Tips for a Successful Online Business

Many people today are taking advantage of the Internet today and creating their own businesses online. But just because a business has the Internet as an advantage does not mean that it is guaranteed to be successful. In fact, your online business could fail as easily as a business that is offline. Here are some of the things that you should do in order to have a successful online business.There are many advantages to having an online business. You don’t have to do near as much work in marketing and setting up your business. But, that does not mean that you don’t have to do anything. You have to work to keep your business making a profit, especially when it is first created.You need to keep your expenses at a minimum when your business is first opened in order to have a successful online business. You won’t make a lot in the beginning of the creation of your business – nobody really does that much at all. And making sure you don’t spend too much will ensure that what little profit you do make goes to keeping your business open through web fees, etc.The most important thing you can do to ensure that you will have a successful online business is effectively market your site. It may not take as much work or money to market your business, but that is only because it takes a different kind of work. You have to market your site through articles that will gain you traffic and hopefully gain you money.Once you get your potential customers to your site, the thing you have to do in order to have a successful business depends on your website. You need to make sure that the quality and the content of your website are good enough to make people want to spend money on your business. Make sure that you have a lot of pictures and a lot of information on whatever products or services you offer. Also make sure that your website is easily navigated so that customers will want to search through it.When you gain customers and start to make money, the one thing you can do best is to keep them. It is much more affordable and easy to keep a customer and keep a steady stream of money coming in than to have to search and market all over again to get new customers. You can always guarantee that your customers will stay with you, even if they have trouble with their order, if you provide fast and friendly customer service. That will almost always make any situation forgivable.When you start an online business, you want to make money, even a little in the beginning. And you don’t want your business to fail. Nobody wants their business to go down right after starting it up. These tips will help you set up and maintain a successful online business so that you will make the most money you possibly can.

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A New Year, a New Telecommunications Plan

Contemplating a change in communications plans in the new year? Are you tired of living with the limitations of your current traditional business phone system? If so, you aren’t alone and may be similar to many other businesses and organizations considering the many benefits of the VOIP plan. Perhaps you are a small business in search of a phone system that allows you to compete with larger companies. If you don’t know much about VOIP, make investigating its various benefits and solutions your new year’s resolution.The Ideal Phone System for a Small Business
Switching to VOIP may not be the key to transitioning your business from a small to a larger company, but it will complement your endeavors to do so. By enhancing every aspect of communication, VOIP will make you feel as if you’ve reached a new zenith in your operation. By allowing more tools for on-the-go professionals, employees can bring their work with them wherever they go. This enhances flexibility while maintaining optimum connection. With tools like instant messaging and video conferencing, it just doesn’t make senses to renew your traditional phone plan that is fraught with limitations that may be limiting your business growth or at least preventing you from reaching your customers as technically savvy as your competitors may be reaching their customers.Shoretel IP Phone Systems
The Shoretel IP phone system is a great phone system for small business. Chances are you have staff members that are afraid every time you say upgrade or technology switch; if so, the Shoretel plan is utterly user-friendly. Your employees will find the technology easy to use and completely in tune with what they need and should expect from a cutting edge communications tool. Shoretel IP Phone Systems are also reliable and known for their top-notch customer support care.Cutting Edge Technology
When you want to enhance your operation’s communications plan, you certainly want to consider plans that provide a rich array of tools and applications. Once upon a time it was considered high end to have several phone lines and a hold button. Now it almost goes without saying that a thriving business needs telecommunications abilities, access to email, video conferencing, data sharing ability and other tools that are popularly used on today’s VOIP systems. These systems enhance the way employees collaborate and also foster a strong relationship between your team and customers.Explore Your VOIP Options
After the holidays, take time to explore how VOIP can complement your business. Consult with a trusted company that is experienced and can help you find ways to employ communications tools and apps to run a better business. Improved communications is never a wasted effort. Moreover, when you consider how affordable VOIP solutions are, you’ll see that a traditional system doesn’t make good business or fiscal sense. Talk to other businesses that use VOIP services and find out how their communications have improved. Heading into a new year is the perfect time to make a bright new change that will dramatically benefit your business.

