Time Management Essentials in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

In commercial real estate brokerage, there is no time to lose when it comes to attracting clients and converting listings.  It doesn’t matter if you work in sales, leasing, or property management, a listing is a listing no matter which way you look at it.  Commissions will come from quality clients and good listings.

So there are three types of salespeople in the industry.  In saying that, I classify every segment of the market as that of a sales related career path. 

Your job is to sell your services and your property speciality.  That can apply in sales, leasing, and property management.  So the three types of salespeople are best described as follows:

• Those that watch the market activity in a market segment, doing little to get involved.
• Those that get generically involved with others in the market segment, but doing nothing of a unique nature.
• Those brokers and agents that choose to be highly involved with clients and properties, through undertaking personal and individual tasks without prompting and without diversion.

So there is no time to lose when it comes to commercial real estate brokerage today.  In every period of 12 months, we have approximately 10 months of opportunity to tap into.  Every day we need to do the right things to find those new clients and those quality listings that we can work on.

So we have some choices here.  We can get involved with everybody else, or we can work and stand out as unique and special when it comes to the market segment and the property type.  The top agents of the market always stand out as unique and special when it comes to skills, market knowledge, and industry profile.  Of course that choice takes effort and a deliberate focus of activities on a daily basis.

So there is no time to lose if you are looking to build your market share, listings, and commission opportunities.  I go back to the point that it doesn’t matter what segment of the property market you work in.  Every agent and every broker is responsible for building new business opportunities in sales, leasing, and property management. 

Asking the right questions and connecting with the right clients is the direct responsibility of every person working in the industry and within your brokerage.  A good client can be moved from one division of your brokerage to another.  The relationship that you establish with a good client can be strengthened over time through comprehensive services.

We can sometimes get complacent if we have a few deals on the go and clients to work with.  Unfortunately it takes about three months of inaction to destroy your market share.  It takes about another three to six months of directed activity to claw back your market share.  There are plenty of other agents and brokers out there who will take your client or listing opportunity if given half a chance.  Don’t give them that opportunity.

So the message here is that we can and should focus every working day into the things that matter.  Understand the things that are really important to helping you build career opportunities, your client base, and your listing market.  Prioritize those things in your diary each working day.  Don’t let the pressures of others divert your focus; the world is full of mundane agents without a plan of attack.