Tips to Solve a Slump in Commercial Real Estate Sales

In commercial real estate from time to time, you will get a slump in sales.  That will come from a variety of challenges and market changes.  When that occurs, it is important that you adjust your prospecting processes and market focus.

A slump in sales is a reason to shift your personal business practices and market segments.  If the sales activity is genuinely slower for a long time, then you should start to look at the alternatives of helping landlords with leasing activity in the local area.  Invariably you will find that a new commission opportunity still exists, albeit in a different way.

Here are some rules that should apply to the changing market conditions and a personal slump in sales:

1. A slump will only continue if you fail to adjust your prospecting and business efforts.  In many respects, the downturn may have been created through a lack of personal prospecting and client connection.  It is easy to stop prospecting when you have plenty of business on the go.  That is the most common problem we see when it comes to this type of industry downturn.
2. Review your activities when it comes to new business generation.  Take a serious look at your database to ascertain that it is up to date and accurate in every respect.  If your database is lacking in any way, it will require immediate attention and that will involve plenty of phone calls talking to those people that you have overlooked or not connected with recently.
3. Talk to all of the clients that you have serviced over the last five years.  It is a known fact that property owners and investors work to a cycle of ownership and disposal.  Many property owners will act on a property decision or transaction once every 5 to 7 years.  That is why the cycle of contact is so important to the business that we generate.
4. Ask for referrals from the clients and the prospects that you know.  This is the easiest relationship building process available to us.
5. Get back into your sales territory and the streets that contain the quality properties.  Door-knock the local businesses to introduce yourself and question them about their current property needs and activities.  Most business owners and proprietors will know a lot more about their immediate local property market than you do.  They are likely to share some of that information that can lead to some good leads and other connections.
6. Look for any new property developments and any rezoning applications.  You can get this information from the local planning office.  Whilst some of these transactions take months if not years to come to fruition, you can position yourself to help those property owners impacted by the changes.
7. Lift your presence on the Internet through social media activity and also specific property blogging activity.  Show the online world that you are a real expert when it comes to the property type and the location.

To get over a slump in sales activity, it is simply a matter of changing your focus and your business habits.  Put yourself back into a prospecting mindset and reconnect with the market in every way possible.

You can get more tips like this at our main commercial real estate training website right here.