In a crowded commercial real estate market, it’s natural to worry that focusing on a smaller segment of clients might limit your opportunities. Yet the opposite is often true. By identifying and serving a highly specific audience, you create strategic focus, not restriction. This approach solves a pressing problem that many CRE brokers face: standing out in a sea of generalists. When you refine who you serve and how you serve them, you transform your practice from a catch-all operation into a trusted resource that clients actively seek out.
Below are some guiding principles and practical steps to help you determine your minimum viable audience (MVA) and use this strategic focus to grow your business.
Why Narrowing Your Focus is Actually Expanding Your Potential
When you try to reach everyone, your message and value get diluted. Most CRE brokers offer similar services, so if you say you “handle any type of commercial property,” you’re not giving clients a compelling reason to choose you over another broker.
By defining your MVA, you sharpen your message. You stop blending into the background and start communicating a clear, confident statement of value. This is not about turning business away. It’s about ensuring that the core of your practice is built on clients who genuinely appreciate your expertise and keep coming back for
more.
How Strategic Focus Solves a Pressing Problem
Without a clear audience, marketing can feel like guesswork. You might invest in online ads that lead nowhere or attend networking events that don’t yield quality leads. Strategic focus eliminates wasted effort. Knowing precisely who you serve guides your marketing decisions. Instead of casting a wide net and hoping for the best, you position yourself in front of the right people at the right time.
This solves a central challenge: How do you become the broker clients trust and remember? By targeting a well-defined audience, you become an expert problem-solver rather than just another option. Your brand, messaging, and outreach efforts align with their specific needs, making you the obvious choice.
Identifying Your Minimum Viable Audience
1. Look to Past Success
Review your past deals and look for patterns. Which clients brought you repeat business or consistently referred others? Did they share common traits such as property type, location, or industry focus? Maybe it’s family-owned retail landlords who struggle with vacancy issues. Or perhaps it’s small healthcare practices searching for affordable office spaces near local hospitals.
2. Follow Market Trends and Gaps
Pay attention to emerging market segments that larger competitors overlook. If there’s a growth in small industrial spaces, a niche in boutique retail, or a demand for flexible office leases among certain professionals, your focus could lie there.
3. Match Your Strengths with Client Needs
Align your MVA with what you do best. If you excel at navigating local regulations, cater to clients who appreciate that skill—maybe small developers or community-based investors who need guidance on zoning. If you’re skilled at tenant retention, target landlords who value stable occupancy.
4. Start Narrow and Refine Over Time
Your MVA can evolve as you learn more. Begin by selecting a segment that makes sense and tweak it as you gather feedback, close more deals, and see who responds most enthusiastically to your approach.
Messaging That Resonates
Craft a Clear, Specific Pitch
Adjust your marketing materials to reflect your MVA. Instead of “I work with all types of commercial properties,” say, “I help suburban retail property owners improve their tenant mix and boost occupancy rates.” This clarity speaks directly to your audience’s needs and helps them immediately recognize what you bring to the table.
Showcase Success Stories
Highlight real-world examples. If you helped a small dental practice find an office space that increased patient foot traffic, share that story. Offer before-and-after details so prospective clients see tangible results.
Demonstrate Empathy and Expertise
Address the unique challenges your MVA faces. Explain how you understand their struggles—rising costs, tricky lease negotiations, zoning complexities—and how you make it easier. By speaking directly to their pain points, you position yourself as someone who cares about their success, not just a broker chasing a commission.
Marketing and Outreach with Purpose
Go Where Your Clients Are
Attend events, sponsor local meetups, or join associations where your MVA congregates. If you focus on small healthcare practices, sponsor a healthcare professional networking session. If it’s family-owned retail landlords, attend community business councils or retail-oriented trade fairs.
Create Valuable, Targeted Content
Produce blog posts, short videos, or newsletters answering your MVA’s top questions. If your audience is small industrial property owners, share quarterly market insights. If your niche is supporting local retail landlords, offer tips on tenant retention or highlight emerging retail concepts suitable for smaller footprints.
Use Social Media Strategically
Don’t just blast generic updates. Instead, join LinkedIn groups where your audience is active, comment on their posts, and share content that solves their problems. Your goal is to become a recognized presence in their digital world.
Embracing Flexibility and Long-Term Growth
A strategic focus doesn’t trap you; it liberates you from wasted motion. As markets shift, you can adjust your MVA. Maybe you start with healthcare practices and later find a strong client base in small law firms or financial advisors. Your defined approach gives you a stable platform to pivot and expand intelligently, always staying relevant to your audience’s needs.
Refining your MVA over time helps you continually improve. As you track which clients bring the highest returns and which referrals convert best, you’ll spot new opportunities. This keeps your practice evolving in a deliberate, profitable way.
Standing Out with Confidence and Clarity
Choosing an MVA is about solving the big problem of “fitting in” to the crowded marketplace. When you stand for something specific, you earn attention and trust. Clients see you as a partner who understands them better than a broker who claims to do everything.
You’re not restricting your market—you’re honing your edge. By focusing on the right clients, your marketing efforts become more efficient, your messaging more relevant, and your leads more consistent. Ultimately, this leads to stronger relationships, more referrals, and a clearer professional identity that sets you apart.
A More Profitable Future Awaits
Defining your MVA is a strategic decision that builds a stronger, more resilient practice. Instead of constantly chasing new clients, you nurture a core audience that values your expertise. This approach fuels steady growth, helps you become a recognized authority, and lays the foundation for a practice that thrives under any market conditions.
Strategic focus is the antidote to the endless hustle. Embrace it, and you’ll find that what might feel like narrowing your market at first is actually opening the door to sustainable, profitable, and deeply rewarding business relationships.
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P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you grow your brokerage business:
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