For months I’ve been talking about creating a flier for my “turn-key” 2nd Gen restaurant space adjacent to the Ritz Carlton in Cleveland. I kept putting it off. I needed to hire a photographer and find a kitchen company that would come and create an inventory. No easy task. But after months of “telling” many FB prospects about my beautiful space, (I had pix in my phone) I finally got…
Leasing Tip of the Day: Visit the Mall for Market Recon It may come as a shock to you, especially since I own shopping centers, but I hate shopping. The ONLY time I enjoy it is when I am entering a new retail market. Here's my advice for you when you enter a new market: start your research with a visit to the dominant regional mall. Walking the mall…
The Retail Leasing Agent's Field Guide: Scouting Your Retail Territory As a leasing agent, you know your success depends on intimately understanding your property's retail territory. But aimlessly driving the area without a plan is inefficient. Use this field guide to strategically scout your local market and gain valuable leasing intel. Start by charting destinations - examine online maps and property flyers to spot regional malls, big box centers, and grocery…
Retail Leasing's Competitive Edge: Knowing Your Market Inside & Out Do you want to gain an edge in the competitive world of retail leasing? The key lies in understanding your market inside and out. Imagine you're driving through your local area. You notice lines out the door at some businesses with "Going Out of Business" signs, sales, vacancies, and "Coming Soon" signs. Are you just observing, or are you actively…
If you want to learn your market, what's the first thing you should do? Get out and go for a drive. Get out of your office and drive around, making sure to notice shopping centers, drive-throughs, and more. Look through the vacancies. Walk through the anchors. See the tenants. See the customers that are walking through the tenant spaces, so you can feel and understand what's going on in your market. Knowing your market is crucial and will help you in your career so much more than just getting information from a website. I hope this encourages you to get in the car and drive! Happy Leasing!
Collect $200 as long as you pass GO! Forward movement delivers value every time! DON’T STOP!! Continue moving! Activity breeds Activity! When you pause or stop, you begin to coast; the direction in which one coasts is…. DOWNWARD! Keep Moving Forward. Even if you don’t see results immediately, Be Patient! When I canvass, if I get a "No" I say, “Thanks for the $100!” Why? If I canvass 50 people, I can usually get a deal. The commission averages $5000. So, each no = $100!! Move today! GO! And collect $200!!
“Intention” networking. For students and newbies. When you set up a lunch or coffee with an industry peer or mentor, it’s always smart to have a plan. Have a few questions ready. These are very valuable meetings and you, as the inviter, should not wing it. Nor should you spend 15 minutes telling the person what you’ve been up to. These experts’ time is very valuable. A typical coffee can take 90 min out of their schedule; a lunch, 2 hours. You want to learn from them. If they need info from you to help them give you appropriate advice, they will ask. Think ahead: “Why am I meeting with this person? What specific advice or market intel can I ask them about?” “Tell me about your journey or career path" is not a great question. That answer alone could take 3 hours depending on how old the expert is! 😊 But asking them “Why did you pick the asset class you are in?” or “Was there ever a class or workshop you took that helped you further your career?” or “What lesson did you learn the most from when you were learning our business?” is going to help you and it may jog their memory and they can give you more insight. Have an intention, put some thought into it, and research their social media so you have a frame of reference about the person before you ask them to spend 2 hours with you! You will get more out of the interaction, which is the goal for both parties.
Humor trumps anger (and nagging). A few times in my career, I have found where professionals in a deal have gone radio silent and I need them to call me back to get a deal back on track or finished. No amount of voicemails or emails seems to help. I turn to my favorite method of getting their attention… COOKIES! I call Cookies by Design and I put creative messages on the cookies such as “please call me”, “(their company name) is #1!”, etc. Inevitably, within 20 minutes of getting the cookies, they call and VOILA! The deal is back on track! Last week, I was speaking to a client and she mentioned she was having a hard time getting a deal moved ahead because of an attorney who had an overwhelming workload. He had apologized many times but to no avail… the lease wasn’t getting done. I shared my cookie scheme; She loved it! She sent cookies that same day and you’ve prob guessed by now that it worked like a charm. The lease is now signed!! She liked the cookie idea so much, she has since sent 11 bouquets and 10 have responded!!! What ideas have you used to get someone’s attention? Humor works every time! It’s not personal that they are not getting back to you. They are distracted, busy, and most likely overwhelmed. Do something fun to empathize and GET THEIR ATTENTION!! Kudos to my client for acting on the suggestion!! (PS: Parents, this works for kids too!)
Hey Retail Leasing folks, How much $$$ do you make? (No, you don’t need to answer but are you satisfied with that number?) If you are making in excess of $100,000 net to you, or $200,000 (I know a bunch of you are!) then…. Do you have an assistant? Do you have things you do that don’t justify you doing them yourself at your hourly rate of $48 ($100k) or $96 ($200k) per hour? For 20 hours per week, you can start with an assistant. 20 hours at $25 per hour = $500 per week. What more could YOU do and how would that help you earn MORE than your current income? If you have been stagnant at your current income, it may be time to leverage up with an assistant. I hear some of my clients tell me, “But what if they aren’t good and helpful, then what? I’ve wasted that money!" Well, you will need to hold them accountable and keep them on track. Learning management and leadership along the way is always good to add to the resume. Some of you tell me your company should pay for the assistant. But if they won’t, should you be stubborn and not help yourself, by paying for one yourself? Rarely do I see companies paying for help these days. If you are the CEO of your future…. Write down a list of things you do that you don’t like to do, OR that you aren’t good at. Could an assistant help with these items and give you some time back? Either to set more new business meetings or spend more time with your family? I know A LOT of you, and MOST don’t have assistants. Those that do, I believe make more money and have more time to do things they enjoy. We are at halftime for 2023. Try bringing on someone that can help! Invest $6,000 over the next quarter to see if it makes a difference in your life, I think it will.
Assistants. I’ve been speaking about this with my students and clients a lot lately. It seems like they are all looking for help. That’s a good thing. It means they are in a position to scale. However, I keep seeing some mistakes they are making. Here are a few of them: 1. They hire friends, kids of friends, or people that fall into their laps vs searching for the best candidate. Don’t rush into this hire. 2. They hire licensees who want to be in the real estate game, but you want them to be an assistant. Salespeople and assistants, IMO, have different skill sets. I love Josee Crosbie who has been with me for 19 years, but she would quit if I made her go canvassing. Decide what you want: an assistant or a rookie broker, then hire for that. 3. Little to no accountability after the hire. Once the person is hired, you need to be all over them, every day for the 1st 30 days. Because if they aren’t the right person, you need to let them go. I find most people hire fast and fire slow. And it should be the opposite - hire slow and fire fast. Here's a webinar I held a while back about this very topic: Remember if you don’t have an assistant, you ARE the assistant!
