Top 7 Tips to Beat Your Competitors in Commercial Real Estate

The level of competition in commercial real estate brokerage is consistent and relentless. Plenty of other agents and brokers are looking to take your listing and your clients.

Consistency is required to consolidate a client relationship and a new business opportunity. Get closer to your clients and establish trust over time. Put your clients at the centre of your business model. 

Clients will overlook you when it comes to their commercial real estate challenges unless you are extremely good at what you know, do, and say; local property knowledge and skill should come together. 

Be the best solution for their property pain or challenge; it is a good target to remember as you move through your working day and business week.

Competitive Position

How do you rank as a broker or agent against the brokerage ‘alternatives’ in the local area? When you compare yourself to the ‘competition,’ look for differences and market coverage in the property types and locations.

Specialisation and precinct coverage are so important in commercial real estate today.  Take the required steps to stand out as the property specialist for a location; brand yourself accordingly. Build your marketing material, local evidence, and case studies to support your property activities and local area momentum.

There are plenty of ‘generic’ agents around; there are not too many high-end specialists that really know property trends, leasing results, market rentals, marketing strategies, and vacancy solutions at a deep and significant level. Look at those factors, and see how you can be different and relevant for the location. Build your marketing material and your presentation strategies around local property solutions and results.

Tactics to Help You ‘Stand Out’

So, the rule and target here is for you to ‘stand-out’ as the agent of choice and be the best solution to a property problem.  Your database and market coverage should be better than most other local agents.  How can you achieve that?

Think about these questions:

1. Local Area Coverage – Where is the local area and territory in which you focus your attention? Define it on a map so you can see it; when you have defined it, circle the property precincts that are more active than others.  How are you positioned in those areas?
2. Market Awareness – What do you know about the location and the recent property deals? Remember to track sales, rents, and transactions; also, watch the listings and the time on market across key properties and competitors.
3. Marketing Solutions – If you win and exclusive listing, then the marketing process should be quite special and noteworthy. All your exclusive properties should stand out online in the property portals, and in the newspapers.  Develop some extraordinary and direct marketing processes that can be used with the clients that trust you with marketing funds and exclusivity.
4. Property Speciality – Develop a clear perspective on your specific property knowledge and coverage. There should be a bias and a specialisation for you to control and work with.  Would you say that there is plenty of potential listing stock for you to work on?  When were, you last in your location, in doing so, talking to the businesses and property owners?
5. Transaction Awareness – Asking rents and prices are not always the achieved results. Look for the final facts from a property transaction so you can quote the results as part of a listing presentation or negotiation.  Most property owners have inflated property market perspectives or views about their asset.  Get the real facts behind the local area transactions.
6. Documentary Skills – Some documents are very complex. If you don’t know how to capture the intention of a sale or lease transaction on paper, then find someone who can help you before you get started.  Over time, the property knowledge that you build should give you a ‘documentary advantage’ to use with difficult transactions, clients, and prospects.
7. Building Coverage and Competing Listings – These two factors are important to the negotiations you have with clients and prospects. Knowing what has happened with transactions in buildings and with local property assets will help you explain the points of difference as you move a listing or transaction forward.

So, these things suggest how you can be ‘better’ than your competitors as an agent or broker in your property zone or territory.  Look to improve across these factors mentioned.  Soon you will be an ‘expert’ for getting property results in a timely way.  That’s what local clients and prospects are looking for.  Brand and promote your skills accordingly; don’t be ‘ordinary’.