Successful commercial real estate brokers have been closing deals and maintaining a network of repeat business for years, even without technology.
But as more and more sophisticated tools and softwares are introduced into the market, it’s clear that tenured brokers need to adopt technology to be able to win business over the new generation of competitors.
Plus, if you’re still at the top of your game, that means your network continues to grow. It becomes virtually impossible to effectively manage a huge base of prospects without an organized system. You need a way to remember when to check in with previous clients you may have otherwise forgotten about, all while managing deals you’re currently working. It’s a lot!
But if you’re still not sold on making the switch to commercial real estate-specific software, then maybe it’s time you think about the decision in a different way.
Maybe you’re not even aware of where your processes put you on the scale of tactics brokers use to conduct their business. Could you be making mistakes when managing your data that could be costing you deals?
We’ve designed The Commercial Real Estate Tech Maturity Model to highlight what is best practice for optimizing every stage of the deal process, from collecting data, to managing contacts, to prospecting, and finally, to closing. Buildout has been at the forefront of the CRE tech revolution since we opened our doors in 2010, and to this day, spending time with brokers, whether customers or not, is built into the processes and workflows of each department here at Buildout. We have varied and thorough channels to collect broker feedback in real-time, and we know the tools that brokers need to become—and stay—successful.
Learn what different commercial real estate brokers do at each stage of the deal process, and, most importantly, learn where you currently shake out on the model so you know what it takes to become a leader in your craft.
Read on.
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Data research
Unstructured
Whether they are researching properties, transaction data, or information about current tenants, the only piece of technology these brokers are utilizing is Google. They also do a lot of foot canvassing to collect data. Needless to say, Google search and foot canvassing are time consuming research methods, meaning these brokers are spending more time collecting data than they are actually using that data to close deals. Not to mention, not using more sophisticated technology to do research means their information is frequently out of date or missing key data points.
Emergent
These brokers still utilize Google searches, but they also pay for a CoStar subscription. While CoStar is a more reliable, centralized source of commercial real estate data than Google, brokers are still responsible for keeping their own records up to date. If you don’t have an organized process for updating your data and don’t check CoStar on a regular, repeatable basis, the information you’re sharing with clients could be weeks (or months) old. If your data isn’t current, your clients will go to competitors who come prepared to meetings and don’t waste their time. These brokers also likely store their data in an Excel spreadsheet. Sifting through rows and rows of data by hand is both time-consuming and limits the number of insights you can gain. That insight could be realizing a property that fits a tenant’s needs has just become available, and a competitor with more sophisticated data research and management tactics will get to the client before you do and seal the deal.
Strategic
What really sets these brokers apart from their counterparts is a CRM. While they likely still use CoStar and a variety of other commercial property data sources, they have one centralized location where they store and organize that data. While graduating from Excel to a CRM is a huge step, the process for researching, updating, and gaining insights from your data is still manual and takes up valuable time. So what do the leaders do?
Leader
The leaders use one piece of technology to research, update, organize, and take action on their data. Not only do they have one tech tool (like a CRM) that aggregates all of their data for them. On top of that, the technology also has built-in, continually refreshed commercial property data. That means these brokers always have access to the most current information, all in one place. A leading buyer rep, for example, can rest assured knowing they will be able to pull the most up to date list of all available properties of a certain square footage right from their CRM, and not waste a client’s time (or their own) by touring properties that don’t fit the bill. These brokers have technology that automatically provides predictive insights, putting their data to work for them. They spend less doing manual data research, entry, and organization and more time impressing clients and winning deals.
Contact Management
Unstructured
Even if they’ve been in the business for years, these brokers use very low tech methods for managing their huge network of connections. Pen and paper, rolodex, and sticky notes are about as sophisticated as it gets for them. If you are wasting countless hours shuffling through hand-written records to find someone’s contact info, that’s time wasted during which you could actually be making phone calls and closing deals. Managing your contact data like this isn’t just disorganized and time-consuming. It also means that your contact info (like email addresses, phone numbers, etc.) is likely out of date. This is a problem because you could waste significant chunks of time reaching out to invalid phone numbers and email addresses. Meanwhile, your competitors are quickly and efficiently churning through prospecting lists and hearing back from those same clients who you don’t have the right information for, long before you ever will.
