This week, we turn the spotlight on Sperry Van Ness, LLC in Phoenix, Arizona.
1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?
By combining teams of experienced sales and leasing agents specializing in all commercial real estate product types; multifamily, retail, office, industrial and land, the Sperry Van Ness Phoenix office offers full service brokerage to investors, landlords, and tenants in Arizona.
Our sales and leasing agents provide or participate in mentorship and training programs to help build stronger leasing and negotiating skills and work ethic. Our teams pride themselves in working together on all deals, as well as sharing market knowledge and updates on tenants and landlords currently active in the marketplace.
Monthly meetings are held with the entire office to share “Haves and Wants” as well as other leads and relevant market trends. We have recently added a “Best Practices” portion to our meetings in which one of the agents in our office will share and teach a specific strength that they have found to be beneficial to their business (e.g. building and utilizing a CRM database, implementation of marketing through Buildout, cold calling techniques).
We added a marketing and PR support person that has given our office some recent recognition both locally and nationally. We are already working on expanding our market presence and branding via networking events, social media, PR and other digital marketing efforts. We also take a very active role in civic groups and charitable organizations, and believe this will also play a significant role in our recruiting efforts.
2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team?
Sponsorships are one of the best ways to bring the team together, as well as get our name out there and help brand our office. Whenever we sponsor an event, most of our staff comes out to support and share in the experience. So far in 2013, some notable charitable events we have sponsoredhave been the AZCREW Golfiesta Charity Golf Tournament (benefiting Fresh Start and Arizona Commercial Real Estate Women), AWEE Cocktails and Clothes (benefiting Arizona Women’s Education & Employment), and Brokers For Kids (benefiting Boys Hope Girls Hope).
Also, every month, we celebrate office birthdays by inviting the entire office to a casual event, such as a baseball game or happy hour. Since we have such a good group of people, these events are a fun way to get everyone together outside of work in a non business-related environment.
3. What’s been the biggest challenge in how you run your business over the last few years?
Our biggest challenge was rebuilding the SVN brand in the Phoenix market after taking over from the previous franchise owner. Our partners were able to start fresh by strengthening relationships that had been deteriorating over the previous couple of years. SVN has a proud history in Phoenix going back to the early 1990’s as one of the original corporate offices, and we have been able to re-establish the office as one of the top-producing commercial real estate offices locally.
4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now?
We had 16 in 2009 and we have 23 in 2013
Sperry Van Ness, LLC Phoenix, AZ
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.