Perceived Value Formula for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

Most brokers and agents struggle to convert listings simply because they are too ‘ordinary’ in the services that they offer and or the way that they go about their property marketing.  The clients and prospects they pitch to have no reason to choose one agent above the others, given that so many are offering local coverage and basic property solutions in a sales and or leasing challenge.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)

Be very ‘locally’ special

Well gone are the days of providing generic and ‘run of the mill’ sales and leasing services; that process should be reserved for ‘open listings’, and then only the random clients that are not committing to your marketing ideas and full professional fees.

Understand the property listing, the client, and the location; and then pitch specific ideas to solve the sales and leasing challenge.  Don’t be ordinary in the way you go about your marketing; use a target marketing approach and merge that into your property solution.  You are a ‘solution provider’ so don’t forget that!

Your offerings?

The trick to controlling and growing your listing stock is to provide your clients with high level and specific services within a region and with certain property types.  When you are a real specialist for the location, it is hard for a client or prospect to ignore or refuse your real estate ideas.  Clients want believable solutions for the best price or rent, in the shortest time possible.  That’s the fact to remember.

Forget discounting

It is interesting to note that those agents and brokers that provide and or feel that they must ‘discount’ their service fees and marketing costs, are those that typically have a poor quality database and lack local property specialty.  They also have not taken the time to ‘stand out’ as the industry specialist for certain segments of the market.

So there are some messages here to be opened up and implemented by you and or your real estate team.  Here are some ideas to help with that:

• Specific marketing – when you look at your sales and leasing promotional strategies, what are the ideas and strategies that would help make you stand out as the local ‘results person’? Are your adverts and promotional processes for listings now at the higher end of relevance and creativity?  Do your property promotions stand out?
• Exclusivity – you simply must control your listing stock, so adjust your listing pitch towards a high bias of ‘exclusivity’ then give the client plenty of reasons why they should use your professional ideas and recommendations. Don’t just say you are going to promote the property; make some very special statements about how you will do that and then follow through with the process.
• Local coverage – when you know the property locations, the local businesses and property owners, the streets, and the buildings, you can build on simple ideas and drive better listings and property inquiry.
• Get to know the people comprehensively – get to know the local property players, tenants, business owners, and landlords in a deep and meaningful way, and then take steps to ensure that they know you on a similar basis.

Everything that you do in commercial real estate brokerage should have high perceived value to the people that you regard as clients, prospects, and VIP’s for the location.  That is how you can build on your market share and listing base.