Experience Counts in Commercial Real Estate Sales Presentations

In commercial real estate brokerage, the sales pitch or the presentation that you provide to the client should have plenty of character and commitment from you at an individual level.  You are the ‘first point of sale’.  Everything with the listing hinges on your ‘first point of sale’.

Here are some tips below from our commercial real estate broker newsletter.

First and foremost in any listing presentation, the client needs to commit to you as the ‘agent of choice’ before they will listen to you with your recommendations and marketing solutions.  Your character and commitment needs to flow into the presentation in a valuable way.  Your skills and knowledge need to be superior to your competitors when it comes to winning the listing.  Confidence and local property knowledge will help.

The presentations made by top agents are geared to personal involvement on the basis of an exclusive agency.  When you control the listing, you can control the opportunity of a valuable transaction over time.  Exclusive listings are easier to convert when you get involved in the marketing process at an individual level.

So how can you add ‘character and commitment’ to your listing presentation?  Here are some ideas to help:

1. Connect with the client so that you can totally understand their property needs and priorities.  Question everything before you provide recommendations.  Drill down on the needs of the client to get to the true facts of the matter.
2. Every client will have certain challenges when it comes to price, rental, and timing.  They will also have targets within their own mind as to what could be achieved.  Those targets may be totally out of the question when it comes to the current market conditions.
3. Provide the correct recommendations to take the client forward, and put yourself into the marketing process at an individual level.  Let the client see how you will be taking the property to the tenants or the buyers in a direct way.  Forget about generic marketing; it simply doesn’t work.
4. Show the client the results you have achieved recently when it comes to properties of a similar type locally.  Summarize the marketing solutions and the challenges in each case.  Tell the client exactly how you promoted the listing and reached the target audience.  Compare those actions to the subject property and what will be required to achieve inspections and negotiations.
5. Your database is likely to be quite valuable when it comes to winning listings.  Keep your database up to date and use it as leverage when it comes to pitching for a listing.  Show the client the short list of prospects that you have already identified as part of marketing the property.  When the property is released to the market, the people on your shortlist should be encouraged to inspect the listing as part of a pre-release.  It is very difficult for a client to overlook or walk away from a prospective list of tenants or buyers.  Use your database and your short list as leverage in the presentation to the client.
6. Any quality listing should be directly marketed to the local area.  That will be at a personal level in addition to any generic advertising you may be doing.  Prepare a suitable flyer or brochure to take to the property owners and businesses in the same general location as the listing.  As soon as the signboard goes on to the property, you can be door knocking the businesses and the property owners locally.

It is easier to win a listing when you get personally involved in the marketing process.  That involvement can only occur with exclusive listings.  Help the client understand the difference and commitment that they and their property will receive when it comes to an open listing and an exclusive listing.