Commercial Real Estate Sales Team Competency Today
In commercial real estate brokerage, there are particular actions that will allow you to succeed and progress in the industry. As part of a sales team, you can always improve things in moving ahead.
Choose to improve your actions deliberately. You will already likely know what works for you, and what you are struggling with.
Understand what you should be doing each day in real estate, and have been avoiding. When you do this, your success in the industry will be easier and therefore fast-tracked.
Personal Processes Win
The brokerage business is quite ‘personal’. Just about everything you do comes back to the personal daily activities that you work through.
Are you thinking about improving your business? Do you want to grow your market share? If that is the case, focus on yourself and your activities.
The Real Estate Career Fast or Slow Track?
Most salespeople in the industry struggle for a number of years with the factors of competence. They gain competence slowly through experience.
This can be changed and fast-tracked through practice and education, however, it always comes down to the individual and what they do to push themselves forward in the process.
Agent Competence Tips
The main stages of competence that will help you consolidate your personal marketing and convert more business are most particularly the following:
- NEW BUSINESS FOCUS: Prospecting for new business is the most important activity that will change your results in commercial real estate. Most agents struggle with prospecting, and will only do a small amount of prospecting on a regular basis. Some will avoid the prospecting process at every opportunity. The rule is that you must prospect on a daily basis for at least 2 or 3 hours. Ideally you will be connecting with new people that you have not spoken to before.
- GATHER YOUR DATABASE OF CONTACTS: Database usage and the collation of information directly follows from the prospecting process. It is a tedious daily task of recording information from all of your telephone calls and personal meetings. Most of the top agents will do this themselves understanding that information collation is central to their success in the industry. Get involved with your database each and every day. Start to connect with the opportunity that lies within your client and prospect list.
- PRACTICE YOUR SALES PITCH: Your sales pitch and presentation process for new listings will follow from the prospecting process. Given that the industry is highly competitive, have a consistently professional and unique way of presenting your commercial real estate services. Many listing opportunities are competitive with three or four agents chasing the same listing. The best agent will usually win the business given that they are highly experienced and relevant to the challenges of the property, the clients requirements, and the prevailing market conditions. How can you improve on that?
- KNOW THE LISTING AND MARKET FACTS: The listing process is the gathering of information relative to the future of the property. Whilst this may seem a routine process, the listing process will consolidate and prepare the property for more enquiry and inspections. Your listing system can always be improved and should be accurate and comprehensive.
- FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITIES: The marketing systems and campaigns that you develop for all of your listings can be specific and well designed. They should address the opportunities and challenges of each property so that inquiry can be generated. When the property market changes, it is the marketing that will help you strengthen your database and convert more transactions.
- QUALIFY ALL INQUIRIES: When first interacting with any prospects, you should have a process of qualification before you spend too much time on them. Get to understand the needs of the prospect before you spend time taking them to the property. Qualify their suitability for the price range, the property improvements, and the method of sale or lease as the case may be.
- INSPECT THE PROPERTY COMPREHENSIVELY: The inspection of a property should always be comprehensive so that the prospects can understand the features that are available should they choose to proceed in making an offer. The inspection process is, therefore, something that can be improved and optimized through practice.
- NEGOTIATION SKILLS: From any successful inspection, it directly follows that a negotiation can occur. Many salespeople are generic when it comes to negotiation. This can be changed through simple processes of practice and research.
- SPECIALIZE IN PROPERTY TYPES: Your market knowledge should always be improved at each opportunity. Most top agents specialise in a property area and or property type. This allows their knowledge to underpin their progress as the best agent in the area.
