The 3 Steps to a Competitive Edge Commercial Real Estate Brokerage
In commercial real estate brokerage, understand exactly where you are positioned professionally against your competitors in your territory and location. When you have all the facts of positioning, you can do something about improving your business profile and market share. (NB – learn more about commercial real estate brokerage in our free course here)
The property market is always changing given local market sentiment, and the factors of supply and demand. You can look for the next segments of the market locally that will build momentum and then adjust your marketing and prospecting accordingly. The ‘top agents’ look for the next growth and change factors of the property market. Listings and commissions are in the change around you in commercial property.
Review Your Property Profile
So let’s look at your ‘profile’ as a broker or agent in this way. In your assessment of ‘positioning’ consider these people groups and your involvement with:
- Buyers
- Sellers
- Investors
- Tenants
- Business Owners
- Landlords
- Property Developers
- Industry Professionals
- Exclusive Listings
- Online and offline marketing
- Signage in your location
Every segment is different; in some of those segments you will be more active than others, so that then leaves some more potential involvement to be actioned. It should be said that you cannot cover everything that is available in your location, but you should make the right choices. Connect with more people; that’s the rule if you want more business.
Given the groups previously mentioned, review these questions:
- Who has the dominant presence in the local area as a broker or agent?
- How are they holding that position as a top agent?
- How long did it take for them to reach that ‘status’?
- How many competitors are there locally in brokerage and agency?
- How does your prospecting and marketing compare to those ‘relevant’ competitors in your location?
When you know the answers to the questions, you will know the property solutions and adjustments that you can apply to your real estate actions and career activities. The commercial property market always offers opportunities when you dig deeper enough and observe the facts, the pressures, and the changes.
Competitive Activity
So now look for the next points of activity so that you can move on adjustments to your marketing, prospecting, and client interaction. When you make personal adjustments, you find opportunity. Commercial real estate is like that.
Here are some ideas to help you improve your profile as a quality broker or agent in a location. Try some of these strategies:
- Establish a profile in a particular property type for the location. Deliberately market your skills and activities solidly into the segments that you choose. For example, they could be investment sales, bulky goods warehouse, tenant advocacy, landlord’s services, office leasing, and other similar specialized segments. When you adopt this direct and deliberate focus, it makes it a lot easier for you to talk about prices and rentals for the segments and the location.
- Create newsworthy articles and case studies relating to the location and selected property types. Supply those articles and case studies both online across websites and blogging activities, and into your database through the email marketing process. Interesting information is always an advantage in the marketing process. Focus on relevance and location as you build your local area information.
- Talk to plenty of people in a regular and ongoing way. Track all of your conversations and communications through a direct and deliberate database strategy. As part of your business model and property activity put new people into the database every day so that you can contact them in an ongoing way. Relevancy is important when it comes to the growth of your client list, so be prepared to qualify and categorize the people that you talk to. Understand the segments of the market that they are interested in, and build a client profile from every conversation over time. The strength of your market share will evolve from your client list and database. There is no other way to build a successful commercial real estate business.
Taking all of these things in balance, you can see the need and the opportunity to connect with people regularly and specifically in your location. That’s what the top agents do in the market over time.
If you want to rise above the other brokerage competitors in your property market, then you will need to put some effort into your contact and prospecting processes. Review your current activities, and make the changes to escalate your business profile accordingly.