Trust is a really big issue in commercial real estate brokerage. The best clients and the biggest deals you achieve will usually come from the trust and the personal relationships you have built with your clients and prospects over time. That’s where your database takes the ‘top position’ as a business tool to be used at a personal level. Every conversation and meeting should be tracked and recorded in your database. It’s a personal thing that cannot be delegated.
I have seen many agents loose listing opportunities simply because they have not developed strong, regular, and valuable links to their clients. In so many cases you see where an agent may have spoken to a client 4 months ago, and yet the listing goes to another competitor. So why does this happen? Ongoing contact was lacking and the client thereby had no real reason to remember the first agent at the time of property pressure and action. That’s where so many listings ‘slip through the cracks’.
VIP Clients
Here are some ideas to help you build a strong professional profile with all your top clients. That can mean listings and leads to work on. These strategies will help you build trust at a significant level with all of your clients.
- Have a quarterly ‘one on one’ property briefing for the top clients where you can tell them about the activities in the property market today locally.
- Look out for property changes and opportunities that are a clear fit for the clients that you serve. Understand the portfolio needs of your VIP Clients.
- Help the client deal with common property problems such as increases in vacancy factors, market rental assessments, and development opportunities.
- Take every deal and negotiation to the end result. A ‘done deal’ is not actually completed until all monies are paid and settlements are achieved. Many a time you will find a property transaction will delay, divert or dislodge because it was not ‘followed through’ consistently. If you are the agent in charge, then you are the person to stay on the deal and its progress to the very end (be it good or bad).
- Develop a special system of client contact that is superior to that of your competitors. Many of your clients are likely to know a few real estate agents. In a direct way those agents will be contacting your clients continually. What can you do with client communication that will help you stand out as the top agent for the area?
- Understand what business you are really in. You are not just a ‘real estate agent’, but you are certainly a ‘property problem solver’. That simple shift of mindset can bring great benefits and conversions to your prospecting and business activities.
Simple strategies like these will help you stand out as a professional and relevant agent for the clients that you serve.