Why Commercial Real Estate Brokers Are Worth Every Penny

Some clients in commercial real estate are unaware that they have a problem with their property, or do not really know or can define specifically what the problem is. They struggle to find the way ahead; they do not really know or will admit that they cannot get themselves out of a property problem.

Do you think there are some businesses and property owners out there at the moment with problems? Of course there are, and you as the real estate agent or broker have to be the relief to the property pain. You can only be so when you really know what you are doing. That means a really good knowledge of property types, leases, and rents, building costs, regional demographics, and operating costs.

It is not sufficient to think you know how to sell or lease a property. That skill is not enough as most other agents will think the same. After coaching agents for many years, I know that the reality is most of your competition is very ordinary in knowledge and property understanding. That is the leverage you should work with to generate a massive real estate sales and leasing business. Serve your clients as the best choice in the industry. Is that hard? Perhaps it takes more personal effort and certainly more study, but the rewards are significant.

Let's just look at the types of clients you could have for a moment; they are landlords, business owners, tenants, and investors. Within those groups you have differing relationships to the property improvements, rent, lease, location, operating costs, tenancy mix, and the list goes on. So what do you know about these things? What should you do?

Become an expert in every sense of the word. Supply the best and most important information about property that you can for the client. Make sure that you are better than the rest of the real estate people in the local area. Become the property strategist and not just a salesperson; know what are the real reasons for a sale or lease, and help the client understand them. Provide the best timings to use in the sale or lease processes.

The problems and challenges that these client groups have are radically different than each other. Your solutions and responses should be set accordingly. The best model for a real estate agent or broker in a client relationship is to become an advisor that is trusted. Your knowledge should stand head and shoulders above the rest. There are three stages to the process.

Seek to become the clients trusted advisor from the outset. This means building the relationship before the client really wants to do something with their property. Prospecting is essential every day of your business life. Your database is the tool to progress.
Get the client to agree that there is a need with their property or business. Knowledge of the property types, performance issues, lease strategies, development alternatives, tenant mix alternatives, are just some of the things to learn.
Plan your solutions around the problems. When the client fully understands the problems that you have identified with the property, and that you really know what you are doing, the choice of property agent becomes an obvious choice.

Stop thinking that as an agent you must discount your commission, or pay all the advertising costs for the client just to win the new business. These clients are not the ones you want. In most cases they are the hardest to deal with because their motivation is 'cheap'. Logical decisions are not part of their mindset and negotiations are therefore harder with these clients. More often than not the listing does not sell because the client will not listen to the market trends and choices (they think they know better). Time does invariably take care of these unreasonable clients, with no sale resulting and a distressed property sale or lease later on. You can then move back into the picture to offer your special services.

Be the best real estate agent out there and make sure your clients know it. Chase the quality listings owned by quality clients that will listen to the market trends and choices that you offer.

John Highman is an expert in investment real estate strategy, property performance, and tenant mix analysis and strategy. He is an author and coach that helps property investors, and real estate agents improve their retail, industrial, and commercial real estate opportunities and targets.

John has specialised in major commercial, industrial, and retail property for over 30 years. He knows what works and what doesn't. He gives you the 'good oil' on getting active and achieving results.

You can get John Highman's free tips and tools in commercial, industrial, and retail property at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com

A Killer Prospecting Model for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

Do you want more commissions and listings? You simply have to be great at prospecting and cold calling. The rest of your business will follow.

Guess what? Most real estate agents and brokers are not sufficiently disciplined to do the right levels of prospecting on a daily basis. That is the most significant opportunity that exists in the property industry; you just have to be better than the rest at prospecting. Sure listing, negotiating, and closing are other important skills, but they will come as a natural by-product of prospecting.

Focus on cold calling and prospecting. So how do you do this? You set some prospecting rules and you start practice. The words 'rules' and 'practice' are another couple of problem words for many in the industry. Many struggle with doing both.

