Posted on

Top Agent Tip – Non Stop Marketing in Commercial Real Estate

In commercial real estate today, the abundance of agents in the property market means that most listing opportunities are a competition to win the business.  Every agent invited to the listing presentation process with the client will put on their best pitch and strategy for the listing.

This can be good and bad, but the fact of the matter is that many agents tackle the listing process very generically; they are largely complacent and quite ordinary when it comes to target marketing and direct marketing.  You can adjust your pitch and presentation to be quite specific to the property type, the client, and the location.  When you do this your chances of converting the listing rise greatly.

If you are known as the local real estate agent of skill and relevance, you will get invited to more listing opportunities.  All or most of your leads and listing invitations will come from your local market presence and personal networking.  You cannot wait for the leads to walk into your agency; it doesn’t work that way in this market.

To be known for the right reasons is an unusual equation that requires planning on your part.  Consider your local property market.  What would make you the top agent?  What would let people know that you are the best in a particular property type and location?

Here are some ideas to help you build your local brand:

  1. Signboard presence will always be the number 1 factor in territory dominance and market share.  You cannot claim to be a top agent unless you have the majority of the signboards on all the top quality properties.  Now I know that this is difficult to achieve, however dedicated networking and prospecting will get you there.
  2. The internet will bring you many leads and opportunities today.  All of your property adverts on the internet should be optimised for the search engines and customers that are looking to buy or lease property.  So how can you do this?  Do a keyword search on your property type and local area.  Do this in http://Google.com with their ‘keyword search tool’ to see what people are typing into the search engines today when it comes to looking for local property.  Take a selection of those words (not too many at once), and feed them into your marketing material and online advertisements.
  3. Write a blog about commercial investment property in your area.  The blog process will cost you virtually nothing to establish using http://wordpress.com or http://blogger.com .   Over time you can fill the blog with regular market updates and property tips.  Do not focus on listings, but do focus on helpful information about the local area.  That simple internet marketing process will help build your personal brand well above the other competitors locally.
  4. Create an email newsletter that is supported by an auto responder.  Put all of your clients into the system and keep in contact with them through the regular email market updates.
  5. Make lots of telephone calls every day.  The telephone remains the most powerful personal marketing tool that we have.  Use it well.

In today’s property market you really must be known as the best solution for the clients that you serve.  If they can see your name and face in more locations it will help you rise to the top of your market faster.

Posted on

No Brainer Top Marketing Tips in Commercial Real Estate Agency

In this commercial property market, you really do need to market yourself comprehensively and consistently to the clients and prospects that you deal with.  Your competitors will be doing everything possible to undermine your listings, attract your clients, and interfere with your leads and opportunities.  It’s a tough industry, but it is also very rewarding for those agents that can systemize their actions and keep up their focus.

What’s New?

There is nothing new here of course when I say that it’s a tough business world today; our industry is competitive.  Before everything else in commercial real estate, you must be a good marketer of your skills and services.  Every day you should be reaching into your database of contacts to consolidate your brand even further.

Here are some tips to help you consolidate your personal marketing plan as a top commercial real estate agent.

  1. From a marketing perspective, you will always get more leads and opportunities from quality listings.  This then says that most of your listing efforts should be directed towards properties of quality and desirability.  If you list low grade properties, you will attract low grade enquiry.  Get to know the right people with the best properties locally, and network them regularly.
  2. Each listing that you take on should be a controlled listing.  This means that your listings should be ‘exclusive’ by nature.  You should have control of those listings for a reasonable period of time.  Avoid open listings unless you really believe you can find the right person to take the property on.  Open listings are generally a waste of time given that you have no control over the stock.  In the open listing scenario, the clients are always listening to many agents at the same time and are therefore quite untrustworthy.
  3. Every quality controlled listing should be supported by a dedicated marketing program and vendor paid marketing funds.  This then goes back to the point and the importance of exclusive listings.  The equation is quite simple.  When you control the stock, you control the enquiry, and therefore you can close on more successful transactions.
  4. A successful sales or lease transaction should be communicated into the local business community and the surrounding property owners.  Any success that you have with a listed property is an excuse to spread the word of the positive result.  Be known as the local real estate agent of success and results.  Spread the message of your success locally.  Most of your leads and opportunities will come from the local property market exclusively.
  5. Every quality listing and exclusive listing should be personally marketed into the surrounding property owners and business community.  This means lifting the telephone to talk to the right people, and door knocking the streets surrounding the listed property.  Use every listing as an excuse to talk to more people.

