We had a great time this week with our first RealNex Mastermind. It was fantastic to host Allen Buchanan, SIOR, Principal at Lee & Associates, Orange County, CA as he discussed his journey with RealNex and shared best practices with the audience. As a top producing industrial broker and thought leader in the industry, Allen shared his approach on how to turn data into “actionable” information. During the fast-moving session he shared a wealth valuable nuggets and takeaways to help listeners generate more business and make more money.

While a recording of the video can be found here, some of the key takeaways include:

• Start small and grow. You can’t build the database overnight, but by building it over time you have an enduring asset that churns out business.
• Focus on properties in a targeted geography. Allen works the I-215 corridor in Orange County, He has catalogued every industrial building greater than 100,000 sf. That’s an inventory of 439 properties…a manageable size. Depending on your market and product type working an inventory of 400 – 750 properties is large enough to build a great business without being too large to be the expertly track.
• Begin with commodity data and add your specialized knowledge. Everyone has access to the same base building information. Take that and easily import it into RealNex CRM. Then as you speak with owners and tenants, tour and inspect properties, you can add your own details, photos, documents and links so that you are best equipped to respond to opportunities as they arise or otherwise mine the data to create new business.
• Connect owners and tenants to LinkedIn profiles and company websites and set Google alerts for instant access to additional valuable insight. When alerts come in quickly analyze your database to trigger effective follow up. For example, Allen discussed an M&A event that he was able to turn into money because he knew of the portfolio redundancy and was able to immediately speak with client because he had done the advance work.
• Look at trendlines and leverage to advise clients. For example, given today’s white hot industrial market, tenants with renewals coming up further down the road can be advised to act sooner rather than getting priced out of the market or have no options come lease expiration. Business owners can also be advised on alternatives for their underutilized property assets.
• Like all top producers and as a student of the Massimo Group, Allen is a keen time manager. He demonstrated how he uses RealNex’s Events and Calendar to assure that all of his most important activities are completed first and how he measures activities to achieve the desired results.

A few other nuggets shared during Q&A…

• To get started he engaged 2 summer interns to build the foundation and add photos, links and additional database details.
• He focused attention on generating a target list of properties and how to instantly convert the property list into a list of owners to call without redundancy.
• Tap into the RealNex address Geo coder to precisely map properties and leverage the aerial views to see proximity, area amenities and competitive set.
• Easily update information from the field. Allen doesn’t use a PC, his business is run with an iPad and iPhone. You can easily access all your information, make calls and use voice dictation to make updates all while on the run.
• And, when its time to run email campaigns he shared the efficiency of the embedded RealCampaigns marketing engine. Real time targeted prospects and immediate access to the leads generated from a campaign.

To view the session recording click here. And be sure to join us October 21 at 4:00 EDT for the next Mastermind with special guest Josh Marcell EVP Tenant Representation at Moody Rambin, Houston, TX.