CRE Brokers: Stop Wasting Your #1 Marketing Tool

Your clients are your best salespeople (if you let them)

You just closed a deal. Relief washes over you. Maybe you celebrate for an hour. Then you move on to the next prospect, the next exclusive relationship, the next listing, the next closing.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the problem: you’re leaving money on the table.

Every transaction you close is proof that you solve problems. But if that proof lives only in your memory and not in the hands of your prospects, you’re working twice as hard for half the results.

Over the last 17 years, we’ve worked with more than 4,200 commercial real estate brokers. The ones who dominate their markets all do one thing exceptionally well. They turn every closed deal into a tool that closes the next one.

Let me show you how.

First, STOP asking for testimonials!

Most brokers make this mistake: they close a deal, wait a few weeks, then send an email asking the client to write a testimonial.

The client is busy. They don’t know what to say. They write something generic like “John was great to work with” and you get a one-liner that does nothing for your credibility.

Here’s what works better: draft the testimonial yourself.

You know the story. You know the challenges. You know the results. Write it in a way that speaks directly to the prospects you want to attract. Then send it to your client for approval.

Most of the time, they’ll sign off without changing a word. Why? Because you’ve made it easy for them, and you’ve captured the real value you delivered.

Use the CART framework

At Massimo, we teach our clients to structure every success story (do NOT call them “case studies’) using what we call the CART framework:

Challenges – What specific obstacles or problems did your client face before working with you?

Actions – What strategic steps and solutions did you implement to overcome those challenges?

Results – What measurable success and outcomes did your client achieve because of your actions?

Testimonials – Include a client-approved statement that reinforces the value you delivered and emphasizes your expertise for future prospects.

This isn’t just about collecting quotes. It’s about creating a library of proof that matches the exact situations your prospects are facing right now.

When you sit down with a new prospect dealing with a partnership dispute, you pull out a CART that shows how you navigated that same situation for someone else. When you meet a tenant looking to expand, you show them the results you delivered for a similar client.

That’s when testimonials become powerful.

Make it systematic

Here’s a stat worth remembering: 70% of people trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know.

That means every testimonial you collect has the potential to influence dozens of future deals. But only if you actually collect them.

Make testimonials part of your process. After every closing, before you move on, take 20 minutes to draft a CART. Get it approved. Add it to your library.

Do this consistently and within a year, you’ll have a stable of success stories that prove your expertise across every type of deal you handle.

The real benefit

Bob Knakal, one of our longtime clients, said it best: “One of the biggest benefits of closing a deal is the ability to use that success to land more deals.”

Most brokers treat testimonials as an afterthought. Top producers treat them as the foundation of their prospecting strategy.

Every deal you close should work for you twice. Once when you earn the commission. Again, when it helps you close the next one.

If you’re not capturing your success stories, you’re doing the work but missing the leverage.

Need help building a system that turns closed deals into future commissions?

👉 Book a free 30-minute Broker Break-Through Strategy Session and we’ll show you exactly how to make testimonials work for your business.