How to Segment and Grow Your Commercial Real Estate Business

In commercial real estate brokerage today it is easy to get diverted and distracted when it comes to local area coverage and property specialty. It is wise for you to consider a process of systematization and segmentation that allows for you to determine the priority property types and priority locations that will drive a better commission return and client list.

(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)

Often you hear of inexperienced agents and brokers taking on a listing that can best be described as low grade or of poor quality; it may be the leasing of the corner shop, or the sale of a redundant property in a below average location. Yes, there are commissions to be had but the commissions are hard to achieve. Don’t make your real estate business too hard or too difficult.

Poor quality listings create little enquiry. They stay on the market too long, and they can potentially waste a lot of time and resources for any broker or agent. Steer clear of these low grade listings and clients. Focus into the better properties and the better locations.

Focus your resources correctly

Certainly everything will sell or lease in most property markets at any time, but the degree of work required in processing a low grade sale or lease can be significant, and those smaller poor quality transactions can take a lot of time and resources.

Typically, you can waste a lot of time in marketing and promoting a poor quality property; the end result will leave you poorer, with a smaller commission and a low quality client. Size really does matter when it comes to commercial real estate brokerage listings and commissions.

So what do you do here?

You need to remember and know where the better quality properties and listing opportunities are located in your town or city and particularly your territory. Focus your prospecting activities accordingly. Always bias your new business focus towards the best properties and the best locations. Quality should feature in your listing bank. Stay away from the listings and the clients that can waste your time.

Do the local assessments

Assess your property market and any potential transaction on the basis of size, location, and income. Remember where you can find the better deals and the better commissions per transaction; focus your prospecting efforts accordingly.

It is a known fact that you will always get more inquiry from a good quality listing. A small number of good quality listings in prime locations will always create more activity and inquiry for you than say 50 open ‘ordinary class’ listings. When you have the inquiry, you can generate the inspections and potentially the negotiations.

Link your transactions and relationships

Everything is linked in commercial real estate brokerage, and the best transactions start from the basis of quality first and foremost. Market yourself in and around quality listings and quality clients.

Be the best solution available when it comes to taking a prime property to the market locally. Make sure those clients and property owners remember you at the right time with their high quality property and its challenge.

Here are some ideas to help you segment your property list and property opportunities:

1. Every good quality property listing should be exclusively listed. There is no other way to optimize inquiry and price (or rent) when it comes to a prime property in a top location. The exclusivity process allows you to delve into the objectives of the client, the targeted market, and the marketing strategy. In that way you can open up the inquiry base and the inspection potential a lot faster than any open listing situation may provide. You can also optimize the price or the rent as the case may be.
2. Split your territory or property zone into priority streets and priority buildings. You can then focus your research and your prospecting efforts into those identified opportunities. Get your signboards onto the best properties in the best locations. The exclusivity process will allow your signboard to stand out as real and relevant to the local businesses and property investors.
3. As you talk to more people in the local area, you will identify successful property developers and active property investors of high value. Generally, these groups will act on a property opportunity if the elements are appropriate and well timed; the direct contact process works well with these groups so take the time to understand who they are and where you can locate them. As high net worth individuals they will wait for the next good property listing to reach the market. Stay in contact so that you can convey the property details directly and confidentially when they are available. An off market property transaction will always be possible if you know the right people in the right way.

So there are some good things that you can do here to find better levels of business activity in commercial real estate brokerage. Develop the system that works for you and segment your property market accordingly. Desperate yourself too far when it comes to property research and prospecting.

(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)