Commercial Real Estate Agents – 9 Ways to Stand Out as a Top Agent Locally

To dominate the commercial real estate market, you need a few strategies to help your commercial real estate business and services stand out as professional and specialised.

There are plenty of other agents to compete with at any point in time and that problem will never go away. A strategy is everything when it comes to any agent or broker attracting clients and listings.

When pitching for a listing the following factors are quite likely to be hurdles that you will strike in any property presentation or listing pitch. As you strive to attract more new business and client opportunity these issues will arise time and time again.

Common Challenges for Agents

So how will you respond to these facts and issues?  Consider the list:

• Some clients and prospects will approach a few agents as part of considering the potential listing of their property. Why are you better than other agents?
• Discounting commissions and advertising fees can be the strategy used by other agents in influencing the client and potentially converting the listing. What commission is fair and reasonable for the task of serving the client?
• Some agents will take on a listing at an inflated price simply to get control of the listing stock. How can you get the best price or rent without inflating the price at the time of listing?
• Established relationships that the client may have with other agents can override any logical listing strategy and take the business away from you. How will you counter those well-established relationships?
• You will only have a short period of time with the client to present and pitch your services professionally in handling their listing. What can you say and do in 30 minutes of pitching to the client that will attract their attention?

So these are common problems to be overcome and addressed. The listing pitch or presentation that you make has to be specific for the client; it has to be both memorable, and highly relevant.  What can you do to stand out as the top agent for the job and listing?

In connecting with the client, your marketing strategies and listing solutions should be the best in all respects; your recommendations should be clear and precise so that they can be seriously considered when compared to those recommendations made by other agents.

Factors to Help Top Agents Attract Business

So here are some ideas to help your commercial real estate strategy and presentation stand out. Look at how these factors can be added to your listing pitch or presentation today:

1. Recent property activities – Show the client exactly how you have been addressing the current market conditions with existing listings and current levels of enquiry. Provide them with some logical steps and processes so that they can see real marketing results.
2. Use a timeline or Gantt chart – the visual approach to telling the story about the property and the marketing really does work. A Gantt chart will help you show the client the separate strategies to be used, and the times involved in taking their property to the market. Make the Gantt chart quite specific to the client’s situation and property challenges. Break the marketing process down into separate stages and initiatives. You can then talk to the chart as part of the listing presentation and pitching.
3. Devise an inspection strategy – Create a specific inspection strategy for the property and the client situation. Tell the client how you will inspect and move through the property showing the necessary features as strengths, and then resolving any hurdles or weaknesses that may exist in the property presentation. That then helps the client see your commitment to the marketing and promotional process.
4. Existing levels of inquiry – In your database today there are likely to be plenty of qualified people and prospects to quote the listing to. Shortlist number of those people to show the client as part of the property presentation. It will be hard for the client to ignore a list of 20 or 30 people that you can immediately call and contact regards their property listing.
5. Use specific examples of marketing – Create a few dummy advertisements and marketing layouts for the client see and appreciate. Use their property as the subject matter with the draft or dummy advertisements so that they can fully appreciate the real marketing experience and relevance that you bring to the process. Show the client exactly how specific you will be when it comes to the features of the property and the relevance of those features to the marketing campaign.
6. Use a private website portal – In your existing website, create a client portal that can be used and accessed at times of presentation. The portal can then activated using a password and you can load specific files relevant to the client situation, the marketing campaign, and the subject property.  After the point of listing, the client can access the portal to see how progress is being made with their property.
7. Professional photographs – If you really want to win the listing and the interests of the client, use professional photographs as part of your presentation and listing pitch. Those photographs can be displayed on a computer screen, tablet, or laptop as part of the presentation. Most clients will show intense interest in your presentation when it comes to looking at their own property. It stands to reason that professional photographs will always create a better level of listing intensity and client interest.
8. Online and off-line marketing – Split your promotional strategies deliberately into both online and off-line marketing initiatives. Tell the client exactly how you will be personally involved in each level of marketing so that the message about the listing can be conveyed to the right target audience.
9. Target Market – Define the target audience to the client so that there can be no misunderstanding. The target audience will directly impact your marketing initiatives and recommendations. That will also help you when it comes to converting vendor paid marketing funds.

In looking at the commercial property market today, you will find that many clients and prospects are already quite experienced when it comes to sales, leasing, and property management. They already know how to make the choices when it comes to the best agent showing the correct levels of commitment and promotion. Your job is to stand out as the best agent of choice when it comes to the subject property and the challenges presented.