Commercial Real Estate Brokerage – Effective Listing Prospecting Strategies Using Other Agents Signboards

In commercial real estate brokerage today, you will always be on the lookout for new listings and new clients.  One strategy to consider that is well proven and successful is that of marketing your services around general location of other agent’s boards.  The strategy is quite simple and yet effective.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)

So how does this work?  When another agent or broker places a signboard on a property within your territory or location, you can approach the other property owners and business proprietors in the immediate location and particularly with the adjoining properties.  They may like to compete with that new listing nearby.  You can be the person to help them.

The logic works

This listing and prospecting strategy is based on the logic and premise that one listing will create local area interest and churn.  You can help with that; you can provide solid reasons for property owners that the strategy would work locally for different property types.  Build your marketing strategy around that.

Other property owners in the area may consider competing with the other brokerage competition and their listing.  Other business owners in the area may consider taking property action as part of the other local listing.  Market yourself into the location based on those two assumed situations; you will find leads and changes in that way.

Factor of attraction

You could say that this is potentially a real factor of attraction when it comes to new business generation.  When you understand the process and how it works, you can attract your new business opportunities from in and around the activities of other agents through your listing territory and city.  Use their listings to find more property churn nearby.

To establish the system of your business conversion and listing attraction, you will need to track all of the new listings with your competitors as they come to market.  As soon as they place a signboard on a property, you then canvass the street and the location personally.

Assess the local area

Given that there are plenty of signboards within your location, you can use these signboards as points of leverage to get started and to attract other listings from the location.  There are some rules to make this work:

1. Get personally involved – When another agent places a signboard in a street or on a particular building, get into the location and meet with the local business owners. Also separately and directly approach the property owners in each case; this will require a degree of research so be prepared to put in the effort.  Talk to local people about how you can help them with their property needs at the same time as the other listing may be on the market.  One property listing will create local property interest; you can market your services on the property churn.  The extra new listing that you can create in the location can be positioned competitively and keenly for alternative property marketing.  Your listing can compete competitively with other listings in the immediate location.  Your listing presentation and service pitch should be structured accordingly, and that is to build on the momentum of the other listings.  Explain to your clients and prospects how your marketing process will integrate into the area whilst providing leverage and greater value to the target market with price, rental, or improvements.
2. Demand exclusivity – To make this work consistently, you will need to convert your listings exclusively. There is no point in focusing your efforts on listing marketing and local area coverage unless you have exclusivity.  Many agents and brokers struggle with this concept and can’t sell their services ‘exclusively’; exclusivity is the only way to dominate market share as a relevant and important agent for the location.  When you have an exclusive listing, you can drive new business using unique and special marketing processes.
3. Focus on quality – A good listing will help you stand out as the agent of choice for the targeted segment and the location or territory. A quality listing should be comprehensively marketed locally at a personal level, and then comprehensively both online, and offline.  The marketing process and the campaign that you create will involve vendor paid marketing funds.  Given all of these facts, your listing pitch needs to incorporate the base strategy of exclusivity and vendor paid marketing, giving the client plenty of reasons why that will be so important to their achieved price and time on market.
4. Target marketing – With every listing that you pitch for focus on the target market and help the client see that factor as being critical to the momentum they require. Show the client exactly where that target market will be located and how you will tap into that category effectively and directly.  When the client can see that you totally understand the target market and how to tap into it, your listing conversions will be easier to achieve.

So you can now see why you should have some quite specific prospecting and listing strategies that you can improve on and develop over time.  Show the local area why you are the agent of choice, doing that through relevant and real marketing for the location and the target audience.

Walk away when you have to

As a final point here, be prepared to walk away from listings and clients where the ‘package of property’ seems unrealistic and unmatched to prevailing ‘market’ conditions.  Your time is precious, so only take on the clients and properties that offer potential.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)