Commercial Brokerage – How to Convert Plenty of Vendor Paid Marketing Monies
In commercial brokerage, the monies that you raise from the client as part of the listing process are very important to the result that both you and the client seek. Sure, you can list a property without marketing funds, but the momentum with inspections and inquiries will be lower. A poorly promoted property will stay on the market a lot longer.
The message here is that you can and should develop a solid process of including marketing monies in all your listing strategies and presentations. Develop the reasons why the promotional strategy is so important to the end result from the client’s perspective, and feed those reasons into your presentation to the client.
Help them see the importance of the issue from their perspective in timing, inquiry, inspections, and momentum.
Client Focus
So, what is a client seeking from the promotion of their property? Usually it is one or more of the following:
- A timely result with a sale or lease
- The best price possible given the current market conditions
- To resolve a price or loan problem
- To move their investment monies into another property or location
- To upgrade their property portfolio with better buildings
- To find a special property for redevelopment
These issues are time and task based. Every one of the issues will be driven by strategy and timing. The agent chosen for the task of marketing will be critical to the result. You can sell your professional services deeply into those issues; you can also seek exclusivity as part of the listing process.
Your listing presentation should be carefully considered when it comes to all your presentations; decisions and directions should be made before you talk to the client. You can then move your ideas into matters of strategy and promotion. Show the client that you are the best person for the job at hand. Tell them how you understand the property, the clients focus, and the target market. From those three factors, you can build a professional listing presentation based on relevance. The conversion of vendor paid marketing monies then gets easier.
Great Ideas Really Work
Here are some ideas to build into and around your listing pitch:
- Setting clear and relevant target markets – show the client that you have reviewed the strengths and weaknesses in the property, and from those factors you can see the ideal target market of buyers or tenants that will be attracted to the asset.
- Establishing a timed campaign – most clients like to see momentum and know how things will move ahead. Set a time line to the listing, marketing, inspection, and negotiation phases of property activity.
- Giving three promotional alternatives to the client – choices are easy for a client when you explain things. The agents that fail to get marketing funds are usually those agents that did not recognize and give the client some promotional package choices. Develop three promotional packages for all your listings, then explain the differences in your listing pitch.
- Using the online portals comprehensively – choose the portals that the property should be placed into and provide reasons for that selection. Ask the client for the funds to put the listing into the elite or priority packages in the portals. You don’t want the listing to be lost in a group of more ‘ordinary’ properties.
- The best method of sale or lease – knowing the property and the client as you do, make clear recommendations about the method of sale or lease and how you can see that the choices to be made are so important to where the client wants to be in a successful result.
- Provide examples of spending and advertising – there are many different promotional methods that you can use with online and offline advertising. Have plenty of examples ready to show the client the actual layouts and sizes that other property owners have used over time. Make recommendations about the different layouts and publications that you know must be adopted in the listing process.
- Use exclusivity for control and strategy – ask for control of the listing. Don’t accept an ‘open listing’. You should be the listing agent, so give the client plenty of deep and direct reasons for that. Tell the client why your listing ideas are so important, and work through all the issues mentioned here earlier. If you have done a good job on the presentation, the request for exclusivity shouldn’t be that hard.
Close on the Money
If you have comprehensively handled all the issues mentioned here, the vendor paid marketing funds should flow into the listing phase of the property appointment.
How much money should you ask for? It all depends on the property, the client, the competing properties, and your professional services to resolve the client’s property pain as soon as possible.
On a final note; get the marketing monies paid directly to your brokerage before the campaign bookings start.
