"I love cold calling," said no salesperson, ever.
"And I love answering cold calls from salespeople," responded no one who's ever answered a phone.
It's fair to say that few people relish making cold calls, and even fewer people enjoy receiving them. With so many people dreading them, on both ends of the telephone line, why do companies continue to do cold calling?
Thanks to technology, cold calling has changed in the commercial real estate industry, and smart tools and data enrichment services (including Biscred) have changed the way B2B companies connect with each other. Additionally, cold-calling alternatives use smart sales enablement tools, machine learning with manual data validation to help CRE-related companies build relationships and grow their businesses.
What Is Cold Calling in Commercial Real Estate?
Cold calling is a form of outbound sales where teams call prospective customers or clients who have never shown an interest in their product, services, or brand.
Warm calling, conversely, happens when a prospect becomes a lead and shows interest in your company. This might be by viewing your website, visiting your booth at an expo, following you on social media, or some other action that implicitly gives you permission to reach out to them.
Purpose of cold calling in CRE
In the CRE industry, B2B companies purchase lists of commercial property owners from vendors. With this information, their outreach teams can call the CRE companies, send them postcards, or email them with offers and invitations, all in the hopes of getting to the next step – a meeting, demo, or something that furthers the lead toward sales conversion. Conversion rates for cold calling, as LinkedIn Sales Insights suggests, are typically in the single digits.
Single digits.
That means that for every 100 numbers your outbound sales team dials, fewer than 10 will convert to warm leads. Cognism's independent study of cold calling success rates for B2B businesses echoes LinkedIn; their average success rate for cold calling is 4.8%. And how many of those warm leads convert to sales and long-term customer relations? Very few.
When cold calling statistics seem less than encouraging, why should commercial real estate entities consider this method?
Benefits of cold calling
Why is cold calling important? It offers some advantages. It can help your business:
Identify and reach new customers (best case scenario)
Gain insights about your industry
Practice and perfect your cold calling scripts
Build brand awareness
Disadvantages of cold calling
Cold calling has its disadvantages, as well, including very low conversion rates, as we've said. About 2% of cold calls lead to follow-up calls – not sales, but follow-up calls, according to LinkedIn Sales Insights. In the same survey, 63% of salespeople cited cold calling as the worst part of their jobs. Additionally, cold calls can:
Annoy your targeted audience, which leads to ...
Negative brand connotations, which can ...
Cost your organization in wasted time and resources, including...
High turnover rates among your business development team.
Why do so many B2B organizations experience low conversion rates with cold calling yet continue to do it? Change is hard. Resources are finite. It's all they know. Lack of knowledge and resources to build leads through other means.
DNB (Dun and Bradstreet) estimated that 82% of B2B firms have trouble managing data, including the volume of data. They also found that 78% of surveyed B2B firms have trouble scaling targeted one-to-one customer engagement strategies. Hence, they rely on scalable methods, such as using rapid dialers and a cold calling script to try to drum up business.
The "cold" in cold calling not only suggests "we've never met" but also "without sincerity." In other words, high-volume cold calling can turn off potential leads and business partners when messaging lacks a personal touch. In a later section of this guide, we'll include an example commercial real estate prospecting letter that includes personalization using data cultivated from Biscred's powerful database.
Sales-Enabled Prospecting Is The New Cold Calling
Cold calling isn't dead, but it has evolved. Today, thanks to big data, sales-enabled prospecting has replaced the age-old practice of cold calling from NAP lists (name, address, phone).
For example, in the commercial real estate industry, companies can use smart datasets with multiple information points to reach out to the right prospects at the right time. Looking for a commercial developer with experience in medical facilities in the Southwest? Or maybe you're looking for office owners in the greater Chicago area? Or perhaps you'd like to reach key people who work for a commercial property management company that handles senior living and extended care facilities.
These are the types of queries that CRE sales enablement tools support.
Instead of using commercial real estate prospecting scripts that sound rehearsed and impersonal, sales outreach teams can create personalized messages through email, voice mail, or even prior to attending in-person networking events.
