Commercial Real Estate Brokers – Strategies to Build Your Strategic Alliances Locally

In commercial real estate brokerage you really do need to know the right people in the right ways.  Understanding your property type and location will help you identify the right people and interact with them. 

Build your strategic alliances on an ongoing basis to grow your personal brand as a top agent for the location and property type. This alliance concept is all about strategy and effort.

The big question

So the question now is, who do you need to know and on what basis?  When you look within the territory or a location, they will be plenty of people to connect with.  You need to be somewhat selective when it comes to those high value clients and prospects that can bring you better levels of business over time.

In other words a good degree of research is required in connecting with local people in the property market.  Understand what they own, what pressures apply to their property ownership or occupation, and when they will require a change or upgrade.  The greater the number of people that you know locally, the more frequent the number of opportunities that you will expose over time.

Database value

Commercial real estate brokerage is really all about timing.  Understanding the timing factors for your clients and prospects, and then tracking those future dates will help you greatly in attracting new business and commissions.  That’s where your database will be a big foundation element when it comes to building strategic alliances and growing personal relevance.

You should be talking to your qualified prospects at least once every 90 days.  If they are of some dominance and high value in the local property market, then you will need to talk to them more regularly.

Relevance to the connection

In connecting with local property people a number of times each year, there will need to be some relevance and value to them in the conversation and the contact process.  If the relevance is not real and valuable, they will simply discard your connection.  That’s where you will need to think about what you say, do, and what you provide as part of the connection process.

Connection should be about the client and not about you.  Your connection with them would simply be to see if they require any help.

Strategic relationship strategies

Here are some ideas to help you establish your strategic relationships with property owners, business leaders, and other industry professionals.  Review your database now to see how these strategies can help you lift your market coverage and connections:

1. YOUR EXISTING STOCK: Use your existing listings as leverage. Any listing that you have on your books at any point in time will give you a solid reason to talk to plenty of local people.  When a new listing comes into your brokerage, connect with people in the same street, and in the property precinct.  The business owners, investors, and the tenants will be targets for your direct connection strategy.  As part of making the contact, ask them about property pressures and future changes.  Find out about any current lease issues, landlord frustrations, property failures, or business change issues.
2. VIP ACTION: Within your database, determine the special segments that apply to or should be categorized as a VIP contact for you. Certain prospects and clients in your database should be contacted more regularly and directly.  You should be meeting with them frequently over time and providing certain property market updates as part of a professional service.  You will need to decide what a VIP contact or client will be to you and why you are nominating them accordingly.  When you understand their VIP status, you can provide the special information that they need at the right time.  It should be noted that a client of this type will generally give you plenty of ongoing business across a number of disciplines and requirements in sales, leasing, and property management.
3. INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS: Connect with other local property related professionals. Within your town or city there will be certain accountancy firms and legal advisors who are interacting with business owners and property investors on property matters.  There are plenty of leads and referrals to be gained by connecting with other property related professionals.  Relevance will be the key to attracting their attention.  To retain their attention over time you will need to be of high value to them with local market knowledge and professional success.  If they are going to feed their clients to you as part of a business relationship, they will need to know that you have the right skills and the required contacts to convert any listing or property challenge.

So, there are some good things that you can do here as part of building strategic alliances locally in commercial real estate brokerage.  Every day find some new people to talk to about property activity and challenges.  Build your alliances with the right people in the right way.  Develop professionalism as part of the process and make sure that you are providing information that they can use and value.