Change in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage – Anyone can do it
In commercial real estate brokerage the challenges we face throughout the year are frequent and varied. In any period of 12 months there are plenty of things to handle and work through in sales and leasing, and that is on top of client requirements and listing activity.
But what is a sales career without challenges? Some would say ‘boring’! It doesn’t matter if the property market is active, slow, expanding, or shifting, there are things to do and tap into. The commissions and listings are out there for the taking. Top agents know where to look and what to do.
The way to knit things together in commercial real estate is to create a personal prospecting and marketing plan for the year and then to implement the required steps of change and action.
A Change Approach to Real Estate Brokerage
So the message here is that change is required if you want your real estate activities this year to be better than last year.
Here is a ‘change’ model that works for most commercial real estate agents:
- Focus on listing momentum – Property listings are the lifeblood of the industry and you should have a few listings targets to achieve each week. How many listings can you secure and control each week? Consider the quality of the listing as well, given that quality properties always attract better levels of inquiry.
- Exclusivity conversions – Exclusive listings are far more important than open listings and so every property presentation should be biased towards converting ‘exclusivity’. In simple terms you must control your listing stock wherever possible and the exclusive listing process does that.
- New people are critical – Set out a plan of action that helps you find and talk to new people in the local area. Look for the quality investors and business owners that have a potential property need or activity. Talk to new people every day and add them to your database if you can see a property involvement now or in the future.
- Watch your numbers of inbound inquiries – When a person calls you off an advert or signboard, keep a tally of the numbers. Also track what they are looking for. Soon you will see patterns of inquiry during the year, and the better times of year to promote certain property types. This information is quite valuable when it comes to working with different clients and property types.
- Understand what people want – Within certain property categories you will see plenty of things that attract better levels of inquiry. That then helps you design your marketing to attract the inquiry. Key words and advertising headlines can be shaped to the targets and requirements of recent property inquiry.
- Improve critical negotiation skills – As you work through the different property types and factors of negotiation, you will see and experience issues that commonly occur such as converting marketing money, price negotiation, inspection processes, and closing on a contract. All of these things can be improved through practice and that can be done each week as part of the team meeting.
These six simple factors to watch are the main factors of ‘change’ that help agents get results. They can be improved at the level of the individual commercial real estate broker and agent through planning and practice. Are you up to the challenge?