Commercial Real Estate Brokerage – A Behind the Scenes Look at Competitor Tracking
Have you ever thought about your competitors in commercial real estate brokerage? If you are like many agents you will be thinking too much about your competitors and potentially letting that focus derail your personal efforts.
The correct way to work in commercial real estate involves a degree of competitor monitoring, but a larger degree of personal effort. You must stand out as the agent of choice for your location and property speciality. Keep things simple and focus your efforts accordingly.
Here are some rules:
- Your competitors will always be there, so get used to the process of pitching and presenting your services competitively.
- Understand your results versus those of your competitors.
- Know why you are the better agent and build your brand accordingly.
- Track your numbers in the key issues that determine market share.
What Should You Track to Compare and Why?
So how can you track your numbers and then compare those of your competitors in a meaningful way? Think about these extra special processes:
- Results per transaction are very important – That then means that the commissions you achieve per sale or per lease will give you an idea of the type and size of property that you are working on. Smaller transactions can be just as much work as the larger properties, and yet the commissions will be lower. Focus your prospecting efforts on higher quality properties of larger size or commission.
- Repeat business – Some of your clients and prospects will come back to you for extra help on other issues. These clients with multiple property requirements are the VIP’s that we like to work with. How many of those clients do you have now and do you treat them differently with some priority or focus?
- Referral business – When you complete a successful sale or lease, use the relationships that you have established with the parties to the deal, to open up the chance of referral business. Ask the right questions to get introductions to others that may be known to your buyers, sellers, or landlords.
- Leads per Listing – Some listings will give you lots of leads from the marketing campaigns implemented. That will be due to the type of property or the location, and the interest from the market. Quality listings always drive better levels of new business and leads. Capture all of those leads in your database and keep talking to the people to see how you can help them over time. Also monitor the types of enquiries coming in for all of your exclusive listings. That information will be very useful as you pitch for new business with clients and contacts.
- Time on market – It would be good if you could convert your listings to successful sales or leases at a greater or faster rate than your competitors. Track the time on market for your listings and those of your competitors. Soon you will see how you are improving.
Simple strategies like these help you track your efforts and those of your competitors in today’s property market. When you track results, you can see how things are improving and over time that can give you a reasonable advantage in today’s property market.
