Creating New Sales Horizons in COVID-19 Cycle

Let’s start this concept of expanding your horizons in sales in commercial real estate right now by saying that the property market is still there, and it is just different.  What are the differences? Try these for starters.

• The motivation to buy and sell has moved for most people. Get the facts about finance, funds, local area activity.
• Some investors will want to sell and others not so. How will you advise them?
• Some business owners will want to sell some of their properties and others not so
• Many property investors are ‘cashed-up’ and just waiting for the right property to come up
• Pressures exist in property ownership, occupancy, and income streams
• Off-market transactions will now be more commonplace
• There will be a wide variety of methods of sale to use in marketing properties
• Some parts of the business community are bustling (essential services, food supply chains, medical and allied health, etc.)
• Working from home is now the norm for many people

So, these are all matters of adjustment.  You can do things with these requirements.  To expand your horizons in commercial real estate sales, these ‘channels’ can be tapped into by making calls and creating conversations. 

Get this special Commercial Real Estate Sales Report for COVID-19 right here.

Telephone Tactics are Critical

Telephone ‘active’ agents will find the business.  Modify your daily activities to suit the new business model.  Simple questions you ask of a property owner or investor could include:

1. Are you currently a buyer, seller, or holder of property?
2. Are you looking for something more to add to your portfolio?
3. Do you have any matters of property pressure that you want help with now?
4. What property types if available do you prefer in this property market?

When you consider these questions, it is easy to see and to understand that there is plenty of business about to occur within the commercial real estate industry around the world.

Position yourself to engage with more people comprehensively and continually over the next year.

From the four questions raised, you can shape your client lists and your telephone prospecting activities. That will make it easier for you to connect with people and match properties to situations.

In other words, you can expand your commercial real estate horizons and activities given the changes.

The Professional Approach

Your clients and your property owners need your professional assistance to guide them through the variations of the property market and the opportunities that are available now and will be in the future.

There are opportunities available now for those investors and business owners that are cashed up and ready to make a move. You need the listing stock.

People are moving away from the share market for obvious reasons, and you can be the ‘channel of choice’ as a local commercial real estate specialist ready to help people make that move efficiently and in a timely way.

New Rules for Agents

So, what are the new rules for agents and brokers to work to?  Try these for starters:

1. Choose your locations and property types specific for activity potential.  It is better to ‘tune’ your focus into just a few property types and not all.  Go deeper.
2. Create a shortlist of people that are on your VIP list (or should be) and that are those people that should get more of your time and communication. Match the people you know and talk to into property situations and opportunities.  Your VIP list should be a priority for that.
3. The agents and brokers that use the telephone comprehensively every day will find the new business faster than anyone else.  Double your prospecting time on the phone each day, and call every person you know in your database to see what they are thinking and what help they may want with local property and or their investments.
4. Go deeper on your property solutions and ideas to help your clients.  That will mean online marketing that can match accurately to the target market.  Generic marketing in this business and property cycle is of little advantage.  Target marketing is of high value.  Make more calls when you have listings to promote; local area marketing is now of higher importance.
5. Rework all your current listings and advertising copy to freshen up the marketing story.  Put more variety into your real estate marketing messages and use plenty of photos professionally taken.  Images on websites are now more critical than ever before.
6. Put your property photos into ‘cloud-based’ albums so you can send out links to the property photos to interested parties. An excellent resource for that is ‘Google Photos’.  If you have a Gmail account now, then you probably know how to use it.
7. Negotiate rents and prices based on the facts of now and not next year’s yields or estimates.  The property market is active today, and some people are on the lookout for activity and opportunities.  Client conditioning will be part of that experience.
8. Listing and communication processes have changed to incorporate single inspections, telephone canvassing, documentation closure across the email system, negotiations across the telephone, marketing online in targeted ways, plus cloud-based business storage, activity, and engagement.
9. Social media channels should now be optimized for frequency and message updates.  Choose only three social media channels to work with as you will be posting information and updates frequently.
10. If you have a blog, use it to put up regular commentary about the property market in your location.  You know what is happening in your area.  Do something with that information and share it.  Then link back the data into your social media channels.

You can do most of these things from your home office, so adopt some new business strategies to grow your commercial real estate sales activities and horizons.

It will eventually come to an end, and your real estate business at that time can be a lot stronger because of it.  Use the changes to the property market now to your fullest advantage.  Don’t be left behind.