Day: February 12, 2012

So many people enter the commercial property industry with little regard for the skills and knowledge that they need to develop. They get a job in an agency and then they start to look for opportunity and listings. If they had spent some time in understanding what goes on and what the market offers, they would save themselves a lot of time and effort.

The traits of a great salesperson and top agent are quite specific in commercial real estate. Here are some ideas to help you on the track to progress and success as an agent.

1. The best agents know that their success is totally self-generated. On that basis what they do and how they do it each day, will be the blueprint for improvement. Action is omnipotent.
2. You need to know a lot of people in the local property market. In most cases that will be several hundred people and you will have them in your database for ongoing contact. They are the decision makers that transact and own commercial property. When you control the good listings in your area, you capture the good property enquiry.
3. Define quite clearly for yourself just who your clients are by type and location. This definition will help your prospecting model and prevent you chasing people that can waste your time.
4. Research new people to call and contact every day. Without new people on your list, your business will slow and eventually stop. Good strategic planning saves you a lot of time and effort. Time is your main resource so use it wisely.
5. Commit to a process of excellence in what you do and how you serve your clients. There are far too many generic agents in the property market that promise the world and provide nothing.
6. As a basic rule, push every listing towards a sole or exclusive listing. When you control your listings you can devote time to marketing and attracting the right enquiry.
7. Test and measure all your marketing on every property listing so you understand what works and what doesn’t. When the enquiry is slow, take a look at the format of your adverts, where you are lodging them, and what target market you are chasing.
8. Get lots of signboards into your territory. Ensure that you have your name on a good number of quality property listings. In that way you will get more enquiries and that will help you build your database. Qualify everyone that you speak to; get their contact detail before you give out information.
9. A database is your foundation for a better business and more commissions. The software that you use does not have to be complex or expensive; it is the process that is more important. The database process is quite personal and should not be delegated. Commit to your database and make it a part of your daily efforts and resolve for a better business.
10. Monitor all the existing listings with other agents in the local area. You are responsible for your market and your market share; your boss and your agency have nothing to do with your progress and listings. When you really understand that fact, you will likely be more open to taking the right action to build your business.
11. Decide what the main things are that you should do every day to build market share and listings. There will likely be 3 or 4 that are critical to help you build your business. They will be part of your marketing process.
12. Practice your negotiation and presentation processes. You are competing with other agents all the time, and on that basis your offerings and services have to be superior.

How many great people are out there like this? Not many; and that is the opportunity that you can seize and develop. Is it hard work? Yes, but wouldn’t you expect a good thing to be hard work? Take action today and change some habits.

You can get some more ideas to help your career in commercial real estate at my website http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/

When you work in commercial real estate today, the pressures for finding the buyers and sellers is high. On the seller side of the equation you can find plenty of them when you prospect and cold call every day. That being said, not enough agents do the prospecting at sufficient levels to get anywhere. The end result is slow progress in penetrating their market.

A good question to ask here is why would you not do something if it could bring you great benefits and market share? Only a few agents and salespeople out of every 100 ever really deal with the personal prospecting requirements and consistently get it right. In saying that there is a huge opportunity awaiting those agents and salespeople that take the required action.

Agents need to market themselves more. If and when they do that, results start to come in. It takes a good 3 months of hard effort to really create the change, but you will see new things happening fairly quickly. So what actions should you take? Try these for measure:

• Prospect by cold calling each working day for a period of at least 2 hours
• Selectively walk down the streets containing local businesses and drop in your card. Try to speak to the business owner about the local area and their property needs.
• Get more signs into your territory on each and every listing. Your name should feature on all the signs that you place on your listings.
• Build a significant database of tenants, business owners, landlords, developers, franchisees, franchisors, and financiers.
• Look back into the local sales records for your area and contact call the property owners who purchased property about 3 or 4 years ago. They will be the next ones to make a move on property.
• Talk to all tenants in your area about the expiry date of their leases. Keep in touch with them as that date gets nearer in case you can help them with alternative premises or property

Marketing yourself as a commercial property expert is not hard; it just takes consistent effort. That is where so many agents fall down. Are you up to the challenge?

You can get more free tips and ideas for commercial real estate agents and salespeople at my website http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/