So let's get away from the negative and presume you have the determination, the focus, and the drive to prospect for new business on a daily basis. Here is a 'killer prospecting model' that really works. The rest will be up to you. This model takes 3 hours a day, 5 days per week.

There are no gaps and Saturdays and Sundays are the only days off in the prospecting process. That is the first rule; probably the most important.
The second rule in the process is that you must prospect on the telephone in the morning because after that you will be distracted by other things and not stick to it. Without going deeply into it, there are established facts of personal performance in business that show the morning is the right time to do prospecting.
Get away from setting any meetings in the morning. Tell the boss that you prospect at that time and that you would prefer to set meetings with him and anyone else in the afternoons. Even meetings with clients and prospects should not occur in the morning unless it is an absolute necessity. The only reason to break the rule is if the meeting is for an active deal that is closing.
The 3 hours of prospecting each day in the office is done from the telephone. In commercial real estate you are predominantly dealing with business people and they generally will take your call if commercial real estate is an issue for them. If it is not an issue then you simply move on. Do not set up a meeting with someone who has no interest; remember that your time is precious.
Drop the cold calling scripts and use your own words; that will be the way you will feel comfortable with the process. Use trigger words to flow the discussion, but do not use scripts as the listener will sense the processes and turn off.
Know that it takes you about 20 minutes of cold calling every day to get the process into momentum. Once you are through the 20 minutes you must keep going and not stop for 2.5 hours. In that way you will make progress.
Find a quiet place to make your calls so that you can focus without distraction. Your success in tele-prospecting depends on it.
Research your call list the night before so you do not waste critical call time in research. This is critical to the call process.
Create a series of simple forms to use in the call process so that you can capture the results later in the database. You must not stop the call momentum.
Try to contact 10 new people on the telephone each day. If they are not in the office when you call then simply make a note to call back. You should be able to make 50 calls in 3 hours.
Your only reason for calling prospects is to see if they have a need or an interest in commercial property. When you really understand that yourself, then the calls will be easier and the quality of the discussion will be higher.
Have a great database to record everything. Use something that you are comfortable with. At the basic end of the database alternatives you can use Microsoft Outlook, or Access. Both are useful, low cost and user friendly. When you want to move to something more relevant to the property industry you can spend many hundreds dollars; personally I believe you can do very well with the basics providing you know how to use a computer well (in that you have no choice).

These are the rules that you need to set in your cold call prospecting. After you set the rules, you start the practice and you will need to do that for a couple of weeks until things are moving well. To your success in commercial real estate prospecting!

John Highman is an expert coach in investment real estate, property performance, and tenant mix analysis for Real Estate Agents and Brokers. Learn about real performance opportunities here at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/sign-up-here.html

John helps brokers, and real estate agents improve their listing opportunities and commission targets. He has personally specialised in major commercial, industrial, and retail property for over 30 years and knows what works and what doesn't. Get John Highman's free tips and tools in commercial, industrial, and retail property at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com

The Mismatch of Commercial Real Estate Brokers and Online Marketing

If you are like me you have been proliferated with the importance of online or "social" marketing. I still can't figure out what's so social about not speaking to anyone. You have been told there are several MUSTS if you are to keep pace (forget ahead) of your competition. For example, your must have 1) A personal website 2) A Tweeter Account 3) A Blog and 4) a Linked In account, at the bare minimum. In addition to these MUSTS, you have to have an integrated marketing platform that creates push and pull campaigns on a varied, yet consistent basis. Now if you really want to get the most out of the Web 2.0 (or is it 3.0?) culture, you should have your own Facebook account and personal YouTube Channel... personal You Tube Channel - are you serious?

Did I mention if you are a commercial real estate broker, you also need to find time to find, win and fulfill business? How can a dedicated commercial real estate professional, whose life blood is personal relationships and transactions cultivated from these relationships, take any valuable time away to focus on some fad that will last a year or two at most? Heck, I heard the other day that most folks stop using their Tweeter accounts after the first 30 days. I really don't care where you went this weekend with your dog.