In this property market today, there is an abundance of stock and a shortfall of qualified enquiries.  Some buyers and tenants cannot act in a market like this today.  For this very reason, every listing that you bring into your books should be optimized for maximum enquiry and market penetration.  Use that quality listing to get the message to the market.

You can get more tips like this in our Newsletter right here.

Posted on

Top Commercial Real Estate Agents Need a Top Prospecting Model and Here is Why

When it comes to commercial real estate sales and leasing, you really do need to consolidate your territory around you as the agent of choice.  In most cases you will have many other agents in the same patch chasing the same listings.  This then says that you should have total focus on your marketing and prospecting efforts.

Given the law of averages that applies to sales people today, most of your competitors will be fairly ordinary and underperforming when it comes to prospecting and territory building.  Most commercial real estate agents lack a consistent and relevant plan of attack when it comes to building the local territory and market penetration.  I guess they would say that they have too many other things to do.

This then says that systemized agents can consolidate their market faster and more effectively than their competitors.  Whilst it is easy to say, is difficult to do; difficult in the sense that personal commitment is required on a daily basis to a plan of self-promotion and client contact.

You cannot list a property if the decision makers do not know who you are.

If the next year is important to you when it comes to quality of listings and growth of commissions, it is really important for you to now formulate your plan of attack when it comes to the listing territory that you control.

Here are some ideas to help you consolidate your market share and grow your listing opportunities.

  1. When one of your competing agents puts a signboard on a property, talk to all the adjacent property owners and business proprietors.  It is quite likely that those adjacent property owners or business people may like to compete with the existing listing nearby.  Whilst the competing agent should have already spoken to those groups, it is quite likely that they have not.  With a little bit of effort, you can open the door of opportunity around all of the other agent’s listings in your area.
  2. Check out the history of property sales in the area over the last 7 to 10 years.  The people that purchased property approximately four years ago and beyond are those people that are likely to again soon act when it comes to property sales and or leasing.  Determine that group of people and establish contact in an ongoing and relevant way.  Consistent regular contact will help you brand yourself as a relevant agent in the local property market.
  3. When you take a property or listing to the market, contact all of the local business proprietors personally together with all of the property investors.  This personal marketing process will open the door on many other opportunities and leads.  You need to get your name and face in front of more people to grow your market share.
  4. Every successful sale or lease transaction should be communicated into the local area personally and directly.  This means placing telephone calls and letters to the right people and the business owners.  When you create a successful transaction, it can help you consolidate your brand as a top agent.

Most of the business people that purchase and lease property today are locally based.  They know the local area, and they also know what their clients require as to access and property type.

Keep your personal marketing program specific to a defined territory and property type.  This will help consolidate your database and your local market knowledge.

You can get a lot more tips and ideas in our Agents Newsletter right here.

Posted on

Commercial Real Estate Agents – Beware of Listing Panic

When it comes to your career in commercial real estate agency, you will sometimes feel the pressure of the market and the industry.  It is very easy to panic when you have no listings and or commission coming in.  Here are some tips from our Newsletter.

There is no point in panicking when it comes to your job and your market share.  If you feel the pressure of listings and commissions, it is simply a matter of developing a prospecting system and actioning it every day.  Over about three or four weeks, you will soon see the market turn more favorably back towards you.

One of the biggest problems in our industry is consistency on the part of the salesperson to build market share.  Each and every day top agents work towards consistency and systemized prospecting; you should do the same.

