Are you finding yourself without enough clients in a hot real estate market? Do a lot of your leads seem to just fizzle out? Are you tired of cold calling and going door to door? Almost every commercial agent has experienced dips in real estate, but the fastest way to get out of a slump is to take initiative and start gaining more leads that turn into conversions! So how do you do that? Well, we put together the following list to help, in a succinct and easy-to-read manner, explore how to gain more leads, clients, conversions that will ultimately lead to more sales.
Here is our list of 5 easy things every commercial real estate agent should be doing to gain prospective clients.
1. Ask for Referrals
We know, this is literally at the top of everyone’s list. That’s because it’s so important! If you have done an amazing job helping a client, you should not feel uncomfortable to ask them for referrals! If they think that you’ve done as good of a job as you think you did, then they’ll tell their friends, family, coworkers and even acquaintances about you and you’ll gain more clients! This is such an easy principle, in fact, that it doesn’t need much further explanation!
2. Host Events
This tip is under appreciated in the commercial real estate industry. Hosting events, like open houses for residential real estate can be done by hosting educational events for commercial real estate. This will totally increase your prospective client exposure. Everyone that walks into that room could be a new potential client or knows someone who could be. In fact, you don’t even have to be the one organizing the event. Volunteering to run another agent’s educational event or just being a guest at an event, will give you ample opportunity to expose yourself to a new audience. It’s also a great way to network with other agents who can bring their clients to your clients’ property.
3. Start a Blog
Starting a blog is a very important way to increase traffic to your website. It’s also a great opportunity to get your professional advice, ideas and opinions out there for others to read and learn from. Writing a blog about tips and tricks for a commercial real estate audience will show your potential client base that you are not just a sales person. Potential clients will read your posts and realize how educated, informed and experienced you are. It is easier now than it ever has been to start a blog on your existing website or to create a website and start a blog on it.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
So, you have this blog now, but it’s not getting any traffic at all! No one is reading your content or visiting your page. You probably have an issue with your website not being optimized for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Don’t worry, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making your page appeal to search engines’ algorithms, allowing your site to appear higher in organic search results. SEO is highly relevant to today’s market and is almost required for your website to even be noticed by potential clients. If you’re a tech-savvy person, you can probably figure a lot of SEO out on your own, including keywords, optimizing photos, backlinks and more. If you need help with the technical side of things, you can always hire a company that does SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
5. Find More Listing Platforms
Last but most certainly not least, you really should diversify the platforms on which you advertise your property. If you are a residential real estate agent, you can use an exclusive site like The Pinnacle List to market and promote your luxury listings. This is also true of commercial real estate. LoopNet.com isn’t enough. You can reach more targeted audiences by signing up for other commercial real estate platforms. For example, if you’re listing is on the West Coast, consider MyPerfectWorkplace.com. This website offers an inexpensive way to market your listing to a targeted location. There are many other marketing platforms as well and all of them will help you reach a large and more specific audience than listing on LoopNet alone.