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Car Buying Tips – Zero Percent Financing From the Dealer – Is It Really a Good Deal?

The ads are everywhere “0% financing for 60 months”, “No interest for 4 years”. As enticing as that might sound, it is not always the best deal if you are going to finance your new car purchase. Here are three things to watch out when deciding to take the 0% interest route.Buying Too Much CarWhen presented with the 0% financing offer, some people think that it is a shame not to get the most car that they can get. Even though there is not interest, just remember that there ARE payments. And the more expensive the car (interest or not), the higher the payment.Bait and SwitchYou have picked out your car, negotiated the price that you want and are ready to step into the Finance office. Everything is going according to plan until the Finance Manager tells you that because of your credit, you do not qualify for the 0% financing. Now what?You have invested your time and emotions into the car and you hate to walk away. You may as well listen to what the Finance Manager has to say. He tells that while you do not qualify for the 0% interest, you can get a great rate from the bank that they use. And, good news, it would only raise your monthly payment by $20 versus the no interest financing. Sounds good. You say, “I will just go out to eat one less time per month, no problem.” But there is problem: if you multiply $20 X 60 months, the price of your car has just gone up by $1,200!At this point, you can do one of three things: 1) get up and walk away from the deal; 2) relent and buy the car at the higher interest rate or 3) leave and try to find your own financing with better terms and come back and buy your car with those funds.The Small Print Concerning RebatesMost of the time, when you take advantage of the 0% financing from the dealership, you will forfeit any rebates the might be available for the car. The small print in the advertising will usually say something like “0% financing in lieu of rebates. This is where you will have to find a good online calculator and do some math. Here is an example of a case where taking the rebate instead of the 0% will actually save you money.Example: Assume that you are buying a car for $15,000 and you can either have a $3,000 rebate or 0% financing for 60 months.0% Financing – monthly payments = $250 ($15,000 / 60)6% financing with $3,000 rebate (again, use an online calculator for your specific situation) – monthly payment = $231.99Using the rebates instead of the 0% financing will save you $18.01 per month or $1,080.60 over the 60 months of the loan.The lesson here – 0% financing will not always be the best deal.

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Basic Factors to Consider for Advertising Products and Services

Advertising is an effective tool of marketing used for promoting products and services to be sold to generate business revenue. Thus, it won’t be wrong to say that the ultimate purpose of advertising is to push the sale of products and services through different ways of promotion. In the absence of advertising, it is difficult for others to know about your products or services. Although you sell high quality products at reasonable prices, you won’t be able to reach adequate number of buyers or the target audience to earn profit.Advertising not only promotes, but also establishes your brand amongst your target group. It positions your brand in such a way that your products or services become a replacement of the need they fulfill. The best instance of this is Cadbury ads appealing the audience in India to eat Cadbury chocolates, whenever they feel like eating sweets. Their ad copy – “Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye (means: Lets have some sweets)” with the characters eating chocolates indirectly asks people to replace Cadbury chocolate for traditional Indian Sweets. In short, ads help in building good reputation of the brand or company and gradually increase the sale of the products and services.Therefore, advertising can be considered as an investment that could indirectly improve your brand value and generate good returns in terms of sale. However, it is to be noted that ads won’t directly add to your sales or create a customer base for your product or service. It simply helps your brand to create a space in the subconscious mind of your target audience, who might end up being your consumer/customer. This vital role of advertising makes it an essential marketing tool, which is widely used across the world by even the business giants like Microsoft, Apple, Tata, etc.The whole idea of considering advertising as an investment makes it necessary for us to consider certain factors before advertising the products and services. The basic factors to be considered before advertising any product or service are as follow:In order to create a successful advertising for your product or service, follow some basic advertising principles:Aim and Objectives of Advertising: Identifying the main objective behind advertising your products/services is the most essential of all the factors. This is because without a proper objective one can never achieve anything in any field. Also, it helps you to evaluate how well the aim and objectives would go with your company or brand image. It also makes the ad campaign or the progress of the ads measurable and realistic.
Expecting immediate rise in sales: Expecting a sudden hike in sales after the advertisement of your products or services is like lying to your own self. Advertising is not a solution to your financial issues. However, it might gradually help you in pushing the sales of your products and services.
Don’t make false promises: The advertising works, only if the product or service meets the expectations of the target audience. If they don’t live up to their promises, then the advertising is more likely to fail. It might create some buzz at initial level even if your product or service is of low quality, but it will eventually fail. So, it is important to make promises that your product or service can fulfill.
Understanding your product: You must know the complete details of your product – be it materials or uses. This will enable you to know what your product can do to exist in the market. In your advertising, you could make use of its benefits or solutions as excuses for its sustainability in the market over the period of time.
Target prospective customers’ needs: You advertise products or services mainly to persuade your prospective customers to opt them against your competitors’ or ordinary products. Therefore, it is important for you all to understand the needs of your prospective customer. This will help you convince them easily by portraying you product as a means to meet their needs.
Ads must be informative and effective: Your ads must be able to educate your target group about the products’ USP and other benefits. Also, it should inform them about the products availability and why it should be used. Besides this, the ads must be effective enough to deliver the message to the audience in a creative, unique and convincing manner. It must grab their attention and leave an impact on the target audience. In simple terms, it must be effective enough to bring the customers to the product’s outlets or at least enquire about the product, if not buy.These basic factors, if considered, can really help you create great ads that would make sense and grab the attention of your target audience. The resulted ads would be distinctive, yet recognizable and easy to relate with your product or service. These ads would not only have good recall value, but they would also have the ability to convince prospective customers to try your product.

