Negotiate Fairly
Brokers want to please their clients – no question about it. However, if your client’ idea is to attempt to throw out lowball bids for property, you will be in trouble. It only takes one client who operates this way to ostensibly ruin your brand. By only bidding garbage, relationships you have made in the past will soon begin to distrust you for other deals. It is far more important to keep industry-related relationships than to attempt to please a one-time client who refuses to offer a fair deal.
Getting blacklisted by other companies or clients is a surefire way to kill your brand and reputation. Finally, since many potential leads come from business referrals, your pipeline will quickly dry up when you get pegged as a lowball negotiator.
Don’t Overdo your Advertising
Especially if you run a small shop, it is important to get your name out there. However, in the world of commercial real estate, you do not want to have your face on every billboard, bus, or magazine. Enormous ad campaigns can be, and often are, a tremendous waste of money. Instead of plastering your face or company logo on any website that will have you, get much more targeted with your approach.
Using digital mediums like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are all a great start – to begin with, they are free. Also, digital media, unlike traditional advertising (radio, print, or TV), is very trackable. You can see where a lead comes from, how long they are on your site, and if they eventually call your company or fill out an online form. Moreover, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook all allow you to run targeted ad campaigns that can cost as little as $500, and reach thousands of local prospects. Social media is no longer just for millennials – billions of people worldwide utilize some variation of social media. Remember that anything you put out there is directly reflecting you and your business.
Don’t Attack your Competition
Denigrating your competition is truly a terrible idea. In doing so, you look childish when trying to attack someone. Remember that in a corporate world where everyone knows each other, word gets around. If you build a reputation as someone who talks bad about others, your referrals are bound to drop. Instead of getting into petty arguments, be the bigger person and act professionally. The most important part of not attacking your competition, is never posting about it on social media. Even if you think you have a hidden Twitter or Facebook account, written words can easily get around.
Getting blacklisted within real estate can be a quick way to find bankruptcy. As I discussed before, leads often times come from referrals. If you give out lowball offers, have obnoxious advertising everywhere, or attack your competition, you can almost assure yourself of lost business. Instead, negotiate fairly, use social media for targeted advertising, and be professional with your competition. While commercial real estate is a multi-billion dollar industry, it is a much smaller world than you might think.
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