Tag: Commercial Real Estate Coaching

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Building Market Opportuntity for Your Commercial Real Estate Agency Team

Commercial real estate in city
Commercial Property Market opportunity can be optimised by Agents

We all know that the commercial real estate market is quite competitive today.  Whilst the number of agents in each area will vary, the factors of territory domination become really important in attracting the right levels of enquiry and target market for each listing.  Essentially your agency team needs to build market opportunity continually and constantly in and around the other agents with whom you compete.  Monitoring your market share will become part of the process.   Here are some tips from our Newsletter.

There are some key factors in growing your market share and here are some of the main ones:

  • The signage profile in the area needs to be significant and strong.  This means that every listing should feature a suitably placed signboard wherever possible.  Most property enquiry comes from the local area.  The signboard on the property has significant leverage in attracting this enquiry; all signboards should be kept up to date and damage free from vandalism.
  • Every property enquiry can and should be captured into your database for future use and opportunity.  The accuracy and up to date nature of the database will have direct impact on the deals and enquiries that you can convert.  Salespeople should be held accountable for database entry and maintenance with all their listings.
  • The agency branding for your office should be suitably consistent across all marketing material.  This will include contacts for salespeople, office detail, and telephone contact details for the office, website, and e-mail contact.  As part of that process it is wise to make some early decisions regards the ownership of the mobile phone number associated with each and every salesperson.  We all know that salespeople do move on or leave the industry given that the industry is very volatile.  It is wise for the real estate office to own the mobile phone and the mobile phone number.  When people leave, the enquiry from existing listings and previous client based contacts can still be captured from the mobile phone by other salespeople.
  • When you list a property locally, it is very important to take the property listing detail into the local business community through direct mail, direct flyers, and personal contact.  When this is done correctly, you will gain significant market intelligence and future listing opportunity.  This local contact process will generally optimise the price or rental outcome and shorten the time on market.  Regrettably a lot of salespeople do not do this local marketing coverage process well enough.
  • From the outset of your agency establishment and operation, it pays for your agency and its individual salespeople to specialise within certain property types.  Specialisation always provides better levels of enquiry and helps with your branding.  By a specialisation, we mean Industrial Property, Retail Property, and Office Property.  Certain members of the agency team can specialise in each segment and also the process of Sales, Leasing, or Property Management.  As experts you can then attract more enquiry to your business.

It can be said that a large agency team presents special challenges in managing these factors above.  The greater the number of salespeople, the more complex the management system required to optimise territory promotion and penetration.  Nevertheless these four factors have to be optimised wherever possible.  They can become part of your weekly office meeting agenda and strategies.

Track these numbers below with each member of the sales team:

  • New signboards placed on listings and in the territory
  • New listings for the week
  • Controlled listings for the week
  • Open listings for the week
  • Auctions coming up
  • Time on market per listing
  • Enhanced or exclusive listings on the Internet portals

To track the results that you set and obtain, it is wise to compare and monitor the number of advertisements, signboards placed on other properties, and Internet listings for each competitive agency.  A good commercial real estate agency is one that completely understands their market and their current position within it.

You can more tips like these in our Newsletter.

Our main portal for Commercial Real Estate Agency Tips and Ideas is at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/

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Commercial Real Estate Agents – Finding New Business Opportunity Today

Commercial Office Buildings
Listing opportunity exists with commercial property today.

When it comes to leasing and selling commercial property today, the market is really quite a challenge.  Only the best property agents do really well and that is because they have a specific process of prospecting and networking that they maintain.  They prospect every day at the same time and nothing, not even the boss, can derail the process.  Here are some thoughts from our Newsletter.

Prospecting and networking is such a simple and basic fact of the business.  You would think that most salespeople would accept and optimise the process.  That being said, there is a massive opportunity out there for the salespeople that really get their prospecting organised and do it every day.

Now some salespeople will say that it is a lot of work to find the owners of property and then chase them down to make a contact call.  I would agree, however I would say that these property owners are not the only people that you should be making contact with.

The easiest way to build your contacts in commercial property sales and leasing is through talking to all the business proprietors in your local area.  The simple fact of the matter is that these people either own the property that they are located in or they rent it.  Either way you want to know the facts relating to their property holding or occupancy so you can help them.