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Do Government Assistance Programs In Fact Assist Small Businesses?

Government budgets are relayed to various assistance programs whose purpose is to encourage economic activity in small businesses. It is often asked whether these programs do in fact fulfill their purpose or maybe these budgets are wasted?A groundbreaking research jointly conducted by Ben-Gurion University and the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor elucidates this issue. Researchers Dr. Rami Schayek and Prof. Dov Dvir have developed an innovative model which measures the effect of government assistance programs on small businesses, identifies the most important components incorporated in the assistance program and determines which managerial, operational and behavioral activities should be focused in order to improve on business performance. The research included one hundred and thirty five small businesses which participated in the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor’s Standard Coaching project. This project is one of several business coaching projects run by the ITL ministry and it is designed for small and medium businesses of five to one hundred employees. A business of five to ten employees is appointed up to one hundred coaching hours. A business of eleven to one hundred employees is appointed up to one hundred and fifty hours. The coaching project finances 75% of the cost of coaching. 25% are financed by the business.Results indicate that there is a return on the tax payer’s money!Findings indicate that government assistance program involvement positively affects small business performance. The basic research model, which examined only the direct effect the assistance program has on small business performance, shows that the greater the number of quantitative components (hours of consultation; proximity of consultation encounters; range of issues incorporated into the consultation), and the higher the standard of qualitative components (level of the consultant’s professional understanding of the respective subjects of consultation; level of organization and planning of the consultation process; level of trust, commitment and mutual understanding between consultant and small business owner), the higher will be the level of performance in the small business. When adding to the model an examination of indirect effects, assistance programs are shown to affect small business performance primarily through the consultant’s influence on the small business owner which is expressed in the latter’s motivation to take action, like as attention to the service provided after the sale, understanding the fluctuation in customer preferences and the small business’s operative environment, and the need to measure and analyze customer satisfaction and respond to the customer’s complaints regarding either the service or the product provided by the small business.The consultant also affects the business owner with respect to the latter’s ability to manipulate business opportunities through utilization of competitors’ weaknesses and an understanding of the ways in which the small business as a whole may benefit the customer. Consultation raises the small business owner’s level of awareness as to the need to innovate, take risks and increase the level of activity, both in implementing changes in the service or products he provides and as regards conduct in the face of competition. In fact, the consultation process motivates the small business owner to take actions which would raise the level of market orientation and entrepreneurship in the small business, and as a result initiate an increase in its level of performance.How is it possible to win an even greater return?The findings of Dr. Schayek’s doctorate thesis supervised by Prof. Dov Dvir, facilitate recommendation on a number of issues which could intensify the effect of public assistance programs on performance in small businesses. Thus it is important that the consultant emphasize before the client that submitting reliable and comprehensive information to the consultant, as well as willingness on the part of the business owner to implement changes in accordance with decisions reached as a result of cooperation with the consultant, is paramount for the success of the assistance process and the improvement on performance in the small business. Based on the research model, the client constitutes an integral part of the assistance program. The more involved and active he becomes in the process of coaching, the greater will be the assistance program’s positive effect on the small business’ performance.In addition, the research indicates that effort must be made on the part of the consultant in improving the client’s capacity of raising finance. The client’s capital raising capabilities which, according to the model constitute a parameter in the improvement of the level of performance, will improve if the client is given an explanation as to existing finance opportunities and is prepared as to the manner in which one should approach and present the small business’ requirements before possible financing sources (such as banks or credit companies).

