When Your Game Needs a Boost, Call the Commercial Real Estate Coach, Rod Santomassimo

Knakal credits Santomassimo with going from $8 million in 2011 to $20 million several years later. (Knakal told Commercial Observer that last year he was below $20 million, but he “anticipate[s] getting back to $20 [million] this year.”)

Santomassimo is the founder and president of the North Carolina-based commercial real estate coaching business, the Massimo Group. (He lopped the “Santo” off his name because Massimo “means the most, the maximum, the best,” he said.)

Not only did Santomassimo help Knakal to make more money, but he also coached  the investment sales broker so he could have more time with his family.

Knakal, C&W’s James Nelson and Savills Studley’s Bill Montana are a few of of Massimo’s over 200 active clients, 97 percent of whom are brokers, across North America. And they all have two things in common: They all want “to make more money more consistently,” Santomassimo said, and they want to “have more margin in their lives”—which is Santomassimo-speak for, “More personal time, away from the office, while still knowing they are productive.”

Dispensing Santomassimo’s good word are 20 coaches who are active commercial real estate brokers.

“They walk the walk, they talk the talk,” Santomassimo said. “They understand the deals.” But, he added, “We will not allow a coach to coach someone in their market.”

Brokers who are new to the business can go into a Massimo group program for $400 a month, plus there is a group coaching format for seasoned professionals. But, for more established brokers looking to go the distance, there is in-depth, one-on-one coaching, at a price of $1,250 a month, with an annual commitment.

Santomassimo, 53, boasts that while National Association of Realtors statistics reveal the average commercial broker makes $108,000 of gross income, his clients—excluding those making in excess of $3 million—averaged $753,000 last year. And of those brokers new to the business, 80 percent of Massimo’s graduates are still in the business after two or three years versus the 56 percent that drop out in the first six months on the job without his assistance.

Working with Massimo involves tuning into video presentations, doing assignments and tracking prospects and pipeline—all of it via Massimo’s virtual platform.

Massimo has “figured out the personality profile of top producers” via a personality assessment. He said they tend to be highly assertive, medium social (meaning, they can adjust to whomever they are with), impatient and not about processes, details and policies. But if someone is lacking in one or more of those areas, Santomassimo has methods to improve them.

Here are three tips from Santomassimo for brokers looking to improve their business:

1. Prospect daily

“Allocate the time in your calendar when no one interrupts you and you make your calls,” Santomassimo said. “I don’t care if you’re making $50,000 or $5 million, all our clients—members, excuse me—make calls. We make them make their calls.”

2. Perfect your presence

Ask yourself, what is your personal marketing plan? It must include an in-person presence (going out and meeting people), physical marketing materials and a digital presence. “You have to have all three,” the coach said. Without a presence you are “a ghost” or “an invisible man,” he said.

3. Don’t go it alone. Ask for help.

How are you delegating and outsourcing? How are you using your partners, etc., to get things done? As Jack Daly said in Hyper Sales Growth: Street-Proven Systems & Processes. How to Grow Quickly & Profitably, “ ‘If you do not have an admin, you are one,’ Santomassimo said. “We call people without a team an admin.”