Success Tips in Commercial Real Estate Agency This Year
In any property market there are likely to be many agents chasing the same client or property listing at any one time. In many cases that ‘chasing’ process may have started months if not years ago. You can see why personal relationships in this market are so important. Your database is a big part of that process; the same can be said for cold calling and prospecting.
If you ask a top agent to tell you in a few words what their success comes back to, you will likely get an answer like this:
‘I have been growing new relationships across the market for years, and strengthening them at every opportunity.’
I know that a few other ‘top agent strategies’ come with this like market knowledge, negotiation skills, communication skills, and some others, but at the base of it all you have the requirement to connect with new people in the market and establish positive rapport. Without new people you cannot do anything else.
Do you want more clients and prospects? So let’s look at a networking and contact strategy that any agent can implement:
- Start from the easiest level. Use your current clients to see if referral opportunities exist for you. If you have provided a top service to those clients it is likely that you can get some leads to work on and grow with people that they know.
- When you list a property, personally take a flyer of the property details to the nearby businesses in the local area. The same can be done with local property investors. Ask those groups and people if they are thinking of property change. Every current listing is a reason to talk to others in the region.
- Identify and understand what and where the biggest businesses are in your area. They may need property strategies and changes to adjust for their success as a business. Send a letter to the head person, manager, or CEO. Get a meeting and introduce yourself as the property specialist that will be willing to help them in the future.
- Check out the best properties locally and track down the investors behind them and the ownership structure. A meeting will also be required here so you will need a contact telephone number. That can be hard to identify but persistence will usually pay off.
- As a general rule it is very wise to develop a cold calling strategy, and to work that from the business telephone book. Businesses will tell you so much about the market and the changes to property in their area. Ask the questions to tap into the momentum of the market.
You can consider yourself ‘the best agent’ in the local property market, but if you don’t let people know how good you are and how to connect with you, the business and the listings will not evolve. New relationships and networking will help you build your market share.
