Commercial Real Estate Sales
Hey guys,

I'm trying to get into the sales aspect of my company, and I'm just looking to get any advice before I start.

I work with a shared office space company, which essentially leases a floor (or two) from a building like Oxford, and then sub leases the office space on that floor to individuals/companies that don't need a full floor. It's a really interesting industry.

Anyways, I was wondering if anybody had any experience in this industry, and if anyone knew of some tactics in regards to generating more leads.

The industry works sort of like a car dealership, where prospects will come to you for the most part, and you help them find an office that fits their needs/budget. In Toronto for example, we have about 15 centers in the downtown core alone. All 15 centers have different statuses/budgets/atmospheres/office size, so there is a decent variety for the consumer to choose between.

Focusing strictly on lead generation, I was thinking of marketing the office space through social media and Kijiji, but those are just some ideas I've came up with. I'm also super inexperienced in sales; this would be my first sales gig if I get it.

Anyone have any suggestions or insight? Thanks a ton guys.
[{"id": "ecfd0pe", "text": "Welcome to commercial real estate, u/habzsauce.\n\nLet's dive into a couple of terminology adjustments that will help you ramp up faster:\n - \"Commercial real estate sales\", as an industry term, generally refers to selling buildings (also known as \"investment sales\"). What you're talking about her is typically referred to as \"leasing\" in North America.\n- Your company would be considered under the umbrella of \"co-working\", a growing industry segment vs traditional office leasing, where individual companies sign leases directly with building owners (landlords).\n\nOk, now how to generate leads? Only two routes:\n\n1. Market directly to potential tenants.\n2. Make your space known to people already marketing their services to potential tenants - leasing brokers working for companies like CBRE, Colliers, etc.\n\nWould you potentially be able to pursue both routes through that business development role?", "replies": [{"id": "ecfk49i", "text": "Ahhh, makes sense. So would you say selling entire floors would fall under the category of commerical real estate, or is that term moreso used when selling an entire building?\n\nI know our sales team works directly with brokers, as well as some cold calling to potential clients, so yes I would be able to pursue both. I'm just looking for more ways in general on how to market the space to potential clients myself, without reaching out to brokers. I'll definitely be using that as well, but if there are other ways to market available space through apps, websites, ads, social media, etc...I'm all for it. \n\nI think the toughest part of this job is going to be lead generation. The actual selling itself once a client is interested isn't too bad (I THINK).\n\nThanks for your feedback though, I appreciate that a ton! ", "replies": [{"id": "ecljg49", "text": "Both \"leasing\" and \"sales\" are commercial real estate. It may be a \"sales\" role for your company, but the industry term \"sales\" typically refers to buying and selling buildings as investments.\n\nAs far as lead gen without using brokers, that may lead to some downvotes here, as some of the redditors are leasing brokers who believe you shouldn't try to \"go around\" them. There are plenty of ways to market directly to companies, but the less creative (buying ads on the same old websites, etc), the more expensive it will be due to competition. Good luck.\n\n&amp;#x200B;", "replies": [{"id": "eclkqhk", "text": "Are you familiar with clickfunnels? It's an online marketing tool from what I can understand, but I don't know too much about it yet or if it could help in my industry for generating leads", "replies": [{"id": "ecvdsg0", "text": "Clickfunnels helps you collect leads or direct people to where they can make payments or register for a service but you still have to do marketing to get people to come to the site.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "edg6sjt", "text": "Checkout [https://www.officespace.com/](https://www.officespace.com/) (they specialize in marketing office spaces), loopnet etc. Looks like your segment will be a right fit for growing startups so connect with the guy managing operations at incubators like DMZ, techstars and many more out there in Toronto and get added to their slack channel etc as there are many startups looking to branch out for their own offices. Attend events like techTO, tech conferences and meetup groups in Toronto (there are tons of them happening every day). All the best!", "replies": [{"id": "edn8r1q", "text": "Personally, I've had shit results marketing flexible workspace to websites that specialize in traditional office. Loopnet consistently does not understand what we are offering and as a result, we frequently receive calls from confused prospects.\n\nInstead, advertise on a platform specific to this niche. [www.liquidspace.com](https://www.liquidspace.com) [www.42floors.com](https://www.42floors.com) \n\nJoin [https://www.globalworkspace.org/](https://www.globalworkspace.org/) and follow [allwork.space](https://allwork.space) ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "edn7t0c", "text": "As others have mentioned, there is a pretty big distinction between commercial brokerage and shared space leasing. I come from the latter and have considering moving into the former. However, most hardcore CRE guys have looked down on the shared workspace industry as child's play for years. This is changing now thanks to a funny word called coworking. Many big CRE firms are realizing this could be *the* property management technique of the future for office space (see: CBRE's new project [Hana](https://www.cbre.com/real-estate-services/directory/flexible-space-solutions)). \n\nThat being said, there is still a big difference between brokerage sales (or even commercial leasing) and leasing private office space. Most of the flexible workspaces operate on very short term license use agreements that may mimic some qualities of a lease but are much shorter and less complicated.  This is a big advantage to the tenant and a calculated risk to the landlord. It's all a game of arbitrage really - how to re-package small spaces to make the sum of the whole greater than the parts.\n\nAs you touched on, most of these spaces use a technique called inbound marketing. Essentially, you've already acquired the prospect's information and a baseline for their interest before reaching out. This is known as \"warm calling\" on leads. The biggest source for leads will be without a doubt the internet. You need a strong converting website backed by great SEO and some paid ads to start. Don't underestimate the value of paid social advertising - this can help drive traffic to your lead funnel and you can narrow to a more precise target audience (ex: business owners in your zip code).\n\nDo you have a strong local presence? Are you attending local chamber and business events to give your elevator pitch? Are you hosting expert classes or free events at your centers? Are you using a CRM? Are you tracking your leads through a cycle and following up on dead leads after a certain period of time?\n\nThe biggest thing I've found to make a difference in workspace \"sales\" is persistence. If someone walks in your door to tour the center, they are already a qualified prospect. The question now is, how good are you at closing? There's lots of competition in this space and when commitment terms are so short, it's easy for a prospect to \"try out\" the cheapest space because they can always switch later. You need to sell them on your value.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]