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Commercial Real Estate Agents – What is a Listing Slump and How to Fix It

In the commercial real estate market every year, you will come across slumps in listings.  It happens to most salespeople at some stage and sometimes it can be an all-too-frequent a problem.  Talk about peaks and valleys in the real estate business!  They happen, but they are resolvable.

So lets cut out the frustration and get down to building a better commercial real estate business for ourselves.  That means commissions, listings, clients, and referrals.

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Listing Problems to Fix Now

So let’s start with a ‘listing slump’ and what we can do about it.  What is happening here in a slump?  It is usually one or more of the following:

  • A shift in commercial property enquiry
  • Seasonal holidays change habits
  • Finance is restrictive
  • Change in supply and demand for property
  • New property developments
  • Too many listings
  • Not enough prospecting
  • The wrong type of prospecting
  • Not enough qualified buyers or tenants to take up the listings
  • Lack of the right sale and leasing stock
  • Business sentiment has changed
  • Not enough qualified sellers and buyers to work with

All of these things will happen regardless of anything that you do in your market.  What you don’t want is for these things to slow your momentum in listings and commissions.  What you need is a lead generation model that works for you.   Creating and implementing your own lead generation model will radically change your business.

It’s good when the prevailing market conditions do not pressure you.  The only way that you can create that situation is by establishing your business model that works independently of any market conditions.  Day in and day out your business system proceeds.  That’s how top agents do it.

real estate agent meeting clients in office

Lead Generation Model

So what does a good lead creation model look like in a commercial real estate agency?  Here are some ideas to help you:

  1. Set a defined target market so you know where you are focusing your efforts.  Stay inside set geographical boundaries, and focus on a property type.  In this way, you will get to know the properties and the property owners.  Knowledge in this industry is power.
  2. Talk to new business people every day. Set some numbers that you can achieve when you make more cold calls.  It is the business owners and tenants that will share information and property needs.  Cold calling is a real skill that requires ongoing practice.
  3. Track all of your networking and call activities through a good database.  Take personal ownership of the data that goes into the database; in this way, you will keep accurate and up to date.
  4. Look for leads through business types, business activity, new property developments, old clients, referral business, and third-party introductions.  The more people that you can talk to the better for your market share and growth.
  5. Every property listing should be personally marketed into the region in which it is located.  In other words, every listing is an excuse to talk to more people.  They will then share information on their property needs and you can put that information into your database.
  6. Develop an email newsletter that can be sent to the people that you have spoken to and that have agreed to ongoing contact.
  7. Spend 3 hours every day in prospecting.  Some of that can be on the telephone, whilst the balance can be in working the streets where businesses are located.
  8. Get to know the property owners in your region.  This will take time as some of them are hard to locate and identify.  Make it a personal challenge to chase down a new property owner every day.  Over one year that is 365 property owners!  What an opportunity.
  9. Check out the expired listings of other agents.  Some of those property owners may be looking for other agents to take on the listing.
  10. Keep in contact with all landlords that self-manage their properties.

When you do these things, you should not have a listing slump and your market share will remain active and strong.  All steps taken here will lead to the next step.  That is what opportunity in our industry is all about.

People in our industry tend to focus on what they know and what they have done.  Change is really hard for some commercial salespeople.  You must have the commitment to do new things and work out just what brings you better results. 

real estate team success

Get active in new and different ways; the property market will open up for you.  Create new habits that will bring you the results that you want.  You are your biggest resource and that resource needs to be optimised.  Don’t you agree?

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