But the process of lead nurturing can be a long and winding road in this business. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with all of the tasks you need to get completed - and sometimes that means a hot lead could accidentally slips through the cracks. That’s why as your business grows, it’s important to look for tools to help simplify your prospecting and lead nurturing.

That’s where Retailsphere can help. While there are many reasons we believe Retailsphere should be on your list of platforms, one feature that specifically helps with prospecting, nurturing, and closing more deals is our new Kanban View for your deal pipeline. For those asking, what is Kanban view, its a card-based view of your deals that allows you to quickly and easily see where your deals are within your prospecting and lead nurturing pipeline.

Lead nurturing requires many different steps, and commercial real estate has specific steps that other industries may not understand. Luckily, Retailsphere has been build for CRE and is flexible enough to accommodate all sorts of lead nurturing processes with the addition of custom phases.

In Kanban View, you can use our steps or add your own custom steps for the lead nurturing process. These steps live along the top of your newly created board. Once this step is complete, it’s time to start adding leads to the board and placing them within the proper step of your pipeline. And just like that you have a visual representation of where various leads are in your pipeline. 

As a prospect keeps moving through your pipeline, all you have to do is drag the card to the next step. Want to add notes? Just click into the card and jot down important interactions or add documents. In the end, you can mark your prospect as won or lost so you can keep track of past opportunities. 

This all makes it possible to quickly assess which leads need a little more attention and which leads are close to coming to a close. Plus, you can easily assign team members directly within the Kanban view to ensure that leads keep moving along your pipeline.

Kanban view allows you and your team to stay on the same page and stay motivated when it comes to closing deals. Being able to see the various leads you’ve generated in their different steps along the deal-making process at a glance is a great way to keep everyone moving forward. 

Retailsphere offers numerous ways to improve your CRE process with tools built from the ground up to help commercial real estate professionals get the most out of their business. Kanban view is just one way Retailsphere can help your team streamline processes and close more deals. 

The post Close more deals with a Kanban view appeared first on Retailsphere.

Our goal at Retailsphere has always been to do everything we possibly can to help our clients succeed. The ultimate goal of the RetailSphere™ platform is to empower our clients to close more deals quickly. In general, we strive to see our clients close more than ten times what they pay in subscription fees on the platform.  It’s quite simple. If our clients succeed, they will be excited and word will spread. And, of course, word of mouth is the best way to grow a business.

So how do we do that? Well, to Mark’s point, it has required building functionality that most of our clients weren’t using. We’ve been working on it for a while and will continue to improve on the product, but it’s much closer to being completed today than in 2020.

And what is the final goal of Retailsphere™ platform? Right now it can be described in three main parts:

1. A tool that makes reaching out to prospective clients/partners as easy as possible.

2. A tool that quickly allows you to find thousands of potential clients and partners.

3. A tool that allows you to easily track your activities, automate the scheduling of tasks and appointments, and quickly report on your activities.

These are 1. Our marketing automation suite, 2. The world’s largest contact database of retail CRE decision-makers and 3. A super painless, included (read FREE) Pipeline CRM™ tool.

So let’s quickly review each of these three parts. It starts with having the best marketing platform in the industry. Not only can you simply send bulk emails, and view when recipients are opening, clicking, and replying to your emails, but you can set up (w/ only a few mouse clicks) ongoing email cadences. These multi-step “fire & forget” marketing campaigns are incredibly powerful in building new relationships. But it’s a lot more than just providing the platform that allows for this. There is a great deal of training that goes into creating powerful multi-step cadences. There is an art and a science to it. And our team is there to help our clients quickly scale the learning curve of this powerful technology.

The second part is the database. You need to quickly be able to find dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, of potential clients or partners. RetailSphere™ is the largest contact database in the industry. By a huge margin. Not just contacts for massive national brands (which we have) but tens of thousands of others as well. Landlords, franchisees, locally famous concepts, architects, lawyers, and other service providers. These contacts can be quickly assembled into shareable collections that can be dropped into pre-build campaigns.

Finally, we have our Pipeline CRM™.  Easy and intuitive software that makes taking notes, remembering follow-ups, tracking deals, and reporting to your clients and senior team members effortless.

