You get what you pitch for

How to communicate and win

Real estate is a social business and you will inevitably end up at a networking event or party discussing what it “is” that you do. Being able to clearly communicate what you do and what you want is important for scaling your business, raising money and attracting more opportunity. Remember this, “you get what you pitch for and you are always pitching.”

Don’t confuse pitching with selling and the outdated mentality of A.B.C. – Always. Be. Closing. Pitching is about communicating who you are, what you do and what problem you solve. It’s about creating a relationship that out performs any one off sales. I will even argue that the best pitch wins and that doesn’t necessarily translate to the best product or service.

You may have heard of an elevator pitch. I don’t ride in elevators and on the rare occasion that I do, most people have their face in their phone and certainly couldn’t care less about my business. However, I do meet with new people every day and that is my opportunity to quickly communicate who I am and what I do.

Have you ever been to networking event or business conference where you meet someone and they cannot tell you what they actually do?

Me: “Nice to meet you “Steve”, are you a real estate investor?

Steve: “You know John I do a little of this and some of that.”

Kill me know. This inability to communicate something so basic makes you look silly and believe me you are loosing out on opportunity left, right and center.

Here’s a simple fill in the blank hack that you can use to quickly and effectively communicate who you are, what you do and your “claim to fame”. My name is __________

and I _________________. My business ABC solves, make, does XYZ… I call this my quick pitch, the fastball. Once you have the basics then you can tweak it for your audience depending on what you are looking for at any given time; a buyer, a seller, capital or a partner.

Depending on whom I’m talking to and what my business requires I will customize my quick pitch for the audience. At the moment I am looking to acquire an apartment building and I just happened to meet the principal broker of a nation wide real estate agency at a city council hearing. "My name is John Carney. Thank you for supporting our project. Aside from my small part in this development project, I also invest in apartments. I’m new to the area and would love to stop by you office to meet you and your partners to discuss multifamily opportunities." When we sat down together I learned about his business and he learned that my partnership is looking for sellers who haven’t gone to market yet? Now we have experienced multifamily buyers agents on our team.

Yesterday I was taking advantage of the unlimited free cash wash my car dealer offers clients. The sales rep who assisted me asked what I did for work. I responded with, “I’m a real estate investor and author. I have a business that enables new or struggling real estate investor’s recruit a specific team to position themselves for success." The gentlemen was interested in real estate and preceded to order a copy of my book straight from his phone.

Real estate is a social industry and team sport. If you want to hand pick you all-star team you have to know what you want to achieve and how to communicate with the people who can help you. That’s the basics of the quick pitch; name, same (business) and claim to fame. Clearly communicate what problems you solve and how the person you are addressing will benefit. Practice your pitch to get what you want. Short and sharp, keep on pitchin’.

Invest well,

John Carney

*** this is blog post number two about the steps I am taking to acquire my first apartment building in a new market.