As an investment sales team in commercial real estate, having the right tools at your disposal can make all the difference in your success.
The landscape is constantly evolving, with new technologies and platforms emerging to streamline processes, enhance visibility, and connect you with a broader audience of buyers and investors.
Let’s dive in and discover how these essential tools can drive your success in the competitive world of commercial real estate. Let’s get started.
1. Digital Presentation Tools
Recommended digital presentation tools you should consider:
Property Website
Your property site serves as an interactive teaser to make the first impression for your properties and get buyers interested in a potential deal. It allows you to differentiate yourself from other commercial property offerings, standing out from static or poorly-designed competitor pages. Your property website should offer a summary of the offering along with the investment highlights – what benefits should catch their eye immediately and how can you provide value to them based on these responses?
Property Search Engine
Inside every real estate investment broker’s toolkit is their digital listing portfolio. One property website can perfectly display all of the amenities of one listing, but once you start to scale, some digital solutions can lag behind. How can you make sure that potential buyers can easily navigate all of your offerings? A property search engine (PSE) can display all of your current properties automatically, right on your own website.
When searching for the right PSE, make sure to consider integrations. Top tip: look for a platform agnostic software solution — meaning it can easily work with your existing software.
Print Design
Software like Canva or Adobe Creative Suite can help create professional sPDF flyer and high-quality OMs that make a huge difference in the progression of a sale. Inclusion of key property photos and location highlights, street maps, sale and lease comparables, floor plans, site maps, and demographics, all specific within the memorandum for each property is an important part of the marketing process for each property in your portfolio.
2. CRM (Client Relationship Management)
A robust CRM, like Salesforce or HubSpot, helps you manage client relationships, track leads, and automate communication, ensuring you stay organized and responsive to client needs.
But not all CRM systems are built the same. A good CRM system keeps track of each lead and proactively manages your pipeline. A spreadsheet or email system has too many cracks through which prospective deals can fall, taking potential revenue with them.
Here are the top CRM features you should look for:
Lead and Pipeline Management
The right CRM allows you to individually manage each contact record and associated deal, assigning lead owners, attaching emails and documents, and assigning future tasks. You can also accurately measure the volume of your current pipeline by assigning each lead to a different stage in the process, along with associated deal win percentage estimates and deal values.
Email Integration
Seamless integration with email platforms to segment and organize contacts directly as recipients for your email campaigns. This helps reduce duplicated tasks of managing contacts in both your CRM and email platform which can be very time-consuming.
Automated Follow-ups
CRM systems remove much of the risk of human error from the equation by consolidating all follow-up activity into one system. Look for an easy-to-use and lightweight solution that can automatically assign follow-ups for key prospects and offers a meaningful overview of lead activity at a glance.
Integration with Other Tools
The ability to integrate with other essential tools and platforms within your “marketing stack” will be increasingly critical as you grow. Having your CRM and data connected with other tools you’re using creates a more streamlined, efficient workflow and reduces data silos.
3. Online Document Portal
Here are the top online document portal features you should consider:
One-Click Document Sharing
A commercial real estate optimized document portal offers 24/7 access to private real estate documents, making it easier to share all your sales and marketing materials with prospects during the sales process. It can reduce time spent sending emails, allow you to better track prospect activity when they engage with your documents, and improve insight into the deal process.
Online Confidentiality Agreement
Online CA functionality can significantly streamline the process by allowing buyers and stakeholders to access, review, and sign documents electronically, reducing delays associated with physical paperwork. This modern approach not only improves convenience and compliance but also fosters a more professional and trustworthy client experience.
Additional Lead Capture Opportunities
A document portal not only reduces the number of back and forth emails and speeds up the agreement process but also helps capture new potential leads interested in your property. Look for a tool that lets you track how many times your documents have been downloaded and captures the information of the leads who download. This is another way to build up your own proprietary database of prospects for future deals. This can serve as an effective means to build up your own proprietary database of prospects for future deals.
4. Email Marketing Tool
Top email marketing features to look for:
Drag-And-Drop Contact List Segmentation
Your contact lists must be carefully structured to target people based on specific segmentations. That means separating out investors and potential tenants, segmenting by location, budget, and property, type, and managing each list of prospects – whether past investors, potential investors, or cold prospects who have been dormant for a long period of time. A good email marketing tool will allow you to easily tag and segment your lists to make sure you send the right emails to the right people.
Responsive HTML Email Templates
There are many email marketing best practices to consider when communicating with prospective investors. Not only do these ensure higher engagement rates; they can improve deliverability and overall engagement by those prospects with your content. One of these best practices? Your emails should be responsive HTML, designed and tested for all browser types on all device sizes.
Campaign Tracking and Performance Visibility
Your email marketing tools can also help to measure the results you achieve from these campaigns. Focus on open rate, the click rate percentage, and the number of people who unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam.
5. Market Research Tools
Recommended Market Research Tools:
- RCA (Real Capital Analytics): Provides comprehensive data on commercial real estate transactions, enabling brokers to track market activity, analyze pricing trends, and identify potential investment opportunities.
- CoStar: CoStar offers extensive data on properties, including occupancy rates, rental trends, and market analytics. It’s a valuable resource for brokers looking to evaluate market performance and identify viable listings.
- Moody’s Analytics: With its focus on economic data and forecasts, Moody’s Analytics helps brokers understand broader economic trends that impact the real estate market, such as interest rates, employment rates, and consumer confidence.
- Local Market Reports: Many brokerage firms and real estate associations publish local market reports that provide insights into specific areas, including rental rates, vacancy rates, and development activity. Leveraging these reports can help brokers stay informed about their target markets.
6. CRE Listing Platforms
Recommended CRE platforms for investment sales:
- LoopNet: As one of the largest commercial real estate listing platforms, LoopNet provides extensive exposure for properties. Its user-friendly interface allows brokers to reach a wide audience, maximizing awareness of their listings.
- Crexi: This innovative platform combines property listings with marketing and transaction tools. Crexi enhances visibility through features like virtual tours and automated marketing solutions, making properties more accessible to interested parties.
- Brevitas: A platform focused on connecting buyers and sellers, Brevitas allows brokers to showcase properties and gain access to a network of potential investors actively looking for opportunities.
- RI Marketplace: This platform specializes in providing a comprehensive database of commercial real estate listings, making it easier for brokers to connect with buyers and investors seeking properties in specific markets.
- Spacelist: Spacelist is the leading CRE listing with a strong focus on user experience, increasing visibility for properties while providing tools for investment sales brokers to manage their listings efficiently.
- Ten-X: Known for its online auction platform, Ten-X allows brokers to reach a wider audience by listing properties for sale in a competitive bidding environment, attracting potential investors.
The Final Word
By adding all of the above to your real estate marketing toolkit, you can be sure to stay ahead of the competition. With greater transparency into what works and what doesn’t, a strong digital presentation, and streamlined communication, you’re ready to lead the next generation of real estate investment sales.
Hungry for more?
Download the guide: 4 Ways SharpLaunch Can Help Your CRE Brokerage Firm Grow in the Digital Age