Understanding the mindset and unique requirements of your various prospects and pre-emptively or quickly delivering information that meets these is critical in commercial real estate.
This core skill separates high performing agents from the competition and is built from experience working with various prospect personas and having the empathy to understand their mindset and unearth their true desires.
Different prospects will have different mindsets, based on what they are trying to achieve, how you came to be communicating with them, past experiences, and countless other unknown inputs.
Common mindsets include that your prospects are busy, they feel interrupted, they are wondering who you are and how you differ from the competition, and they want to know what is in it for them.
All of these must be considered and addressed within the first few sentences of communication, as well as any other prospect-specific mindsets, to show you understand your customers and can efficiently satisfy their requirements.
For example, a prospect looking for premises to establish a new restaurant will have a different mindset and requirements than one looking to establish an industrial business.
Being able to quickly understand and address your prospect’s mindset and pain points is crucial.
Know Your Prospect:
This is particularly important when canvassing for potential operators for a listed property. The appropriate target prospects must be identified based on internal database and external research. Both the individual prospect and their business must be deeply understood.
If you contact a prospect without this context and you present an opportunity that is not tied to their requirements or mindset, then the opportunity is lost, along with the likelihood of any future business with that person.
And given that prospects will likely want to know how your service or listing differs from competitors or the property down the street, it is important to know how to address that in relation to your prospect’s mindset and desires, or any negotiations will be reduced to price.
Qualification with the Right Questions:
Understanding the prospect’s mindset also requires asking the right questions to uncover their true requirements, which are often different to what they state – or even think – they are.
It is then equally important to set expectations. You owe it to yourself and the prospect to ensure that what they are looking for is achievable, and it is important to uncover that early on in to avoid disappointment and lost deals.
This often-delicate process requires gently educating clients on market conditions through comparable properties and by delivering insight into planning, zoning, emerging omni-channel retail trends, and commercial real estate processes, to build trust and long-term relationships.
Essentially, you need to show them that what you have meets their requirements, and if it does not, then show them you are the best person to find and deliver something that does.
The importance of Knowledge and Network
By delivering on the above processes, and meeting your prospect’s requirements, the relationships you develop will provide even deeper insights into their mindset.
This growth in Knowledge and Network enables you to continually deliver improved and tailored services that intuitively cater for the desires of your prospects.
At Pine Property, our eight-plus years of operation and decades of experience in Northern Beaches commercial real estate has given us deep insight into the local market, including tenants, landlords and local government planning controls. This enables us to quickly match prospects with relevant properties while also continually committing to driving new relationships.
