The language of commercial real estate revolves around numbers. From the number of acres, to building coverage, square feet, lease rates, cap rates, commissions, occupancy rates, etc, etc… In the marketing of commercial real estate, many begin to ignore the numbers and base success solely on skill, word of mouth, and relationship building. While these are vital to completing the sale, there are very important numbers to consider in order to increase your chances of success.
For years you’ve probably heard people lump Sales & Marketing into one interchangeable set of terms to mean getting deals done. However selling alone, not marketing, is the process of getting deals done. Selling involves someone with skill, listening to objections, and overcoming them with solutions in order to find common ground and complete the deal. Marketing is the process of obtaining the opportunity to even start the sales conversation. It may help remove the common misconception by separating, or even reversing the order. Since Marketing produces the opportunity to Sell, maybe its better to refer to the combo as Marketing & Sales… or Marketing then Sales. Now, how do numbers fit into this?
You’ve probably heard a thousand times, that Sales is a numbers game. Well the previous thoughts we discussed don’t agree with that statement. Rather it is Marketing that is the numbers game. And, if you learn how to play this game, how to keep score and improve these numbers each and every month… you will win more and more sales opportunities. (Notice I said opportunities. Your skill will determine what you do with the opportunity).
As a former associate with CBRE and Colliers International, past CCIM district president, and investment analysis workshop instructor, I worked with other sales associates to complete over $250 million in transactions. In the years following the real estate crash, I consulted banks and institutional property owners while executing accelerated marketing campaigns to dispose of keys assets in a declining market. In 2010, I transitioned to private capital management to utilize my expertise in market analysis to increase opportunities and accelerate success regardless of economic conditions.
I invite you to take this challenge:
You have the opportunity to master your market. In order to do this, you must know everything about your market. You need to be able to track its movements, find the trends, understand the statistics, and then communicate this information to the key contacts in the market. After communicating, you need to understand the effectiveness of your communication by comparing how many leads come from each method of communication, the quality of the leads, etc.
But let’s face it… if you are in commercial real estate, it’s probably because you either now how to build it, own it, or broker deals. Marketing requires sorting through databases, measuring response rates, and comparing effectiveness of headline. While these are things that you need to worry about, you don’t have time to do them and still be effective in your primary role. So, how will you master your market?
Obviously, I’m going to offer my service. However, most will not find hiring me to be a practical option for building their marketing system. Regardless of whether or not we ever work together, I encourage you to focus on marketing as a separate effort of your business than sales, don’t ignore modern methods of communication, and please measure every effort you make so you can repeat your successes and stop doing what doesn’t work. However…
If you are interested in working direct with someone who has hands on experience in building commercial real estate marketing programs that measurably effect sales… email or give me a call so we can discuss more.
Sincerely,
Andrew Falde
Founder | CRE Central
Direct: (239) 839-1464
CRE Central
www.crecentral.com
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