Emergent
These brokers have made the choice to use technology to store and organize their contact information, but it’s a flat database like Excel or Outlook. While you can search spreadsheets or your email inbox for someone’s contact info, these still aren’t the best ways to get the most out of your contact data. Plus, Excel spreadsheets are frequently shared across teammates. Because you must re-save and resend the file every time you’re sharing it with someone else, multiple versions of the same file likely exist. This is a problem because not only could someone’s contact information be correct in one version and incorrect in another, but the notes that you already reached out to that contact might not show up in your colleague’s version. Because of a small Excel error, the same, high-value prospect could hear from both you and your colleague, making your team look incredibly disorganized and causing the prospect to go to a competitor.
Strategic
Using a CRM to manage their network of past, present, and future clients is what really sets these brokers apart. However, not all CRMs are the same. To be able to make the most sense of your contact data and use it to your advantage, you need a CRM designed specifically for commercial real estate. One that doesn’t use generic labels for various fields. One that actually organizes your data the way you think and applies it the way you work. And, one that doesn’t limit you to accessing your contact data only from a computer. Even as commercial real estate tech continues to evolve, there are still a lot of solutions available today that are not cloud-based nor relational, meaning you’re going to waste significant effort inputting the same data multiple times or worse, forget to input important information altogether by the time you get back to your desk.
Leader
Leaders use a commercial real estate CRM that is cloud-based (accessible from any device), relational (all the records in the CRM speak to one another), and helps them take action on their data. A mobile app allows you to update contact information on the fly so you don’t forget any details by the time you get back to your office. And, because the database is relational, you only have to enter those details once. If you just grabbed lunch with a potential client and discussed what type of property they are looking for, you can enter that right from your phone. Then, when an opportunity arises that fits their needs, your CRM will give you a list of all likely buyers, including that contact, to call. Instead of simply knowing basic information about your contacts—like email addresses, phone numbers, etc.—you now get predictive insights from your data so you can reach out to the right person at the right time and close deals faster.
Prospecting
Unstructured
Whether you’ve been a commercial real estate broker for ten days or ten years, you can never stop prospecting. Even if most of your business comes from repeat clients or referrals, it’s crucial to keep prospecting to ensure your pipeline stays full and you don’t see your business on a decline curve. But even if you understand the importance of prospecting, how you go about it matters too. Brokers with little structure around their prospecting processes (and these can be tenured brokers, not just new associates) use email and phone and nothing else. While these pieces of technology are crucial to prospecting, there are a lot of other pieces to the puzzle that are missing. How are they creating lists of contacts to call through, and why are they selecting those individuals? Once they do their outreach, where are they tracking their activity and notes from their conversations?
Emergent
The next step up would be to store details about your contacts and conversations in an Excel spreadsheet. These brokers also block time on their calendars for cold-calling and do some basic email marketing like sending mass emails through a software like Mailchimp. However, it’s still incredibly time consuming to sift through rows and rows of Excel data to figure out who to call. Plus, it’s not as simple as making one phone call. You need a cadence of regular follow-up with your prospects, and remembering when you last spoke to someone, what you talked about, and when you need to reach out next is really challenging with a flat database like Excel.
Strategic
These brokers use a combination of a CRM, email marketing, and cold-calling to prospect. To state the obvious, a CRM helps you store notes from all of the conversations you’ve had with clients while prospecting. You can easily search for a contact and see a history of all the conversations you’ve had and what you talked about. A CRM also allows you to track key performance indicators (KPIs), such as how many calls it takes you on average to get a meeting, or how many meetings it takes to close a deal. That helps you figure out how much time to spend on prospecting and how to structure your days. A lot of CRMs also have a built-in dialer so you never have to leave the software to make a call. These brokers also make use of a listings site and send sleek marketing emails to drive traffic to their listings. These methods help you automate a lot of your prospecting activities, but you’re still not getting the predictive insights more advanced brokers get from their tech, and you’re still paying for multiple solutions instead of one.