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How to Start Your Online Travel Business

If you’re someone who is in running business of traditional travel agency business, and do you want to planning a Online travel agency (OTA, then enjoy to learn this article which helps you to build your online travel agency, and share to others a great experiences, you may have consider to this steps to start your own OTA.However, starting a online travel business is a bit of a mixed of technology. On the one hand, a online travel business can be fairly expensive to start, and you can often get away with limited staff and little upfront cost.Your success is largely dependent on finding the right travel content as Flight Fares, Hotels Fares and Rent a car in a widely competitive online market. So, if you want to be successful, you’ll need to put a great cost-effective deal and best market price with easy to use online booking platform.Plan your online travel agencyMake no mistake: No matter what industry you’re in, a business plan is essential. And need of some experience of the e-Commerce.What kind of travel business do you plan to start? If you’re interested in selling of Air Fares, Hotels, Transfers, Holidays or even more…Travel Agency Divider
Conduct market research and find the best travel & tourism related content supplierThere is the few names of travel content supplier: Sabre, Amadeus, Galileo and some of them are Low cost carrier content provider TBO, Travel fusion etc…Once you’ve determined the supplier and what specific market you are going to sale. Build one of the best website which serve your online business to the world, and start to merge your all GDS’s and supplier with dynamic pricing. And integrate payment gateway. Now you are ready to market it.Next step Branding and marketing.
Branding and marketing your website content, bookings and documentation, reviews, newsletters and social media branding to name are a few with good results to show for it.Best to check and put your marketing strategy in a place. Select their demographic information and start researching, planning and start your booking.Think responsive for your website design. Don’t ignore the power of modern marketing of mobile devices when building or developing your online travel website. Up to 70% of your visitors are likely to browse your site from their mobile device.Track your visitors: Setup Google Analytics for your site. It’s vital for your e-commerce business. The most successful online travel business brands is to favor minimal website design that makes finding information easy to your valued customer.

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How to Start a Career in Finance

If you are interested in starting a career in finance, it would be good to plan ahead. There are several things that you will need to take note of in order to prepare yourself well for this field.The basic requirement needed would be the right education. The minimum level of education to get into an entry-level position would be the bachelor’s degree. The online finance degree is becoming increasingly popular as it allows people to complete the degree while gaining working experience. Nevertheless, an online degree of this level will focus on technology, e-business, ethics, critical thinking, research methods, and statistical analysis. If one is interested in breaking into management level positions, they would need to have either a master’s degree or an MBA.With a master’s degree, people often complete it while working full-time. At the same time, they would be able to attain certifications like the CPA, CMA, or CFA. As one will need to balance between work and study, people often go for an online finance degree of this level for its flexibility. On the other hand, an MBA program with a specialization in finance is always keeping its syllabus up-to-date with the current market. A PhD puts more focus on the theoretical concepts within the field, such as leadership and organizational chance, knowledge and learning management, and high-level decision-making.In finance, certification is very much recommended to show one’s area of expertise. For one to pursue the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification, one will need to meet the requirements of having a bachelor’s degree and at least three years of professional experience in a relevant field. Then, they will need to pass the three exams that will be taken within the course of three years. On the other hand, personal financial advisors can go for their Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification which will require them to pass a set of exams and a strict code of ethics, other than providing their academic credits. As for financial managers, a Certified Cash Manager (CCM) requires them to pass online exams and have at least two years of professional experience. The progress of certification for managers in a financial institution industry begins with Credit Business Associate (CBA), followed by Credit Business Fellow (CBF), and then Certified Credit Executive (CCE).Attaining the right education and certification will guarantee you a successful future, in addition to hard work and determination.

