Develop Your Action Plan in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Today

In any commercial real estate brokerage, you will likely have a number of agents all focused on their own plans and efforts.  Some of those agents will be more successful than others when it comes to listings and commissions.  In saying that, your brokerage can benefit substantially from an ‘action plan’ to pull all the efforts of agents together and keep them ‘on track’ for property market consolidation and success.

It is a fact that any brokerage or agency without a plan of this type is likely to struggle in their local area with both listings and handling the competition.  An ‘action plan’ will help things happen and consolidate growth; it will also help you see changes and weaknesses that need to be addressed by the business and individually.

So here are some ways to approach the action planning process in commercial real estate today.  Consider how these factors may fit into your market share and property type:

1. When establishing the plans for your brokerage, be quite specific when it comes to setting the geographical zone of focus, together with the types of properties and services that you provide.  It is a fact that the brokers and the agents that specialize within a niche and or location will always have better market share; focusing their efforts will help with listing conversions, inspections, and negotiations.  They will also convert more new business from property presentations that are quite specific and not generalized.  The top agents within our business today are highly specialized and focused.
2. Look at your current agency team and determine the strengths and weaknesses of each operative.  The strengths of individuals should be encouraged through specific marketing and skill development.  The weaknesses of individuals can be rectified through practice and training.  You can also match the skills of the agents together in small teams.  Agents of lesser experience can join with your top agents to help expand market share and learn the best methods of approach when it comes to business generation.
3. Some agents within the team should be focused into a property niche and the location.  In that way they will cover more ground and attract more new business from within the zone and the niche.  With those agents, it is reasonable to set key performance indicators relating to prospecting, inspections, meetings, listings, and commissions.  Be sensitive to the differences between agent skill levels and the properties that they sell and lease.  At the end of every month, each agent should be assessed for results and actions against those key performance indicators.  Any weaknesses can be addressed through training and practice.  Under-performing agents showing no signs of improvement can then be easily isolated and removed from the team before financial damage is done to your property business.  A special note should be made here that some agents simply do not have the knowledge and the levels of skill for the property type.  Education will improve the problem however the agent needs to have a willingness to learn.
4. Sales meetings should occur on a weekly basis at a time that does not interfere with prospecting and listing activities of the team.  The best sales meetings usually occur first thing in the morning at around 0730 am.  The meeting should take no longer than 90 minutes so that the agents can get back out into the market as part of ongoing business generation.
5. Build your marketing model taking into account the skills of your team and the focus of your property niche.  Everyone in the team has a role to play in marketing, so incorporate that fact into the team action model.

Many brokerages struggle with these simple facts of control and monitoring.  They lack a sufficient action plan to consolidate their efforts and build market share.

Take these points and build them into your business activities.  You can add factors of location and brokerage logistics that are special to your business model.