How to Create a Dominant Market Share in Commercial Real Estate

In commercial real estate today, there are many different markets to work with and property types to work on. Some of those segments will be better than others based on brokers and agents based on your location and the local economy.

Choose the industry segments that can offer you as the broker or the agent the best levels of opportunity into the future; know what is happening locally with property, and put yourself into the action. In saying that, you should also avoid scattering your market focus and share across a wide area where coverage and service becomes difficult.

The message here is that you can become a specialist for a location and property type. That then makes it a lot easier for you when it comes to listing attraction and conversion. It makes it a lot easier in the sense that your competitors will always be chasing the same listings as you; your specialization can be your point of difference and help you convert more listings from property presentations.

Local Specialization

As a property specialist you will know more about certain property types and the levels of supply and demand in the area currently. You will know what is happening when it comes to prices, rents, and levels of enquiry. That then makes it a lot easier for you to pitch and adjust your marketing and listing services.

Plan your approach to the real estate business, the listings, and the clients. That plan can be refined over time so that your results are improving in a predictable and logical way. Create a business plan at a personal level so that you can understand exactly where you can head as an industry professional given the levels of predictable property activity.

The agents and brokers that struggle in the industry are usually those that have no plan and lack consistent action on the things that really matter. The actions that you take in this industry will always be fully at your control. Review your activities over the last week; could you have achieved more momentum and listing activity through client contact and prospecting? It is remarkable how much time we can waste on a daily basis without a plan of action and deliberate prospecting control.

Your professional focus and your marketing efforts can be honed and refined into a property region and property type. That is where the opportunities lie when it comes to new business activity and growth for any broker or agent.

Brokerage Targets

Here are some targets for you to consider as part of your approach to commercial real estate brokerage and market coverage:

• Choose the property type that you know something about. Within that property type develop some strategies when it comes to sales, leasing, and property management. Be prepared to talk across all of those strategies with the clients that you connect with. There are many commissions to be converted from a good client and a good property over time.
• Referral opportunities will also exist within your database and your client list if you ask the right questions of the people that you already know. Spend more time connecting with the people that you already have in your client or database list. Create meetings and conversations in a regular and ongoing way; talk about the local area activity and upcoming property changes. Local area information will always be of interest in your prospecting and canvassing activities. Connect with your client list regularly.  Allow people to trust you as the industry expert, so that they can remember you at the right time when their property challenge becomes significant and real.
• Choose a defined geographical zone to focus your professional efforts into. Don’t spread yourself too far across a large city or town. Focus into a group of streets and a group of buildings. Get to know everything that is happening within that zone and within those properties.
• When you take any listing to the market, make sure that you are personally involved in the promotional process by talking to local investors and business owners. Every good listing will be the source of a great conversation and potentially a meeting. Use all of your quality listings on that basis to initiate and attract client and prospect interaction. You can build some real momentum from your existing listings if you understand and tap into the target market that they match.
• With every property inspection, you will glean more information from the people that are active in the property market. People will tell you what they are thinking and what they are doing when it comes to property selection and change. Track that information in your database so that you can optimise the enquiry at any time in the future. Many property transactions today are match of people and circumstances. A good database that is well maintained will allow you to achieve that matching process.

So there are plenty of things that you can do in commercial real estate brokerage to focus your marketing efforts and client interaction. You can take control of a location and the client base. You can build relevance at a personal level to position yourself as the industry expert in every way possible. Specialization in a location is the key to the process.