5 Ways to Develop Blanket Coverage Marketing in Commercial Real Estate
In commercial real estate your property market will hopefully be all around you and your team. You will be splitting that territory up into precincts and property types for the required focus. In only that way can you correctly and completely cover the available listing stock.
The agents that struggle in the industry are usually those that try to do too much or spread their efforts of prospecting too far. That equation simply doesn’t work. Concentrate your efforts and your property focus; that’s the rule. It is also the solution to business generation.
So let’s get some market coverage going. I like the idea of blanketing the property market individually so that all the required properties and people that are of suitable ‘quality’ are identified. When you know who the people are, and where the properties are, there are things that you can tap into and talk about. You could call it directed marketing at a personal level. It is a personal thing.
Location Based Facts
Local area coverage and knowledge will always lead you to facts and opportunities. Get into your territory every day. You can’t talk to a lot of local people from your desk. Get into your streets and buildings.
Here are some ideas to get the coverage under control:
- Limit your territory – This rule is just so important. Get out some maps for the area and determine the zones that you should be focusing into. Use the main roads and geographical boundaries as the limiters. When you have set the boundaries, look at how many streets and properties would be in the location. There must be plenty of potential stock for you to tap into.
- Limit your business types – This concept depends on whether you work with office, industrial, or retail properties. The issue here is that you can delve into particular property types and then business types. You can then match businesses into vacancies and properties for sale or lease. The more that you know about a business type and their operations, the more that you can to from a professional perspective in finding properties and resolving occupancy issues.
- Building specific – Some buildings are located in great locations where lots of other businesses like to locate. When you look at the buildings locally, choose the very special buildings to work into and research. Contact all the tenants in those buildings and also the owners. Ask plenty of questions about occupancy and local area changes. Simple questions will lead you to some real facts that you can tap into.
- Street specific – Go through your streets and select the best ones to canvass. That will mean door knocking and talking to the property owners one by one. Yes, I know that it takes time to get all the facts on that, however street by street coverage will help you see things and find things. The occupants of the street will tell you what has happened locally with property and business locations, and they are very likely to share information about change and churn.
- Personal marketing model – I am a big believer in personal marketing in commercial real estate brokerage. That says every broker and agent in my opinion should have a dedicated marketing process that they implement every day for their own brand and personal advantage. Don’t rely on your brokerage to spread the word about who you are and what you do; that simply won’t happen. Take control of your real estate business personally. That’s the best way to do things.
It doesn’t really matter when you start your commercial real estate activities; sure the market changes and shifts, but most of the results that you get will be from personal business generation and prospecting. Figure out the solutions that you need to build your market share, and then set about concentrating your prospecting model into total market coverage.
It is a great industry, and the opportunities are many for those of us that push through the barriers and the challenges. Expect that you will have a few ‘mountains to climb’ in your property business, and then set about doing exactly that.
Refine your professional skills as you proceed in your market and your location. Many of your competing agents will be fairly ordinary and generic in their marketing and listing processes. Make sure that your skills and offerings are very special. Stand out as the best choice.
