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RCA Technology & Intelligence Briefings Interview with Whitney Peyton— Fourth Quarter 2005Whitney Peyton, CCIM E-mail: whitney.peyton@cbre.com Web: www.cbre.com/whitney.peyton Whitney Peyton, Senior Managing Director at CB Richard Ellis, Minnepolis. On using the Internet to powerfully position yourself and products in the market. Listen to the interview (mp3 format, 17MB). The Impact of Technology on the Industry 1. The advent of the PC brought technology to the desktop and made it possible for commercial practitioners to manage more information sooner, faster and with fewer people. 2. Technology has increased transparency in the industry so that clients and transactional brokers can see what is happening with more clarity than before; the result has been better solutions for clients. Information Management Tools 1. Databases (e.g., on Excel and Access) make manipulating information for a complicated industry easier. 2. Email has transformed communication; a single message can be sent to a group in short order and get an immediate response. 3. Instant messaging is emerging as another form of quick communication between broker and client. 4. Web-based process management tools make it possible to share information with clients and prospects about properties; such education prepares clients for a more productive interface with the broker. 5. Contact management software (e.g., Outlook, ACT! SalesForce.com) enables brokers to handle many more contacts in a more efficient manner. Advances in Contact Management Software 1. Team-oriented contact management is the next vital step for the industry—a system that multiple people in your organization can use without breaching any fiduciary responsibilities. 2. Leading the way in team-oriented contact management is SalesForce.com and REA (Real Estate Assistant). Marketing by Email 1.There is pressure to position properties in the marketplace. Brokers need to tell the story of each property, making the value plausible and convincing to potential buyers and users. 2. Multiple methodologies should be utilized to reiterate the story, but email is the least expensive. Boost the impact of email messages and the chance of getting a response by formatting in html—employ color and photos to carry the visual message with more than words. 3. “The story” for each property should stress its positive, individual characteristics that set it apart from other properties. Learn what property occupants will be doing and address those needs in your presentation; the goal is to achieve a match of the right property with the right occupant. 4. Select recipients for the email story by using a web-based buyer profile; e.g., CB Richard Ellis maintains a database at PCGlistings.com, where people can register themselves and identify the kind of properties they want to see; only appropriate email stories are delivered to them. Marketing Online 1. Use the property name as a headline and link to a page where deeper data is available. 2. The emerging strategy is to create a “property page,” i.e., a special web site that relates to the particular building; the site contains all the data typically carried on a datasheet and in a brochure, plus any other data that might be necessary. 3. Before allowing visitors to view proprietary information, have them complete a confidentiality agreement right on the page. Using Demographics and Mapping 1. Demographics was an area of interest only to retailers, but now demographers are offering data that relate to industrial and office space users as well; demographics have become powerful support for real estate decision-making. 2. The power of computers has rapidly advanced mapping capabilities so that multiple layers can be added to geographical maps to show such information as zoning, tax assessments, wetlands, earthquake faults, demographic factors, etc. 3. Commercial brokers can use maps to provide clients with customized, comprehensive information about specific sites in visual format. 4. Peyton’s favorite mapping program is MapInfo. Wireless Connectivity 1. In order to provide the instant response that clients today demand, all CB Richard Ellis sales people have a Treo or BlackBerry; experiences have been universally positive. 2. These powerful wireless tools make brokers equally productive on the road as well as in the office; the handhelds are used for contact management, web access and email; coming soon for CB Richard Ellis will be web access to property data. 3. Though Web access via handhelds is still in its infancy, Peyton uses his Treo to map travel between locations on the road and to download Word documents (not spreadsheets yet). Tips on Listing Presentations 1. Peyton uses Quickspace to transform his basic presentation on a property into an enhanced version that flows smoothly and includes higher quality visual representations. 2. With Quickspace you send the data and instructions in a message on how you want the presentation to work to Quickspace, in return you receive a url with the completed task. The Flow of Web-based Listings 1. The industry is moving toward using the Web to facilitate transactions. Many steps of a transaction can be done online: coordination of listing documents and marketing material, client registration, generation of offers, due diligence and posting of closing documents. 2. Clients are asking for this kind of efficiency, and the industry needs to figure out how to do it; use of transaction platforms is starting to take hold as more commercial professionals (especially younger ones) begin to trust the Internet. Commercial Data Standards 1. Europe is ahead of the U.S., but progress in creating a common standard is being made here through the Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE)—the first successful transfer of listings was accomplished at Realcomm this year. 2. Greater transparency, improved capacity to move data and further development of a common methodology will make it possible in the future for data to come through a common standard to everyone’s computer—this is the next great horizon for commercial real estate. Favorite Web Spots 1. Commercial practitioners should find the site of their county tax records informative. 2. CCIM’s Site to Do Business is deep and powerful. 3. CB Richard Ellis’ internal CBRE Navigator has a library of proposals, activities and completed transactions that is useful to company brokers. 4. Instant messenger and Internet phone service are useful tools; a good free phone service is Skype. Products and Sites mentioned by Whitney Peyton Database software: Excel, Access Contact management software: Outlook, ACT! Team-oriented contact management solutions:www.SalesForce.com, goREA.com Client profiling site: www.PCGlistings.com Comprehensive mapping: www.MapInfo.com Treo: http://web.palm.com BlackBerry: www.blackberry.com Resource for visual presentations: www.Quickspace.com CCIM’s Site to Do Business: www.STDBonline.com CBRE Navigator: https://navigator.cbrichardellis.com/ Internet phone service: www.skype.com |
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