Patience and speed.

Many of you know I’m a big Gary Vee and Grant Cardone fan. It’s very interesting how different, yet similar they are in their messages.

Gary Vee preaches patience, while Grant Cardone focuses more on speed.

I have learned from both of them and applied their teachings to my personal line of business in leasing and training.

Gary focuses on patience. He emphasizes the importance of keeping your head down and really spending time cultivating and curating your customer base to add value. Jab, jab, jab jab.

When we are canvassing for potential tenants, we are dropping off flyers, introducing ourselves, getting their information, understanding why they like (or dislike) the center they are in, learning if they are seeking to open additional locations, when they are seeking to open those locations, and cementing a relationship with that local operator. Putting our heads down. Curating the relationship.

Years ago, I wanted a golf store in Boynton because my center was close to many golf course communities. I targeted the twenty golf stores in the area and discovered the best one was Nevada Bob’s. Their store was about a mile East of my property. They were in a standalone 3,000 square feet building, filled to the brim with product, and I wanted to get him in my 6,000 square feet space.

So I first needed to learn if they were renting or if they owned the building. He told me they were renting, and that their lease was up in two years. A lot of us, myself included, think we remember details like that. But many of us actually forget these details if we don’t have an organized CRM system (If you don’t already have one, GET ONE). Luckily, I remembered.

I was married at the time, and my husband was a big golfer. Every gift occasion, I went to Nevada Bob’s to get my husband a present and build rapport with the owner. It took about four or five visits before the owner started to associate me with the shopping center. Being top of mind is CRUCIAL (It’s who knows you, not who you know).

By this time, I had been visiting the shop for about a year. After finally building enough rapport with the owner, and him remembering I was the shopping center lady, I asked him if he would want to expand to 6,000 square feet. He said maybe, but that he had a year left on his lease. I let him know that these kinds of deals take up to a year to get ready, and I walked him through how the build-out, plans, and lease negotiations (GE was my client at the time, so the negotiations were not going to be quick either) can drag out. He agreed to see the space.

We ended up doing the deal in the 6,000 square feet space. But remember, it took me TWO YEARS to get this deal done. That’s a lot of time, a lot of headaches, a lot of worries, for one deal. Patience: spend time, put your head down, cultivate the relationships, add value! That’s the Gary Vee lesson.

Now Grant Cardone is all about speed. People used to ask me about texting clients and customers, and I would say it was incredibly unprofessional. But Grant thinks we should be texting our clients as soon as they get off the phone with us about space. Maybe they say they will just drive by the space themselves and check it out—no showing needed. Sixty seconds after they hang up, send them a text with all of the basic information about the space and let them know it was great speaking with them.

Grant says that the level of follow-up in America is pitiful, and the people who really dive into it and follow up religiously will see a tremendous ROI. He also thinks that texting has a level of intimacy that is hard to replicate, so we have been implementing that in our office and we have seen great results from it.

Patience and speed. Try both, and let me know what works best for you