Certain things in this world subtly speak volumes. The car you drive, community involvement, and a luxury watch… to name just a few. What does success in commercial real estate actually look like?
Brokers cannot ignore the power of first impressions and that means creating a relationship with recognizable symbols of success. A glint of gold around your wrist for your introductory handshake conveys trust and a track record of closing deals for your clients. That’s why Buildout is hosting a sweepstakes to win a luxury watch as part of our game-changing new product releasing at ICSC this year.
Symbols matter. But appearances can be faked—true elegance isn’t an illusion but a form of mastery. True elegance is about making hard work appear effortless, like a beautiful watchface atop an intricate system of gears.
“[H]uman beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.” - Paulo Coelho
How do you elevate the complexity of deal making in commercial real estate to a place of elegance? The first step is recognizing that brokerage is essentially human work, unlike any other industry.
Brokers need to concern themselves with brand because your brand is both the service you provide and the way you sell it to clients. Too often, brand is mistaken as just visual style, when brand is actually the overall experience customers associate with your work.
When someone sees your name on caller ID, how do they feel? What does driving past your sign make them think about?
You need to think of yourself like Nike, Apple, Disney, or any of the other brands that put an elegant customer experience first. Since the 90’s, Phil Knight has said Nike is more of a marketing than a shoe company. When you open your next Apple product, the packaging pulls you into a journey that extends all the way through the ease of its interface design.
Commercial brokerage depends on several buckets of work that can go through the Nike treatment; market insight and experience, lead sourcing and network connections, and deal flow simplicity.
Building up your data and book of business is essential and constant, but your deal flow is a philosophy that can be built to serve as a foundation for every client interaction. The experience of working with you is just as important as your latest closed deal when 86% of brokers report their biggest draw for business is repeat clients and referrals.
Especially in a down market, moving your clients through the listing process is about more than just delivering leads. It’s about serving as trusted counsel. When they stress, your poise and elegance will help them navigate difficult decisions. And when your efforts do advance your pipeline, you seamlessly deliver value without them ever feeling a point of friction.
This trust and ease is what delights customers into multiplying business opportunities for you and thinking of you as a long-term partner.
Even if you are part of a national brokerage brand, your individual reputation is a symbol of all the partnerships that make your work possible.
When a client trusts you with their listing (and future investment portfolio), they’re not just working with you but every photographer, printing center, and tech provider in your roster. Just as you need to focus on building elegant relationships with your clients, you need to seek out that dynamic in every point of your process that relies on external resources.
Finding providers who understand the intricacies of commercial real estate is just as important as highlighting a listing’s unique narrative and opportunities. There are points of relevance that can easily get overlooked without knowledge of what’s valuable in this industry compared to others.
Buildout Media built a national network of photographers and visual specialists for this exact reason. You can’t have an industrial site plan that doesn’t detail the number of dock doors—but that’s the kind of risk you run when you rely on mercenary freelancers instead of building your roster of trusted talent.
These partnerships are what your clients are hoping to tap into, and they’re an excellent opportunity to showcase additional value in working with you as a representative.
Next time you’re creating a proposal or opinion of value, consider what connections you can showcase to demonstrate the type of work you’re able to deliver. Everything from the number of listing sites you can post on to the speed and quality of visual media solutions are elegant ways to deepen trust in your capabilities.
Part of being a symbol for your brokerage brand, network of collaborators, and success itself is understanding what every point of interaction needs to feel like to delight clients.
Mastering the use of technology is key to providing a smooth experience at every point of interaction with your brokerage clients. The best tools streamline internal workflows so nothing gets missed in any step of the deal and invite client collaboration.
At Buildout, we pride ourselves on the depths we’ve gone to in order to serve and understand our customers in CRE. From acquiring and building four different CRMs, powering marketing processes for top brokerages for over a decade, and providing deal pipeline management and transaction tools—we’ve supported every kind of deal imaginable.
You need elegant tools developed atop a complex understanding of all the intricacies within CRE. When you can offload and automate technical work to trusted tools, you’re able to free up your time to focus on the type of experience you want your clients to have throughout working with you.
Whether it’s a luxury watch on your wrist or an elegant platform of CRE tools powering your processes, the symbols you carry with you can make the difference between success and being lost to the market.
Join our watch list for your chance to enter our luxury watch sweepstakes and be the first to access our game-changing new product release. If you’re attending ICSC this year, visit our booth to see firsthand demos and for additional entries into our giveaway.
