Highly Effective Territory Farming Tips for Commercial Real Estate Brokers
In commercial real estate brokerage today, it is essential that you have a plan relating to your sales territory and prospecting activities. Every day the plan can be ‘actioned’ and improved. Over time that will give you growth of market share.
If you work a very large territory or diverse town or city, the market will need to be split into property types and precincts. In only that way can you cover the necessary market segments professionally and directly. It is difficult to understand the markets in too many locations.
So the farming and prospecting process is an individual one, as is the market research. It needs to be undertaken by each and every broker or agent within a team; it cannot be delegated. Failure to implement a plan of this type will significantly impact the converted listings and commission opportunities for a salesperson and a team.
Here are some rules to help you with establishing your farming and prospecting strategies:
- Set the rules regards listing activities and future client opportunities. Understand the listing types that you require, and the property types that you prefer. That will help you ‘hone in’ on the property owners and the business proprietors within the zone. Focus is everything in our industry. Every day the same things should be done to build market share.
- You will need to understand property activity through the region historically and where it is headed. Don’t work with too many property types or cover a large sales territory all at the same time. It is very difficult to work with too many locations and property types. The averages of prices and rentals change greatly from location to location.
- Split your territory up into areas of priority and desirability. You will find that property investors and business proprietors prefer to purchase and or occupy within certain zones. Work the ‘hot spots’ of activity with great focus.
- Break your territory up into groups of 100 properties or a few streets at a time. In these smaller groups, you can get some real traction when it comes to property ownership investigation and local business contact. When you finish one of the groups or zones, you can move to the next. In that way you will cover all the opportunities that exist in the market today. There is nothing more frustrating than another broker getting a listing in a street that you covered last week.
- Your success in the industry today is likely to be based on your ability to connect with a lot of people and encourage business relationships over time. Categorize the people that you talk with and maintain ongoing contact in a relevant way. Connect with every person in your database at least once every 90 days.
- Any listing that you take to the market today will be a good reason to talk to many others in the local area. From one listing you can talk to many property investors and business proprietors. Find out what they need when it comes to future property activity and or changes. Remain in contact for the time that they need to do something. Make it easy for the client or the prospect to remember you; do valuable and different things.
- Every successful transaction that you complete locally will be a reason to send a ‘success letter’ into the business community and all of the local property investors. One successful transaction can build to the momentum of others.
- There is a cycle to commercial property occupation and ownership. It may be specific to your town or city, but you will see some averages that apply to duration of property ownership and occupation. Go back through the local property ownership records for approximately four or five years; look for the date the property was recently purchased by the existing owners. It is quite likely that the property investors or owners in each case are likely to take some further steps in property ownership in the next few years. Start your contact cycle accordingly.
You can add to this list based on your location and property type. That being said, personal contact and industry activity will help you grow your market share. Every day take the necessary steps to prospect more people locally.