How to Get the Best Results from Commercial Leasing

When you have a commercial or retail property or premises to lease, you can make that leasing requirement process unique.  You can build your real estate business around your listings and the marketing of them. 

Whilst it sounds so ‘obvious’, the fact is that many agents do not do that well and neglect the overall opportunity.

The ‘common’ and ordinary approach to real estate marketing does not work well in today’s property market.  Specific marketing is the best way to go. 

The message here is that you can ‘showcase’ your leasing vacancies and do a lot more with them to attract enquiries and leasing activities.  Think about these ideas:

• You can impress local landlords with your comprehensive approach to solving vacancy problems
• You can attract the interest of local business owners when it comes to a property change or upgrades

There are many people to approach or attract in leasing, and plenty of conversations to create. That is where the ‘showcase’ idea does work well in commercial real estate brokerage.  Work your vacant listings comprehensively in your local area and across all qualified businesses.

Local Business Opportunities

You can present your properties and leasing appointments to crucial local people and business leaders.  You can then ask questions about lease expiry dates, property upgrades, hi-tech building upgrades, and expansion or contraction requirements.  Most local businesses have occupancy issues to work through at some point.

Where do you start on this idea?  Local landlords or tenants are your targets from a client or customer perspective.  You want those groups to remember you when it comes to solving occupancy issues.

Do more with your vacancies and leasing listings and be creative as part of the process.  That is the message.  You can connect, converse, and question plenty of people every day using the lease discussion as a base to work from.  That is how commercial real estate works.

Expanding Your Local Area Coverage

Here are some ideas to help you with that and to expand your local area coverage:

1. Brochures distributed locally – with all the technology tools we have today, we can easily copy some flyers and pamphlets for distribution through the target market and or the local area.  You can hand out those brochures, and you will find people as part of that who are thinking about property change, or activity.  Quote your listings to all local businesses in the surrounding location, streets, buildings, and precincts.
2. Contacting VIPs in your database – your VIP list should be relatively short (less than 50 people), but those people should get a special briefing or approach when you have select properties to rent or sell.  So you can have a VIP list of landlords and tenants.  You can do the same with investors and developers.  Use your listings with this VIP strategy to ensure that people know you and or your property activities.
3. Using quality photographs – every exclusive listing and or quality property should have a set of professional photos created for use.  You can use those photos creatively in marketing material and with your promotional strategies.  When you have a collection of professional photographs, the case studies and stories that you also put out are more attractive and exciting.
4. Post your lease listings in social media and on blogs – you could say that tenants are generally not viewing your social media.  Other landlords you know, however, are likely watching what you are doing with your lease listing appointments.  That is why you should post your listings on social media and in your blogs.  Both marketing strategies are highly effective for all agents.
5. Use case studies with landlords and business owners – a single A4 sheet of paper can be formatted as a case study layout for you to distribute stories about listings in the locally.  Every successful transaction is a case study in waiting.  Be creative and use your successful transactions in case studies with critical people.  Stories engage more effectively with people than just some listing information.  Tell the story about a property or vacancy resolve.

So, these ideas will help you showcase your lease listings.  Every property listed becomes a marketing process and leverage for more listings and better enquiries.