Presentation Skills in Commercial Investment Property

In a commercial real estate, it is necessary to undertake formal presentations quite regularly. In the case of corporate owners, you may be presenting to a board of directors or the key decision makers for the business. Your skill in the presentation process must be well considered and planned.

In many situations, you only have one opportunity to make the best impression with these decision makers. They may however be taking presentations from a number of your competing real estate agencies. To help with this process, we have listed below some of the key issues that you can raise in the meeting which will demonstrate your relevance and professionalism to the client.

Good points of focus in a great commercial real estate presentation include:

1. Innovation should be clearly provided in the ways of marketing the property lease or the sale. Innovation is essential to the promotion of commercial property. Strive to be different in your approach. Increasingly today, we are seeing elements of Internet promotion and marketing which cleverly supports the sale or lease of the real estate in question. It is not just a matter of having your website on which to advertise the property. It is the cleverly designed adverts which describe the property using relevant keywords which are used to attract the search engines. In this way your property advertisement will be seen more readily and more frequently by the target market.


2. Pricing and rent structures are provided to the client that offers solid reason and sound logic. When providing a recommendation to the client regards rent or price of the property, it is important to have a reason for such choice. The client needs to know the reasons for your recommendations and be given evidence of the comparable properties nearby. Sometimes it is necessary to gather comparable evidence from another location. This is due to the unique nature of commercial property and the consequential lack of comparisons in your local area.


3. Fall back structures are offered that the client can use when the deal is being considered or being negotiated. Not all transactions in commercial real estate easily occur. It is therefore necessary to have a fallback position and a supporting logic process that the client can understand. If the client needs to accept a rental or a price for the property which is below their initial benchmarks, it is the logic that you provide that will support the transaction and potentially bring it to finality faster. If really depends on what the client needs to do with the proceeds from the sale or lease. Every property transaction provides an element of pain to the client. It is their pain factor which will be your leverage to bring them to a final decision.


4. Sources of solid and provable property enquiry such as databases are integrated into the marketing at all times. Every property transaction should be well promotion into and through the database within your business. This means that your database should be searchable within particular criteria relative to property type, size, price, rental, and other key criteria relevant to your area. In many cases, the size of your database will be an attraction to the client in making a final decision of a suitable agent to take on the property promotion. Your database is a marketable feature of your business, so use it in your client dialogue.


5. Modern internet marketing methods are provided and optimised in a unique way for the property. The Internet today offers many channels of property listing. Importantly it is the optimised enquiry that you want from that listing process. Every property promotion will allow you to build your database. Every enquiry should be entered into your database for the opportunity of redirection to another listing in the future. The better you handle the internet, the more enquiry you will achieve.


6. All methods of sale or lease are explained but the best choice is recommended with logical reasons to proceed. All property promotions need to be carefully considered as the market and location of the property will dictate the most suitable method of promotion to achieve the best result for the client within a timely fashion. It is important to understand the client's pressures of time in the sale or leasing process so that your deal can be structured as quickly as possible. Failure to negotiate a timely sale or lease can see the listing move to another agency. This is not a good outcome.


7. Target markets are defined and explained. Every property needs to be matched to the market which will bring you the best results. If the property owner understands and agrees with your target market, then the property promotion and decision process is more readily achieved. It is the best target market that will bring the best results in the sale price or rental. Have the client commit to your recommendations on the target market selected.


8. Any challenges and concerns of the client such as price, rent, and timing are solidly addressed and understood by all concerned. If the client has any concerns regards the marketplace, the economy, or the property, it is wise to qualify and handle the concerns of the client before they delay or affect the final decision and negotiation. In some situations, you can raise the concerns of the client in the listing process to display your total understanding, then offering solutions to help them through their concerns.

Yes, listing presentation time is show time in commercial real estate. It is not an isolated event, and is your time to stand head and shoulders above your more ordinary competition. It is not a canned, standard, or memorised presentation script that you do every day, but rather should drill down onto the critical elements of the property promotion. It is dynamic, engaging and productive addressing the property in question.

Remember that the presentation for the promotion of the commercial property is about the client and their property needs, not your business and its history or expertise. Effective presentations are at the core of effective sales and leasing transactions in commercial real estate. The better you do your job in the presentation, the more listings and commissions you will generate.