What are the pros and cons, and when should you use one over the other?
Brokers need to share data with their clients every day. It’s a big part of the job.
The long-standing way of doing this has been to manually create PDFs which are then shared around in email chains. These PDFs are static – once you export and email the file, it doesn’t change. If you want to update the client deliverables, you need to update the original file on your side, then resend.
LeaseUp’s CRE deal platform makes sharing deliverables faster and easier, and drives more client engagement. Brokers can easily create static deliverables like a PDF on our platform, but depending on their workflow, can also make dynamic deliverables that can be updated in real time. Changes made to dynamic deliverables are reflected for all of the brokers and client-side decision makers at once.
Static and dynamic client content deliverables should both be part of every broker’s toolkit. What’s the difference between the two, and when should you use one over another?
Static deliverables are files like a PDF survey that is fixed and unable to be updated or changed after you send it.
Pros: This is the established way of doing things, and it’s reliable. Brokers are used to the workflow required to make static deliverables because it involves software that’s been around for decades. This is even easier on LeaseUp: our users can generate PDFs from market data in under 10 minutes, and their clients can print these deliverables if they need a physical copy for a tour.
Cons: The second the information in the static deliverable changes or becomes irrelevant, you need to make updates manually and create a new deliverable. Sometimes these changes are reflected as one-off emails to the client, which can be even more confusing over time. The static deliverable is fixed in time and the only thing you can do to reflect changing market conditions is create a new static PDF, requiring multiple steps to relay these changes to a client: update the data, export the PDF, draft an email, and send. Static deliverables also tend to be harder to navigate than dynamic deliverables.
Dynamic deliverables are native to CRE deal platforms like LeaseUp and include digital surveys – what one of our users praised as “a living, breathing document”. Dynamic client deliverables evolve with a client’s changing needs, and adapt with the market.
Pros: Share a link that can be viewed on any browser, and works just as well on mobile as it does on desktop, instead of a PDF. When you edit the content (whether it’s a survey or tour book), the changes are automatically reflected. You don’t need to create a new deliverable and resend. Clients can always access them (because they always have their phones with them), which makes dynamic deliverables great for communicating feedback or providing easy-to-navigate data while on a tour.
Cons: Some clients may still prefer the old way of doing things (PDF via email). You need access to the internet to view the digital survey.
The most common client deliverable in CRE is the market survey. This is one area where the difference between dynamic and static client deliverables is clear.
Let’s say you want to make a 10-site survey. You add all of the sites as individual slides in a PowerPoint deck, add a cover page, and export a PDF. You email that PDF to a client.
Before you can hear back from your client, two of the spaces get rented and are no longer available, but you find another space that fits their search criteria.
Since the end product is a PDF, it’s static. You have to open the Powerpoint deck you made, remove the two properties that went off market, manually add the new space, then re-export as a new PDF. You then have to re-send this PDF to your client or other team members and let them know to look at this version, not the old one.
This is a cumbersome process that requires a lot of duplicated effort, redundant files, email threads bogged down with too many attachments, inefficient communication… You’ve been there.
Digital surveys like LeaseUp’s are always dynamic. You add and remove building and space information and that data is saved in real time. You can share these dynamic surveys internally, with your team, or with clients, and always be updating them on the fly.
When you need to create a static PDF to send to the client, like in preparation for a tour, you can do so with a click — but if you need to update that a day or a month later, there is no need to hunt around for the most recent slide deck file. It’s all in the app.
Brokers can create PDF deliverables on LeaseUp, too. As you edit a survey on LeaseUp, it’s automatically updated in real time. You can export a static PDF at any time using LeaseUp’s export feature.
Sometimes a client will still need a static deliverable like a PDF, often just because that’s what they’re used to. Making static deliverables on LeaseUp is still superior to the old way of doing things.
Creating PDF surveys on LeaseUp is easy and intuitive. When market data change and you need to update the client, LeaseUp lets you quickly make any changes necessary and re-export to a brand new PDF in a single click. Rather than needing to find the most recent version of a file to update a static PDF, LeaseUp lets you do this in one centralized place and in a few clicks.
Whether your clients are reliant on the old-school, emailed PDF survey or more tech-forward and would prefer dynamic surveys, LeaseUp has the right tools for any broker’s workflow.
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