Well, unfortunately we have little choice. You can look at any industry, including commercial real estate and more and more opportunities are finding the broker, versus the other way around. That's right, investors, users, owners, tenants are all looking for solutions and they are using the internet as their prime source. If you think you have a loyal client that will never leave, think again. Once that client is bombarded with a proactive and aggressive marketing campaign that persuades him your competition is smarter, better, faster and has a more robust online presence, you will find yourself in the same position as Augustus Gloop, that "chunky" kid who fell in Willy Wonka's chocolate river. He was sucked up and left behind.

Don't get me wrong. Another MUST with social marketing is you MUST continue to have personal relationships and you MUST prospect now more than ever before. Web 2.0, 3.0, etc is here to stay and you need to find a way to get on board. But it is not the only answer. A robust online marketing solution creates a presence. Prospecting with presence creates wealth.

By the way, you can follow me on my web page, Linked In, Tweeter, my Blog and yes our soon to be released Massimo YouTube Channel. I still need to figure out the whole Facebook thing.

Rod N. Santomassimo is the founder and president of the Massimo Group, A Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM), Rod possesses 20 years of commercial real estate industry experience. The Massimo Group is a commercial real estate coaching and commercial real estate training organization focused on maximizing the income production of individual commercial real estate brokers and/or their teams.

Commercial Real Estate Brokers - Tips to Negotiating and Closing

Listening to the client in commercial real estate presentations is an important negotiation tool. We call that an effective listening process. It is not just a matter of listening to the discussion, but taking in the bigger picture of what the client is saying through various channels.

The channels you use will involve observation of body language, positioning in the room, responses to questions, emotions, and content of the discussion. Taken in balance, they all tell a complete story. They help you see what is really going on with the client.

In a listing process or the proposal presentation, you would normally be talking about:

The rentals in today's market
The prices in today's market
Competitive properties in today's market
The tenants looking for a property at the moment
The buyers looking for property at the moment
Property performance trends and results
Marketing alternatives that work given the existing market trends
What has happened with the property
What the client wants from the property
The timing of the process

So when questioning the client about their property needs, direct your listening to what is important to them and the outcomes they require. If they indicate ambiguity or lack of clarity, always question further and drill down. Your ability to dig into the true property situation will allow you to convert the listings with greater frequency. Every client has some form of property pain. The trick here is to find it and help them with it.

Given the pressures and changes of today's property market, it is not appropriate to take on every listing you come across unless the client is realistic in the elements of pricing, rental, and marketing the property. You can waste a lot of time and energy with poor listings and unmarketable property. Not every listing is a good listing, so be selective.

What you want in today's market is a property that is priced well, being offered to the market through the most effective method of sale or lease possible, and giving clear set of features and benefits to the purchasers or tenants out there (as the case may be). All of this should be built around the ideal target market that you are chasing.

A significant part of the listing process is the observation of emphasis and emotions in the words uttered by the client. Look for situations where they appear disturbed, uncertain, challenged, or unfocused. When these appear or rise to the service and the discussion, you can drill down and give or get the real facts of the current situation.

Your ability to question and observe will significantly assist your listing conversion process. Take time to practice in improve your skill in this regard.

John Highman is an expert coach in investment real estate, property performance, and tenant mix analysis for Real Estate Agents and Brokers. Learn about real performance opportunities here at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/sign-up-here.html

John helps brokers, and real estate agents improve their listing opportunities and commission targets. He has personally specialised in major commercial, industrial, and retail property for over 30 years and knows what works and what doesn't. Get John Highman's free tips and tools in commercial, industrial, and retail property at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com

Commercial Real Estate Brokers - What's Your Purpose in the Property Business?

Selling and leasing commercial investment property can be done in two different ways from an individual point of view. The method you choose will largely impact the outcomes you get over the long term and your ability to create the success you require.