"Biscred has built just such a sales enablement tool," said Ben Hertz Biscred General Manager. "Anyone in the CRE industry can run targeted searches that match their needs, so they can create proposals that align with prospects' needs."
Hertz explained that when you reach out to a prospect and demonstrate that you've done your homework and taken time to learn about them, you're more likely to get to the next step in the sales process. You're also less likely to waste resources on commercial property that doesn't align with what your company offers.
Cold Calling Strategies for 2025
Doing your due diligence upfront, before reaching out to prospects, makes sure you reach the right people at the right organizations. It's similar to the saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: A few minutes of due diligence is worth an increase in ROI. Here are five cold calling tips to become more efficient.
1. Don't waste time on prospects that don't need your products or services.
Sales enablement allows you to create a list of prospects based on multiple factors including people with specific titles (vice president, COO, etc.); asset experience (multifamily housing, medical, retail, etc.); and location. In this example, we used Biscred to find retail, office, and mixed-use CRE companies in the Southwest U.S.
2. Personalize cold call messages and be genuine.
Instead of using CRE cold calling scripts, provide your outreach team with talking points about your company and what you offer. Start with an introduction, not a sales pitch. Keep your intro short, so you can shift the conversation to the prospect and what they need. Use data from Biscred, for example, to learn about the people and organizations, so they can craft unique, personal questions. Personalized messages are more likely to get responses.
Here is an example of a CRE prospecting message that uses "cold calling" data mixed with a personalized message:
Hello, Ms. Marshall:
I'm Zach Adams, founder of ABC Landscape Solutions. I see that your firm, Desert Green Design & Build, has 18 commercial properties in the Greater Phoenix area, and you're about to break ground on a new one in Scottsdale early next year.
We'd love to talk to you about our commitment to ESG in landscape. We've got some innovated approaches to what we do, and we are fully committed to environmental stewardship and sustainability, especially in Arizona, where water scarcity is a concern.
Would you have 30 minutes next week for a quick intro call?
I look forward to hearing from you
-- Zach
About the technique: We used Biscred to search for property managers, owners and operators of commercial buildings in the Southwest U.S. that also indicate an interest in sustainability and ESG (environmental, social and governance). We quickly looked at how many properties each company governs, then we drafted a short, personalized message to the head of property management for a (fictitious) design and development firm. Our fictitious "Zach" might also include a link to his company's gallery or customer testimonials, so Ms. Marshall can view his work.
3. Gather feedback about rejections.
By providing sales outreach teams with data-driven sales enablement tools, they're more likely to find marketing-qualified leads, which leads to better conversions. But when they do get rejections, ask for their feedback. When sales teams feel like they're being heard, they feel more invested and valued by their employers, and they perform better. Gather your own data about calls, so you can test, learn and iterate on your outreach methods.
4. Be transparent about your organization.
People tend to trust companies that use social media and have a good, up-to-date website. Support your sales force by providing them with digital assets that they can share with prospects.
Digital assets include:
Prospecting lists with enhanced details, including LinkedIn profiles, seniority, asset class, and CRE specialization.
Customizable B2B prospecting email templates.
One sheets, infographics and quick reference guides that visualize how your business improves prospects' ROI.
PDFs of case studies and strategy briefs that prospects can share with their decision makers.
Demo clips, galleries, PDFs or slide shows that showcase what you do (if applicable).
Market trend reports, especially any that tie your business to theirs.
5. Use social media to connect.
Connect with prospects on social media. We offer tips in this post on getting better ROI on LinkedIn ads. We also offer tips on using social media to generate leads.
Are You Still Buying Lead Lists?
We aren't here to trivialize the value of lead lists. In fact, cold calling from lead lists can have value for certain applications. But in today's digital age, smart companies don't rely solely on NAP lead lists and rapid dialers following impersonal scripts.
In the commercial real estate industry, for example, companies use technology like Biscred to smartly connect with other companies in the CRE industry. They do their due diligence to build networks of leads.
Speaking of generating leads, here's our call to action: We invite you to see a demo of how Biscred works and how your sales team can change their cold calling efforts in seconds.
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