Career Tips in Commercial Real Estate Agency
Many people think about a career as an agent or broker in commercial property sales and leasing. It’s a great industry full of opportunity and growth.
In saying that, it’s a career that requires great commitment, skill and personal development; that is certainly the case if you want to rise to the top.
There are lots of ordinary sales agent performers that come and go. In most cases, they do not have the sustained focus and the knowledge to make the whole thing work; that is their problem and it is personally resolved.
As in any sales career, you get out of it what you put into it. Self-belief is a great thing, but the right action is required. A lot of salespeople find the action thing a bit difficult to sustain; they soon slip back into their old ways. Persistence is a great skill to learn. Habits take time to develop.
Your Commercial Property Career Blueprint
Here is a ‘blueprint’ or plan of some of the main tools that can be used in giving your career in commercial real estate a boost and some real momentum.
- FIND THE BUSINESS: Prospecting and cold calling for new business is the most important thing you should do. It is a daily task that should be practised and refined; habits are required at a personal level. As you improve your call systems and skills, you create more meetings and thereby find potential clients that will do business with you. Brand awareness is really important in our industry. You are your ‘brand’.
- TRACK YOUR CONTACTS: Building a database is just so important. It is a personal thing and should be part of your daily planning and research. Each day the people that you speak to should be captured into your database for future reference and repeat contact. Some salespeople do not do this very well and the database becomes a random record of old information; that ‘old information’ is useless unless regularly updated. As your database builds, it strengthens your market knowledge and market share. You then have lots of people to talk to and convert to sales or leasing transactions when the time is right for them. As to how many people you should have in your database, the number will vary but 400 to 600 is a good number to target and should produce results for you. Now, these people are not just names; they are well known to you and you keep in regular contact at least every 60 days or so.
- KNOW THE FACTS: Local property knowledge will be part of your research and ongoing personal development. When you pitch for a listing or close a deal, the local knowledge that you have about properties, prices, rents, and owners, will help you negotiate, list, and inform. This information will help you close deals confidently.
- EXCLUSIVITY: Exclusive listings are the way to build a quality career in commercial real estate. You can then focus your efforts on a client that is 100% with you to market their property effectively. Make sure you ask for Vendor Paid Advertising as part of every Exclusive listing.
- SPREAD THE WORD: Get your name on many property signboards in your local area. Signboard presence will help you with territory domination. The local property owners and business proprietors tend to call the person with the greater number of signboards. So get your name out into the area on plenty of signboards.
- FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS: Listing presentations, negotiations, sales pitches, and marketing skills are all part of the job. Many salespeople and realtors rank themselves highly when it comes to self-assessment within these categories; the reality is that most are quite ‘ordinary’ and cannot handle the high-end presentations and negotiations well. All 4 of these skill bases should be constantly practised, given that the competition agents will always be chasing the same listings and deals that you are. You can never be ‘good enough’, as someone will always be better, so make the effort to self-improve and practice the things that are critical to your job.
So this short list can start your commercial real estate career focus and help your results in finding more listings and commissions. The sales and leasing business is out there but the only way to find it is through personal and sustained prospecting effort. Develop good habits and drive them consistently every day.