In simple terms you can do either of the following in your career in commercial real estate:

You prospect, list, sell, and lease commercial property so that you can get more income and become more successful, or
You can provide an exceptional level of specialised knowledge and service to those people that need to sell, lease, purchase, or develop commercial property. You sell from an inner core or purpose to really help your clients.

As the great Jim Rohn has said, 'Your career and job should be centered on the degree of improved value you can bring to the client. When you bring more personal value, the business and your success will follow'. What he was meaning here was that your ability to bring the prospect exceptional skills and unique knowledge will make you far more relevant and therefore successful.

I could not agree more. In the commercial property industry the majority of salespeople just serve the client with little specialty or excellence. Whilst they think they are doing a great job, the reality is that they are not much better than the agent or broker up the road. Generality breeds poor performance.

When they have nothing special to offer, the client will usually base their choice of agent on those with lower commissions or no or smaller advertising costs; totally the wrong choice and for all the wrong reasons. The end result is a poorly promoted property with little or no focus on outcome, success, and target market, time on market, or best price or rent. The clients deserve better and you deserve better.

When you do your job with a deliberate and greater personal focus or purpose on helping the client with their property problem, the market sees it, the client sees it, and you stand at a much higher level of excellence than your competitors. You are soon known as the best in the industry and your competitors respect you based around your high levels of success in listing, negotiation, closing, and conversion. That should be your ultimate goal. On that basis you should change your focus and improve your skills. Make sure you are of 'higher personal value' to your clients.

On that basis I ask you to now consider the question, 'What can you do for me that I cannot get with other agents?' Can I really see and feel that this point of difference that you claim to have actually exists? Is it relevant to me? Does it make you important to me?

This whole concept needs careful consideration if you want great success in the property industry as a property broker or agent. You need to make your mark in your area as the agent of choice. So how are you going to do that? In two simple words, specialise and practice.

The agent or broker that is the 'specialist' brings much more value to the client with property knowledge, negotiation ability, database control, documentary preparation, target marketing, presentational skills, and personal drive to achieve a great result at the best price or rent. If any of these are a weakness for you, then you have a target to practice on. Make yourself of greater 'value' to the client and results will follow. Good luck and may success be with you this year!

John Highman is an expert coach in investment real estate, property performance, and tenant mix analysis for Real Estate Agents and Brokers. Learn about real performance opportunities here at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/sign-up-here.html

John helps brokers, and real estate agents improve their listing opportunities and commission targets. He has personally specialised in major commercial, industrial, and retail property for over 30 years and knows what works and what doesn't. Get John Highman's free tips and tools in commercial, industrial, and retail property at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com

Commercial real estate brokers

You should remember that the buying or selling commercial real estate is significantly different from the acquisition of residential property. That's why you need the help of brokers licensed commercial real estate to get the best deals.

Commercial real estate brokers can do for you

Licence of the commercial real estate, brokers are trained to help you market your commercial real estate to the right audience. Retail, Office, industrial or multi-family property will receive publicity, which will attract only the best buyers and investors.

Most commercial real estate brokers make use of multiple listing services and extensive multimedia network, make sure that your real estate reaches interested buyers. When you leave everything in the hands of brokers for commercial real estate, your property will find it's way to newspapers and Internet sites in no time.

What to look for in the commercial real estate brokers

More often than not experience distinguishes a good commercial real estate broker from a mediocre one. Choice of brokers who have at least 5 years experience successfully selling commercial real estate. These experienced professionals can bring many table-market instincts, deep knowledge in the field of research and development of real estate pitches and marketing ideas. A good commercial real estate brokers will not only help you sell your real estate commercial real estate, they will help you maximize the value of your assets before sale, so you can increase profits.

You should be looking for commercial real estate brokers who are ready to help you at any time, 12:0 am a day, seven days a week. Some brokerage firms are very efficient Web projects management technologies that allow you to access your project whenever you want. Some also have 24-hour telephone support.

