Curious what separates top Commercial Real Estate brokers from the rest outside of natural abilities and skills?
Trying to understand if certain regions/areas of focus/organizations play a big role in the top 25-10% of CRE brokers vs the bottom 50%.
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Connections/Relationships + Hustle
That's it
A top broker does one thing incredibly well:
They follow up.
Email people when you say you will email them. Stay in contact. Do this for 100 contacts. It's all about staying top of mind. Taking sellers to lunches. Sending them emails about new deals. Connecting them with property managers or financing contacts. Once again, this all goes back to persistence, identifying a need, and following up.
To echo what others have said, charisma and follow up are huge. Follow up can be learned. Charisma comes in many forms and can be built on and improved...but someone who is not naturally charismatic in some way will be unlikely to thrive in or enjoy the business.
Outside of prospecting and in relation to the actual role a broker plays, the best brokers are excellent facilitators. They are not like lawyers or UW who have a clear function and have to do it perfectly. Rather, a broker's job is to take on whatever role is required to get the deal to the point where the other guys can execute and close. This process is time consuming and fluid, varies greatly on each individual transaction, and requires knowledge and competence in every aspect of the business.
The heavy hitters all also share a complete lack of fear or hesitation. This doesn't mean recklessness (that's a terrible quality for a broker) it just means that no matter what happens, they take action, respond definitively, and keep the process moving forward. The good ones also know when a deal is dead and they let it go, move on, and keep the relationship alive for the next one. The bad ones get caught up in saving their fee and piss everyone off in addition to not getting paid.