We Want To Save You Time.
My team doesn’t have a single client that isn’t extremely busy. Operating a business with double or triple digit store counts is challenging enough, and expanding past that only adds fuel to the fire. We understand that site selection isn’t always on the forefront of our client’s lists of fires to put out for the day, therefore we take extreme measures to protect our clients time.
When it comes to site tours, which by nature are time consuming, we do whatever we can to make them as efficient and beneficial as possible.
Here are a few ways to maximize site tour efficiency:
Site Tour Tools
Just like any other profession, tools can streamline processes and create efficiencies. Tenant rep is no different, and the following outlines some of the tools we use to maximize our client’s time:
Property Ownership App
There are tons of these such as Landglide, Land ID, Costar, OnX, etc. There have been countless times we’ve been driving a market and the client sees a building that wasn’t marketed or on their radar with a dark tenant or a going out of business and says “reach out the owner and see if we can shake something loose there”. We’ve never called an owner with a tenant going out of business that wasn’t happy to receive a call stating that we’re standing out front of their building with an interested tenant.
This has led to instant tours, market insight, and in some instances off market deals. These situations wouldn’t have led to deals if we didn't have an app that gave us ownership information.
Mapping Software
There are likely several options, but we’ve always used Google My Maps for this. This allows us to plan our site tours in advance in order to take the most efficient routes and save our clients time.
It also provides us with the functionality to color code sites which is helpful as some tenants like to tour their competitors sites, or separate development from as built sites. Example below:
Market Survey Software
We use LeaseUp for our tour surveys. This platform helps us streamline our tour process because it allows us to store demographic data, placer.ai data, floorplans, site plans, utility info, lockbox codes, notes from the landlord or broker, surveys, etc. all in one organized place that can be accessed from a phone, computer, or ipad therefore when we arrive to a site we know exactly what we are looking at rather than a broker wasting the clients time by fumbling through ten different emails and trying to find lockbox codes or site plans.
Example below (addresses redacted for confidentiality purposes):
Seating Arrangement
Unless a client prefers otherwise, we generally have our senior Broker drive, our clients in the front and middle row, and our junior broker in the back with a laptop and ipad so he can answer site specific questions or research client requested info on the fly. We’ve also found that when the client isn’t driving they are in a better position to identify potential opportunities and or really understand what area(s) of the market are going to make the most sense for them.
Practice Tour
Whenever we can, especially when entering new markets, we always try to fly in before our clients do and perform a practice tour so by the time the client lands we know exactly where we’re going, can provide site and market insite, and ultimately increase the efficiency of the tour.
There have been times where there were event or road closures that would have caused massive delays that we were able to avoid by performing this simple yet effective exercise.
None of the above is rocket science, but we have found that it does make a significant difference in the efficiency of our tours. Our clients are extremely busy, and any time we can give them back whether it’s an hour or three goes a long way for them.
As a reminder, we help Tenants with 10-100 with site selection services. If you have any questions or would like us to expand on any points please click the below link to schedule a time to discuss or give me a call at the below number.
As a reminder we help tenants with 10-100 locations with site selection services. If we could ever be of help in any way please feel free to reach out at ap@trueequityg.com or (512) 216-5495.
