Commercial Real Estate – A Surprising Revelation About Your Business

“Little Hinges Swing Big Doors”

The story goes something like this: Two guys are camping in the woods. While they are camping they hear a noise in the woods, kind of sounds like a bear, one guy says to his friend, “Hey, in the event we are visited by an angry and hungry bear you better get your tennis shoes on in the event we need to outrun a bear.” To which his friend says -“Good point but remember, I don't have to worry about outrunning the bear, the only thing I have to worry about is outrunning you.”

This story is the point of this next article. It really has to do with competition and how you can crush your competition. What I've found is that in your marketing (and the way you do business for that matter) you do not have to be as good or have the presence of a NIKE or a Coca-Cola – you just have to be better than the other guy/person. No need to reinvent the wheel or spend countless strategy sessions on business planning and marketing that focuses on capturing ALL of the business.

No matter how good you are you will never get ALL of the business.

Don't take this the wrong way. I am not saying that you can be a slouch and still get by with great results. What I am saying is that you need to be just a little bit better than the other guy -that's it.

Far to many times I work with commercial real estate investors that feel in a hurry to act and advertise like a large institution. Right here right now you need to get rid of that mindset. Be mindful of the fact that you do not have the time or the money to buy large quantities of market share and that most institutional advertising is a waste.

Let me give you an example; if I run twelve radio ads a day in my marketplace touting my services, I am spending a lot of time and wasting a lot of dollars advertising to people that I cannot ever get as clients or customers. You can argue that over time that this waste may be justified and in some instances I would agree with you but only if you had a budget set aside for brand marketing that would eat up millions per month.

But, marketing like you have a bottomless budget can put you in the poor house quicker than you may think.

As long as you remember that you, just like a racehorse, need to be just a nose better than your competition you will not only save a ton of money and time you will also be commanding more market share at the same time.

Look around your marketplace and see what the top people are doing in your market and how they are getting customers and tenants.

Once you've done a thorough analysis in most instances you will know what NOT to do.

If there is one thing about the real estate investing, it is that we are guilty of marketing incest, or, advertising and marketing our services just like the other guy.

You cannot do that in fear of becoming another commodity.

We need to look around and do the exact opposite of what they are doing. Some of the things I suggest you do, we have talked about and there will be a lot more we will review.

Have an open mind and rest a little bit easier knowing the things you will be implementing will help your business tremendously. Not that you can be lazy but know that if you market your services just a little bit better than your competition you will win.

When it comes to marketing your properties you need to know a huge secret. This secret is shared only by a few, but when you find out about how easy and simple it is you will be well on your way to smart marketing. Here it is: You need to be a little better than the other competitor, that's it! No huge breakthroughs, no reinventing the wheel, just be better – by a little bit – that is all you really need to do.

Yes, there will be boring work involved such as assessing the competition, their strengths, their weaknesses. Do not make the mistake of basing all of your business decisions on what the competition does, i.e., doing exactly what they do. I will talk more about this in another article. Suffice it to say, it is not that hard to assess and be better than the other guy – it is easier than you think.

Always remember, the horse that wins by a nose will usually get at least double or triple the prize money than the second place horse. And remember – by a nose!