see: good, bad, and everything in between. So anything else to wrap up?

It’s this. It’s that, what I’ve seen is the role of AI in the future, and it’s brokers trying to slap AI as a solution, right? Saying, “Hey, this is the easy button. I want AI to help solve it.” And I’m just saying, I’m really interested in it. Something that OneSource really is really thinking about is how does AI fix specific problems in commercial real estate. Charlie, you and I have spoken about this so many times. And it’s going to be really interesting, I think, to see how AI plays a role in communications, in good systems, in air cover. All of these are going to be ways that brokers begin to compete with AI. It’s going to be, I think, really interesting to see this landscape change over the next, really, 18 to 24 months.

I say this all the time. It’s really interesting. We are building software which is on the forefront of change, and things are changing so rapidly for commercial real estate brokers, who are so local and relationship driven. And because of that, they don’t have to change as much. And so it’s a relatively laggard industry, and we’re trying to bridge the gap, and AI is forcing the issue. It’s interesting. We’re excited to be part of that.

But I’ll end with one thing, too, Sam, and we say this every day in the office to you. Your brain, you have a systems brain. Like, you think, you naturally say, “How can I do this and spend an hour here to save me 10 minutes a day here?” It is a unique ability of yours. And so you get a lot of credit, and you operate that way. A lot of brokers aren’t, right? A lot of brokers are great socially. They’re not necessarily operational or system thinkers.

And so, if I were to end this with a plug: talk to Sam. Talk to Sam about how you can leverage a system or a habit or a best practice from all the other brokers and pull that into your business. Sam’s got a lot more ideas that he didn’t even go through on this, but. That’s it. They and myself, they can reach out to me. They and myself. We’ll include his email on this post as well, on the email. So reach out to him.

But look, appreciate everyone for listening. Sam, appreciate you for filling in for Craig. Big shoes to fill. You did a great job. And thanks for sharing some of your perspective. Cool. Thank you, Charlie. All right. Bye.