Going from Rags to Riches in Commercial Real Estate Agency
Commercial real estate agency is a great sales career, and you will come across many top agents that have ‘done it hard’ for some time, and then finally they have got their system established to build their business.
Many top agents have learnt from their mistakes in commercial real estate, although this can take some time. Those that do not learn from their mistakes, generally leave the industry when times are tougher.
Personal endeavour and focus will help you build the real estate listings and commissions that you require. In any property market you can do well as an agent as long as you have the systems and take the actions to back them up. Personal discipline is part of the process.
Top Agent Differences
The difference between being an ‘ordinary agent’ and a ‘top agent’ is in personal systems and skills that you develop. That is how you can move from ‘rags to riches’ as a local and yet ‘top’ commercial real estate agent. To help you further, this is how it works:
- Knowledge in the local area is the foundation of showing confidence in connections with your clients and prospects. You will need to display a good degree of local market knowledge of sales, leases, developments, and competing properties. Clients and prospects will expect you to tell them exactly what is going on locally in the market and why that is so.
- Whilst you may have the knowledge about your property type and property market, you now have to use it. Have a series of marketing and inspection solutions to suit the variety of property listings that you work with. It is really important to be distinctively better than your competitors when it comes to your marketing, selling and leasing recommendations and strategies. You really must stand out as the ‘best choice’ in local agents.
- Split your area into several zones of focus so you can methodically work your territory over a cycle of time. A 90 day cycle is best for this process. Make sure that you have covered your area and property type every 90 days, then go back to the beginning and start again. It is important that you build your personal image with qualified prospects and contacts. That is why you go back to the same people.
- Understand your property types and your specialisation. This will help you refine your market knowledge and be of the greatest value to the clients that you serve. There is so much going on in the separate property types that it is really hard to cover everything across a big prospecting territory.
- Improve your negotiation and prospecting systems at every opportunity. Practice and improve your dialogue. Good negotiation comes from discipline and practice. You can learn a lot about negotiation today with many of the great publications that are available.
- Capture all enquiries as they come in. The strength and relevance of your database will help you through any market challenges and changes.
- Have an inspection process that is unique and special to your listings and property type. Don’t just walk people through your listings. Have a special way of doing that.
- Exclusively list all of your listings. Open listings are a waste of time (mostly). Time is precious. You must control your time and your stock as a priority in this market.
- Marketing solutions that you provide should be special and different. Marketing today is a very special process and can be matched to the property, the local area, and the client. When you do this well, you will win more listings.
Actions for Agents and Brokers
Self-belief is a good thing when it comes to what you do and where you are headed as a commercial real estate agent. However, what is more important here is ‘self- action’. Unfortunately many agents struggle with the ‘action’ component. You don’t have to struggle, you have a choice and it is all about ‘discipline’. You are the key to the process.
