Commercial Real Estate Brokerage – Ask the Client for Your Marketing Proposal to be Returned

When you find that you have lost a new business proposal in commercial real estate brokerage, ask the client to return it to you. Try not to leave it in the prospective client’s possession so it can be shared later and perhaps even shown to your competitors.

If your proposal is of the highest quality it should be protected and preserved both in content and layout.  You don’t want your competing agents obtaining a copy and being allowed to browse through the contents.  If your ideas are so valuable in the marketing of the property, those ideas should be protected.

So why is this important?

You have to remember that you would have put in a lot of work to understand the client requirements, the challenges that the property may have, and the current market conditions.  The ideas and the recommendations that you put together are valuable in a number of different ways.

Whilst it is disappointing to miss converting any presentation and listing opportunity, your ideas should have been quite unique and positive in helping the client solve their property challenge.  When the client has made a choice to select another agent, your document should be returned.

Proposals Take Considerable Time and Effort

Typically you will have spent at least a few hours (and perhaps days) on the required property research and the creation of the proposal document.  You don’t want that information to be shared around your competitors.

Most proposals involve a combination of the following:

1. Market assessment – Understanding just what is happening with competing properties in the same location. To complete that process, you need to thoroughly canvass the area and understand the properties that are of a similar nature to your potential listing.  The investigation can take several hours and involve trips into the marketplace; perhaps even some inspections of competing properties.
2. Presentation strategies – A well prepared business proposal in commercial real estate brokerage is a complex document based around strategy, pricing, marketing, and client requirements. To achieve that level of comprehensive information, your proposal would contain particular recommendations, charts, market information, and costing processes.  The document itself should be very special so that it can tie into the listing pitch and presentation that you undertake.  Don’t let the document remain in the marketplace if you have been unsuccessful with the listing.  Ask for the document to be returned.
3. Recommendations —The proposal would have contained some specific and direct recommendations on how to handle the marketing and negotiations behind the listing. Your ideas should have been quite creative and direct to help the client solve their property challenge in a timely and specific way. That information is valuable.

So the message here is that you can and should ask for your unsuccessful listing proposals in commercial real estate brokerage to be returned to you.  You would do that within a week or so after the presentation has been completed and has been decided by the client as unsuccessful.

Your proposal document is a special document of strategy and recommendations; it applies specifically to a single property and a single client. 

If you have spent extensive time on the preparation of the ideas and the layout of the proposal, you will not want it to be shown to others and particularly your competitors.  Ask for your proposal document to be returned when you have failed to convert the listing.