A Snap Sales Prospecting Model for Commercial Real Estate Brokerage
When you take over a new area or merge your professional property services into a new commercial property type, you must have a prospecting model to take you forward. The business just ‘doesn’t happen’ if you know what I mean.
A specific prospecting model should help you to find more listings and more clients directly and effectively in a timely way; it is something that can then be tuned and improved over time. Your client contact model should be flexible enough to let you see what’s happening locally and then push you into the active segments of activity when the time is right.
Are you Unique Enough?
The issue to remember and understand here is that every prospecting model is quite unique and special and should be designed in that way. It is something that has to be tuned to the skills of the individual; it also needs to take into account locational factors and market trends.
Prospecting Practice Really Matters
Practice will always make a prospecting model more effective in client conversions. A good database will control the information coming in so that future opportunities with a client or a property can be leveraged.
The agents that struggle in the industry are those that never really get themselves organised into consistently finding new clients and new prospects. They overlook the importance of a prospecting model and never really establish something that works for them.
Simple direct prospecting in commercial property
Here is a simple ‘snap’ prospecting model that usually brings about reasonable levels of results in any location as part of a commercial real estate brokerage coverage. See how your cold call activities and model matches these issues and these strategies:
- DRILL DOWN: Focus your efforts within particular boundaries. That focus will usually be a selection of streets, highways or freeways, and as part of that, particular suburbs. In that way you can understand what is happening with prices and rentals and stay on top of the new opportunities as they arise.
- UNDERSTAND BUSINESSES: Delve into particular business segments and client segments within your location. There are always opportunities to be found when you delve into a particular business segment and understand the industry they serve.
- LIVE AND THRIVING: Look for business segments that are thriving; also look for business segments that are under pressure. Some of those business groups will need help in some way or form. Can you help them move location, sell an asset, expand or contract their business operations?
- CHANGE ISSUES: There will be unique change factors to look into across your local area including redundant properties, vacant land, rezoning opportunities, and property ownership changes. When you find the right property opportunity, you can research the challenges and the weaknesses of location, and in doing so you can match yourself to client requirements and property factors. Relevancy wins more listing opportunities. It is quite difficult for a client to ignore a skilful agent that understands the area and the location.
- PEOPLE FIRST: Get to know the local people first and foremost. Our industry is very personal and most of the clients that you work with will be local and will want to understand that you are the best person to help them. The clients that we serve like to know the people that they work with; they like to ‘trust’ their agents and brokers first and foremost, and that is before other things happen with listing and deal opportunities. ‘Trust’ is a number of things including market knowledge, signboard dominance, property knowledge, and resources. Build ‘trust’ levels before you chase listings.
Get to know your clients in a deeper and direct way. Be there to help them when they need to resolve their property challenge. Show the client where things can be improved and tell them why that is the case; get involved with your clients. Are you the best solution to the property issue?
(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)
