“Everything is freaking awesome!”

After hearing this amazing line of feedback from our awesome client Alexie Fonesca, who is Managing Director of Retail Services at Colliers International, we knew we had to sit down with her to see how Resquared has changed her prospecting. Frankly, we were blown away with not only the successes she has seen but with how quickly she has transformed her workflows to allow for more time back in her day to work on deals – and this is with only using Resquared for one month!

If you’re looking for some inspiration to give Resquared a try- this is the interview you need to read!

What was prospecting like pre-Resquared?

Before using Resquared I used every form of communication possible to get a hold of somebody. Let’s say I was looking for a restaurant to take over a second-generation space. I would google “local restaurants” in whatever area I was looking and then come up with a list. After that I would go to their websites and see if they have an Instagram and if they did, I would go directly there and message them.

Another route I would sometimes take is if the website had an “About” section that said who the owner is, I would note that and then contact them via the email address they have on the site even if it is an “info@” address. Then I would send them a personalized email to that address with their name.

On top of that, sometimes I would just pick up the phone and call and see if I could speak with the owner. And I always have my eyes and ears open. For example, whenever I am in a new city, I like to pick up any local magazines in the area to get a sense of the local market. These magazines, like “Orlando City Magazine”, usually interview local business owners so I can get their name from reading them.

Once the prospecting process was complete, I would put all of this information I gathered into an Excel spreadsheet and present it to my landlords at Colliers, so they know who I am talking to.

How is prospecting now that you’re using Resquared?

Resquared has cut my prospecting time in half. It’s more efficient because I can spend so much more of my time negotiating deals now. My routine now is that I send 100 prospecting emails first thing in the morning and then I don’t need to think about prospecting for the rest of the day, I simply move on to other tasks like all the LOIs I have to work on. So far, I am getting about 10-20 responses per 100 emails and my full days spent canvassing are now only an hour max of my day.

Has Resquared enabled you to find businesses you may not have without the platform?

Absolutely! And I’ll give you a good example. Before using Resquared I would search “ice cream shops in Sanford” and pull local businesses based on that search. Since Resquared can up my search range to 25 miles out, I am no longer hindered to businesses that have a Sanford address and I am finding businesses in other towns that maybe I wouldn’t have considered before.

Are there any examples of successes you’ve had on the platform that you can share?

Yes! Literally the first email I sent through Resquared received the best response ever! Check out this email I received back below. I am still in talks with them now!

I also had a really great response to a really adorable cupcake shop that is fully built out with all of the equipment and is pretty much move-in ready for the right tenant. Here’s a photo of the space:

I set up a search in Resquared with the keywords, “dessert, ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, cakes, chocolates,” and I pulled together a list and reached out to a bunch of them. I had over twenty people respond and four of them have even come and toured the space last week. One even drove all the way from Tampa and that was really great because it shows upping to the 25-mile radius is working well.

What’s one of your favorite things about Resquared?

I think one of my favorite things must be the simplicity of the message templates. It is honestly still shocking to me how keeping the message so short and simple gets so many more responses than sending a detailed email with a flyer attached. I would have never known without Resquared that such simple, text-message-like emails would get more interest than my full pitch emails.