This Three-legged stool approach to retail commercial real estate deal-making is incredibly powerful. That’s why clients are so excited about the RetailSphere™ platform. Users really do expand their networks, close more deals and empower their careers!

Contact us today for a free online product demonstration so we can show you all of these powerful features!

The post Peterson Company's Mark Kufka is amazed at the RetailSphere platform's evolution in such a short amount of time appeared first on Retailsphere.

Customer Success Manager Antonio Ruano knows training, SaaS Onboarding, Implementation, and Training. He also focuses on “Change Management and Customer Experience.” And he’s really, really, great at it.

“We are going to take you on a journey of how a user crushes on the Retailsphere platform,” Ruano said smiling in his latest training.

He’s cool, calculated, softspoken, but direct and extremely organized. Ruano is the main reason clients come out of their new user training like a rocket ship. Ruano arms Retailsphere™ users with all the tools necessary to 10x their deal flow. Because that’s what it’s all about…using Retailsphere™ to transform and revolutionize your business.

“Retailsphere is about speed,” said Ruano. “With our Pipeline CRM™ it can be a superpower. And we will teach you to use the platform to your advantage in a variety of ways.”

With Retailsphere’s™ platform and Pipeline CRM™, users can reach out to expanding retailers, leads and potential prospects before anyone else, as they see in real time who clicks on any email they’ve sent. You can call a prospect within seconds of them reading or clicking the email.

Retailsphere™ clients across the board have been raving about how integral to their process the platform is. Once you get Antonio’s training, enjoy the ride. Just ask Bryan Holt, of Southpace, now a veteran Retailsphere™ user:

Ruano’s new client trainings take users from session 1, which introduces users to the platform and all its toys by the process of “Tell me, Show me, Let me try” he says. It’s a process that introduces the user journey, ensure calendar and email connectivity, learning how to do an advanced search and understanding filters like void analysis, and becoming familiar with the tenant profile, finishing with a research request and how to request a verification. And this is just session 1!

Ruano continues the user journey from session 1 through session 4 when clients come out as full-blown rock stars building collections and adding people to cadences, on to deals, and much more with Retailsphere’s Pipeline CRM™ and the “Steady State Journey”.  

In fact, as the final of the four initial trainings end, Ruano makes sure users know how to maximize all the contact information, set up a deals, tasks, take notes in the calendar, and how starting their day from the reach feed is like their morning newspaper where they learn up-to-the-minute details nobody else is learning.

“This is the user journey,” Ruano continues. “It shows the process of the three prongs, and the steps to take.”

The process of the “three prongs” approach for Retailsphere™ is: 1. Our marketing automation suite, 2. The world’s largest contact database of retail CRE decision-makers and 3. A super painless, included (FREE) Pipeline CRM™ tool.

“If you use CRM, it is the norm to handle 400 to 500 opportunities at one time,” Retailsphere Founder Mike McKean said. “Otherwise, it’s nearly impossible to handle more than 40 opportunities at a time.”

“Retailsphere’s™ whole business model is to help clients 10X their deal flow and income at the minimum, and we believe it they use our tools they will most certainly achieve that potential and more.”

Ruano’s trainings are robust, comprehensive, and interactive. But after the trainings are completed, it’s not the end of the conversation.

“We don’t love you and leave you,” Ruano says with a smile. “Our goal is to give you the tools to crush your competition and of course 10X or more your business. But when there is more learning to be done, I’m here anytime to help our clients…we all are here for our clients at Retailsphere.”

Users who utilize Retailsphere™ to the fullest can do so in a variety of ways, find their favorite of the platform’s many tools or a combination of the following just for starters:

• Creating a Collection (your working file) to curate and organize prospects  
• Discover the “Reach Out” list builder functionality 
• Learned how to create a Cadence 
• Customizing steps in your Cadence 
• Learn how to search and use the over 400,000 contacts, continuously updated and verified to your advantage, which includes emails, phones, socials, job titles, territories & more. From Locally Famous™ to international brands. From the largest REITs to the smallest developers. Thousands of brokers, service providers & more.
• Simplify note taking & appointment setting. Automate tasks and reminders. Integrate your contacts and email reach-out. Efficiently track deals, generate reports and ensure nothing slips through the cracks with Retailsphere’s™ easy, intuitive & included Pipeline CRM™

“It’s a lot to learn and we ask our clients to do their homework, jump in and enjoy the Retailsphere™ platform,” Ruano said. “It’s incredible, but we know there will be follow up questions and our entire team is always here.”

