Territory Management Best Practice in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

When you work in commercial real estate brokerage, there are some things that you must do personally every day and the most important of those is prospecting for new business.  Failure to recognize that single important fact is one of the most common problems in the industry at an agent level.  Too many agents struggle at different times and that is why.

Every agent should have a specific prospecting model that they understand and implement every day.  It is not something that can be delegated to others.  There are different ways to prospect for new business, and some methods suit locations, property types, and brokerages.  Look for the best methods that can help you win over new listings and new clients.

Its a Personal New Business Strategy

So understanding that prospecting is the most important single thing to do every day as part of establishing and growing your commercial real estate career, what is the most important key factor in establishing and running a prospecting model?  In one simple word, the concept is logic.  Everything in prospecting evolves around logical process and logical system.  Here are some ideas to help you with that:

1. Split your listing territory up into specific streets and precincts. Understand the areas of concentration where businesses and investors like to get involved.  Within those various areas, you can categorize your primary zone of opportunity and the secondary zone of opportunity.  Get the primary zone well under control as early as possible in your career.  That will mean prospecting property owners and properties specifically and singularly street by street and property by property.  Logic supports the process, and diligent data collection will help you identify and track the identities of the people that you talk to and the opportunities that you find.
2. The people that you talk to as part of new business prospecting should be categorized for future canvassing and conversation. You will need a reasonably comprehensive database program to help you achieve that level of interaction.  Given that you will be talking to a lot of people over time, you really do need to make note of comments and key factors of client conversation.  One small snippet of information today can lead you to a client opportunity in the future.  Categorize the people that you talk to into particular groups such as property sellers, buyers, tenants, business owners, investors, developers, and industry professionals.  Across all of those larger groups, you will identify VIP contacts to maintain a high level of interaction with over time.
3. Each interaction or contact activity with a prospect should involve new and fresh information. The only way that you can build relevance over time is through providing local property information including the trends of pricing, rentals, inquiry, and marketing.  The information that you provide can be packaged in a number of different ways including newsletters, articles, editorials, advertorials, and property advertising.  Any higher quality listing should receive the VIP treatment from a marketing perspective.  That will involve your database, direct mail, telephone calls, and social media.  Every good listing is a reason to interact with many other people in a specific way.  That is how you track and find the next clients that you can serve.

You can see from these three simple points that the prospecting process in commercial real estate brokerage is quite specific and comprehensive.  Establish your prospecting model as quickly as possible when you enter the industry so that you do not suffer unnecessary difficulties when the industry shifts and moves due to pressures in the economy and your local town or city.