Servicing Commercial Real Estate Listings

When you have won the commercial listing you go into the phase of ‘servicing the listing’.  It is the servicing of the listing that must be done well as it sets the scene for the levels of trust needed in the later negotiation and closure.  You are the client’s choice as a professional commercial agent and you must prove yourself as that, in every way.  Far too many agents ‘slack off’ when they have the signed the listing, and then follow ‘standard’ procedures; the client soon knows when your levels of service reach the ‘ordinary’ levels.  Excellence is the rule here if you want to win the clients trust.

Expectations & Communications

In all respects you must live up to the expectations and claims that you made in the listing presentation.  The client needs to see you do exactly what you said you would do in servicing the listing and even more.

One important part of the ‘service phase’ is solid client communication, both in quality and frequency.  The client needs to hear from you frequently, even when you think that you have nothing to say.  Do not revert to ‘remote marketing’ and ‘email updates’ to the client as this will destroy your credibility.  You must talk to the client and see them very often as the listing proceeds.

Success Needs a Plan

Your success in the commercial real estate listing will be driven from your ability to achieve the end result sale at the best price and in the least amount of time.  The clock is ticking.

The commercial listing is almost like a project; when you work with projects you have a ‘project planner’.  To achieve this we recommended that you use PERT and GANTT models for this and we give you some draft models to use in our masters series.

Experience shows that agents using this planned approach achieve significant control and professionalism in the eyes of the client.  You stand apart from anything else or any other agent in the market.

The Marketing Plan

The marketing plan that has been approved by the client will require design, direction, implementation, monitoring, and feedback.  Marketing plans must be flexible, in that the progress or lack of progress from a particular marketing method must be monitored for success; if something is not working (e.g. promotional advert or process) you must change it quickly.

This means that you need to have a method of tracking all responses from your marketing.  We recommend that you use a simple graphing process of responses from all the marketing and compile it each week, compounding and growing the graph each week.  This is then supplied to the owner of the property each Friday night.  In our ‘masters’ series we give you some of those ‘contact profile graphs’ and the tips on how to display them.

The 3 Promotional ‘Golden Rules’

We emphasise that there are 3 foundation rules and observations to the interaction with your client in the service phase.  They are:

So let’s look at these more.

The Honeymoon is over!

From the time that the listing is signed, the clock is ticking.  The client becomes more concerned and stressed the more that time passes without results.  You must keep in contact with the client and help them with the stress.  Remember that the client has given you the listing and is initially optimistic that you will help them.  Do not disappoint them.  The owner of the property is waiting for good news and likes to see you doing the right things towards that.

Beware!  If you do not do what you said you would do from the listing presentation, you will destroy the levels of trust that the client has for you.  Be alert that your professionalism is now the critical part of the relationship; do not divert from your promotional marketing plan unless something better has come up and in that case talk to your client about any change that you recommend.

Cold Call to a Plan

When the listing is active, you immediately need to get on the telephone and talk to all the people in the area of the listing.  They are the most interested in the listing and will want immediate detail.  This process will also support you at a later time when those other people consider selling or leasing their property.  Do not wait for the ‘locals’ to see the signboard and call you.  Use the signboard as the excuse to call them and any others that are relevant.
Cold calling people in the area of the listing will allow you to get and give the client some market feedback within the first few days as you wait for the internet and the papers to impact the market.  Calling people will also give you the personal momentum and satisfaction that the campaign is now running.  Importantly you must build you momentum from this phase.  Action promotes satisfaction.

Businesses Locally

Businesses in the area may be just tenants but they may also be the buyers of the property that you have just listed for sale.  Getting to know the businesses in the area and using the current listing as an excuse for calling is a great way to get to know your area. 
It goes without saying that everyone that you talk to in every campaign should be entered into your database for future farming and networking.  If you can do so, put the database and computer on your desk and enter things into the database as you make your calls; the best in the industry do this to great effect.

So how many calls should you make?  Rule of thumb and experience says that you should be able to make about 50 calls in 3 hours on a daily basis.  To do these numbers, you must be organised before you call.  Note that you will not be able to talk to 50 people in that time as not all of them will be available, however you should be able to get through to at least 15 people of that 50.  Hence the call process is ongoing every day.  Keep notes of all the calls and the responses that you get in the database.

The top people to target in your calls are the most immediate to the property (surrounding 500 m), and then you widen your contact circle as each day and your calling progresses.  Our best call strategy to use the ‘Call Matrix’ that we explain and provide in our ‘master series’.  It makes you focus on a plan, your results, and gives you feedback.

All calling of neighbourhood owners and properties in a commercial real estate campaign should be completed in 5 working days.  This then allows you to report back to the owner with some solid market feedback; you can then move on to more regional and broader marketing.

Keep Detailed Records

Every campaign for every property needs to be ‘charted’ so that you know exactly where the enquiry came from and what feedback occurred.  Progress then tells you if you need to adjust the marketing or shift your strategy.  Given that a commercial real estate property promotion and listing is ‘old and stale’ in just 6 to 8 weeks, you really do have to promote the property well in the early days.
Use our ‘Contact Profile Graphs’ from the ‘master’s series’ to professionally chart your progress to the client.
The client wants to know:

The two keys to selling a commercial property effectively and quickly, are ‘price’ and ‘promotional method’.  This is true across all markets, property types, and locations.  It is up to you to assess and recommend firmly these aspects as they apply to your listing.  Generally you should not waste your time with overpriced and under promoted properties, unless you can see some future flexibility with the client.

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