A couple of weeks after finishing the training sessions, Ruano reaches back out to clients to make sure he helps with any questions or concerns.

“I hope you are taking full advantage of all the tools that Retailsphere has at your disposal,” said Ruano. “But please know I’m here anytime.”

Reach out to see a demo of Retailsphere.

The post It's Not that the Big Eat the Small, but the Fast Eat the Slow appeared first on Retailsphere.

In the ever-evolving landscape of commercial real estate, reaching the right contacts efficiently is paramount. RetailSphere™ is a game-changer, offering compelling reasons, accuracy and speed, to bypass your internal marketing team on bulk emailing and embrace cutting-edge cadences. Here's why.

Streamlined Emailing for Effective Communication

One of RetailSphere’s™ standout features is its built-in emailing system, designed to streamline communication and save you precious time. By integrating your email provider with RetailSphere’s™ CRM, you can leverage lists to connect with the right contacts seamlessly.

Begin by bulk emailing prospects identified during your research in RetailSphere™, and attaching relevant documents directly from the platform. As prospects progress through your pipeline, use customizable email templates to expedite interactions. RetailSphere’s™ integrated approach significantly reduces the time spent on manual outreach, ensuring a swift and efficient sales process.

Travis Christensen, vice president of client success for RetailSphere, never gets tired of hearing about clients being successful with cadences, and how they have gained hours of time back.

“We hear time and time again what a game-changer cadences are for our clients,” Christensen said. “As they send bulk emails to prospects who think they are each getting a personal message, the light is flipped on with how much more streamlined prospecting can be with RetailSphere.”

The Power of Cadences: Guiding Your Sales Journey

Say goodbye to the guesswork in your sales pipeline with RetailSphere’s™ innovative cadences. These tools provide a structured framework to guide yourself and your team through the sales process, ensuring everyone remains on the same page.

Ken Brown, VP of sales for RetailSphere, surprises prospects himself with the reach of bulk email and cadences.

“I’ll be talking with a prospective client and they love everything, and then say they aren’t sure cadences and bulk emailing work,” Brown said. “Then I tell them this great meeting and demo we are having right now is because I sent and you answered my email, which was from a cadence. Then they are hooked.”

Set up multi-channel steps throughout the sales journey and utilize RetailSphere’s™ customizable templates to authentically engage with your customers. Generate whatever you need directly from the platform, allowing you to tailor your communication for specific groups or individuals effortlessly.

Automate Your Outreach Effortlessly

RetailSphere™ understands the value of time in the fast-paced world of CRE. Their built-in tools empower you to automate repetitive tasks that traditionally consumed valuable hours. By automating more processes, you can focus on what matters most – building meaningful connections and closing deals.

Imagine reaching out to the right regional contact at national brands promptly or connecting directly with franchisors and expanding franchisees in your area. RetailSphere™ makes this possible, allowing you to have direct conversations with managers at regional businesses and even speak with owners of local mom-and-pop stores – all at the same time.

Increased Productivity, More Deals Won

RetailSphere’s™ cadences not only save time but also enhance productivity, ultimately leading to more closed deals. By automating outreach, streamlining emails, and utilizing cadences, you eliminate the risk of missing out on valuable opportunities.

Cadences also offer a comprehensive solution for CRE professionals looking to revolutionize their outreach strategies. By bypassing internal marketing teams and embracing the power of automation, streamlined emailing, and guided sales processes, you position yourself at the forefront of innovation in the competitive world of Commercial Real Estate. It's time to let RetailSphere™ redefine how you approach outreach.

The post Does your marketing team have to approve your bulk emails? appeared first on Retailsphere.