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Online Finance Degrees Gain Popularity

Online finance degrees are gaining popularity as more students go back to school to earn their degree and take advantage of the recovering market. While employment opportunities in the financial sector diminished during the recession, job opportunities for finance graduates, like the economy, have now begun to rebound.Earning an online finance degree can prepare you for a variety of careers. Often, students who earn these degrees, ranging from the associate to master’s level, find employment as financial analysts, financial managers, investment managers, accountants or auditors, financial consultants, investment or commercial bankers, and even real estate managers or developers. Jobs in finance have traditionally offered students solid job opportunities and this trend is expected to continue. Job prospects for students who earn an online finance degree are expected to grow faster than average from 2008 to 2018.In fact, in US News and World Report’s annual list of the top fifty careers for 2011, accountants, financial analysts and financial advisers are listed as three of the most lucrative careers for the coming year. With employment growth rates projected at 20-30% for all three of these financial occupations, it’s safe to say that a finance degree is a solid investment.Online colleges and universities which offer online finance degrees are a popular option for students who want to earn a degree while maintaining their current job or responsibilities. As the job market continues its recovery, though slowly, investing in a degree that will provide numerous employment opportunities and high earning potential, like finance, will prove to be a smart move for students.

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Build Your Best Brand

The word brand began simply as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. Related to business a brand is the personality that identifies a product, service or company (name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them) and how it relates to key constituencies: Customers, Staff, Partners, Investors etc.A brand begins to exist when a business or individual has something to offer to the world-values, services, or products. Branding articulates the unique attributes of the business and communicates them in the right way, to the right people. A brand is not what a business says it is. It’s what the consumer perceives it to be. You are creating a brand even if you have not been doing it consciously.A brand is one of the most valuable elements of a strategic public relations plan. Your brand should communicate the right message to the right people. A brand should clearly demonstrate what is being offered in the marketplace.Remember, you are already creating a brand, even if you have not been doing it consciously. How people feel when they think of your product or service, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on that become linked to the brand.The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management.Brand management done correctly will make your product or services relevant to the target market.Take some time to begin looking at the things you have been doing to build your best brand, Find out from your key clients how they would describe you and your brand. If you do not like what you hear, make some changes. If you like what you hear make a conscious effort to do more of what you heard. Having a good professional reputation is an obvious key to success, but many people don’t take the time to nurture it. I find it helpful to think about a reputation as a personal brand. Developing your own unique brand is essential for success.I have discovered that there is a DNA that makes up a good brand. DNA. Dependability. Novelty. Attitude.Dependability
A good brand is consistent. With a good brand, there are never any unpleasant surprises. You can count on a brand to help you quickly sort through an unlimited list of options to identify “a sure thing.”
When applied to you, the question becomes:
What can others — your customers, employer, and colleagues — depend on you for?
What kind of “sure thing” are you exactly?
Whatever you decide distinguishes you in the marketplace of talent, make sure consistency is the bedrock of your brand.Novelty
OK, so what makes you different?
It’s not enough to be as dependable as everyone or anyone else. Brands always have identifiable differences — perceptually if not in fact — in the mind of the marketplace.
What makes you different (or better)?
For a difference to be valuable to the brand, it must be valuable to the customer.Attitude
This is the most nebulous part of a brand. It is more than a combination of novelty and dependability. I call it the brand’s predisposition to the world. It is about the vibe a brand puts out. It’s about the demeanor and flavor and orientation.
Attitude is how the brand — “you, inc.” or “organization, inc.” — presents itself to the world. I believe that all brands have a boldness about them. Even if a brand is quiet, dependable, and safe, those attributes are expressed to the marketplace boldly and definitively.What is your attitude? Have you considered it and identified it? Is the attitude of your brand something that draws others to it, or puts them off?DNA. Dependability. Novelty. Attitude. As a first step toward marketing yourself better, take some time soon to write out the DNA of your brand.

