Commercial Real Estate Brokerage – 4 Profitable Listing Tactics for Brokers and Agents
In commercial real estate brokerage there are many ways to attract listings, and some of the methods are more successful than others. Essentially, you should design the listing system that works for you allowing for your strengths and weaknesses as an agent.
Start practicing
Practice will allow you to improve your listing conversions, providing you inject some relevance and targeting into your listing strategy and recommendations. You could say that we are always learning in commercial real estate today. Be prepared to learn and refine your activities. Be the best agent that you can be. Market yourself accordingly
So how can you improve your listing conversions?
Understand the things that give you the edge when it comes to the local competition. How can you stand out as the agent of choice for the property type and the location? Get your facts under control so you know why you are the agent that everyone needs; build your marketing and prospecting processes accordingly.
Do an assessment of the local brokerage competition to see what they may be using and doing as part of their presentation and they undertake listing processes for new business. Your presentation and pitch needs to be better and more specific than that of your competition.
You can and should do a SWOT analysis personally to understand where you are positioned locally as an agent for the property type. The analysis can be a valuable part of your business planning process every year as an agent or a broker. The property market changes sufficiently each calendar year where such SWOT planning will become quite useful.
Be very special
There is no point in being ‘ordinary’ when it comes to commercial real estate brokerage; the concept of ‘ordinary’ doesn’t attract many clients and much enquiry. Here are some ideas to help you establish some profitable listing strategies for your location and your property type:
- New people – You will need lots of new people to connect with in a regular and ongoing way. Finding those people can be confusing until you establish a definite prospecting model and action plan. You can refine your action plan over time as you understand the things that are working for you at a personal level in connecting with new people. It is a daily strategy that cannot be delegated. Take control of how you connect with new people each and every day. Put your personality into the prospecting model and show the business world how relevant you are to commercial real estate locally.
- Local information – To show the local community of business owners and investors that you and your commercial real estate services are relevant and important to them, you will need lots of information relating to the location and the property type(s). Merge that information into a visual approach including graphs, charts, and images. The visual approach is quite successful when it comes to presentations and listing conversions. Ensure that you merge that visual material into your listing pitch and presentational dialogue. Have plenty of information that is location specific and use that information creatively to prove your knowledge and importance to the listing and marketing process. Connect yourself to your client’s property.
- Grow your database – The database that you create for the location will be valuable and relevant in any listing presentation. Talk about your database when working with new clients and prospects. Show them how you can shortlist a group of buyers and or tenants quickly for the particular property. It is very difficult for a client to overlook the relevance of a targeted database and a short list of prospects for their particular listing. Your database has to be more comprehensive and specific for the location. Show the client how your database will be very important to their particular listing and how it can shorten their time on market whilst obtaining of the best outcomes when it comes to price or rent.
- Signage presence – The placement of signboards locally will always be important for the levels of enquiry that you create. In saying that, the signboards should predominantly be on exclusive listings in quality locations. The signboards that you place on open listings are of little value to your market dominance. Always work with and towards exclusivity as part of your listing process. Get a high quality signboard onto all of your exclusive listings in your local territory and prospecting zone. A good signboard will always pull in more enquiries, and the exclusive listing process allows you to optimize your enquiry whilst growing your database.
Commercial real estate brokerage does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be specific and driven. The listings that you create will largely be as a direct result of your personal prospecting activities and client connections. Simplify your brokerage business using the four points mentioned, and then focus on building momentum for each and every day.