How to Boost Your Property Results in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

When things appear to be slow or difficult in commercial real estate brokerage today, have a serious look at your personal property activities and market circumstances.  Assess the personal performance indicators and observe the trends that are around you.  Can you do better?  How are others going when it comes to listings and commissions?

Whats happening?

Look for the market segments that have momentum and avoid the market segments that are slow for seasonal or economic reasons.  There will always be segments within any property market that have activity at the different times of the year.  There will always be precincts and properties that are attracting greater levels of enquiry.  It is simply a matter of measuring activity and seeing where the trends are changing.  That then allows you to shift your prospecting efforts in a timely way between property owners, business leaders, investors, sellers, and tenants.

Ideal timing?

One of the main success factors in commercial real estate brokerage is that of timing.  Understanding what’s happening around you will give you the timing advantage in changing your business activities in a relevant and meaningful way.  You can then choose the right people and the right precincts to focus within.  You can choose the right property types.  You can negotiate more effectively and directly.  Top agents are always observing market conditions and adjusting their business activities accordingly.

Make good choices

Here are some specific strategies to help you improve personal performance as a broker or an agent:

1. Concentrate – there is no point in spreading your business efforts across a wide region and a variety of property types. Concentration will give you better market leverage.  That concentration should be directed into particular locations and particular market segments, so you will need to track and measure the activities in your local property market.
2. Property enquiry – understand the levels and the amount of enquiry currently being generated for the location. Focus your prospecting efforts into the popular property types, the newer properties, and the precincts where investment and business occupation is more desirable.  If you are tracking the levels of enquiry for the location, it will be very easy to understand what people are looking for when it comes to purchasing or occupying.
3. Property ownership – get to know all of the relevant and successful property owners locally. To achieve that, you will need to identify and connect with all of the owners on a street by street basis.  There is a good degree of property research required here.  There are no shortcuts, so systematic property research and client contact are things that you can build into your prospecting model.  Visit the streets, knock on doors, and make telephone calls.  Connect with more people each and every day, understanding that they may own or occupy properties in the streets within your territory.  Determine exactly what people are doing when it comes to property ownership and investment.  Track the future opportunities through a database diary system.
4. Ask more of yourself – there are many opportunities and rewards to be gained in commercial real estate today. That being said, the rewards only come from dedicated effort and specific activities; luck really doesn’t have much of a place in commercial real estate brokerage.  You need to know the things that are working for you and your location, your strengths, and your weaknesses.  Adjustments are required personally, and on that basis you should be asking more of yourself in personal performance, marketing, prospecting, client contact, and negotiating.  Set some challenges and some key performance indicators to ensure that you are improving each day and each week across those particular categories.  Very soon you will see that you have a greater level of traction and conversion.  Practice will take you there faster.

So there are some good things that you can do here to boost your market coverage in a comprehensive and ongoing way.  Understand that you are the key to the market coverage process, so a good degree of focus and personal control on a daily basis will be required.  Manage your diary, and manage your contact times with clients and prospects.  New business will come to you providing you are putting in the effort and refining your activities.

You can get more tips for commercial real estate broker performance in our eCourse ‘Snapshot’ right here.