Each day, RetailSphere’s on-demand research team speaks to hundreds of site selectors about their expansion plans and demographics. Here are five of the many retailers we talked to this week about their specific plans:

1. Ample Hills Creamery - Every day, we wake up hoping that today will be the day we make the best ice cream ever. We aren’t afraid to think outside of the box, get creative or make a few mistakes along the way. It’s this mindset that has empowered us to imagine the whimsical flavors that we’re known for! We make all of our ice cream from start to finish. They have 10 locations and fast expanding.
2. LaVida Massage - Each LaVida Massage location brings this mission to life as a comfortable Wellness Center offering highly customizable massage services and beneficial products. Likewise, our licensed Massage Therapists and Estheticians can help you better understand what may be appropriate for your healthcare routine. By maintaining a clean, relaxing space, each Center caters to the busy, active lifestyles of our guests. LaVida is expanding in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
3. T.J.Maxx - T.J. Maxx was founded in 1976, and together with Marshalls, forms The Marmaxx Group, the largest off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the U.S. With stores across the U.S., including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, T.J. Maxx also operates an e-commerce site, tjmaxx.com, launched in 2013. T.J. Maxx is expanding in several states nationwide.
4. Daylight Donut - The Daylight Donut Flour Company, LLC, is a privately held enterprise with nearly a thousand retail outlets in 28 states and close to a dozen international markets. Daylight Donut is expanding in Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas.
5. Insomnia Cookies - Insomnia Cookies was born out of the dislike of heavy meals late at night, love of food delivery, and the realization that by the time you get hungry at night, nothing is open. The concept was founded by Seth Berkowitz in 2003 from his dorm room while attending the University of Pennsylvania. Berkowitz started baking and delivering warm cookies to students late-night on campus... and Insomnia Cookies was born. Insomnia Cookies is expanding nationwide with a massive growth strategy.

Reach out to RetailSphere™ to see everything the platform can do.

About Retailsphere

Founded in 2019, RetailSphere™ is an all-in-one platform that includes the world’s largest contact database of retail commercial real estate decision makers, a robust email and leasing enablement marketing platform and a simple, intuitive and included Pipeline CRM™ tool. RetailSphere™ is modernizing the way the retail industry connects within a single pane of glass.

Increase your deal flow. Improve your network. Empower your career.

The post Retailsphere’s Latest Expanding Retailers appeared first on Retailsphere.

Still, some long-standing trends persist. Grocery, convenience and value dominate the list of chains that are growing. Perhaps to accommodate working from home, or customers sick of their current home’s décor or the spike in new home purchases, furnishings retailers also are undertaking major expansions.

There’s been a lot for us at RetailSphere to track from quarterly and annual reports and news releases from regional, national and international retailers. As you’ll see from the list below, some companies are opening a handful of stores; others are expanding by hundreds. But we believe that they all offer opportunity.

Aldi

The German value grocer announced in February that it would open 100 stores in 2021, largely focusing on Arizona, California, Florida and the Northeast. With more than 2,000 stores across 37 states, Aldi is on track to become the third-largest grocery retailer in the U.S. by store count by the end of 2022.

Burlington Stores

This retailer isn’t just about coats any more. With 784 stores as of May 27, the discounter has doubled its original expansion plan from 1,000 to 2,000 outlets by opening 100 units a year.

Dollar General

The deep value giant plans some 700 new stores (including two new formats) this year.

Dollar Tree

The retailer plans 600 new units this year, consisting of 400 Dollar Tree units and 200 Family Dollar stores.

Foxtrot Market

The upscale corner store and café with a focus on delivery plans 50 new stores in gateway markets. Existing units in hometown Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C. will be joined by locations in New York City; Austin and Houston, Texas; Boston, Miami, Los Angeles and other metro metropolitan areas. With eyes towards rapid expansion, the company currently has 12 stores with plans to open nine more locations by the end of 2021. Newer units will feature a larger café area for eat-in dining, say published reports.

Sprouts Farmers Market

The natural grocer plans 20 new stores this year, half of them in Florida. Many will be in a smaller format.

Target 

After a record-breaking 2020 in terms of sales, the discounter will accelerate its store openings from 30 (all but one in its small format) last year to 30 to 40 annually, with a focus on urban locations, college campuses and densely-populated suburbs.

Tractor Supply Company 

The rural lifestyle retailer plans 80 new stores this year, 32 of which debuted in the first half.

Interested in other expanding retailers? Our recent infographic, based on Retailsphere's research & outreach, confirms expansion of several other retailers including, Publix, Trader Joe’s, Nekter Juice Bar, Crumbl Cookies, Blue Bottle Coffee, Which Wich, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and Family Dollar. Find the graphic here. 