The other issue here to remember is that they will likely tell you who the landlord for the property is.  On that basis they have saved you a lot of time.   Put the information gained into the database.  Your database is the most important tool in your office.   Make the database a personal process so you can build a group of loyal followers in your local market.

The best agents in this market are those that know the local area and everyone that has property issues on the agenda now or in the future.  That can be as landlords, tenants, business proprietors or developers.  Just how many of these do you know?

Here are the rules for prospecting for new business today.

  1. Research 40 businesses to call.  You can do that easily from the telephone books in your area.  The research is best done in the evening in preparation for the next day.
  2. Create a standard form to use in the call process so you are simply capturing the conversation onto paper and then putting it into the database each evening.
  3. Contact people in your database each 90 days to keep up the personal profile that is so important in business.
  4. Get to know the local area and property trends so you can provide interesting conversation with property owners and tenants when you talk to them.

I hope that the message here is quite clear.  Your success in the industry is really up to you in all respects.  Do you have what it takes?

Get more tips for commercial real estate agents right here at our parent website http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/      Or you can join our Newsletter here.

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Lifting Productivity in Your Commercial Real Estate Team

Commercial Real Estate Sales Team
You must solve problems of productivity in the commercial real estate team the right way and do it fast.

There is no doubt that a commercial real estate office is a busy place with agents coming and going at all times of day.  The situation gets worse the more salespeople that you have on your team.  It should be said that productive salespeople should not be in the office much during the day, but out in their territory.  The only time that they should come into the office is when they have some calls to make, or paper work to complete.  They should be in the office for only 2 hours per day maximum.

The office principal or team leader that wants the salespeople in the office most of the time is really not giving enough trust to the team to get on with the job. 

Sure, if you have some members of the team that are not producing then they are likely to be wasting the business day and not doing the right things.   In that case you need to know where those sales team members are and what they are up to.  But do you really want them in the office?  Wouldn’t it be better for them to get out and about and meet the people?  Couldn’t you get them to give you a diary update of movements at the end of the day or week that would satisfy your questions?

Poorly performing salespeople that cannot account for their movements should be dismissed as part of an ongoing business cleansing process every 3 months or so.  There are ways to manage out the underperformers.  A constant recruiting process goes hand in hand with running a real estate business.

Salespeople are intelligent and will make their own choices.  If their choices do not match your business model then they should go somewhere else and be helped to do so.  Do not let any underperformers become the ‘elephant’ in the sales team that is frustrating everyone else and taking the majority of your focus.  You and the team do not need the stress of the issue.

Why would you want to tolerate a member of the team that is not producing and is destabilising everyone else?  Sure, they may be providing some income and that fact may hold back your decision to sack or dismiss them, but eventually the ‘elephant’ issue will become so frustrating that it will have impact on your personal performance as team leader.  Remove on any ‘elephant’ issues quickly.  Get on with supporting and helping your good people achieve.

Here are facts that apply to running salespeople in a team:

  • Great salespeople like flexibility and support to get on with the job and produce commissions
  • Great salespeople will produce business their way if you give them the flexibility and the trust to do the business
  • Great salespeople know that they are responsible for the results that they achieve and will get on with the process if you give them the leverage to do so.

If you do not trust any or all of the members of the sales team then you either have the wrong people, inexperienced people, or your need to adjust your business practices.  Trust is really important when it comes to optimising listings and commission results from the real estate team.

Whilst you want the team to perform, the sales team need to see and feel the trust between you and them.  If they know and feel that you do not trust them, they will break the rules anyway and eventually leave the business to move somewhere else where they think they will be ‘trusted’.

Don’t make the sales office a ‘roller coaster’ of emotion for the sales team.  If you are the team leader, give them stability, trust, and direction in the office.  Give them the real flexibility and trust to do a good job and achieve.  Manage yourself first and foremost.

The team needs the leverage and opportunity to be out in the market place most of every working day.   Track their performances by KPI’s and if they do not soon show their results in the figures, then you have the wrong people.  You cannot micro manage salespeople for too long; they will take too much of your time and soon revolt and move on.  Give your top performers flexibility and trust above everything else.

