As I sit here in quarantine, with my Uncle who is a commercial real estate agent in NYC (who is escaping the coronavirus in my tiny town), the topic of commercial real estate has sparked my interest. When most people think about real estate they think of just buying/selling a house or land. Although that is true, there are many other factors of real estate that people don’t necessarily think about. I am going to ask my Uncle a few questions to really get to know the inside scoop about selling commercial real estate in the Big Apple.
- How do you connect/make a relationships with your buyers?
– Cold calling/emailing, referrals, business network events, repeated business – “When I first got into selling it was all about cold calling, and as time has gone on it is more and more about getting into the customer’s world and getting to know the people around them to make relationships. The idea is to make relationships with people and stick with that group, and get embedded with them.” - How do you effectively close a deal?
– Communicating, listening, problem solving – “You always have to be 3 steps ahead of the current communication. Listen to their problems, create solution, and then communicate ways to make it better so they WANT to take the deal. Also, never take no for an answer, if they don’t want the deal, ask them why and get them to talk about it.” - Is price/budget something you enjoy talking about/how do you go about it?
– “For me, being in NYC it is all about price expectation. I try to help them back into it…for example if they have 10 employees and they only want to spend $6,000 a month they will have to be backed into something that is going to fit their size and budget (which is pretty unrealistic) so I will show them what they can get for that, but try to show them their budget really isn’t going to cut it. I try to respect their price, but if they are not willing to budge I will tell them that I will keep my eye out for it, but that kind of customer isn’t really the kind I want to be working with.”
Well, that was a lot of great information, so thank you covid for allowing my Uncle to share his personal selling experience with us! 🙂
duzx20 
Ethan David 
Aliyah Shelatz
I think it’s great how you did an interview-style article! I think it’s interesting how he said to always be 3 steps ahead in communication. This can be difficult, especially when a customer doesn’t even know the real problem they are trying to solve. Thanks for sharing!
Great to see how a commercial real estate agent would field these questions. It is nice to see his techniques that he uses while selling. I also found it interesting how imbeds himself into social groups that could be possible customers to him. The relationship truly is the most important part when selling.