Commercial Real Estate Agents – Here is How You Can Get Listings from Your Competitors

In commercial real estate today, the competing agents in your local area will leave clues and opportunities for you to act on.  Many agents are not very systemised in what they do.  On that basis you can seize the opportunity of targeting the weaker agents in the local area and their expired or soon to expire listings.  You can also take action when it comes to the activities of the other agents.

As a general strategy, you can do a ‘secret shopper’ call approach to the other agents to identify how relevant and professional they are when it comes to taking a telephone enquiries about property listings.  You will be surprised to note that many of them do not return calls in a timely way, and have no plan or approach to asking the right questions when it comes to taking enquiries.

When you understand just who the weaker competitive agents are, you have some targets to focus on.

Here are two specific clues and opportunities that I have used extensively over the years in agency work.  They may also work for you.

1. When a signboard is placed by any of your competing agencies on a local property for sale or for lease, the other properties around that particular listing become primed for your personal and direct approach.  It is a fact that other listings can be obtained in the same general location of a property that is on the market today.  Other property owners and business owners may like to seize the opportunity and momentum of the marketing of the property nearby.  They generally like to do this with a competing agent that has no conflict with the local listing.  You can be the marketing solution for those other property owners and business proprietors.
2. When a commercial real estate agent has transacted the sale or a lease, they generally move on to other properties and other clients.  They tend to forget about the deal and the client that they had just served.  Keep an eye on all of the sales and listing activity in the local area.  When another competing agent has just done a deal, make contact with the client approximately six months after the transaction.  Then build the relationship with the client into the future.  It is quite likely that the original agent is a overlooking the original client that they served.

From these two simple activities, you can use the momentum of other agencies to build your database of client contact and listings.

Commercial real estate is just like any other sales profession.  You are required to sell yourself as the industry specialist that clients can use locally.  Use the activities of other agents as a trigger of contact.  Watch what the other agents do and replicate the things that seem to work.  At the same time you can build your personal marketing strategy and points of difference.

Open listings with other agents will also be something that you should monitor and check out in case you want the open listing on your books.  This then says that the open listings with other agencies are an opportunity for you to check with the property owner to see if you can serve them in a particular way.  You cannot however build and control your market share from a basis of open listings. You can get the occasional and convenient property sale or property lease transaction.

If you want to build your market share as a top agent, exclusive listings are the only way to go.  You can control your market and the client.  Over time you can be seen as the expert handling the best properties in the best possible way.  That is how you build market share.

You can get more ideas like this in our Newsletter right here.