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How to Do a Sales Pitch in Commercial Real Estate

In commercial real estate, you will undertake a variety of presentations, in a variety of circumstances. Most of them are business-like in nature, focusing on the needs of the tenant, the property buyer, or the property seller.Get to the core issuesEach of these groups has unique property requirements and points of focus. It is their needs which must be identified and clearly addressed in the sales pitch or presentation. Many successful commercial real estate agents will have a preliminary meeting with the client or customer so that they can identify key issues and concerns. This allows the commercial agent to return to the client or customer in a few days with a well structured proposal that addresses the needs of the customer or client.It’s all about THEM, not YOU!When you design an investment or commercial property proposal for presentation, the document should be 90% regards the property and the client. Frequently you see this rule disregarded or broken with the proposal document being largely regards the agency and the personnel.Rarely is the property transaction a simple matter of the property rental, the property price, or the physical elements of the property. In most situations, it is the combination of these things which must satisfy a fundamental equation of need that the customer or client has. In getting them to this fundamental need, you will identify an element of pain that the customer or client is experiencing. This is what you focus on.They are ExperiencedIt is interesting to note that many clients and customers in commercial real estate are reasonably comfortable in circumstances of business negotiation. This means they may not tell you the total big picture or all the elements of a transaction until they are ready. Conversation and connection in the presentation process should be biased towards the client or customer using well selected questions which allow the agent to interpret the body language coming from the client’s response.When you believe you have identified the element of clients pain related to the property transaction, you start to magnify the problem in terms of today’s market, then offering stable and logical solutions that your real estate agency business can provide to the client or customer. Invariably, the commercial real estate transaction in today’s market centres on financial matters such as:
High vacancy factors
Other property choices and chances are available
Underperforming leases
Unstable cash flow
Unstable tenancy mix
Tenanted conflict
Escalating building operating costs
A shift in demographics which exposes the property to a unstable future
Mortgage payment pressures
Age of the asset
Needs for refurbishment or extension
Competition properties attracting tenants away from the subject propertyThis type of information and interpretation requires your intimate knowledge of the local region. This is by both property type and by location. This is the higher value that you bring to the customer or client. Being able to distinctly define local market awareness is a major advantage in any commercial real estate presentation or sales pitch. You must be seen as the best knowledgeable solution to the problem.From ExperienceAfter many years working exclusively in the commercial real estate industry, I found that my unique skill was in market knowledge and the display of that in any formal presentation to the client. Being able to talk about market trends and financial performance in a solid and sound way will help the client understand that they need your services. Coupling that with your extensive and relevant database of enquiry clearly shows the client that they need you.A fantastic commercial real estate presentation is a function and balance of lots of things. Things like:
A well established pre-planning process is a strategic advantage for every commercial real estate presentation. Strategy is everything in commercial real estate. Every property presentation requires planning.
Making sure you are asking the right questions of the client or prospect. Plan your questions relative to the subject property so that you help the client think about opportunity and changes that are possible.
Using your market knowledge and giving good answers. Have a variety of market facts and trends available to call on. Feed them into your presentation; facts are always useful. They can also be used as a channel to direct the discussion when the client is forcing you to justify your approach or your experience. Confidence and control must be the basic rule of your property presentation. When the client takes control of the presentation you have lost.
Using your experience in the marketplace so that you are telling relevant stories of success in similar properties. Stories of other properties will always interest of the client.
Making sure your personal presentation is optimised for the connection in the presentation. It can be that you are using a combination of the proposal document, the marketing document, and computer slide presentation, samples of your database, photographs of the subject property projected on to slides, and photographs of comparable properties projected on to slides.
Choosing the placement of people at the table or strategically positioning them in the room is always important. Much has been written about where you should sit relative to the client. The basic rule is adjacent to the client rather than across an area of barrier such as a table. Being within arm’s reach allows you to pass documentation to the client at the appropriate time. Documentation should not be provided to the client until you are ready for them to review it; otherwise it is a distraction of their attention.
