Image and Brand Marketing Tips for Commercial Real Estate Agents

One of the most important things for you to do when you start working as an agent in a new area or brokerage is to build your personal brand.  The longer you take to do that or understand that fact, the slower your growth of market share.

The best business, sales, leasing, and project work will generally go towards the agents that are well known and have a proven track record for the region.  Everything of value that you earn in commissions spins out of marketing and branding at a personal level.

Consider the following questions:

• How big is your personal database? (i.e. not that of your brokerage)
• How fresh and up to date is your database with its information and accuracy?
• If you could rate your prospects and clients by involvement with you, how many VIP’s do you actually have and know?
• Can you honestly say that you prospect for new people every day?
• What are your conversions like over time in creating meetings and client relationships?
• Have you implemented a referral business model to merge into your database and cold calling prospecting models?

Simple questions like these bring you back to the realities of the real estate business.  You must know lots of people and your prospecting model should be at the top of everything that you do each and every day.

Positive long term relationships are really important in our profession.  Understand that ‘property interested people’ do ever more business with professional agents, and the factors of trust plus professionalism are part of that equation.

Avoid Damage Control Issues

Don’t leave a ‘damage trail’ in the industry, or let personal relationships break down with your associates and clients.  I recently had a coffee meeting with an agent that had created a poor ‘track record’ with their property clients and peers; they were simply too ‘ego driven’ for their own good.  They had subsequently destroyed many relationships over the years by aggressive dealings in sales and leasing activity; yes they had earned some good commissions, but now their market share was in ‘free fall’ and most other agents and peers would not do conjunction business with this agent.  It is worth remembering that we create our own business environments; it is a very special process that cannot be overlooked or understated.

The Golden Rule of Personal Marketing

So how does all of this branding and marketing really work for commercial real estate agents?  The best agents of any property market centre their diary activities on prospecting for clients and converting quality listings.  The respect that top agents create through personal prospecting and client service is high.  It is that respect over time that produces leads and new business in so many different ways.