Have you ever wondered how some commercial real estate brokers seem to attract clients so effortlessly, as if by magic?

They may not have made a cold call in years or spent a dime on sending out flyers or advertising. Yet, somehow, they’re regularly featured in newspapers and magazines and get invited to speak at conferences.

Would you like to join them in getting all the business you can handle?

Well, then read on…

I’ll Make You Famous!…

What this group of commercial real estate brokers does may seem effortless from the outside, but in reality, it requires careful planning and relentless effort.

There is no free lunch in commercial real estate.

This group of brokers has managed to reach a level of fame — not like a movie star or top athlete — but just enough to have their names come to mind when people are looking for their particular product or service.

This fame not only gets them more business, but also the right kind of business.

In a crowded marketplace, especially in economic conditions like ours, you must do everything in your power to avoid blending in with the hundreds of other brokers who are competing for your potential clients’ attention.

In this market, it really is true that you must differentiate or die!

You must avoid being all things to all people, and focus on being a mini-celebrity to the right people.

The key is to target your market and develop a reputation as a great resource that is at once knowledgeable, trustworthy, and accessible.

In effect, your goal is to dominate a small yet profitable domain of your choosing.

The Seven Principles Of Fame

As I mentioned, results like these require careful planning and consistent effort.

There are seven basic principles you must target during your planning and execution:

1. Principle #1: Targeting The Best Prospects
2. Principle #2: Developing A Unique Niche
3. Principle #3: Positioning Yourself As The Best Solution
4. Principle #4: Maintaining Your Visibility
5. Principle #5: Enhancing Your Credibility
6. Principle #6: Becoming A Thought Leader
7. Principle #7: Establishing Your Brand And Reputation

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting more detailed information about each of these principles.

For now, though, let me give you a quick overview of each of these to whet your appetite!

Principle #1: Targeting The Best Prospects

Identifying the best prospects in your market is the first, most important step in any branding strategy.

Unfortunately, it is also the step that is most often misunderstood, botched, or skipped entirely!

If you see a branding and word-of-mouth campaign that is floundering, this could very well be the root cause.

Notice that we’re not just talking about targeting any prospects… we’re talking about targeting the best prospects.

In other words, you are selecting those specific prospects for whom you can be the go-to celebrity.

Principle #2: Developing A Unique Niche

This principle goes hand-in-hand with Principle #1.

The unique niche here refers to that small segment of the overall market (and prospects) that you can realistically hope to dominate.

There is a caveat: Cast your net too wide here, and you’re almost certain to fail.

Large companies with deep pockets can aspire to total market domination. As a commercial real estate broker (or brokerage group), you must strive to be lean and mean!

Principle #3: Positioning Yourself As The Best Solution

Unfortunately, just narrowing your focus to a specific set of prospects in a particular niche is not enough.

Even in tight niches you will face competition!

So it is essential that you distinguish yourself as the pre-eminent source of solutions by refining your expertise.

You need to know more about something, or be better at something — specifically — than anyone else, and you must let your target prospects know!

Bear in mind that this is not something you can fake!

When you can honestly convey such a message, your potential clients and prospects see you as the obvious choice that can help them solve their problems.

Principle #4: Maintaining Your Visibility

When it comes to developing your strategy for fame, the one truism you must keep in mind at all times is this:

If you are not visible to your potential clients, you cease to exist!

If you haven’t done any marketing in months, your clients will forget about you.

They’ll call your competitor instead (whose name may have just appeared in today’s paper)!

Visibility is the cornerstone of your strategy in this case.

Principle #5: Enhancing Your Credibility

Of course, visibility is only useful if it’s combined with credibility.

It doesn’t matter if your name is in the paper, if it’s not referring to you as a source of credible information.

You must embrace visibility strategies that display your:

• Competence
• Expertise
• Distinction
• Authority
• Leadership

If you have in-depth knowledge about a specific subject (like a particular product type, neighborhood, etc.), you can leverage that knowledge into a halo of authority.

Principle #6: Becoming A Thought Leader

As a thought leader in your field, you must offer your prospects and clients something different than everyone else — information, insights, or ideas, for example.

You must demonstrate that:

1. You know your business deeply
2. You play a role in shaping your industry
3. You understand and anticipate the needs of your clients

Developing new ideas, outlining future market trends, and crafting new ways to serve your clients in preparation for those market trends are great examples of how you can develop thought leadership in your market.

Principle #7: Establishing Your Brand And Reputation

There’s an old marketing and PR formula for Reputation:

Reputation = Visibility + Word-of-Mouth + Credibility

Your goal is to overcome your clients’ and prospects’ skepticism by creating situations where other people who have dealt with you in the past give stellar reports of your professional prowess.

The more of such reports you can arrange for, and the more credible and visible the venue where they show up, the more powerful your reputation will be.

Your Turn!

What are your thoughts, comments and questions about becoming a mini-celebrity in your own niche?

Which of the Seven Principles of Fame would you like to learn more about?

Leave me a comment and I’ll try to focus on those areas in the future posts on this topic.