Commercial real estate (CRE) is a large industry, and the competition for clients is fierce. If you want to succeed in fighting vacancies and enabling transactions, you need to know the secrets…..
Secret #1: Be Thoughtful when Creating Your Property Budget
Wasteful spends abound in CRE strategies. What worked for the last 20 years is no indication for what will work the next 20 years.
The industry has been slow to adapt, with many often leveraging strategies that look the same as they did 10 years ago. These antiquated channels are doomed from the start.
Teams that fail to realize the benefits of new communication mediums will lose assignments to those that adopt new channels. The best litmus test, considering in advance what metrics you will use to successfully determine the return on your investment.
Secret #2: Data is Your Superpower
The best performing ownership groups and brokerages are not just storing data in a CRM, they’re automatically putting data to work for them.
Effective CRE strategies heavily rely on data as their backbone. Leveraging digital channels gives you access to crucial data not available on other mediums, which creates valuable insights to enhance all of your decision-making. Additionally, integrating your CRM system with powerful AI technology helps track attribution for deals and successfully enable leasing efforts.
Not to mention, with the age of digital channels we have never had a more targeted approach to reach the most critical audiences in CRE, decision-makers and their representation. By leveraging your data your leasing teams can reach pursuits at the most key moments in the transaction cycle, which leads to a more educated customer and less missed deals.
Secret #3: Don’t Be Scared to Adopt Technology
The skeptics would say there’s a lot of bad technology solutions servicing commercial real estate, and on the whole ]. . . they’d be right. While it can be frustrating, taking the time to look for the right technology solutions can make or break a competitive advantage in your leasing strategy.
Instead of high-flying VC backed firms without product market fit, look for industry tailored solutions that have established market fit. These are not always the biggest technology companies given that they’re bootstrapped, but they often provide the best solutions.
An excellent platform to utilize is RealtyAds. Built by former CRE brokers at the likes of Cushman & Wakefield, Transwestern, and CBRE, they provide powerful tools and solutions that enable you to effectively reach critical audiences, increase your exposure to brokers and end-users, and track your performance in one comprehensive platform. When deployed comprehensively, they are known to fill the top of your sales funnel and advance deals through the leasing pipeline.
Secret #4: The Old Way is Dead
Commercial real estate is spending billions a year on antiquated channels, like listing services. While the argument can be made they should consume a small portion of your budget, they should never use more than 25% of your advertising budget.
This is because despite market perception, these channels fail to reach most brokers in a market (which is why they do not report on broker reach) and they struggle to ever reach senior brokers. What’s worse, they’re using your budget to promote their website versus yours. This misalignment of interests is critical to understand and often highlighted by digital channels like RealtyAds that offer a 1 – 1 connection between you and the customer.
Next time you’re creating your annual leasing plan, do not fall for the perceived safe choice of listing services. This is a trap. Pursue targeted mediums that create more engagement between you, your prospects, and the brokers who represent them.
Secret #5: Early Adopters Have the Advantage
While some may still be unaware of these technology’s potential, early adopters often gain a significant competitive advantage.
By embracing innovative tools, you not only realize the benefits those tools offer but you position your CRE leasing efforts as forward-thinking. This will set your leasing team apart from the competition, help them see more deals, and help them win more assignments from ownership groups.
Overall, understanding and applying these lesser-known secrets can pave the way to success in today’s competitive CRE markets.
RealtyAds is helping commercial real estate find, advance, and close more deals by engaging decision-makers and their representation on the world’s most effective customer acquisition channels. For more information, visit RealtyAds.com and follow RealtyAds on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.