Securing New Leads Daily – Massimo Market Movers
The Massimo Group has is proud to announce a new format for our Massimo Minute Newsletter subscribers. We call this “Massimo Market Movers”. Each month we hope to bring you an interview with commercial real estate brokers around the country who are making a difference by implementing specific strategies in their business.
For our inaugural session, I had the privilege of interviewing Eric Odum, owner of Net Lease Commercial Advisory, in Tampa, FL. Eric is owns a boutique brokerage firm in a major secondary market, yet has found success competing against more established national firms. More impressively Eric is securing several new leads each and every day, based on his applied marketing strategies.
I should disclose that Eric is a former client of ours. He is now positioned to generate more business by leveraging not only what we worked on, but also by implementing a few strategies of his own. A full transcript of this interview follows.
RS: Good Afternoon, this is Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group. Welcome to the Massimo Minute. And this month, we have a special guest with us to discuss the Tampa, Florida marketplace, and that guest is Mr. Eric Odum of Net Lease Commercial Advisory. Eric, Welcome!
EO: Hey Rod, how are you?
RS: I’m doing pretty good thank you very much. In this format, Eric, just for our audience, we take a quick 5 minutes to get the download of both what’s going on in the marketplace. What are commercial brokers, specifically, doing today to not only survive, but thrive in that marketplace. I know you’re into particular things, but first off tell me about Tampa, FL. Tell me what’s going on in the Tampa, FL marketplace in your particular focus niche.
EO: Well, you know, obviously, it’s been pretty bleak here in the last couple years. We were one of the hardest hit markets in the country due primarily to the downturn in the residential construction market. Of course, I think Tampa really began to realize how closely tied it was to the construction market since (commercial) vacancies shot up through the roof. Now, I do primarily net lease. My roots are in Section 1031 exchanges. Of course, what happened is, there are no more Section 1031 exchanges because there are no more capital gains. We are in a deflationary environment right now (in real estate), so the Section 1031 business dried up for me. It was a matter of, “Do you adapt or do you just go away and find something else to do?” Well, I decided to find something inside of the real estate business to try to diversify and survive, because I do think this is a market about the survival, so I’ve…
RS: Ok, if I might, that’s a great point. We find especially with our clients across the country, a lot of them doing more recall focused diversification because, lets face it, if your just focused on investment sales in many markets across the U.S., yeah, velocity issues, liquidity issues, and the like, you’re going to have a really hard time surviving, so I appreciate your stance as far as diversifying your offering. Let me ask you…you say you’re diversifying your offerings. What are you doing right now that’s working? I’m sure a lot of this is a “best practices” call. What are you doing right now that’s working?
EO: Well, you know, it’s all about exposure. It’s all about getting your name and your face out there, in the local market. I didn’t have the advantage of working the local market because my properties, my investments, were all over the state, really all over the country, so what I’ve done, what I’ve been pretty good at in my past life as a marketing person, I spent a lot of time in marketing, in getting placements on websites, and SEO work. So, my internet is generating about 7 to 8 leads a week, and a significant portion of my business is coming off of internet. I haven’t stopped investing. I’ve seen so many brokers that stopped investing in their business. I haven’t stopped investing. I continue to mail postcards out, I continue to beat the streets, I continue to go out and do advertising. I’m just spending smarter now than I was probably 3 or 4 years ago, and the internet, of course, is one of those marketing systems that works even when you’re sleeping. You get leads at 9 and 10 o’clock at night and you wake in the morning and low and behold you might have a customer. So that’s what I’ve been doing that’s working, and we’ve been dealing primarily in the office and the retail market.
RS: Ok, so I heard a lot of great things here. First of all I heard you continue to invest in yourself and yes the all star performers like you, Eric, are always investing in themselves, investing in their Real Estate business. I also heard you say that you haven’t stopped prospecting. I think that people talk about presence, having market presence, but prospecting and presence certainly are compliments. They work with one another. So you create the system of both prospecting by creating a presence which I know is paramount. So I know someone’s going to ask, how the heck is he generating, specifically Eric, we have about a minute and a half left, so I want to leave you some Kudos here, some little things we can share, what specifically are you doing to generate 7 solid leads a week to your business, especially when you are sleeping? What, talk exactly, is it Twitter, is it internet, is it Facebook, let us know, what are you doing?
EO: Well, first and foremost, I think we are of the mindset that everybody knows what we do, our friends and family know, but they really don’t, so…This is where Twitter and Facebook would come in, but make sure – you don’t want to overwhelm them all the time with discussions of business – but you do want to drop a hint every 3 or 4 posts that yeah, I am in the business and if anybody is looking, send them my way. So, I have gotten some referrals from my friends and family, and those are the most solid ones. The other way is your website, and your web presence. Build a website and make it specialized to whatever your niche is. You’d be surprised. If you work office space in, let’s say, the Westshore submarket, start a blog that talks about everything that’s happening in the Westshore sub market, and you will be surprised at how much traffic that will actually lead to. And if you’re functioning in the Westshore sub market in Tampa, you really don’t care about what’s happening in Orlando, or don’t really care necessarily about what’s happening in Lakeland or Plant City. Then don’t write about those things. Only write about what’s happening, become and expert in your niche, and it will generate leads, your rankings will increase, it’s all about being consistent and persistent in posting and writing. As it happens, Google really likes current content. As long as you have current content specific to your niche, you’ll get higher rankings.
RS: Ok, Eric. Let me ask you one last question, because I know a lot of people listening in here, they may think, I have not heard of Net Lease Commercial Advisory. So first, quickly give me your website sot hey can take a look at what you’re doing.
EO: Sure, it’s www.floridatriplenet.com.
RS: Ok great, and the last thing I gotta ask you, because fair to say, you’re a boutique firm, and you’re in a major market, a secondary market, but still in a major market like Tampa Bay, Pinellas County, Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk. How are you competing against big boys? CBRE is there. Cushman is there. Everyone’s there I’m aware of in Tampa Bay. So, how are you competing as a boutique firm?
EO: It’s tough Rod. I’m not going to lie. Obviously the larger firms, the Grubb’s and the CBRE’s, they have access to National tenants. I’m not ever going to get access to, but frankly in my niche, which is triple net properties, I don’t kneed to have that big flag outside my front door. I’m capable of doing Net Lease on my own. Where it becomes a challenge is in the rental market, the tenant representation market locally. But what makes a great equalizer is my marketing efforts. I believe that I set up superior systems in order to cast the net out there and I have not had any issues in dealing with those local tenants in the local markets. Where I miss on is probably in the national tenant that might be relocating, but actually there’s not been a lot of that going on in Tampa right now. I’ve strung together several good months, I feel like I’ve finally found the light switch (on the tenant rep market).
RS: Eric, we really appreciate your time. It’s Eric Odum with Net Lease Commercial Advisory, and again that website was www.floridatriplenet.com. Eric, I appreciate your time. Until next time, this is Rod Santomassimo with the Massimo Minute. Talk to you soon.
If you are like me you have been proliferated with the importance of online or “social” marketing. I still can’t figure out what’s so social about not speaking to anyone. You have been told there are several MUSTS if you are to keep pace (forget ahead) of your competition. For example, your must have 1) A personal website 2) A Twitter Account 3) A Blog and 4) a Linked In account, at the bare minimum. In addition to these MUSTS, you have to have an integrated marketing platform that creates push and pull campaigns on a varied, yet consistent basis. Now if you really want to get the most out of the Web 2.0 (or is it 3.0?) culture, you should have your own Facebook account and personal YouTube Channel… personal You Tube Channel – are you serious?