Check out some more tips for commercial real estate teams at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/

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How to Build a Commercial Real Estate Sales Team

Selling or Leasing Commercial Office Buildings
You need great people to handle commercial buildings like these. Choose your sales team well.

When it comes to commercial property sales and leasing, it is really important to have a great sales team behind you as the agency principal.  Finding the right people or getting the best performance from every person can be very difficult.

It needs to be said that out of every 10 salespeople there are on average only 2 that are really very good at what they do.  Everyone else is rated in some variation of ‘average’.  To be ‘very good’ I mean the following:

  • The consistency to prospect for new business every day no matter what is on the agenda
  • Knowing how to negotiate at all levels with all types of landlords, property owners, investors, business leaders, and tenants
  • To pitch and present commercial property services in ways that really match the client or the market
  • To have a comprehensive market awareness and how to build opportunity from that
  • To understand how to close and document any type of sales or leasing agreement for all property types
  • To list and sell or lease at better than the industry average and to have a shorter time on market factor in closing sales or leases
  • To know how to target market commercial property to capture the best levels of enquiry locally
  • To dominate the local property market by area and property type
  • To close on exclusive listings and vendor paid advertising each and every time
  • To be the agent of choice for the local property investors and business leaders
  • To be excellent managers of their own time on a daily basis.

It’s a challenging list for many salespeople and agents.

There is a choice here and it comes down to each and every salesperson that you may employ.  Do they have the personal discipline to improve themselves and make their mark in the local property market?

My ‘cut’ on this is that as agent principals we have to be very careful in the employment of new people.  The poor selection of staff costs tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours.

I once had something to do with a large agency where the principal would only employ new members of staff for the sales team if they passed the test on a Psyche Sales Analysis.  The criteria on the analysis were centred on ‘sales’ and ‘negotiation’ skills.  In hindsight the business was very successful and remains so.  Any person that did not pass the ‘analysis’ would not be employed.  The right character and drive had to exist in the salesperson before they would be considered for employment.

Can you train existing salespeople to improve and grow their personal skills in commercial real estate?  Yes you can.

Should salespeople be open to learning and change to improve their market share and performance?  Yes they should.

How long should you tolerate average salespeople that fail to improve and grow their skills?  Not long.

If you want some more ideas on commercial real estate agency sales and leasing, you can get that at our parent website http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/

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Closing More Commercial Property Listings – Tips for Real Estate Agents

Today we find many commercial properties available for sale or lease in most locations.  The difficult global economy has produced a glut of commercial properties that have to be sold or leased.  Either way the owner of the property needs help from a great real estate agent.  Are you an agent of that calibre?

Rarely can an owner of a property capture the entire local property enquiry themselves when it comes to the time for selling or leasing.  Sure, they can place an advert in the local paper or on the internet and hope that something happens, but the reality is that they do not have the database of contacts those agents should or do have.

It is in property markets like these that the great agents with a good database really do come to the fore.  They know so many people that the ‘advertising and hoping’ process does not have to occur to make a property sell or lease.

It is in markets like these that a good agent has plenty of stories and experiences to tell the property owner at the time of listing, that give real evidence of the ability for that agent to cover the right target market and attract the best price or rent.

If you work in commercial real estate, it is time for you to look at the value or experience you bring your client in tougher property markets.  Can you specifically provide your client with real strategy to solve their property problem?  Are you different that the others in the market?

Before you answer those questions, I can tell you that the best answers are not generic.  Do not bother with such common things that most agents give:

  • Best local agent
  • Know the area
  • Sold more properties
  • Have great staff
  • Will do a great job

My comment here is that you have to drill down on anything you say or do.  Tell the client why you make these claims and give evidence.  Show them why you make the claims.  Many agents do not do that and simply rely on the generic comments to close a listing.  On that basis the client can chose from the cheapest agent with the lowest fees, simply because one agent does not stand out as being the best choice.

Make no mistake here, the property market today is highly competitive for many agents and on that basis you really do have to connect well in your sales pitch or presentation.  That is what I am saying.  Are you up to the process?

You can get more free tips for commercial real estate agents at our website http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/