Here are five useful tips for real estate leasing and sales managers to help them boost their performance using the latest technology.

If you are one of them, read on because this can seriously level up your game.

Firstly I would like to clarify that I know your business very well because I have been in your shoes. I worked as a real estate consultant for Colliers and King Strge (JLL) before establishing retailsee.com in 2012. I leased out many residential, retail, and commercial properties, and even set up a new real estate agency in Serbia from scratch.

But I have to admit that the way I used to work with clients then is definitely not how I would work with them now.

Back in the day, when Facebook used to be cool, social media was still in its infancy, and we had to rely on cold calls, cold emails, ads in newspapers, and even sending mail…yes, the physical kind.

If you are an old millennial like me, or older, you know that things have changed a lot since then thanks to advancements in communication technology. We cannot rely anymore on the old sales tactics, nor the ones we practiced just a few years ago…because technology is changing so fast.

As we need to evolve with the technology, I will give you a few tips that are based on my 10+ years of experience running an online business.

1. Forget about the cold calls

I can see the older generation rolling their eyes on this one, but the truth is no one likes cold calls!

If we consider that sales are all about relationships and that people will buy from people that they like…why would you want to annoy them right away with a cold call?

Also, cold calls take up too much time and are considered a very inefficient way of attracting clients considering that you can reach more people with just a click of a button.

There are now over 1 billion people on LinkedIn across 200 countries, and by getting your company to invest around $100 a month for you to have LinkedIn Navigator, you can reach whoever you like.

Navigator gets you automatic sales leads based on your existing contacts or a sample list of contacts. Once you get sales leads, you can automatically reach out to them with an inmail message. You can also add to your message a Calendly link where they can book a call with you at their convenience.

If you haven’t tried LinkedIn Navigator before, you can check out their plans here.

2. Don’t invest in print ads or print anything

Here is the problem with print ads, besides being very expensive, how are you going to track the ROI (return on investment)?

How will you know how many people saw your ad? How will you know exactly who saw your ad? How will you reach out to the ones who did see your ad?

The truth is you can’t. You only get a vague estimate that you can’t do anything with.

But why would you do that when for less money you can get a pay-per-click ad on a social media platform like LinkedIn, which will:

• Send out the ad only to people who you define as your target audience based on industry, age, job title, company and more.
• You can create different versions of one ad and rotate them to test out which version works best.
•  You only get charged for the clicks, so you don’t waste money.
• You get audience data – who, when, and why clicked the ad
• You can link your ad to a landing page where you can ask for their email address.

By using online ads instead of print ads you will be able to justify the marketing spending as you will get accurate data to show you the actual results of your marketing efforts!

3. Stop wasting time writing emails all day

Sending the same email template over and over again, to thousands of people, is a waste of time and your sanity.

I advise every single sales and leasing agent to learn about email automation. There are many tools out there for this, like Mailchimp which I use. You can set up email automation so the system will send offers, do replies, and follow-ups for you. For example, if someone doesn’t reply to you for longer than a week, the system will send them automatically an email follow up.

You will save so much time as email automations are like personal assistants that manage your email communication for you.

4. Stop hiding behind your company, use your profile!

Remember the time when you could get fired for being on Facebook during working hours?

Well, things have changed and now you need to be on social media during your working hours if you are in sales. You may be thinking that you don’t need to do that because the marketing department is already promoting the whole company. But the truth is people don’t care about companies, they care about people.

This is a proven fact as company posts on social media statistically get less engagement than individuals do.

People want to work with people that they know, trust, and like, so:

• They can get to know you – if you connect with them on social media.
• They can get to trust you – if you consistently share your success stories and useful tips in your real estate niche.
• They will like you – if you like them back and engage with their posts.

Your job as a property leasing or sales manager is now to mingle online, to attract clients in the digital world. You can’t do that from the company’s page, so you have to use your own social media profile like LinkedIn.

5. Stop selling! Start Sharing

I saved the best one for last.

See, if this article was all about my company, how great we are, and about my services you would have clicked off immediately because it would be like every other ad.

I have noticed that this is what most businesses and individuals do with their online content marketing and sales. They write about themselves or their services and offers without thinking about the reader. Does the reader have time to think about your company or you when they are busy thinking about themselves and their problems?

Here is the truth that I have learned, online readers will consume content if it has value to them. The best way to give them value is to help them solve a problem.

If you can give your target customers for free a solution to a business or personal problem, you will be able to stand out from the noise and attract potential clients.

This is why I do what I do

I left being a real estate agent to help out company’s get more international clients by promoting them online.

Today we have 10.000 real estate developers, property managers, retailers, and business service providers following us on retailsee.com, our email newsletter, and LinkedIn. By creating interesting stories in our niche we can bring value to our target audience, which makes it easier for companies to attract new clients.

I hope you will use the tips I have outlined and if you need help with your long-format content marketing efforts feel free to reach out at office@retailsee.com.