Companies spend millions of dollars each year to advertise their products. Advertising is a very powerful tool to make your company or product known. When done effectively, it will generate an income that is many times bigger than your advertising cost. However, it can also be very expensive especially for small companies or those who are only starting out on the business.

Other than advertising in televisions, radios and print, a cheaper and yet very effective alternative of presenting your company and products to the consumers is to join exhibits and trade shows.
There are many advantages to using rentals for your trade exhibit. Unless your company has a big budget, going into trade shows can be costly especially that items put on display are prone to damage, as well as the equipments that are used.

Unless you attend trade shows often as part of your company’s marketing efforts, show rentals are a cost effective alternative. If you purchase a new one and have a need to change it often, it could take up a big chunk on your earnings that would otherwise go to your company’s profit and can be used for other important investments.

Instead of buying your own display for your first series of trade shows, renting is a more practical idea as it will give you an idea how much income you will be able to generate in attending these exhibits to present your products to the market. As displays and equipments require a big investment, you don’t want to spend a big fortune and find out later that the income generated does not meet your expectation or at least give you a break even for your costs.

Using trade show rentals allow you to display your product, company and logo without the commitment of big investment and commitment to a specific format. It gives you the flexibility so you can customize your display every time. You do not have to stick to one display in all of your exhibits and this in turn, will create an interest in your target market.

With trade show rentals, you can check different designs and layouts to see if it matches the look you want to achieve for your display. It also gives you the freedom to experiment on the size of your booth without the need to worry about how much money it will cost.

If a layout does not work for you on one show, you can easily change it for the next show. All you need to do is purchase or get new panels to match the new design.

Companies that offer trade show rentals often have branches and offices in key cities so if you attend a series of trade shows and exhibits that would require you to move across the country or in different cities, you can be assured that all your exhibit display needs will be there in one piece. You no longer have to worry about pieces or parts getting lost or damaged as the trade show rental companies will often replace them for you or have them fixed.

In commercial real estate sales or leasing just about everything you do involves negotiation. Sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants, all have issues and priorities when it comes to negotiation outcomes. Many times they will not be open on what it is they really want. Here is a fundamental tool to use in the property negotiation process.

You have to prepare before you go into the negotiation battle. So what can you do to prepare? Before you start every negotiation you should have a personal process of what I call ‘negotiation vaccination’. This is a deliberate choice and effort of looking at what could go wrong before you start the negotiation. You have to ‘vaccinate’ yourself against what can go against you. You have your answers and processes ready.

When you ‘vaccinate’ yourself for the negotiation process, you have your responses and ideas ready on all the critical matters of the negotiation. Remember that the client or prospect has had days or even longer to prepare their thoughts and targets for the negotiation. They know you are coming today to see them and they have their ideas and targets ready. They may have even been ‘primed’ by another real estate agency with ideas to derail your intentions.

At the very least to ‘vaccinate’ yourself for the negotiation you should take 30 minutes or so in review all variations of the essential parts of the property negotiation before you arrive.

Consider a negotiation with a seller to list a commercial property. The key elements of the negotiation will be things like:

• Price of the property
• Method of sale to be used
• Timing of sale
• Marketing strategy that suits the property
• Target market to be attracted in the marketing
• Marketing funds to be paid by the seller
• Contract methods and documentation for the sale process
• Method of inspecting the property

When you look at the list and pick just one of the elements such as ‘Methods of Sale’, you can break it down into what I call the ‘vaccination’ list around which you will have to have your answers and targets. For example:

1. Auction of the property
2. Tender of the property
3. Expressions of interest
4. Sale at a price
5. Sale with no publicised price
6. Exchange
7. Off market listing
8. On market listing

Not all of these will be desirable methods of sale given the property, your current market and your location. To ‘vaccinate’ yourself against the client’s ideas in the listing negotiation, you have to be prepared. You have to know your targets and be prepared for what they may prefer. What will you say regards all of these methods of sale and what will be your counter proposal if the client chooses say the method of ‘Sale at a price’ when you know that the property should go to auction?

Be prepared for the negotiation surprises, and have all your team on the same page before you get to the meeting. Know who is to be the key negotiator and set the roles of the other members of your team.

As the commercial real estate expert you have to be questioning and interpreting all the way up to and through the negotiation. Given that you are in negotiation sometimes 4 or 5 times per day in different deals, on different matters, and on different properties, the mental challenges can be daunting. Remember to ‘vaccinate’ yourself and your team for every critical negotiation and do that well before you arrive at the meeting. This process will help your listing conversions and negotiation outcomes.