Don't just rely on this, an other, Retailsphere blog posts for expansion data. Sign up for a demo today and get access to our full database and research team to find better and longer last tenants today.

The post The Retail Boom is Here (Really!) appeared first on Retailsphere.

While you may think there's nothing that can beat good old fashioned in-person canvassing, you can and should start moving your efforts online (if you haven't already). Not only can you cover more “ground”quickly, but contacts and retailer information are just a few clicks away - giving you the data needed for personal outreach.

To make the most of your online canvassing efforts, there are a few things you can do that will decrease frustrations and increase success.

Tip 1 - Target specific retailer types (or even specific retailers) to maximize your digital canvassing efforts. It helps you get to the retailers who could be potential tenants. Identify what uses the center needs, check non-exclusives of tenants to see what is and isn’t allowed based on who currently occupies space, and do void analysis - what’s missing from the area. 

Tip 2 - Be armed with the right toolkit . New tools launch daily claiming to solve all of your problems. But too many tools can lead to an overwhelming feeling. This usually results in scrapping everything and going back to what you were doing before. While we believe Retailsphere should be your first option for digital canvassing, there are others you can use to get you started in the right direction. 

Yelp can be a great place to start identifying retailers who are well loved by learning the number of five star reviews they have from customers. Beyone reviews, their mapping feature lets you navigate a particular area with simplicity.

Blogs can be another beneficial resource to your canvassing. Try searching local blogs where authors focus  on finding the coolest new restaurants or shop at unique boutiques or perhaps partner with retailers. Many bloggers create lists of trending brands as well. 

Once you’ve done some prospecting and outreach, you’ll need to keep track of your efforts. The Retailsphere all-in-one CRM allows you to prospect and lead nurture in the system. Yes, it’s time to kick those excel or Google Sheets to the curb. This is an outdated way to keep track of progress. Other helpful systems include Airtable or Monday.

Tip 3 - Conduct Void Analysis. While retailers in nearby shopping centers may be a good fit for your vacancy, they are also clearly your competition. Looking at these centers can give you an idea of what types of retailers you may want to avoid.Or look at it from a void analysis angle - what is the area lacking? This can be done simply by using Google maps. Plot your shopping center and search around that retail corridor.

You can also leverage a tool like Retailsphere to speed up the process. Simply navigate to the "Shopping Locations" section and search by distance from your location, type of center, or number of units. 

Here, you will find an extensive list of shopping centers, each with a profile that includes: general center information, ownership information, contacts, key demand drivers, and most importantly, tenant information. Simply select the shopping center you would like to canvas to open up that profile.

Once you select a location, select “tenants” from the navigation and go “door-to-door” virtually, reviewing the retailers in that center.

Tip 4 - Utilize Social Media Social profiles can often give you an idea of the size of a brand and if they are poised for expansion. For retailers where it’s not as obvious, you can send a note on Facebook Messenger  or try sending a  DM (direct message) on Instagram to begin a conversation.

Tip 5 - Lead Nurture . The most important part of prospecting is your follow-up. Rarely do you get exactly what you’re looking for with the first message. You must keep track of your prospecting data and create a follow-up system for yourself to build on the relationship with your prospective tenant. If you use a tool like Retailsphere, you can log all of the businesses you’ve reached out to. Since the system was specifically created for commercial real estate professionals, it includes natural next steps in the CRM like Prospecting, Flyer Sent, Booked a Site Tour, or Lease Negotiation.

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There are plenty of ways to canvas for opportunities in the digital world. Tools that can help you digitally canvas in commercial real estate include: Yelp, Google Maps, blogs and social media - all great ways to get started. Ultimately, you need a way to tie everything together and ensure you’re converting prospects into closed deals aka tenants. That’s where Retailsphere lends a hand.

Retailsphere is THE commercial real estate tech tool that gives you the data you need to target the right retailers - those that are expanding, prospect to the right people - inclusive of contact information, and track all of your progress and conduct lead nurturing all in one place - in its custom designed CRE CRM system. 

This is an updated version of an article posted August 2020.

The post Tips for taking your CRE canvassing online appeared first on Retailsphere.