Success in our industry is largely created through ongoing personal contact with the correct people that matter in our industry.  Over time those relationships build listing opportunity and better market share.

If you feel some degree of panic when it comes to your market share, listings, and commissions, it is time to establish a system to take yourself forward and out of the difficulty.  Momentum and action taken immediately will help you lessen the frustration and panic you currently feel.

When you start moving towards a plan, and you stick to the process, you will soon see that the magnitude of the original problem was not as great as originally thought.  You are in control, and you can resolve any pressures that you currently have.  It is simply a matter of modifying your choices and habits.  Systemize your day; that is the secret to progress.

Here are some ideas to help you move forward with this and build a better market share over the next 12 months.

  1. It is extremely important that you control your time on a daily basis.  You are the only person that can do this.  There will be demands on you from business colleagues, clients, the agency principal, and others that can destabilize your focus on a daily basis.  Keep things simple.  Understand what you must do every day, and do it regardless of any pressure from others.  Take control of your time.  Set aside the time that is required to do the key things to take you forward.  Most particularly that will be prospecting and you should do that for approximately 2 or 3 hours per day.
  2. Start building relationships with the right people in your industry.  Have a look around the local area so you can make contact with business leaders, property owners, and property investors.  In the right market you can also add property developers to the list.
  3. It is a well-known fact that the degree, to which you believe you are in control, is the degree to which you will be successful.  Successful people are in control each and every day.  They make the right choices and take the right actions.  They will not waste time with the wrong people or wrong circumstances.

The commercial real estate industry is one of the most rewarding and challenging of sales careers.  You can meet some great people and earn a lot of money in the process.  All of that being said, you really do need to selectively choose your actions and your key tasks each and every day.  This is part of an ongoing personal marketing process.

You can get more tips like this in our Newsletter.

Posted on

High Quality Lead Generation Systems for Commercial Real Estate Agents Today

In commercial real estate the prospects and clients that we serve are quick to judge you.  They will judge you by what you do and what you say.  They will also judge you on what you do not do.  For this reason it pays for you to be absolutely focused on positive connection and communication with all the people in your database and your client records.  Systems and relevance will help you with all your connections and leads.  Here are some tips from our Newsletter.

Relationships Are the Key

The main reason we win listings is through relationships.  Those relationships are with the right people locally.  Commercial real estate agency is built around the trust that you establish with landlords, tenants, business leaders, and property investors.

I was recently talking with a fellow agent that was just moving from residential property into commercial property.  The question he raised was ‘How do you establish your database and client base?’   The fact of the matter is that a system is required to take you forward as an agent in your local territory.  Without a system of client contact your career will go up and down like a roller coaster.

Massive Opportunity

Don’t make things hard on yourself with listings and commissions.  You have chosen a career of massive opportunity; you just need to the required focus and momentum.  Start today to deal with the contacts and database that you require.  Expect that the process will take time, but the results will come.

Here are some ideas to help you deal with the leads and prospect list that you require.

  1. Business leaders will be a good source of business in one form or another.  They may own or lease the premises that they are in; either way you can help them.  Business owners and leaders are easy to find given that you can use the telephone book and door knock on a few business doors.  These people are the easiest to network with and make contact.  You should be talking to 20 business people per day.  Ask the right questions and you will get some valuable information that you can do something with.
  2. Property investors will come to you from other marketing efforts, or perhaps the branding and marketing of your office or agency.  Get to know these people and the type of help that they require.  As a local investor they like to work with agents that really know the local area and how to tap into the deals.  Even in the toughest of property markets there will always be property investors looking for good quality property or tenants.
  3. Property developers come and go from the market based on the supply and demand for leased space and property ownership.  You can get good property business from them, however they require understanding and they should not be trusted until you have their name on a valid appointment to act.  Property developers are very good at using agents without paying fees.  Don’t fall into the trap of service without fees.

With these three groups of people you can develop your lead generation system and market share.  Prospect into these groups every day; soon you will see your leads grow and the listing opportunity open up.

You can get more tips for commercial real estate agents in our Newsletter.