It's 2011, and the market is showing signs of improvement. As a commercial real estate agent, you should be thinking about improvement too, and what better time to do that than in the New Year?
Take a cue from the market and think about the ways in which you can improve your business, client relationships and yourself. Need a little help? Here are five resolutions to get you started.
1. Be More Proactive
If this last recession has taught us anything, it’s that a little hindsight can go a long way. While you may not have been able to pinpoint the exact date in which the market would turn, you might have been more prepared had you devoted more time and energy to researching, reviewing and analyzing market data, economic forecasts and trend reports.
In 2011, make a promise to yourself and to your clients that you will come to all meetings and showings armed with as much information and insight as possible.
2. Get Plugged In to the Latest Technologies
Technology can be a commercial real estate agent’s best friend. Unfortunately, there are many out there who don’t utilize it because they see the industry as a face-to-face business. This is true, but wouldn’t it be nice to pull up other listings or browse through a list of potential buyers while you’re engaging in some face time with a client?
No one wants to tell an eager buyer “I’ll have to get back to you on that” - and no eager buyer wants to hear that, either. So do yourself a favor and invest in a few key technologies. There are at least five technologies no agent should be without. Three of those can travel seamlessly with you on the road.
3. Become a Creative Marketer
Direct mailers and other paper materials are losing steam, thanks to the Internet. As newer generations enter the commercial real estate industry, as both players and agents, you can bet that more and more business activity will be done online.
Your creative marketing efforts should start with social media. There are three sites in particular where you should maintain a significant online presence: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These sites should not only showcase you and your experience, but they should be a sounding board for your listings as well.
You should also reconsider your promotional products. Nowadays, many people rarely even pick up pens, but a flash drive that can backup important files? That’s a freebie anyone can use.
4. Network More
No matter how often you think you do it, you can always engage in more networking. This resolution doesn’t have to involve formal industry events. It can mean chatting with the person sitting next to you at the bar or asking a fellow gym member how to use a machine.
Connections are made and lost hundreds of times a day. Think about all the opportunities you had to interact with people in the past 24 hours that you didn’t take. Now make a resolution to do something about it.
You’ll also find that the more you open yourself up to total strangers, the easier it will become. This can only benefit you, and may even create a happier, more amicable agent that immediately puts prospective clients at ease.
5. Open Yourself to More Possibilities
Thanks to the recession, the old rules don’t apply anymore. Many agents who thought they would strictly work on $10 million-plus Class A office space for the rest of their careers had a sad awakening over the past few years.
The good thing about the recession, however, is that it forced the entire industry to step outside of itself. Those who saw business dry up adapted or left the field completely. Many took on smaller deals or ventured into geographical regions or product types they hadn’t considered before.
Sadly, it shouldn’t take a downturn of epic proportions to get an agent to branch out, cast aside old biases and enter the arena from a place of “yes.” And who knows? That twentysomething who’s only interested in a 2,500-square-foot restaurant could hold the key to the next hottest food craze one day.