Simple Formulas for Successful Direct Marketing in Commercial Real Estate

Don’t complicate the marketing process in commercial brokerage today.  Keep things simple and get out and about locally among the people that matter.  Our industry is based on personal contact and professional relevance.  If either of those things are lacking in your property business, then you have issues and you will struggle to stand out as a top agent.

(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)

Resolve the property challenge comprehensively by and through a process of direct marketing.  That’s how things happen in our industry; everything else is just luck and luck doesn’t do much for market share.

Here is a simple and yet effective process of direct marketing for brokers and agents.  See how you can modify your business skills using some of these contact ideas:

1. Find new people each day – the best way to get this started is by using the business telephone book (the online and offline versions). There are thousands of businesses in that list for your town or city that you can call direct.  Ideally you just want to know if they have a property challenge or issue where you can help them.  Make the calls and talk to the business owners.  It’s a simple way of connecting with new people.  Some of those business owners will lease the property they are located in, whilst others will own the property.  Either way you get to connect with property interested people.
2. Create discussions – the people that we class as ‘clients’ or ‘prospects’ are typically business savvy, and they are very experienced with direct business conversations. Master the art of the business conversation using local property information as leverage.  Facts about sales, leasing, listings, developments, and marketing will always create some form of a discussion.  Practice your meeting and call conversations.
3. Take notes of meetings and conversations – given that you will be contacting lots of people in a location, you will never remember everything that is said to you. Your database has to track conversations and contact processes.  Put your marketing processes into and around your database; you cannot delegate that process.  Take ownership of your database so your prospect list is up to date and growing each day.  Build momentum in direct contact.
4. Send follow-up material – every quality conversation, be it across the telephone or in a meeting will give you a chance to send out material in follow-up. Choose the right material for the location, and not some generic ‘fluff’ that no one wants.  Be specific and be real in the information that you send out.
5. Use a database pipeline – a contact today is potentially a listing or transaction in the future. Everything depends on what you do with that contact and how you open up the pipeline of information; your database should be at the centre of that contact.  Relevant local property information will always help you open doors on business contact so create a regular informational marketing process around email, telephone calls, meetings, and referrals.  Consistency and regularity will help you with that.

The promotional marketing process in commercial property doesn’t have to be complex, but it does need to happen.  Keep your direct marketing activities local in focus and frequent in momentum.  That’s what the top marketers do all the time.  Are you up to the promotional challenge?

(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)