Trust is a big part of the commercial real estate business today. The clients and the customers that we serve will generally be attracted only to the brokers and agents that they trust; there is too much at stake with the property challenge to do otherwise.  How do you rank on this assessment?  NB You can join our free real estate training here.

 

Certainly market share and recent property activity will also have something to do with client trust, attraction and transaction opportunity, but ultimately the clients and the customers that we serve want to trust the agent that they work with.  Your local profile has to support that trust process.

 

Confidence about your services, and a complete coverage of the local property market will help you connect to the client in this trustworthy way; professionalism supports the process.

 

Give the client reasons to use your services; get away from the generic ‘pitch and dump’ process used by many ordinary agents.  Be special and be real when conveying your professional skills to the clients that you serve.

 

People Rule!

 

People are at the centre of our real estate opportunities today. Whilst you may know a lot about the properties for sale or for lease locally, you do need to know the people behind each and every property. They need to trust you to get the best price or rent in their property challenge.

 

The message here is that you can significantly increase your commercial real estate business based on facts, trust, and regular communication. There are plenty of clients and prospects in the local area to connect with in a continuing and relevant way. Most agents struggle with the communication and connection process; that is an amazing opportunity for the agents that can work to a plan and a strategy.

 

So what are you doing with this now?  Your prospecting model and its ongoing contact process will be critical to the real estate business that you want to create. When the market slows or the economy struggles, your database and the people that you know in the database will be the foundation for ongoing business opportunity. The agent with the best database and relevant client contact processes will usually be highly successful in any market at any time.

 

So what can you do here? Over time you can build elevated levels of trust with your clients and prospects through a deliberate prospecting and marketing process. You can provide relevant information for the location and the various property types.

 

Ongoing Contact?

 

Through deliberate and ongoing contact, you can help local business owners and property owners with their property challenges; you can help them with information relating to rents, prices, time on market, and future supply. Build the long-term relationships with the people that really matter in the property market locally. Local area relevancy is really important to your client and customer contact processes.

 

So let’s help shape your professional profile with the people in your local area.  Here are some ideas to help you become a trustworthy agent or broker with the people that you know in your town or city:

 

1. Seek to understand their property situation as it exists today. There are differences to look for with investment and property ownership. Will the property provide all the elements and attributes they require into the future for both ownership and or occupancy?
2. Look for pressures and weaknesses in any property and the location. Are some of the local property factors changing that could shift the balance of property performance or ownership locally? Advise the client of the local factors that can influence their property challenge. Provide solutions to move through the challenges; make sure that your solutions are not ‘generic’.
3. Position the client for the future so that they can ride out any difficulties in the best possible way. Show them how you can help them in a valuable and tangible way.  Show them how you will put your resources into their property challenge; be relevant and real as you do so.
4. Improve property performance through better tenant mix decisions, cash flow improvement and healthier lease documentation. It takes time to shape a property and a tenant mix for the future.
5. Off market recommendations are valuable so understand how you can introduce the right people to the property and resolve a client’s challenge early, before it becomes a bigger issue. Match up people and properties wherever possible. Off market transactions are common when you know a lot of local property owners and occupiers.
6. Confidentiality at all times applies to all property transactions and your client relationships. Remember just who your client is and how you can help them.  They pay your commission!
7. Regular contact with local information will help with all of your clients. Put relevancy into your client and prospect contact processes using local information in the form of charts, photographs, and case studies.
8. Remember the conversations and facts with all of your clients and customers as you connect with them into the future. You do this so you can repeat the right facts and solutions in the next conversation.  Let the client see that you really do have full control over the issues with their property, the facts as they exist in the local area, and their concerns in moving to the next step.
9. Provide clear recommendations to your clients with all your property solutions. Give the client 2 or 3 choices as you talk about their property and its marketing, the upcoming negotiations and the best available listing processes.  A client that has a few choices will not feel pressured and thereby will be more inclined to make a good decision in a timely way to help the property marketing process move head.

 

These are all valuable strategies to adopt with your clients and prospects.  Get closer to them as they work through the problems of property ownership and occupancy.  Be the top agent that they really need; market yourself accordingly.