This week, our 5 for Friday features Scott Skogmo, SIOR, Managing Director with Sperry Van Ness/Skogmo Commercial based out of Columbia, MD.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My geographic market is Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC region. I primarily specialize in Industrial properties but some office and flex properties as well.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Get out of the office at least once a week for cold calling, warm calling, and to see the properties. I always get new ideas when out on the road. Also, improve client communications and marketing through ClientLook and other tools such as BuildOut, ProspectNow, broker emails, postcards, etc.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
More efficient operations by strategic use of technology; less paper, less overhead, better access to mobile tools, less time wasted on non-productive activities. I can be more focused on sales due to better focus and fewer distractions. For example, completing a broker email on a property is so easy now using BuildOut and iContact. It only takes about 5 minutes to set up a new mailer once the property is entered in BuildOut.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Although it is an older book, it is a great lesson about how government can strangle business and the entrepreneurial spirit.
We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency by Parmy Olson provides a great warning and illustration of how dangerous cybercrime and the hacker community can be to business.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I reached my goal of cycling 3,000 miles in 2012, and came close in 2013, mostly in Maryland. I hope to branch out and possibly do more distant adventures next year. On the water, I always enjoy jet skiing with my son on the rivers and bays of Maryland, Delaware and in the Atlantic Ocean.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.