Effective Presentation Strategies and Ideas for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

In commercial real estate agency and brokerage today, you do need to have an effective presentation strategy that connects to the client and encourages them to commit to your listing strategy and approach.

Your approach to every listing presentation should be carefully considered and planned to improve your conversions.  Your strategies and recommendations to the client need to stand out as the most suitable and successful.

The promotion and marketing of commercial real estate today is not an experiment.  Property specialists are required to formulate the right approach to match the client’s needs and the existing property in the current market.  Location, competing properties, market strategies, and the current levels of enquiry will all have something to do with the presentation and listing process.  Be specific and not generic with your presentation.

It should be said that the generic approach to listing presentation simply doesn’t work.  There are too many competing agents chasing the same listing in today’s market.  Given that our success in the industry relies on the control the listing stock, you have two clear and relevant things to focus on.  They are:

• Your prospecting processes in your sales territory,
• Your presentation and sales pitch with every client and listing

Practice is required with both of these issues.  A systematic approach and self-improvement over time will help you capture more listings in the right way.

Here are some steps to an effective sales pitch or listing presentation:

1. Inspect the property comprehensively and fully before you do anything.  As part of that process, meet the client on site so that you can talk through the issues as you see them, get the feedback from the client as to their current motivations and marketing requirements.  Find out if the property has been put to the market previously and if that is the case, how successful that may or may not have been.
2. Review the other listings currently available in the market for any pressures of competition and any indicators of success.  Some of those listings will give you trends and indicators to apply to your current client’s property.
3. The improvements and the location of the listing will dictate a particular target market.  Determine how that target market will be active and how you can reach into it.  Your marketing plan and the campaign should be structured around the target market with due regard for seasonal timing, and length of campaign.
4. The previous three points will allow you to establish your proposal and your presentational recommendations.  Take plenty of photographs around the property to use as part of your pitch to the client.  They will always be interested in their own property on the screen of a laptop as you talk to them about your recommendations.
5. Provide the client with two or three alternatives of marketing so that they have some choices based on your target market and your recommendations.  Choices allow flexibility and the client will not feel so pressured.
6. Don’t provide discounts to entice the listing.  Provide points of difference and relevance that help make your recommendations stand out as important to the client and their current property needs.  A property owner will be prepared to pay a reasonable commission and the required marketing funds, providing the agent has the suitable skills and ideas to solve their current property pain.  A good presentation will do that.

Show your speciality and your recommendations quite clearly.  Stand out as the agent of choice and not just another agent providing a generic solution.  All of that being said you need exclusive listings when it comes to providing the quality service that the client requires.  Open listings are based on ‘luck’ more than anything else.  Control your listing stock and convert more exclusive listings.

You can get more tips like this in our Newsletter on Commercial real estate training.