Commercial real estate contains detailed information on commercial real estate, commercial real estate loans, commercial real estate agents, real estate brokers and more. Commercial real estate is a member of the National Association of Realtors [http://www. Realtors Web.com].

7 Secrets of Extremely Successful Commercial Real Estate Brokers

Let's get real here - successful brokers are different, here's why:

Big Goals - All successful brokers have big goals. After all if you can't think big, how on earth do you expect to achieve big? Success brokers aren't afraid to think big; thinking big results in big goals and big goals get you BIG RESULTS.



Just imagine, what would happen of you actually declared a big goal you are secreting wishing for but afraid to act on? You'd probably reach it!

Daily Planning - An extremely successful broker wouldn't dream of starting his (or her) day without spending time first thing in the morning planning the day. This includes creating a list of calls to be made, emails to be sent, deciding what correspondence needs to go out, reviewing what action steps to take, and so on.



Daily planning guarantees you will be in action all day doing the things that support your (big) goals. This method sure does beat spinning your wheels!

Delegation - Successful brokers have great support teams in place because they realize can't do it all alone. I recently heard about a rule of thumb stipulating that for each $300,000 in commissions netted by a broker one full time assistant is needed.



Who's on your team? Make a list of everyone who helps you get your job done. People like your assistant, virtual assistant, lawyer, accountant, webmaster, marketing assistant, possibly a runner, a college student who is doing an internship and anyone else you need on your team to do your job and do it with excellence.



Who's missing?

Time Blocking - A time and a place for everything, successful brokers practice this with ease. Wouldn't things be easier if you knew what you needed to do and when?



What would it be like if you knew that everything that needed to be accomplished would be, and exactly what day and time it would happen?



If your clients knew you returned your calls every day between 10 and 10:30 and then again between 4:00 and 5:00, if they knew you'd respond to their email daily at 11:00, or were available every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons after lunch to meet - would they be clear what to expect from you? Would life suddenly be easier for you? This is called Time Blocking.



Write out all activities you do each day and week and set times in your weekly calendar to complete them. Treat them as you would a doctor's appointment. After all you'd never cancel a doctor's appointment because you'd be charged a fee and wouldn't get in to see him until the next opening - often a couple of weeks later.



Time Blocking Guarantees Success when followed.

Systems - Do you ever notice how the top brokers in your office seem to get so much done? That's because they have systems in place. Systems such as office operations, goal setting, time management, lead generation, marketing, sales, closing, even a system for follow up. (For more information on these systems, join my Commercial Real Estate Success Inner Circle being re-launched within the next 30 days).



Having systems in place takes the guess work away. It becomes easier to get more done in less time because you know exactly what to do and exactly what to delegate.



A great book to read to learn more about having systems in place is, "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. It's worth reading; or get the audio CD set and listen to it while driving.

Accountability - Top brokers have accountably in place. They are accountable to themselves, their team, their business coach, their clients and their families.



Make sure you have at least one person or support system in place to help assist you in your business goal accountability. It's amazing how much more you will accomplish if you have only two choices: just doing it; or reporting failure to your accountability partner.

Follow Through - This is where the distinction is made between the best and the mediocre. Do you have a follow up system in place? Do you know what requires follow up and how often? Do you ever procrastinate following up only to discover too much time has past and now you're embarrassed to follow up?



Create a follow up checklist for each client and prospect and refer to it daily during your planning time to be certain nothing falls through the cracks. Go beyond what most do for expected follow up.



Believe me, if you don't sharpen and improve your follow up skills, there are 99 other brokers waiting to steal your business.

Cindy Spivack, CEO and President of Cindy Spivack International, Inc., teaches Commercial Real Estate Professionals 7 Key Strategies for building an enormously successful commercial real estate business in 12 months or less. For free how-to-articles and powerful lead generation and time management tips go to Cindy's websites at http://www.cindyspivack.com and http://www.commercialREsuccess.com or email her at cindy@cindyspivack.com.