Leader
CRE tech employed by leading brokers has all of the above and then some, all wrapped into one. What really sets it apart is that the CRM actually tells you who to call, when to call, and what to say. This is made possible through a prospecting tool that creates curated call lists based on criteria set by the broker. Ideally, the prospecting tool also allows you to visualize your data on a map so you can set call list criteria for owners in a certain geographic area, for example. Last but not least, you can choose a cadence for follow-up for each list of prospects, and then you’ll automatically receive reminders when it’s time to reach back out. Outside of making calls, these brokers employ streamlined email marketing techniques to reach their prospects. Their CRM creates professional quality listings sites at the click of a button with all property details auto populated. It also integrates with an email platform like Mailchimp or Constant Contact so they can send mass emails/track email performance right from their CRM. All of this allows leading brokers to prospect smarter and more efficiently.
Deal flow
Unstructured
Commercial real estate brokers know how lengthy a deal timeline can be, and there are countless milestones and important to-do’s along the way to stay on top of. These brokers track their deals using email, pen, and paper. They’ll discuss active deals in weekly team meetings, and their reminders for important deal follow-ups live on sticky notes. Needless to say, this is an incredibly unorganized and risky way to manage your deals. Sticky notes get misplaced, emails get accidentally deleted; the list of potential dangers goes on. If you forget to follow up with a client, you risk dragging on the deal timeline or worse, losing the deal altogether. These brokers are wasting time and missing out on big commission checks, all while damaging their reputation.
Emergent
These brokers track their deals in Excel. They have some lightweight repeatable systems in place, like special formatting to denote the various deal stages or formulas to calculate potential commission. However, there is still plenty of room for error when using Excel to manage your business. For starters, you’re likely using one Excel spreadsheet to track your entire team’s pipeline. As mentioned earlier, multiple versions of the same spreadsheet probably exist, making efficient collaboration difficult and duplicating efforts a frequent occurrence. Also, because spreadsheets are static, they can’t tell you when to make an important follow-up call or send a marketing email about a new listing. The insights you gain from Excel are limited, and it’s a manual, tedious process to sift through rows and rows of data to find them. The outcome is the same: longer deal timelines and missing out on commission to competitors.
Strategic
To be able to keep track of all the moving pieces of a deal, brokers need a CRM. Brokers who use a CRM to manage their deal flow are able to track a property and its related information (like companies and contacts) through the stages of a deal. However, as mentioned earlier, not all CRMs are the same, so these brokers make sure theirs is a relational database so that property, company, and contact all “speak” to each other. These brokers can also use the CRM to set task reminders for themselves or a teammate (or multiple) based on expertise to ensure the right people are working on the right pieces of a deal. They’ll receive these automated reminders in the future so no important follow-ups slip through the cracks and they can efficiently drive every deal forward. But still, more sophisticated, streamlined technology to manage deal flow exists. So what do the leaders do?
Leader
Leaders use a CRM with a kanban style deal management tool. Kanban is a visual system for managing work as it moves through a process. In a CRE technology, this allows brokers to track, manage, and execute their deals from prospect to negotiations to closed on one screen. They get clear visibility into deal milestones and the necessary actions to drive each one forward, helping them prioritize deals that are more likely to close. Additionally, a leading CRM solution has built-in commissions tracking. Brokers get a clear picture of when they’ll receive their commission check and how much it will be. Management gets visibility into realized and future revenue at an individual and brokerage level. And accounting gets a system to generate, review, analyze, and communicate financial data that reflects performance against goals and budgets. These tools give brokers predictive insights to close deals faster and grow their business.
If you’re a new broker reading this, that doesn’t mean you can’t employ leader level tactics to find and win business. The inverse is also true: just because you’ve been at the top of your game for a while doesn’t mean it’s always going to be that way, and some of your tactics could be putting you at a disadvantage.
Wherever you are in your commercial real estate career, we want to support you in being the best broker you can be.
If you’re ready to adopt commercial real estate technology today so you can close more deals in less time like a leader, request a demo of Buildout’s CRM, Marketing, or Prospecting solutions.