Make sure that your proposal is simple and yet well directed with a clearly defined outcomes of sale or lease. Many proposal documents in commercial real estate are much too wordy so the main messages are lost and not clearly defined. The best proposals are less wordy and more illustrative. The best balance of a commercial real estate proposal is a mixture of 25% words, 25% pictures, 25% graphs, and 25% white space. This becomes a document which is clearly read and understood.
Combine good illustrations and photographs of the subject property into the proposal or presentation so that any lengthy descriptions or paragraphs are broken up. This will keep interest of the client in your documentation.
Make sure that your marketing package is value for money, and yet reaching the target market that the property serves or needs to attract. All too often, we see examples of generic marketing by the commercial real estate agent to the broader and less specific marketplace. Showing the client that you clearly know and will attract best the target market will always help your conversion to a potential listing. Be very specific about the target market and how you will reach it.
Ensure that your commission costs are fair and reasonable for the location. In most circumstances, discounting your commission should not be an option as it will make you poor and remove or detract from your enthusiasm for the sale or lease. ‘Cheap’ means ‘cheap and without focus’ and the client needs to know this. The property deserves better. You are not cheap because you are the best and you do a great job. A fair commission is always paid for a positive property outcome.
Always provide testimonials that are relevant to the property transaction. When you combine relevant history and details of happy customers into your presentation you will make the client feel more comfortable.
Always display clear and sound market knowledge that impresses the client relative to their property. This will include extensive awareness of comparable properties that compete with the subject property. You should be able to talk solidly about property prices, comparable rents, rental growth, returns on investment, changes to the future demographics of the area, and properties in the immediate precinct of relevance. In many cases, it pays to walk around the local area just prior to any property presentation so that you bring immediate and clear pictures of the precinct to the discussion. Many times this has been of significant advantage in my presentation processes. Talking about neighbouring properties localises the client and their thought processes.
Come up with a variety of ways to serve the client. Innovation and relevance will always impress. In today’s market, this is relatively easy considering the marketing opportunities and tools provided by the internet & technology. Be proactive in your property promotion processes so that the listing for sale or lease stands uniquely different in its marketing campaign from the others in the area. This does not have to be expensive to the client or to your office, given that the internet and electronic technology is historically cost effective. In today’s market, the traditional methods of publicising the property in the property pages of the local paper, is becoming much less important in the marketing campaign. Most commercial property buyers and tenants research the market from the Internet first and foremost.
Almost every property agency will say that they have excellent communication and connection skills to support the property promotion process. From experience, this is largely incorrect and typically the average commercial salesperson or leasing person will exercise ordinary communication channels with the client. Put yourself in the shoes of the client. They expect and deserve frequent updates on the promotion of the property even when nothing is happening or when the adverts are producing little response. When a property campaign is not producing the results, it is important that you act or adjust with alternative recommendations and strategic changes to the promotional campaign for the client to consider. Rarely would you get to the property campaign correct in the first week. It is in this time that you must consider fine tuning the promotion process so that the target market is being reached in a timely and effective way. This means that every property enquiry generated from your promotions must be tabulated so that you understand what channels of marketing work most effectively with the property in question.
When addressing the client or the client group in a formal property presentation, the answers and information you give must be delivered well and provide relevant solid property knowledge, in a practiced and professional delivery. Any sales or presentation tools relative to the property must be relevant and you should know how to use them with exceptional skill. Fumbling and faking information is not tolerated by the client.So there you have it. These are some of the key skills to use in a commercial real estate presentation. Whilst many real estate agents think that they are the best alternative in the market to promote sell and rent commercial property, the reality is they do not get the message across when it matters most in front of the client.To be the best commercial real estate agent in your area, you must show that you are just so, and you do this in the first 10 minutes of the time that your presentation takes. The client will have formed an opinion by then.Be prepared to walk away from any demands for discounting that the client or customer demands. In this market they need a great commercial real estate agent providing a great job; discounting is not an option. Show pride in your services and walk away when the client demands discount in marketing or lower commissions.

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