Breakthrough Listing Strategies for Commercial Real Estate Brokers Today

When it comes to pitching and presenting to a client for a property listing in commercial real estate, you need to ‘read between the lines’ and position your proposal accordingly.  Many of the clients that you work with will not be totally open and honest with you at the first stages of communication and connection.  They will have secret agendas or hidden priorities that will have an impact on the property marketing process.  Get all of the issues out into the open as part of the listing process.  (NB – you can get more listing facts in our Snapshot program right here)

To achieve the right levels of momentum and the best outcomes from your listings, you will need to comprehensively qualify and understand the client before the property is taken to the market.  Ask the right questions, and explore the answers you achieve.  In many respects you will need to ‘drill down’ on the answers to get to the real motivations and critical factors of sale or lease opportunity.

Listing Processes

Here are some breakthrough tips to help you with the listing process in commercial real estate today:

1. CLIENT: Look for the hidden messages and the priorities of the client.  Those two factors will have an impact on your proposal and your recommendations.
2. MARKET FACTS: Match the property to the prevailing market conditions based on the trends and the market evidence you are getting from competing properties.  Help the client understand that the right choices at the start of the marketing process will fast track the end result they require.  Any incorrect choices are likely to frustrate the outcome, thereby wasting time and money.
3. INBOUND ENQUIRY: In many respects, the properties that we take to the market for sale or for lease today will have limited numbers of inquiries coming back in.  We therefore have to do more with less when it comes to converting inquiries to inspections, and inspections to negotiations.  Any client with an inflated view of price or rental needs to be suitably counseled prior to the commencement marketing.  If the property is taken to the market incorrectly with a high price or rental, it is likely to stifle the inquiry and restrict inspection opportunity.  The first 4 to 6 weeks of any marketing campaign are absolutely critical to attracting inquiry and inspections.  Mistakes cannot be made when it comes to promotional processes and marketing choices.
4. STAGES: There are some clear stages to move through as part of the property listing and marketing process.  They are by definition in preparation, listing, marketing, inspections, negotiations, and documentation.  Depending on the property, each stage can have special points of focus and separate strategies.  This is certainly the case when it comes to a complex property in a unique location.  Make sure that your proposal and your listing strategy takes into account the requirements of each of the property stages.  Help the client understand the key issues required and the choices to be made.  Provide a Gantt chart in your proposal to do this.

So the message here is quite clear.  Every listing should be unique and separately handled when it comes to proposals and recommendations.  Take the time to delve into the market and the current levels of inquiry and breakthrough the barriers of client and prospect procrastination.  Provide your client with suitable strategies to achieve the best possible outcomes with their commercial, industrial, or retail property.