Why aren't outbound prospecting cold calls and inbound inquiries delegated to different workers in commercial real estate?
Digging through r/sales, it seems like most other sales industries have SDRs dedicated to prospecting, BDRs for inbound inquiries, and AEs for closing. Why is it that in commercial real estate, agents usually perform all tasks on their own? Wouldn't the division of labor be more efficient? I would also think there would be cost savings because a brokerage could hire hourly unlicensed staff for cold calls and save the commission-based negotiation and sales for licensed agents.
[{"id": "fdeey10", "text": "i think the main difference is tech sales BDRs are selling a product, like a software or something. As a broker, you are selling yourself. Most of the time in CRE the person cold calling you is also the one working your deal/listing/financing, so its important to establish personal rapport. In tech sales, its not like the BDR is going to be coding or developing software for the client.\n\nIn a sense tho, a lot of brokerage firms do work this way in that the junior brokers are cold calling to bring in leads that hopefully turn into deals to work on along with their senior brokers.", "replies": [{"id": "fdehjxo", "text": "That makes sense! Thanks!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fdepyev", "text": "Many times incoming calls are calling about a specific property so that call has to go to the listing broker. It's not a commodity sale. As someone else said, a cold call is a relationship call not as much a sales call so the broker who will be doing the work (or possibly a junior working directly with a senior person) needs to make that call. I don't know about every state, but you have to have a license to make a cold call or do anything discussing real estate.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fdf0d6v", "text": "Depends. Usually the junior person on the team will deal with the inbound calls i.e. bullshit sign calls. This is especially true in retail, where your signs are more visible and you get more bullshit sign calls. Or loopnet leads ect. \n\nAnd in some areas, having unliscensed staff for cold calls is the norm, Aka Marcus and Matthews. It is a fairly high turnover position, so you need a lot of scrubs to suck the life out of in your call center. \n\nFor most other types of commercial real estate, the pool of people you are prospecting is much shorter, so you are not calling everyone who owns a taco bell. \n\nCRE is fairly low tech, and brokers generally don't trust other people. On teams with a big turnover, their CRM is a god damned mess, and often I wonder if maybe not fucking over a bunch of young kids may be a better way to conduct business, especially in a relationship driven one such as real estate. \n\nIf it takes like 4 years to do a deal, like a really big deal, and your people leave after 18 months, there is not a lot of continuity there so it is easy for things to not be handed to the next guy. \n\nI guess it would be different if you were selling microwaves or timeshares or something, kinda the same way I only want to deal with one dentist or doctor. \n\nI don't want a division of labor when I am getting a filling. I want one person to handle things, so when things go wrong I know who to yell at. \n\nMy 2 cents anyway.", "replies": [{"id": "fdf5gqb", "text": "marcus and matthews lol", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]