What do you do if you want to become a go-to contact in commercial real estate?

If you want to be a go-to person in any field you need to have an expertise. You must be regarded as a maven in the field and for that you need to build a niche and expertise in the given field.

Newtorking is a crucial skill to learn early on your career as it can pay dividends over the long term. Learn utilise warm outreach to existing cleints for more work and cold out reach to potential clients who you havent worked with before but operate in similar fields. Dont be afraid of receiving no as answer, its better to swing and miss than never swing at all.

After a 25 year career as an in-house attorney with commercial real estate development companies, when I started my private practice of law in commercial real estate transactions, I initially struggled with marketing the firm and creating a personal brand. About one year in, I decided to focus on the commercial leasing aspect of my experience by introducing myself as Larry the leasing lawyer when networking and in my marketing (mostly on LinkedIn). Soon, I became LarryTheLeasingLawyer.com. This is a great icebreaker when networking in person and always brings a smile to the other person‘s face.

Though I’ve been in marketing & PR for 25 years this year, I also served in the #CRE industry directly - So my agency, Ruby Red Media (based in Phx) specializes in #CREmarketing for all areas of business in the commercial real estate & economic development. “My name is my brand!” It is also the first chapter title of my published book. Not only do I help real estate professionals with their social media, marketing, public relations, I’m also a real estate journalist. I cover their stories. If you ever see me on social media, my posts share all the different ways I can add value to help boost CRE pros online visibility the same way I do my own. ??

Utilising tools like Linkedin and having an up to date profile can showcase you and the company you work for. Listing things like qualifications and milestone projects can hep prospective clients understand the services you provide.

To be a go-to contact in CRE, it's important to have encyclopedic knowledge about your market so that you can make recommendations that help your clients make informed decisions. This only happens when you're constantly reading real estate articles, economic updates, new legislation, new developments, and more to share with them. The adage "business is a marathon, not a sprint" applies here, so you have to be patient because you may not receive an immediate payoff when providing your services. You're building trust over time so that property owners/investors will eventually choose you when they are ready to buy or sell.

Be the first person to master a new area of technology and real estate. The industry is changing rapidly so there are opportunities including AI where you can become the market leader.

You will have to think out of the box so that you can be regarded as someone who is capable of resolving even the most complex issues. And in my experience real estate full of unique challenges.