Key Account Advantages in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage
What does a key account look like and act like in commercial real estate brokerage? That is an important question that every broker and agent must have an answer for.
The elements of a key account will differ across locations and within your brokerage, but you must know what this special client looks like and how you can find them.
Top agents well know that a key account to them will bring in volumes of repeat business and will also provide leads and referrals into others. It directly follows that every agent or broker should have a specific VIP category in their database that allows for the property focus of these special clients.
Key Account Rules
Here are some rules to help you with establishing your key account rules and VIP interactions:
- Split them up – Some of your special clients will have particular property needs when it comes to timing, price, location, and risk. Spit your clients up in your database so that the important factors of property choice and or priority are flagged for calling up at the right time and in the right way.
- Keep in regular contact – Frequency of contact will help you convert a VIP client into momentum. Keep in contact with your VIP contacts at a level of intensity that shows professionalism and relevance. That being said the VIP client must trust you and know you. Most of the new business of any quality today in our industry will come from established client relationships that have been nurtured over time.
- Keep records of all communication – All telephone calls, meetings, emails, and letters should be recorded in your database for later reference. Show the client that you have all the information at your fingertips. Keep a profile for each client so that you know what they want or must do in commercial property; be there when they need you.
- Up to date market information – When something of relevance happens in your property market, tell your key account clients about the events as soon as they happen. In that way they will know that you are the agent with a ‘finger of the pulse’ of the local property market. Get to the client about recent property events before your competitors do.
- Sales, Leasing, and Property Management – There are plenty of links across the various segments of commercial real estate brokerage. Be prepared to take a client, a property, transaction or lead to the next stage of interaction. That means you must know about sales, leasing, and property management systems, and the skills or services of each.
So there are some good things that you can do here with your VIP clients and important prospects. Treat these people differently, show professionalism under pressure, and give them the complex property help that they really need.
